As I read comments on initial reactions to DK5 Beta, my mind wandered to how the ADA could affect the virtual world of computers and internet. Naively and retro-prophetically, I commented that website access soon will be addressed by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Confirmation this has been in progress for over four years came from articles celebrating today’s 25th anniversary of the ADA. Soon, we will have legal right of access to this new world of computers, technologies, and internet.
Blind stenographer using a dictaphone (~1911)
Braille keyboards, dictaphones, text-to-voice, and closed captioning of videos developed along with the tech boom, not necessarily targeted at disabilities. Books on tape morphed into Audible as enough people preferred listening to books rather than reading. The desire to speak or hear a text while driving followed when we became aware of distracted driving dangers.
These are conveniences to many people, but what if you couldn’t use the internet? What if your fingers can’t work a keyboard/mouse? What if you are dazzled by acres of white space, confusing layout, or small indistinct font? Cognitive issues associated with illness, aging, and medications can make large blocks of text, varied fonts within text, and other visual features difficult.
Some people are born with disabilities that affect access to everyday life. About 25 percent of the U.S. population acquire disabilities during their lives, yet only 2 percent think it will ever happen to them. I didn’t.
Like many others, I’ve discovered that internet use isn’t just for entertainment, it's a necessity for routine life. Access to online banking, renewing a driver's license, prescription refills, shopping, social interactions, and electronic lab test results and other medical information can be essential to one’s ability to live independently.
Thus, American life now includes a world not considered mainstream when the ADA was implemented in 1990. Although the ADA doesn’t specifically say anything about website design being legible and accessible to everyone regardless of their impairment, the U.S. government has been considering how the ADA applies to websites, apps and social media for over four years. And, similar to the ADA modifications initially required (e.g., ramps, automatic doors, elevators, parking), websites will need to meet ADA accessibility standards.
The first article I saw paralleling my awareness that this issue is already a common concern was published by Slate: The Internet is a Necessity. And Web accessibility for the disabled makes sense for everyone.
Title III of the ADA requires that public and private establishments provide reasonable accommodations to the disabled. While there are 12 specifically mentioned “places of public accommodation” listed in the statute, access to the Internet is conspicuously missing—mainly because the Internet of 1990 is not the Internet we rely on today. Establishing the Internet as a “place of public accommodation” has been a story of two steps forward, one step back. But that is changing, thanks to a new generation of ADA activists who won’t accept a second-class Internet.
The Justice Department intended to define rules for website accessibility under the ADA, but that process has delayed although standards now exist for government run or funded websites. The DOJ has stated that the internet is a “place of public accommodation” under the ADA.
What this means within the legal definitions under Title III of the ADA is that the internet must not discriminate against people with disabilities. The ADA Anniversary website describes the original law and what it covers.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush. The ADA is one of America's most comprehensive pieces of civil rights legislation. The ADA is an "equal opportunity" law for people with disabilities which prohibits discrimination and guarantees that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life -- to enjoy employment opportunities and use of public services such as transportation, guaranteeing access to public accommodations such as restaurants, stores, hotels and other types of buildings to which the public has access, and participating in State and local government programs and services. The ADA has five titles:
1) Employment [Title I]
2) State and local government [Title II]
3) Public accommodations (private businesses) [Title III]
4) Telecommunications [Title IV]
5) Transportation and miscellaneous provisions [Title V]
The ADA prohibits discrimination against any qualified individual with a disability. Specifically, the ADA protects three categories of individuals who have the following types of impairment:
1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activity.
2) a record of a physical or mental impairment.
3) Individuals who are regarded as having an impairment, whether they have an impairment or not.
Clearly, adding the requirement for website and tech accessibility to the ADA isn’t enough. Website developers, computer designers and the companies that create the internet must understand how impairments affect accessibility and then design accordingly.
The Huffington Post discusses this (my bold added for emphasis).
Companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Dropbox, Yahoo and LinkedIn are banding together with disability advocates and academic institutions to launch the Teaching Accessibility initiative. The project, announced Thursday, seeks to boost accessibility in tech by teaching engineers, designers and researchers "to think and build inclusively.”
Currently, tech companies are not required to make all their products accessible, though Silicon Valley giants have been vocal about their commitment to accessibility.
In observance of the Americans With Disabilities Act anniversary, Apple unveiled a new section in the App Store to spotlight its selection of third-party apps that allow people with disabilities to access iPhones and other Apple devices more comfortably. This Accessibility page is broken down into sections, featuring apps dedicated to vision, hearing, speech, learning and literacy, and physical and motor skills.
So, our homes and phones are smarter, we can use webcams to see our children or watch penguins in the Galapagos, and with our phones control appliances from miles away and even
feed a dog.
All these result from the imaginations of tech specialists and designers. Now, we need to inform their imaginations of how disabilities impair our access to the internet and technology. And we need more: people who live with these impairments/disabilities should be included among the designers and tech innovators. Excluding the participation of at least at least 56.7 million people omits important voices.
The pace of government requirements for ADA access online is slow but persistent. Also from HuffPo -
It's now been more than four years since comments closed on a notice for proposed rulemaking in which the Justice Department asked for public feedback on what standards for accessibility should be applied online, along with associated costs.
A Department of Justice spokesman said today that the rule is currently under review at the White House Office of Management and Budget. There was no estimate for when it will become active.
When it does, watch out. There are a breathtaking number of websites and Web services that could be deemed to provide "public accommodation" under the ADA. Offline, any business that provides food, lodging, fuel or entertainment to the public is considered a public accommodation under federal anti-discrimination laws. Law firms have been anticipating this regulation for years, of course, offering legal guidance on whether a website might violate the ADA.