ACCESSIBILITY: a new dimension for IT and society - (2008)

 

ACCESSIBILITY: a new dimension for IT and society
By Tatiana Andronache
Published in Galt Global Review (2008?)

Everyone in North America is used to the wheelchair sign in parking spots or the ramp accessing the main entrance of official buildings. Maybe not everyone has felt the six “bumps” on the Bank of Canada’s $20 bill, or has used the Jitterbug, the cell phone with big keys and no games, or has navigated a website without using the mouse. All these – and many more – are outcomes of the quest for accessibility. 

From philanthropy to business transformation

Accessibility is a fairly new concept and has certainly gained a lot of ground since the turn of the millennium. Generally defined as the degree to which a product or service is accessible to a population diverse in physical and mental ability, accessibility is the counter-act to disability.

 Societal changes have propelled accessibility from the realm of philanthropy to that of compliance and, most recently, to a business imperative. Statistics for Canada show that in 2007 14% of the population self-reported a form of disability. Similar numbers are collected in the US, Europe and other parts of the world. The concept of disability has also changed. There are “traditional disabilities” (mobility, deafness, blindness), usually of a permanent nature and constant level, and then there are the temporary or transient ones: people gradually losing mobility, eyesight, hearing or mental capabilities due to aging, or temporary exposure to an adverse environment (noise, pollution). Language barriers, functional illiteracy and cognitive disabilities (ADD, Autism, Alzheimer’s) are also included as disabilities.

 But society, governments, and businesses will not isolate or ignore the segment of population afflicted with disability, which represents a significant number of consumers of services and products, as well as the fastest growing resource of labour. Governments are particularly strong on this point. The U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act, and the U.K. Disability Discrimination Act require employers to provide 'reasonable accommodation' or not put employees at a 'substantial disadvantage' compared to other employees. In Canada, the first piece of such legislation, Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, came into effect in 2005.

Powered by Information Technology

The quest for accessibility is particularly strong in the Information Technology sector. In a globalized world, permeated by the Internet and mobile telephony and computing, it is necessary to provide access to services to everybody, regardless of ability. Especially in the developed world, a population largely used to having the web at their fingertips is aging and living longer, but they expect to remain active and continue to use information technology-based services. Software developers of today, largely young and at their peak in physical and mental ability, are confronted with an interesting challenge: the applications they build must be usable by people who are unlike themselves. How does a 20 something-year old with sharp vision and nimble fingers design or test a web page that must be usable by someone who is colour blind, as well as by someone who can not use the mouse? Or by a person accessing the web via a small-screen mobile device?

 Accessibility is achieved by a combination of compliance with specific standards and adoption of assistive technologies. Most software development companies have developed and do enforce accessibility standards and guidelines that applications must meet before they are deployable. There are also simulation tools and testing techniques. All of these have become a business imperative, as liability and loss of customer base are serious consequences otherwise.

To be accessible, websites must have standard-mandated features such as: allowing users to control text sizes; easy-to-read font type; suitable foreground and background colour contrast; usage of clear and simple grammar; meaningful text equivalents for pictures; simple and consistent site navigation; and access keys for important navigational elements. But to address serious disabilities, adaptive technologies go further than that: screen readers allow the blind to browse web pages; speech recognition, sip-and-puff

or eye-gaze pointing devices allow people to operate a computer without the use of their limbs; in some situations, graphical interfaces are needed for users who can not operate in a language such as English or French, due to illiteracy or mental capability issues.

The world is the stage

Accessibility could not possibly escape the pressures of globalization. Since countries have their own policies and regulations in this area, and software companies develop their own standards and tools, a harmonized effort is needed. The World Wide Web’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is an effort dedicated to make this happen. Its sponsors include the heavy-weights in Information Technology (IBM, CA, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, SAP), as well as companies such as Verizon, Wells-Fargo, and government agencies.

 Scientists and IT practitioners from various countries embrace the field of accessibility as their domain of expertise. They are joined by practitioners from other fields such as education and charity, and also members of the various disabled communities in their efforts to advance and disseminate accessibility ideas and solutions, to the benefit of the global society.

 

Selected sources:

European Community Household Panel Study, 1996 http://circa.europa.eu/irc/dsis/echpanel/info/data/information.html

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

 

http://www.accesson.ca/mcss/english/pillars/accessibilityOntario

http:/www.ibm.com/able http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080626/OPINION/806260412/-1/SPORTS

Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/hipster-glasses-pen-young-woman-1280546/