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An Overview Of Accessibility
Wendy Porch, M. Ed
Project Coordinator
The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre
Works to ensure that information technology is accessible to all through:
- Research & Development
- Education
- Proactive Design Consultation
- Direct Service
- http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/
Remember- Access is a Right
- Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
- Ontario Human Rights Code
- Ontarians with Disabilities Act Bill 125
- Coming soon: Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)
Various web and e-learning specific standards can help you to meet your responsibilities
The Opportunity
For many people with disabilities, the transformative power of computers has revolutionized:
- Employment
- Communicating
- Socializing
- Education
Examples
- E-Text: People who are blind previously had to learn Braille in order to read or write
- Blackberry: People who are deaf don\'t have to rely on the rarely encountered TTY to communicate in public spaces
- Adaptive Technology and ICT: People with limited ability to move can surf the web, write emails, work, do research using technology
Barriers to Participation
Barriers can be:
- Attitudinal
- Legal
- Technological
- Physical
Technological Barriers
- A website that can only be accessed using a mouse
- Audio files that have no captions
- Video files without video descriptions
- Images without ALT-tags
- Etc.
What is Adaptive Technology?
- Hardware or software used by people with disabilities to facilitate access to technology
- Often used to gain access to the Internet
Adaptive Technology...
- Screen magnification (e.g. Zoomtext)
Adaptive Technology...
- Alternative keyboards
Adaptive Technology...
- Alternative mouse and onscreen keyboard
Adaptive Technology...
- Voice Recognition
Screen Readers
- used by computer users who are blind
- software allows a voice synthesizer to read text from computer screen
- can tab through links, use menus for other functions
