MEANINGFUL ACCESS
By Gloria Henke

In 1994-1995, the U.S. Census Bureau found that people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities account for 15 to 20 percent (about 1/5) of the U.S. population. A disability is defined as a limitation on performing one or more of a range of functional and social activities, such as seeing words in newsprint, engaging in spoken conversation, climbing stairs, shopping, or performing light housework. Of these, 24 million have a severe disability—an inability to perform one or more of these activities. See http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disable/sipp/disable9495.html

Clearly the disabled represent a large segment of the population. In some ways, disabled students have more opportunities than ever before because of technology. For example, technology has allowed for improvement in communications for those who are homebound due to illnesses. Previously, parents had to drive to the school to obtain and return assignments for their children. Now it is possible to E-mail or fax the assignments to their home or place of employment. If a student is unable to write an assignment, voice recognition software can be used to complete it. In an online course such as this one, students aren’t limited by mobility. Courses such as this can be a tremendous opportunity for a disabled person.

One problem, however, is that these conveniences are not available to all the disabled. The word "access" implies the ability to find, manipulate and use information in an efficient and comprehensive manner. (National Science Foundation) As Gregg C. Vanderheiden of the University of Wisconsin-Madison states:

"Although the goal of equal access seems noble, it can seem somewhat less achievable when one considers the full range of abilities or disabilities which must be dealt with to achieve an every-citizen interface. It must be usable even if people
• cannot see very well—or at all;
• cannot hear very well—or at all;
• cannot read very well—or at all;
• cannot move their heads or arms very well—or at all;
• cannot speak very well—or at all;
• cannot feel with their fingers very well—or at all;
• are short, are tall, use a wheelchair, and so forth;
• cannot remember well;
• have difficulty learning or figuring things out;
• have little or no technological inclination or ability; and/or
• have any combination of these difficulties (e.g., are deaf-blind; have reduced visual, hearing, physical, or cognitive abilities, which occurs in many older individuals).

In addition, the products and their interfaces must remain equally efficient and easy to use and understand for those who have no problems seeing, hearing, moving, remembering, and so forth; and are power users.

Electronic interaction is likely to become integral to education, employment, and daily living. Not having access to these emerging technologies will have increasingly negative ramifications for individuals who are unable to access them for various reasons—not being able to understand them, not being able physically to use them, not being able to afford devices and other end systems."

 See http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/screen More Than Skin Deep: Toward Every-Citizen Interfaces to the Nation's Information Infrastructure published by the National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1997. This is part of an excellent report from a workshop held on equal access in August 1996.

Prior to this assignment, I had felt that technology has been a boost for disabled persons. I now realize that it has been a two-edged sword for some disabled persons. While much progress has been made for those having physical disabilities, much more needs to be done. Whereas voice-recognition software has enabled data entry for persons unable to key in the data, it has also excluded persons with hearing losses from fully participating in audio chats.

Access.Edu, a site created to demonstrate the differences between sites designed to be accessible and those that are not, is very informative and would be a good reference for everyone creating web pages. It was revealing to have my web pages analyzed and rated for accessibility by Bobby. I will certainly be more aware of the design of my web pages from now on.

Other sites worth visiting:

http://www.stack.nl/htmlhelp/design/accessibility/tips.html Web Design Group Accessibility

http://w3.gsa.gov/web/m/cita.nsf/Lists/acsweb Center for Information Technology Accommodation (CITA)