How to Create Disability Access to Technology (original) (raw)
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Disability and Technology: Building Barriers or Creating Opportunities?
2005
6&$(3%-(! In this chapter, the authors explore the relationship of technology to disability, and how technology can be both a source of liberation and an agent of exclusion for disabled people. The impact of the 'digital divide' on people with specific access needs, is examined and discussed, while the physical, cognitive and environmental factors that can contribute to exclusion as a result of technology design and implementation are examined in some depth. Demographic, moral and economic reasons as to why all those involved in the development of technology should take accessibility seriously are presented, while drivers for inclusive design -legislative, technical and economic -are discussed. A review of accessible and inclusive design practice, and the kinds of support that are available from a wide variety of sources for inclusive design is presented -showing that there are ways to minimise exclusion and to promote access. Finally, in looking towards a world where the true potential of technology to enhance the lives of disabled people can be fully reached, an overview is provided of research and development in supporting inclusive design, along with those challenges that remain to be overcome.
Accessibility, Disability, and Inclusion in Information Technologies: Introduction
The Information Society, 2007
The pages of The Information Society have hosted and incubated a number of fine critical studies and discussions of inclusion and accessibility, not least on topics such as universal service, digital divide, community networking, development, and access to information, Internet, and telecommunications. In one sense, then, this special issue foregrounds questions of accessibility and inclusion as they are raised by disability. This may function as a more-or-less recognizable and indeed common characterization and understanding of disability. Indeed, the various contributions to this collection certainly do advance our understanding of the fundamental aspects of disability and impairment as they interact with and are constructed by information technologies. With the rise of concepts of the information society and developments with convergent information and communications technologies, this is a topic that has gradually become visible and legible to scholars, policymakers, scientists and technologists, business people, and civil society organizations. It still has not received, however, the sustained study, analysis, and debate it merits, so we hope the articles we present here will further this enquiry.
TECHNOLOGICAL INITIATIVES FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Technology has become an integral part of today's society. It touches nearly every aspect of our daily life. We are making our life more convenient and easy by using different form of it but for years, disabled people had to rely on somebody else doing things for them. This article focuses on different aspects of measures we should take for the benefits of disabled. And since they are less likely to be in work due to their disability, their poverty rate is about twice as high from other people. But now with the help of assistive technology, disabled people can do things that would have never been possible before. And technologies that could help disabled people contribute more at workplace are higher in demand than ever. This article discusses how we are considering the need to serve disabled people more seriously in every way. There are various types of disability and different types of models as how our society perceives it. And for every type of disability there are different ways to communicate effectively. So here we discuss how we can consider the special requirements for planning of public buildings meant for use of physically challenged. Findings from several studies are also briefly reviewed here. The purpose of this article is to document different aspect of disability and the method we can adopt to make their life easy.
Technology for people, not disabilities: ensuring access and inclusionjrs3_1230 1..9
The potential of technology to connect people and provide access to education, commerce, employment and entertainment has never been greater or more rapidly changing. Communication technologies and new media promise to ‘revolutionize our lives’ by breaking down barriers and expanding access for disabled people. Yet, it is also true that technology can create unexpected and undercritiqued forms of social exclusion for disabled people. In addition to exploring some of the ways that even (or especially) assistive technology can result in new forms of social exclusion, we also propose alternative ways of thinking about inclusive and accessible (as opposed to assistive) technology and provide some very practical ways that accessible technologies would promote greater access and flexibility for disabled students and adults. We contend that technology should be conceived of as a global, accessible and inclusive concept, not one that requires a qualifier based on who it is for.
Access to information is one of the key requirements in today's modern life. We receive information through major sensory channels like ears (hearing), eyes (seeing or sight), touch (contact through skin or tactile), nose (smelling or olfactory). Often persons with disabilities (PwDs) are having impairment in one or more of these senses leading to sensory disability. They are unable to gather information from the surrounding environment through these gateways of knowledge (Maria Montessori, cited in Scherer, 2002). Hence it becomes imperative to have alternative means to gather information. Thus we see the blind using tactile means to gain information, those with hearing loss using sign language or visual mode of information and some like persons with deaf-blindness relying on both tactile as well as specialized techniques like Tadoma. Assistive Technology (AT) plays a major role in empowering individuals with disabilities to gain and use information just like anyone else. The B...
Futures of Disabilities: Is Technology Failing Us?
Journal on Technology & Persons with Disabilities, 2014
This paper examines possible reasons why technology may not be living up to its promise for some people with disabilities (including poor policy implementation, low accessibility, cost, disinterest, lack of awareness, prejudice) and describes preliminary results from the first round of a futures-oriented Delphi survey.
People with disabilities in the Digital Era: A basic review of the policies and technologies
2015
The concept of impairment (of some extend) rather than disability, shifted the perception of technology usage by the disabled people. The contemporary policy in developed countries for the disabled does not reflect only the commitment of these communities for the development and use of the special technology in support for those individuals but, also, for non-discrimination at any level. The rapid developments and relevant innovations in the ICT field, whether wired or wireless, mainly based on the broadband paradigm promise a better quality of life without exceptions and improved results in the battle against the digital divide. The communities worldwide can, reasonably, hope that the, thought as, minorities of the people with disabilities will suffer gradually less from eexclusion thanks to ICT innovation and supportive state policies.