Making Computers Accessible

The revolution in accessible computer technology was fueled by disability activism, the interactive nature of personal computers, and changing public policy. In 1974, not long after developing the first universal optical character recognition technology, Raymond Kurzweil struck up a conversation with a blind man on a flight. Kurzweil explained that he was searching for a use for his new software. The blind man expressed interest: One of the frustrating obstacles that blind people grappled with, he said, was that no computer program could translate text into speech. Inspired by this chance meeting, Kurzweil decided that he must put his new innovation to work to “overcome this principal handicap of blindness.” By 1976, he had built a working prototype, which he dubbed the Kurzweil Reading Machine. This type of innovation demonstrated the possibilities of computers to dramatically improve the lives of people living with disabilities. In Making Computers Accessible, Elizabeth R. Petrick tells the compelling story of how computer engineers and corporations gradually became aware of the need to make computers accessible for all people. Motivated by user feedback and prompted by legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, which offered the promise of equal rights via technological accommodation, companies developed sophisticated computerized devices and software to bridge the accessibility gap. People with disabilities, Petrick argues, are paradigmatic computer users, demonstrating the personal computer’s potential to augment human abilities and provide for new forms of social, professional, and political participation. Bridging the history of technology, science and technology studies, and disability studies, this book traces the psychological, cultural, and economic evolution of a consumer culture aimed at individuals with disabilities, who increasingly rely on personal computers to make their lives richer and more interconnected.

This work demonstrates how to make electronic information resources available to people with disabilities. The authors offer advice on technologies including screen readers, Braille screens, voice recognition systems, hearing assistance devices and HTML coding for accessibility. In addition to product descriptions, they cover the infrastructure issues like funding and staff training. A listing of adaptive technology programmes in libraries around America is provided.

Get practical guidelines for making your website accessible to people with disabilities. With this handbook, you’ll learn how to design or develop a site that conforms to Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act—and in the process you’ll discover how to provide a better user experience for everyone. The Accessibility Handbook introduces you to several audiences that have difficulty using today’s complex websites, including people with blindness, hearing loss, physical disabilities, and cognitive disorders. Learn how to support assistive technologies, and understand which fonts, colors, page layouts, and other design elements work best—without having to exclude advanced functions, hire outside help, or significantly increase overhead. Develop solutions that accommodate: Complete blindness. Create a logical document flow to support screen readers Low vision and color blindness. Optimize images and color schemes, and ensure your site enlarges gracefully Hearing impairment. Provide video captions and visual alerts for interactive features Physical disabilities. Make forms, popups, and navigation easier to use Cognitive disorders. Adapt fonts and text styles for dyslexic users, and design consistent, well-organized pages for people with ADHD

Ideal for anyone who owns or makes websites: from the freelance web professional to the corporate in-house design and development department, as well as all companies and government policy makers involved in the development and maintenance of web sites for their institutions, and organizations that provide web-based services to the public. Provides practical techniques for developing completely accessible web sites with a quick reference guide to accessible web site design. This book is for all Web professionals looking for an intuitive route to adding dynamic content from databases to their sites, assuming only HTML. No theory; no philosophy – just techniques and solutions. For web professionals creating.

If you are in charge of the user experience, development, or strategy for a web site, A Web for Everyone will help you make your site accessible without sacrificing design or innovation. Rooted in universal design principles, this book provides solutions: practical advice and examples of how to create sites that everyone can use.

By failing to consider those with needs different to ourselves, we are telling these people they are not welcome in our app, and therefore that technology as a whole, is not for them. This is not hyperbole—23% of people in the US with a registered disability aren't online at all, that's three times more likely than the general population. When asked why they're not online, disabled respondents say their disability prevents them or that using the internet is too hard. To help your apps combat the issue of digital exclusion, this book covers considerations and tools mobile developers, or anyone creating mobile experiences, can use to make mobile work better for those with disabilities—mental or physical—and how to create a better experience for everyone. Software is not made up of cold, unthinking algorithms. Software is a craft in the truest sense of the word, and one of the greatest tools you can have as a craftsperson is empathy for the people who will be using your app. Each one of whom is an individual with different abilities, experiences, knowledge, and circumstances. What You'll Learn Create mobile experiences that work for as many people as possible Incorporate a worldview of accessibility and customer service into your design Work with accessibility tools and techniques commonly available for developers Who This Book Is For Mobile developers working solo or as part of a team. UX designers, quality engineers, product owners, and anybody working in mobile.

Covering key areas of evaluation and methodology, client-side applications, specialist and novel technologies, along with initial appraisals of disabilities, this important book provides comprehensive coverage of web accessibility. Written by leading experts in the field, it provides an overview of existing research and also looks at future developments, providing a much deeper insight than can be obtained through existing research libraries, aggregations, or search engines.

This report provides an overview of multimedia access barriers and solutions for people with sensory disabilities, including recommended public policy interventions. A letter of transmittal to the President and both houses of Congress precedes the main body of the report. An executive summary groups recommendations under the following categories: establishment and tasks of a National Advisory Task Force on Multimedia Access; legislative/regulatory policies (at both federal and state levels); and research, education, and collaboration. The report's main body is divided into five sections which address: (1) use and importance of multimedia; (2) barriers to accessing multimedia; (3) solutions for making multimedia products accessible; (4) voluntary efforts to improve access to multimedia; and (5) recommendations for further action. Seven appendices provide information on a framework of multimedia categories; statistics on the number of people who are visually or hearing impaired in the United States; results of a survey of educators of people with visual impairments working with multimedia products; results of a questionnaire for educators of people who are blind or visually impaired; questions for educators and media specialists working with people with hearing impairments; a listing of current multimedia projects focusing on accessibility; and the mission statement of the National Council on Disability. A glossary is included. (Contains 90 references.) (DB)