JSET ejournal
The Interdependent Roles of
All Players in Making Technology Accessible
Terry Thompson
The University of Washington
As electronic and information technology continues its exponential
growth toward permeating all aspects of contemporary society,
it also continues to offer great potential to individuals with
disabilities in attaining independence, including their K-12,
postsecondary, and career goals. However, in order for this potential
to be realized, technology must be accessible to all users. Making
technology accessible is a complex and difficult problem, involving
many individuals and groups. When a particular technology presents
a barrier to an individual, who is at fault? Often blame is assigned
to an individual technology developer, content developer, or
educational entity, though doing so is often an oversimplification
of the problem. In actuality, a variety of players, individually
and through relationships with one another, play critical roles
in making technology accessible. In order to further the likelihood
that future technologies will be fully accessible, all players
must be educated about their roles, must accept their roles,
and must fulfill their roles in making technology accessible
to all users. Players include consumers, technology developers
(i.e., developers of assistive technology (AT), operating systems,
software applications, user agents, and authoring tools), standards
organizations, K-12 and postsecondary schools, employers and
advocates.
The Role of Consumers
In pursuing an academic degree, consumers with and without
disabilities are likely to have a need for technology, most notably
computers, which they use to write papers, search for information
on the Web, communicate using email, perform mathematical calculations
and statistical analyses, and many other tasks. There are differences,
however, in the specific computer technologies that will best
meet these needs for individuals. Most technology accessibility
issues can be reduced to individual differences in how users
submit input and receive output.
Regarding input, some users need a keyboard, some need a pointing
device such as a mouse or trackball, and some need both. There
are tremendous varieties of types of keyboards and pointing devices
that users prefer. Some consumers use neither keyboard nor pointing
device, and instead need an alternative input system such as
a speech-recognition, head-pointer, or eye-gaze system.
Individual consumer needs also vary when it comes to output devices.
Some consumers need to receive their computer output through
large cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitors for maximum color depth
and resolution. Some need smaller liquid crystal display (LCD)
monitors due to workspace constraints or portability needs. Some
consumers have no need for a monitor, and instead receive their
computer output audibly through a screen reader and speech synthesizer,
with headset or speakers. Some users need to receive their computer
output on a Braille device.
This diversity of need is often misrepresented as being binary:
Consumers without disabilities need X; consumers with disabilities
need Y. In fact, all users have different needs and preferences.
People with disabilities are no exception. These different needs
influence the roles of many of the other players, particularly
technology developers.
