Creating an Enabling Environment for Persons with Disabilities: Sensitizing the society on the use of assistive technology to facilitate information access for persons with disabilities (original) (raw)
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Assistive technology: going beyond the disability
2005
This paper is part of the ongoing research into designing and developing an Essentiality and Proficiency tool. The tool is a proxy service that will enable the user to view web content in a manner most beneficial to them. The research has stemmed from the inaccessibility of the web content even though standards and legislations such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 and the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 have come in to place (Elizabeth 1995; Brewer 1999). The paper will concentrate on the need to establish user profiles to ensure the tool can be used by all. However, for the purpose of my PhD research I have concentrated on the visually impaired as this is identified as the largest disability group (Kottapally, Ngo et al. 2003; Gooday and Christopherson 2004).
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.
Adaptive technology for people with disabilities using information and communication technologies
2007
Whether serving academic, public, or special populations, libraries are charged with making information available to their constituents. Electronic access, networked resources, and other forms of information and communications technology (ICT) are becoming the norm for information delivery. Technology, largely a boon to people with disabilities, may be difficult for some people to access. Assistive technology (AT) bridges this gap by providing innovative ways to help people access ICT. By using appropriate AT, libraries can improve information access-and quality of life-for large numbers of their patrons.
Journal on Technology and Persons with Disabilities, Volume 2
2014
The Center on Disabilities at CSUN has been recognized across the world for sponsoring an event that for more than 30 years highlights the possibilities and realities which facilitate the full inclusion of individuals with disabilities. Over the last three decades, it has truly into the most significant global platform for meeting and exchanging ideas, continually attracting more than 4,000 participants annually. We were once again pleased that the third Call for Papers for the Science/Research Track in 2015 drew a large response of more than 50 leading researchers and academics. A panel of more than 30 highly-qualified peers from around the world formed the program committee and was chaired by Dr. Klaus Miesenberger. The expertise of the program committee ensured that each contribution was expertly and equitably peer-reviewed and only those submissions of the highest caliber were accepted for presentation and publication. Demonstrating a clear focus on scientific excellence, this fourth Journal and the Science/Research Track at the conference, document CSUN's commitment to involve scientific researchers from all over the world to fulfill its mission as a platform of exchange with full cooperation and support of all stakeholders. We would like to thank the authors, the Science/Research Track review panel, the Center on Disabilities team at CSUN, and the editorial staff for their professional support. As always, we are grateful for and appreciate the many participants and partners who have contributed to the Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference throughout the first 31 years. As we begin to move into our 4th decade, we will continue to seek out this support and collaboration and hope you will join us at our 2017 event where we will rebrand the conference as the "CSUN Assistive Technology Conference". Welcome once again to our 4th publication of "The Journal on Technology and Persons with Disabilities." We hope you will continue to enjoy our endeavors and with your continued support of the Center on Disabilities at CSUN and the annual conference we can all work together in our mission of "changing the world for people with disabilities."
Disability and Assistive Technology
2012
There are nearly one billion people with disabilities all over the world and more than a hundred million people have heavy disabilities and need assistance (WHO, 2012). Disability is not a fault and people with disabilities are a part of our community and have equal rights with us. According to United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) (2006), providing assistance to disabled people to maximize functioning, support independence and, participate in the community is the duty of governments. The Assistive Technology is an umbrella term that covers many technologies, devices or only methods to support people with disabilities. The assistive technology varies from a low-tech pen grip to a high-tech multi-touch tablet pc. The common point of all is removing the barriers in front of the disabled people
Much has changed since 1992 when the original CACM article by Ephraim Glinert and Bryant York was published. In the early 1990's, accessibility was mostly an add-on, with only Apple computers having built-in access. Computers were playing an increasingly important role in education and employment, but had not yet completely integrated themselves into all aspects of life as completely as they have today. The World Wide Web as we know it had not yet been born. Today there are accessibility features built directly into every major operating system, and one OS even includes a built-in screen reader. Assistive technologies are more numerous and capable. And awareness of the importance of access is much higher. However, some things have not changed. Assistive technologies lag behind mainstream technologies in both compatibility and functionality. Effective assistive technologies are often beyond the financial reach of those who need them. Effective assistive technologies are not available in many countries and many languages, even though technology is reaching into education, employment, and daily living of more countries and more people in each country every year. In moving forward we need to build on what we have achieved and explore new concepts, such as a common technical core, ubiquitous accessibility, micro assistive technology, and free public accessibility. Cooperative and collaborative approaches also need to be explored if we are to have any hope of catching up and keeping up with the ever-accelerating mainstream information and communication technologies.
Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments, 2006
Human beings use technology to perform all types of tasks. An important issue related to this unquestionable fact is that technologies must be designed so that they can be used by all types of people without any discrimination of age, educational level, abilities, health conditions, and so forth. The term accessibility has been proposed to refer to the parameter that measures the degree to which technology use is not limited by any physical or cognitive barrier. Accessibility is an essential component of the usability parameter that refers to the ease with which a user can learn to operate, prepare inputs for, and interpret outputs of a system or component (International Organization for Standardization [ISO],1998). Accessibility is an issue related to users that have some kind of physical or psychological characteristics that impose any number of barriers to technology use. For example, there are people such as paraplegics with some physical limitations for interacting with a personal computer. It is evident that the input systems of the interface designed for a paraplegic cannot be those that are found commonly in the devices of general use. Other obvious examples of users with special needs are those that have some sensorial deficits, like blindness or deafness. People with mental disabilities also face many challenges in today's complex technological environment and in the pace in which life and technological advancements take place. These people can have difficulties, for example, reading signs when they are on the street, at the post office, or in a hospital. In order to help mentally disabled individuals avoid the problems in situations that can seem trivial to many people (such as finding the washbasin in a public place), technological aids are needed. A special user group for which accessibility is an essential parameter is the elderly. The increasing number of elderly people in our societies and the changes in the social structures in caring for them that have occurred in recent decades causes us to recognize the necessity for designing a variety of technologies for attending to them in their daily activities (Czaja & Lee, 2003). Diversity in Research Perspectives, Needs and Contexts In this issue of Human Technology, we have collected six papers that cover some important aspects in the design of accessible technology. Vanderheiden (2003) defines accessible
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.
Disability is not inability. A disability is only actually a disability only when it prevents someone from doing what they want or need to do. Technologies and communication devices help reduce physical barriers. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) provide a model to allow people with disabilities to better integrate socially and economically into their communities by supporting personal access to information and knowledge, learning and teaching situations, personal communication and interaction and access to educational administrative procedures. When we talk about accessibility issues, removing barriers to accessing ICTs by persons with disabilities is of paramount importance. Government agencies, NGOs and private sector should all come out to remove barriers to access ICTs and work together with the stakeholders so that people with disabilities are able to live independent life.