Digital Assistive Technology Education and Training (original) (raw)
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Exploring the Role of Assistive Technologist within a Special Education Setting
2019
Part 1: Special Thematic Sessions S9 through integration into existing international standards and supporting guidance. The Easy Reading Framework is providing a required implementation to validate the W3C techniques in a real world solution. Thus, the W3C guidelines are both distilling new project learnings and also informing the work. Conclusion: There is a growing awareness of cognitive accessibility user requirements and barriers along with the importance of addressing them at source. Thus, it's an opportune time to be part of the Easy Reading project and to enhance the W3C standards and resources. The Easy Reading project's personalized adaptation framework provides new understanding of user requirements and practical solutions, as well as being as useful Assistive Technology in its own right. There is now a useful introduction to requirements, enhanced standards, guidelines and techniques that commissioners, designers and developers can use to improve the experience of many. As a result, the experiences of people with cognitive and learning disabilities can be improved by application of these internationally recognized resources. The W3C operates an open consensus process so others are encouraged to collaborate to further improve cognitive accessibility.
Digital Accessibility Guide for Aging Population
International Journal of Computer Trends and Technology (IJCTT), 2022
Target Audience: Senior digital users, Product Designers, Product Developers, Information Technology Business Analysts, Information Technology Compliance team partners. In current situations, the use of the digital web is becoming more predominant as part of everyday routines. It is essential for web authors to ensure the web content can be accessible by everyone. On the other hand, it is also significant that the user becomes familiar with the existing assistive technologies, which plays a major role in accessing web content by people with disabilities. The primary objective of this article is to articulate the facts about the Aging population, how they relate to digital web accessibility, assistive technologies available to access web content, benefits of making accessible digital products, and best practices for creating accessible web solutions. This article also covers different types of disabilities challenged by people with ageing impairments in accessing the digital web content, as well as the remedies to be used from both the user's and web author's perspectives.
Web accessibility for individuals with cognitive deficits
ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 2007
Tim Berners-Lee claimed in 2001 that "the power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect". A considerable amount of work has been done to make the web accessible to those with sensory or motor disability, with an increasing number of government and enterprise intranet webs being "accessible", and also with some consortiums and groups seriously approaching this commitment. Some authors, such as Harrysson, have already highlighted the need for a cognitively accessible web. However, in spite of good intentions, there has been little work to date that has tackled this task. At least until now, the existing WAI and NI4 recommendations about cognitive disability are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to test, as they are only general recommendations. This article explains an alternative Web that has been constructed and tested on a sample of participants with cognitive disabilities (N = 20) with positive results encouraging us to dedicate more effort to fine tune their requirements regarding specific cognitive deficits and automating the process of creating and testing cognitively accessible web content. This alternative web implies the use of a simplified web browser and an adequate web design. Discussion of the need to have several levels of cognitive accessibility, equivalent (although not identical) content for this collective and the need for testable protocols of accessibility that support these people's needs is also included. This article finishes with conclusions about the potential impact of accessible pages in the daily life of people suffering from cognitive deficits, outlining the features to be considered within a user profile specification that support cognitive difficulties and with reflections about the suitability of Semantic Web Technologies for future developments in this field.
Web accessibility design recommendations for people with cognitive disabilities
Technology and Disability, 2008
Web accessibility for people with Cognitive Disabilities has generated increasing interest in the professional web development, scholarly and advocacy communities in recent years, although there is little acknowledged agreement on how to proceed. This article conducts a review of the current understanding of experts in the field as exemplified by Web design guidelines. It provides current Web design recommendations that have achieved a high degree of agreement as well as four recommendations for implementation. Twenty existing Web design guidelines from Web accessibility experts, government and advocacy organizations were identified in an extensive literature review. Those disabilities specifically addressed by these guidelines included: cognitive disabilities (9), cognitive impairments (2), learning disabilities (4), dyslexia (3), aphasia (1), and mental retardation or intellectual disabilities (1). The authors of the Guidelines came from Australia (1), the United Kingdom (7), and the United States (12). The 20 guidelines contained 187 separate design recommendations which were combined due to duplications and organized for analysis. The top recommendations included: 1) Use pictures, graphics, icons and symbols along with text (75% agreement), 2) Use clear and simple text (70% agreement), 3) Use consistent navigation and design on every page (60% agreement), and 4) Use headings, titles, and prompts (50% agreement).
ACM Transactions on Computer-human Interaction, 2007
Tim Berners-Lee claimed in 2001 that "the power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect". A considerable amount of work has been done to make the web accessible to those with sensory or motor disability, with an increasing number of government and enterprise intranet webs being "accessible", and also with some consortiums and groups seriously approaching this commitment. Some authors, such as Harrysson, have already highlighted the need for a cognitively accessible web. However, in spite of good intentions, there has been little work to date that has tackled this task. At least until now, the existing WAI and NI4 recommendations about cognitive disability are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to test, as they are only general recommendations. This article explains an alternative Web that has been constructed and tested on a sample of participants with cognitive disabilities (N = 20) with positive results encouraging us to dedicate more effort to fine tune their requirements regarding specific cognitive deficits and automating the process of creating and testing cognitively accessible web content. This alternative web implies the use of a simplified web browser and an adequate web design. Discussion of the need to have several levels of cognitive accessibility, equivalent (although not identical) content for this collective and the need for testable protocols of accessibility that support these people's needs is also included. This article finishes with conclusions about the potential impact of accessible pages in the daily life of people suffering from cognitive deficits, outlining the features to be considered within a user profile specification that support cognitive difficulties and with reflections about the suitability of Semantic Web Technologies for future developments in this field.
Accessibility and Usability of Web Content and Applications
Quality and Communicability for …, 2010
Accessibility is essential for every system or product in order to guarantee equal opportunity for access and use to all, including the differently-abled. Thus it is crucial to remove any technological barriers for special needs users, who explore the Internet by assistive technologies. However, ensuring efficient and satisfactory (in other words, usable) interaction with user interfaces (UIs) of products or services must occur in the design phase, in order to produce UIs that are universally simple to understand, rapid and easy to use. Applying accessibility and usability criteria from the very beginning of the design phase is much less costly than introducing it later, so specific guidelines should be followed from the earliest stages of the design process. In the long run, creating accessible and usable Web UIs will improve overall efficiency and effectiveness of interaction for any individual and organization. developers can only implement good design by becoming aware of all the obstacles encountered by users aided by assistive technologies. Likewise, making interaction with the user interfaces (UIs) of products or services effective, efficient and satisfactory (in other words, usable (International Standard Organization [ISO], 1998) is another pillar of the design phase .
Technology and Disability
BACKGROUND: Existing generic technology design principles and guidelines are considered not to be sensitive enough to meet the needs of people with learning difficulties. OBJECTIVE: To propose a unified design framework that can inform the design of technologies for people with learning difficulties METHODS: A literature search was undertaken and the resulting papers were analysed and coded in order to identify common ideas or recommendations that could be clustered into design principles. RESULTS: Four main categories of design principles were identified: learning support, accessibility, usability and agency. A conceptual framework incorporating diversity, difference and digital inclusion offers a way to understand the consequences of applying or not applying some or all of the principles. CONCLUSIONS: A unified framework for the design of technologies for people with learning difficulties has the potential to fill the gap that more generic design guidelines cannot fill with regards to meeting the very specific needs of people with learning difficulties.
Enabling people with disabilities: Creating accessible electronic documents
Medical Writing, 2022
Rather than equating disability with personal identity, we can better understand disability as the consequence of disabling environments. This alternative view suggests that changing the environment can enable people with sensory, motor, and cognitive/learning impairments to participate more fully in everyday life. This view is also consistent with the goal of medical writers to be aware of their audience (i.e. their relevant abilities/skills, cultural beliefs, and knowledge base). To achieve this goal, we must strive to create electronic documents that can be perceived and understood by people with a variety of impairments. The main objectives of this article are: l to increase awareness of the difficulties caused by inaccessible electronic documents l to describe guidelines for creating accessible electronic documents l to provide resources for continuing education n am completely blind. I face obstacles every day owing, in part, to electronic documents designed primarily for those with vision. For example, I cannot use charts that convey information through colour. I cannot participate in conferences when session links are not clearly identifiable with screen readers. People with other sensory, motor, cognitive, and learning impairments often face similar obstacles caused by electronic documents (e.g. text files, videos, podcasts, web pages, etc.) designed for those without impairments. Some
Drafting standards on cognitive accessibility: a global collaboration
Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology, 2016
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is working on accessibility of products to support people with cognitive impairment. Working Group 10, within the technical committee 173 (assistive products for persons with disability) was formed in 2014 to draft standards for assistive products that support people with cognitive impairment. This article explains the scope and purpose of the working group and the context for its formation, and describes the plans and process for drafting and publishing new international standards. The proposed suite of standards is presented, with examples from a draft standard on daily time management. It draws on international research evidence for the effectiveness of assistive products designed to support time management in people with cognitive impairment. Examples of assistive products and their key features are provided based on domains of time as defined in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Ch...
Inclusive Design: Accessibility Settings for People with Cognitive Disabilities
arXiv (Cornell University), 2021
The advancement of technology has progressed faster than any other field in the world. And with the development of these new technologies, it is important to make sure that these tools can be used by everyone, including people with disabilities. Accessibility options in computing devices help ensure that everyone has the same access to advanced technologies. Unfortunately, for those who require more unique and sometimes challenging accommodations, such as people with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the most commonly used accessibility features are simply not enough. While assistive technology for those with ALS does exist, it requires multiple peripheral devices that can become quite expensive collectively. The purpose of this paper is to suggest a more affordable and readily available option for ALS assistive technology that can be implemented on a smartphone or tablet.