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From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
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Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 11:16 AM
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Subject: NCD Releases Technology Accessibility Report

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"NCD Releases Technology Accessibility Report"

Earlier this summer, the National Council on Disability
(NCD) released a report titled "The Accessible Future,"
which focuses on the efficacy of laws relating to
information technology accessibility.  The report makes a
series of recommendations related to closing the "Digital
Divide" for people with disabilities.  Last September
President Clinton traveled to Flint Michigan to draw
attention to the need for people with disabilities to have
equal access to information technology.  Below please find
an article about this report from Disability World, a bi-
monthly web-zine of international news and views
(www.disabilityworld.org).

Jonathan Young, JFA Moderator


========================


Major U.S. Study, "The Accessible Future," Attracts
International Interest

By Judy Wilkinson ( [log in to unmask])

On June 21, 2001, the US National Council on Disability
(NCD) released a report entitled The Accessible Future:
http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/accessiblefuture.h
tml. The fourth in its series of reports reviewing the
impact and implementation of major disability civil rights
laws, The Accessible Future analyzes the current state of
information technology access rights under various federal
laws and makes detailed recommendations for achieving broad
information access equality for people with disabilities in
the United States.

By way of background, the executive summary states, "In the
currency of daily life, what is more important yet more
taken for granted than access to information? But for many
people with disabilities, the information access and
exchange that most of us take for granted is difficult or
impossible... The explanation increasingly lies not in
disability itself, but in the design of the technology that
mediates our access to and use of all types of
information."

Report's author interviewed

According to Steven Mendelsohn, the report's author,
"Although the statutes analyzed in the report are specific
to the United States, their character and enforcement have
clear implications for laws and practices of other nations.
In fact, throughout the report, wherever the term
'Americans" or "United States" is used, if we substitute
the terms "people of the world" the applicability to all
disabled people becomes apparent."

The statutes covered by the report include:

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) which includes
definitions of discrimination that recognize the harm done
by denial of access to information and which includes
requirements for effective communication with people who
have disabilities;

Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act which requires
that equipment and services used in making and receiving
telephone calls be accessible to and usable by individuals
with disabilities, either directly or through use of
assistive technology peripherals or specialized software;
and

Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act which obliges
the federal government to purchase accessible "electronic
and information technology (E&IT) for use by its own
employees or by members of the public using federally
provided technology to obtain information from the
government.

The report continues: "No one would dispute that people
with disabilities have the same right and need for
information everyone else has. Nevertheless for many of
these citizens, the information gap (both a cause and a
consequence of various forms of economic and social
disadvantage) is not narrowing. Paradoxically, at the very
time when many people comfortably assume that technology is
steadily bringing people with disabilities more
opportunities for access than they have ever known before,
this same technology (coupled with the attitudes and
expectations of those who use it) may in many cases be
reinforcing patterns of exclusion and isolation."

Clarifying the disparities of the digital divide

"Recent discussion of the 'digital divide' problem has
demonstrated the existence and consequences of major
disparities in our society between information haves and
have-nots. The harm attributable to the information gap is
severe, both for those denied opportunity and participation
as a result of it and for society as a whole. While
Americans with disabilities can all too often be counted on
the have-not side of the information and information access
equation, the reasons and remedies for this exclusion are
not so well or widely understood."

"Leaving aside broader questions of poverty, education,
health care or even discrimination, the problem is that
much information the rest of our society takes for granted
is not provided or disseminated in ways accessible or
usable by people with sensory, physical and cognitive
disabilities. Imagine trying to conduct your life in a
world where most key communications were made only in an
unknown foreign language. Imagine life in a world where a
person may not even know the information exists."

. . . "Even as they create new opportunities for some,
information technology advances erect access barriers to
others. Where such barriers could be avoided, their
needless occurrence is all the more tragic and wasteful."

"Among the kinds of technology that have irrevocably
changed life for all of us, modern information technology,
the technology of the computer era, has dramatically
empowered many people. But any assumption that all or most
information technology is routinely available to or usable
by people with disabilities would be a grave mistake.
Incorporation of what we call accessibility into America's
information technology infrastructure is not and has not
been automatic or certain. When any new mainstream
technology creates opportunities for some but excludes
others because of design features that do not take users
with disabilities into account, part of its impact is to
engender frustration, create divisions, and reduce the
opportunity for independence available to significant
subgroups of our fellow citizens."

Electronic & Information Technology

The report continues by introducing one of its key
concepts: Electronic And Information Technology: E&IT.

"Although a relatively new and perhaps unfamiliar term to
some, we believe that E&IT will become the predominant term
used in discussions of information technology access
rights. The range of devices falling within the definition
of E&IT is inclusive, encompassing all equipment, software
and websites used for creation, storage, transmission or
manipulation of information and data. Our major focus here
will be on computers . . . and other internet websites and
resources."

The author continues, "The research was conducted to answer
three basic questions:

Is access to E&IT by Americans with disabilities
sufficiently fundamental to rise to the level of a civil
right?

Which laws establish civil rights protections around e&it
access and how are those laws being applied and enforced?

What changes in law or practice would be most effective in
fulfilling the goals of E&IT access equality for all
Americans?"

Author Cites International Progress

Author Steven Mendelsohn addes, "While many of the issues
raised in the report can best be understood in the cultural
context of the US., the underlying concepts are far more
universal and are mirrored in parallel efforts in other
countries. For example, one of the key requirements of
Section 508 is that federally-operated web sites must be
accessible, meaning designed according to standards
ensuring that persons with disabilities will be able to use
them and gain access to the information they contain and
the activities they support. Such efforts at making the
internet accessible are already underway in Canada and the
European Union." (See also Robyn Hunt's article "Internet
Access on the New Zealand Agenda" in the May-June issue of
Disability World which discusses New Zealand's efforts
along these lines.)

"In addition, much of the technology used in the world
today is designed and manufactured in countries other than
where it is used; therefore national and regional
accessibility requirements are likely to play an
increasingly important role in design practices around the
globe and in determining what kinds of communications
technology will be most readily available to developing
nations."

The report underscores the fundamental principle that
access to information is a civil or human right closely
intertwined with other rights such as education and work.

It explains that under modern conditions technology is
increasingly the tool by which information is disseminated
and gathered, sent and received. As such the report sets
forth values and goals that could become key to the social
planning and technology infrastructure building efforts of
both developed and developing nations.

Conclusion

The executive summary concludes with the following
paragraph:

"We live in what is frequently called the 'information
society'. In this successor era to the Industrial Age,
information is more and more the principal commodity of
commerce. Access to E&IT is more and more the arbiter of
success and the source of opportunity in education and
employment. Under these circumstances, it should not be
surprising that access to information and to the technology
generating, transmitting, and storing it would become a
civil rights issue for many people with disabilities and
for our society. As the importance of electronic and
information technology access grows in the way we conduct
our lives, in the choices we make, and in the decisions
others make about us, this importance can only grow. We
must ensure that all Americans can participate in the
information society of the 21st Century. This report from
NCD provides a coherent set of recommendations, strategies
and activities that, if implemented, will guarantee a
better quality of life for all !
Americans who use E&IT."

The first step in applying the principles of this report to
other countries in the world has already been taken.
Recently, Fundacion Once of Spain has requested and been
granted NCD's permission to translate the report into
Spanish, undertaking to make that translation available on
the web and in hardcopy formats. Information will
eventually be available on their web site
http://www.fundaciononce.es. This request by Fundacion Once
marks an important step toward the development of a vital
multilingual international dialog concerning the values and
opportunities surrounding information technology use an
development in the years to come.


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