Accessibility in Technology: ADA marks 20 years

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). When I saw the headline I was struck by a single thought: It’s been only 20 years?

I have taken for granted for as long as I can remember that there would be braille signs in elevators, curb cuts in sidewalks, and closed-captioned TV shows. In fact, I wondered whether the ADA was even necessary. 18% of the Americans have some disability, so we’re talking about a huge swath of pretty much every business’s customer base. How could they be excluded?

But the thing is, I do it, too. Since disabilities don’t affect me, I don’t always think about how others might be impacted, but I should—it’s relevant to all of us in technology, even if we don’t own a business or a building. Some accessibility issues I don’t always think about:

• Accessible web sites. A person who is visually impaired might use a screen reader that reads aloud the content of a web page. Screen readers read text, not images, so if you have an unlabeled picture or an image of text on your web site, you might be excluding visually impaired users. W3 offers tips to make your own site accessible to WCAG Standards.
• Accessible smart phones. Last year, I attended an event at Google focused on diversity in tech. One of the presentations was from a blind engineer describing his difficulties using new smartphones with slick, flat screens and no traditional raised keyboards. Now, Google offers an eyes-free Android and related apps.
• Video captioning. Closed-captioning has been required of cable operators, broadcasters, and satellite distributors since 1996. It’s not required online, however. I don’t think we necessarily can expect every lame YouTube upload to be captioned, but maybe news clips from major news networks or other important video should be.
• Accessible outreach materials. Looking at a flier or a brochure? It should be available, online or hard copy, in a large-print or otherwise accessible format. Many books are available this way, and it can be easy to overlook other printed materials as well.

If we learned anything from the ADA, it’s that accessibility issues must be mandated. We don’t implement them, or necessarily even think of them, on our own. To improve accommodations in technology, HR 3101 passed the House on Tuesday. If it passes the Senate and ultimately becomes law, this bill will, among other things, improve cable television access guides and require Internet phone calls to be compatible with hearing aids. It’s the next essential step in accessibility.

Do you consider accessibility issues in your work or life?

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1. Accessing Accessibility Tools
2. Web Accessibility – Leveling the Playing Field
3. Eleven Years of Google
4. Forty Years of the Internet—Maybe
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