ITTATC - Section 3: Summary of the Vision

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Section 3: Summary of the Vision

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Section 3: Summary of the Vision

The following paragraphs contain a summary of the vision arranged by the specific topics of interest.

Objectives of Accessible Design: the most important technical, organizational, and societal goals that will be achieved by the accessible design of information technology.

The most important societal goals of accessible information technology are the preservation of the dignity of individuals with disabilities (by including them in mainstream society and giving them access to all goods and services offered to the general public) and the receipt of the contributions to society from individuals with disabilities (by facilitating their full participation in the workforce and in the market place). These positive factors also reduce the drain on public and private resources associated with supporting individuals with disabilities who are otherwise quite capable of working as well as performing such activities as communicating, traveling, and shopping for themselves.

The most important technical goal of accessible design is to provide the appropriate display and control modality options, configured to remove unnecessary barriers to access. Another important technical goal is to create open source technical guidelines and standards to facilitate further creation and refinement of accessible products.

The most important organizational goal of accessible design is to remove accessibility as a separate, resisted feature and transform it into a routine consideration throughout the design process.

Barriers to Accessible Design: how the various technical, organizational, informational, financial and legal barriers to accessible design will be addressed and overcome.

The technical barriers to accessible design are readily solvable with existing technologies for most types of disabilities. Products of the future will routinely feature multiple control and display modality options so users with disabilities can buy the options that are accessible for them. Products available in public places and for general usage in the workplace will be configured with multiple interface options so that all users can use them.

Organizational barriers to accessible design will be overcome as the market creates the demand for accessible products. The need to make sales to the general public and to large customers, such as the federal government (which requires accessible products), will cause managers and others to understand that accessibility is an essential requirement for information technology products.

Informational barriers to achieving the goals of accessible design will be overcome as consumers and other purchasers learn about the availability of accessible products, and as marketing and sales personnel learn that accessibility is a strong selling point. Consumer groups will disseminate information about products, and advocacy groups will disseminate information about the rights of workers with disabilities and the rights of users of public services and facilities.

Financial barriers to achieving the goals of accessible design will dissipate as the market for accessible products grows - largely fueled by the aging baby-boomers in the U.S.

Legal barriers will fade as individuals and advocacy groups learn how to file complaints and pursue remedies, and as laws and regulations become more specific and targeted.

Accessible Devices and Technologies: what products and services will be accessible in the future.

In general, common information technology devices, such as desktop and laptop computers, telephones, mobile phones, copiers, fax machines, printers, pagers, and hand-held electronic devices, will become accessible. In addition, devices in public places such as self-service terminals, kiosks, automated teller machines, and public telephone systems, will become accessible.

Federal Government Regulations: what role regulations will play in achieving accessibility goals.

Enforcement of Section 508 and other regulations will provide impetus for companies to develop and market accessible products and services, thereby leading to a change in the design processes for IT products and to the strengthening of the assistive technology industry.

Accessible Design Process: what design processes will be in place to ensure that accessibility is properly considered during design, and that the resulting products will be truly accessible.

Emerging standards and conventions for accessibility and for compatibility with assistive technologies will become ingrained in the design process as basic requirements. In addition, usability assessments will routinely include users with disabilities as part of the pool of users. Human factors professionals will include accessibility as a basic element in their input for design and evaluation activities.

Other Influences on Accessible Design: what factors other than government regulations and design processes will be important influences on accessible design.

The changing demographics of the American public will be a major influence on accessible design. Unlike their parents, aging baby-boomers will not be content with products that are incompatible with low vision, hearing loss, arthritic hands, and mild cognitive impairments. Their discontent with inaccessible products will create a growing market for accessible products and for products that are compatible with common assistive technologies.

Marketing philosophies that emphasize one-to-one marketing will also make it more economically feasible to design and market products aimed at specific disabilities. This will be especially important for disabilities (or combinations of disabilities) that are relatively rare, and/or relatively extreme compared to common disabilities.

Training: what types of training will be available to support managers, product designers, human factors specialists, sales and marketing personnel, and product technical assistance personnel.

Managers will have training in legal requirements, issues associated with accessibility in the workplace and employment of individuals with disabilities, the market possibilities for accessible products, and processes that are required to create and leverage accessible products. Managers will have specific training in how to increase potential profits by developing and marketing accessible products.

Product designers and other supporting engineers will have training in the following:
- specific capabilities and limitations of individuals with various disabilities,
- advantages and disadvantages of emerging technologies from an accessibility perspective,
- common assistive technologies and requirements for compatibility with those technologies,
- specifics of federal regulations and technical standards related to accessibility and compatibility with assistive technologies,
- how to evaluate accessibility and compatibility with assistive technologies.
Marketing and sales personnel will have training in federal regulations and terminology, the demographics of the customer base, legal considerations of selling to people with disabilities, the market potential for accessible products, how to understand and communicate the solutions a product provides, and how to sell to individuals with disabilities in a non-stigmatizing way.

Product technical assistance personnel will have training in the specific accessibility features of the products they support, capabilities and limitations of individuals with various types of disabilities, common assistive technologies and the compatibility of the products they support with each, and common problems of users with disabilities in attempting to use the products they support (and the solutions for those problems).

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Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center
Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access
Georgia Institute of Technology
490 10th Street NW · Atlanta, GA 30318
Telephone: 1-800-726-9119 (Voice/TTY) · Fax: 404-894-9320 · Email: ittatc@ittatc.org