Each state has a state Assistive Technology Act Technical Assistance and Training (AT3) Center. These centers were originally funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) as part of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998. To locate an AT Act Center in your state, consult the State Tech ACT Projects.
People with disabilities continue to face challenges in accessing the full range of opportunities available to people without disabilities. Specifically, barriers to standard computer software limit opportunities in education and employment for some people with disabilities. For example, a part of a multimedia tutorial that uses voice narration without captioning or transcription is inaccessible to students who are deaf. Similarly, an educational tutorial program that requires the use of a mouse is inaccessible to a student who cannot use this device.
The World Wide Web has rapidly become the dominant Internet tool, combining hypertext and multimedia to provide a network of educational, governmental, and commercial resources. Much of its power comes from the fact that it presents information in a variety of formats and also organizes that information through hypertext links. Because of the multimedia nature of the web, combined with the poor design of some websites, many Internet surfers cannot access the full range of resources this revolutionary tool provides. Some visitors experience the following:
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that public programs and services, including educational institutions and opportunities, be accessible to people with disabilities. For example, with captions, the content of a videotape shown in a course might be made accessible to a person who is deaf. If the product is not captioned, access to the content would need to be provided in another way, perhaps with a sign language interpreter.
People who are blind cannot access the visual content of a video production unless the content is available in audio format as well. Being aware of this access issue during the design phase of a product can result in speakers or narrators voicing enough of the content to allow a person who is blind to follow along. This is particularly important for educational programming and products used with large audiences where it is generally unknown what visual impairments audience members may have.
Captioning is usually considered when the video product is complete, if at all. Instead, the production should be filmed so that critical content does not appear where captioning will cover it (usually at the bottom of the screen). Captions should describe all of the visual content, including nonspeech noises. Suggestions for making attractive and functional captions include the following:
To experience watching a multimedia product without the ability to hear, turn off the volume on your television set. Some programs, such as sporting events, are fairly easy to follow by watching the visual display. Others, such as news programs, make little sense without audio. To make this content accessible to those who are deaf, a sign language interpreter or text captioning can appear on the screen. Captioning is more common because not all individuals who are deaf know sign language and there isn't one standard version of sign language.
Congress has responded to the need to increase access to products and services for people with disabilities by passing legislation in a range of areas, including education, employment, transportation, assistive technology, and electronic and information technology. Some pieces of legislation guarantee the civil rights of individuals with disabilities, others establish procurement requirements for specific agencies, and still others impose accessibility requirements on producers of products and providers of services. Some legislation is at the federal level, and some is at the state level.
Universal design is the process of creating products that are accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, and other characteristics. Universally designed products accommodate individual preferences and abilities; communicate necessary information effectively (regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities); and can be approached, reached, manipulated, and used regardless of the individual's body size, posture, or mobility.
The Internet hosts a large quantity of websites and electronic discussion lists that contain information of interest to individuals with health impairments and their family members, friends, mentors, advocates, educators, employers, and coworkers. A collection of websites and discussion lists related to health impairments can be found at Disability-Related Resources on the Internet: Health Impairments.
