The world is forever changing and nowhere is it more evident than in the field of technology. For all of us who have been on the Web for the past decade, the internet of today is a far cry from its humble beginnings. In the past few years Web pages have gone from text based to technological wonders full of flash animation, photos, videos, security systems and spam blockers, all of which have made Web sites more difficult or impossible for the disabled to use.
Back “in the day” we were faced with the obstacle of how to make web pages accessible to disabled users. This necessitated the need for “text only” versions of web pages. Today, individuals who are blind, dyslexic, or vision impaired access the Internet using a “screen reader”. The software reads on screen text out loud and uses a braille-enabled keyboard. But advances in Web design can severely inhibit the use of this software.
For those hard of hearing, the advent of audio/visual material presents its own obstacles. Most Web sites do not offer closed captioning for their audio/visual content. For those with limited dexterity there is the additional challenge to manipulate the keyboard in traditional ways and many Web sites do not opt to set alternative means of navigation into their sites.
The recent class action suit filed against Target may change the way the internet works. The suit was filed by the National Federation of the Blind in 2006 and contends that Target violated the Americans with Disabilities Act as well as two California civil rights statutes. While Federal Web sites are required to be handicap accessible, Section 508 of the federal Rehabilitation Act requires that all private-sector firms that are doing business with the federal government comply as well.
Several states have passed laws requiring that online businesses provide access for disabled persons. However many of these laws do not provide clear and consistent guidelines for accessibility and many online entities are not aware of the requirement that their sites be accessible to those with disabilities.
Its a win-win situation for businesses who choose to comply. The same design elements which make a Web site more accessible are the same elements which make a Web site search engine friendly.
Interestingly, as global markets become more the norm, pressure from overseas may change the way Web sites are constructed because many countries have very clear laws about accessibility and these laws apply to the Internet.
It is clear that the problem of Web accessibility will be an important issue in the coming years. There are currently major movements to establish a set of guidelines for accessibility for the Web. The most well-known is The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium. The WAI developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 which explains how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. These initiatives will address problems with Web accessibility including visual, auditory or cognitive impairments, motor or mobility problems and seizures.
The final goal is to assure that sites are correctly built and maintained so that all of these users can be accommodated while not impacting non-disabled users.
Seizure Dogs and Brain Injury/Seizure Disorders
I have never been a big fan of the politically correct terms when discussing brain injury, hence my own coining of the term ©Subtle Brain Injury in 1999. See http://subtlebraininjury.com Having served on several boards where all they did was argue about what were the appropriate 30 words to put in a mission statement or policy statement, I have had a resistance to many of the pronouncements to come out of brain injury groups. But today’s blog does plagiarize one of those catchwords for brain injury “the invisible injury”. Credit for this phrase probably belongs to the Brain Injury Association of America. While again, this was never my favorite phrase, as so many disabilities are invisible, with respect to issue with seizure dogs, it rings so true.
When I first began my online advocacy about brain injury, one of the first issues that came to the forefront was discrimination against seizure dogs. Wal-Mart’s and the like would of course never ban a seeing eye dog, but a seizure dog? That was just a pet. I may be misappropriating credit, but I am reasonably sure that Debbie Wilson, one of our original contributors to http://waiting.com was carrying this torch in 1996. For unrelated poems of Debbie Wilson, click here.
Not long I first heard these cries on some of the seminal web TBI lists, Kimberly Carnevale was injured in a horse accident. One of the consequences of that injury was a seizure disorder. The German Shepherd, Dewey, that she had at that time had an ability to sense those seizures and warn her of the approaching danger, to assure that she could avoid additional damage of an unexpected seizure. Kimberly took her Dewey to be certified service dog, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations.
Yet like those with seizure dogs before her, Kimberly was denied access to some public areas with Dewey. This denial angered and motivated Kimberly enough to found an organization and establish a website to fight this ignorance and discrimination. The Organization is Canine and Abled, and the website is http://www.canineandabled.com/
Why does reading about that website and Kimberly at http://www.northeastcenter.com/website-of-the-month-april08.htm this morning make me think about the “invisible disability?” Because it is the invisible nature of brain injury and seizure disorders that accounts for that discrimination. No one would consider banning a seeing eye dog because the disability is so obvious to an observer. Likewise, no one would ban a wheelchair, for the same reasons. To deny someone a cane, is equally ridiculous. But, a dog, with a normal walking and talking person: that just seems like someone who wants to sneak their pet in.
I applaud Kimberly and her organization. Education is the key. In a sense, Dewey now makes Kimberly’s disability visible, if people are educated to understand his role. His role is as a prosthesis, an assistive device (not to inanimate Dewey) that will assist a disabled person, in a way not so dissimilar from a wheelchair, an artificial limb, to make their way in the world.
Later this week: Identifying and diagnosing the “invisible injury” and the need for other prosthetic aids for brain injury survivors.
When I first began my online advocacy about brain injury, one of the first issues that came to the forefront was discrimination against seizure dogs. Wal-Mart’s and the like would of course never ban a seeing eye dog, but a seizure dog? That was just a pet. I may be misappropriating credit, but I am reasonably sure that Debbie Wilson, one of our original contributors to http://waiting.com was carrying this torch in 1996. For unrelated poems of Debbie Wilson, click here.
Not long I first heard these cries on some of the seminal web TBI lists, Kimberly Carnevale was injured in a horse accident. One of the consequences of that injury was a seizure disorder. The German Shepherd, Dewey, that she had at that time had an ability to sense those seizures and warn her of the approaching danger, to assure that she could avoid additional damage of an unexpected seizure. Kimberly took her Dewey to be certified service dog, under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations.
Yet like those with seizure dogs before her, Kimberly was denied access to some public areas with Dewey. This denial angered and motivated Kimberly enough to found an organization and establish a website to fight this ignorance and discrimination. The Organization is Canine and Abled, and the website is http://www.canineandabled.com/
Why does reading about that website and Kimberly at http://www.northeastcenter.com/website-of-the-month-april08.htm this morning make me think about the “invisible disability?” Because it is the invisible nature of brain injury and seizure disorders that accounts for that discrimination. No one would consider banning a seeing eye dog because the disability is so obvious to an observer. Likewise, no one would ban a wheelchair, for the same reasons. To deny someone a cane, is equally ridiculous. But, a dog, with a normal walking and talking person: that just seems like someone who wants to sneak their pet in.
I applaud Kimberly and her organization. Education is the key. In a sense, Dewey now makes Kimberly’s disability visible, if people are educated to understand his role. His role is as a prosthesis, an assistive device (not to inanimate Dewey) that will assist a disabled person, in a way not so dissimilar from a wheelchair, an artificial limb, to make their way in the world.
Later this week: Identifying and diagnosing the “invisible injury” and the need for other prosthetic aids for brain injury survivors.
