Civil rights for persons with disabilities and the aging when it comes to the internet

I usually start this way when I present to a group or organization: "Keep your hand down if you've ever had a problem with a website". After all why make people go through unnecessary effort if they don't have to. Since you probably didn't raise your hand when you read this, you've probably had some kind of problem with a website at some point in your (bad geeky pun) "Browser History".

Now imagine if you had a visual impairment or were blind and could not see the copy/text on a web page. Imagine you are hearing impaired and cannot hear audio that might be on a web page. Imagine you are physically impaired and cannot use a mouse to navigate a web page. Imagine you have a cognitive/developmental impairment such as autism, ADD, dyslexia, alzheimers, etc and are trying to use a website.

It's impossible to say quantitatively how much more difficult it is percentage-wise for people with these various impairments to access the internet, although I'm sure there is some number cruncher somewhere who would take a stab at it. But I am 99.9% opinionated that the qualitative experience of those with the impairments I mentioned is compromised/poor/impossible when they use a website.

And the government agrees, at least for people with visual disabilities. A very brief description of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (which is the action arm of the Americans with Disabilities Act) says: "Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, open new opportunities for people with disabilities, and encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals."

One of the main technologies that has resulted from this is screen readers for the visually impaired and blind. This is software that a visually impaired person buys, installs and learns how to use. What it does is "reads" aloud in audio format the information on a web page. Being visually impaired myself, I have learned how to use a screen reader. But I do not like it. The robotic, monotone computer voice becomes intolerable to me after one paragraph and most websites are not designed to accommodate a screen reader in ways that make it easy to get where you want to go. As a result I feel like my online experience is compromised and inferior to that of a normally sighted person.

Granted, since a majority of web pages rely on the sense of vision to obtain information, those with visual impairments face significant barriers. Thus it make sense that most of the assistive technology development would enable access for this impairment. But what about those with audio impairments? Or physical impairments? Or cognitive/developmental impairments?

For people with audio impairments, the FCC is about to step up. The "Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" will require certain videos online to be closed captioned. For the physically impaired it is possible to place "access keys" in the code of a website so that the site can be navigated with the keyboard. But it is not mandated, is not widely known/implemented and its functionality is different depending on the browser the person is using. For the cognitively/developmentally impaired there is basically nothing.

What I notice about the various "assistive technologies" is that they seem to treat access as an afterthought that results in an inferior access experience. Kind of like building a building and then figuring out later how to add on ramps and elevators. From a regulation standpoint there doesn't seem to be any consistency—the ADA is under the Dept of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act is under the FCC. From an organization's standpoint, to be access compliant they'll have to put out access fires separately. First figuring out how to make their site screen reader friendly and then figuring out how to make their videos closed captioned. And this still leaves out those with physical and cognitive disabilities.

The stakes can be high. In 2008 retailer Target had to pay $6 million because their site was not accessible. Some companies like Amazon and Microsoft build separate sites for the disabled. They include less information than exists for "normal" visitors and in the case of Amazon do not even meet online accessibility requirements. To me the separate site approach harkens back to a time when a certain segment of the population was required to use different, inferior facilities…

The question in my mind is how can people with visual, audio, physical and cognitive/developmental impairments have the same or better access online than someone who is not considered impaired? How can online access be a humane and better experience vs. an inferior and worse experience? How can online access require no need to incur costs for assistive technology? How can access be built in from the ground up instead of being treated as an afterthought?

And don't get me started on the mobile space…

Chris Lona—CEO—CL Design
425 462 7824
experience@cldesign.biz

Improved Online Accessibility

See our YouTube video series that show details about how we are improving experiences and ADA compliance online that aren't apparent from the presentations themselves.

Improved Online Accessibility on YouTube

Swedish Hospital

We have completed a proposal for Swedish hospital in Seattle that provides a better experience for people and surpasses US government standards for making sites accessible for people with disabilities.

Turn on your sound and visit: http://www.cldesign.biz/swedish

Article in Ballard News Tribune about CL Design

The Ballard New Tribune wrote an article about CL Design's ADA friendly multimedia. The article is titled "Web Designs for the Future—Making the web more accommodating and engaging".

One of the quotes is as follows:

"Lona takes an innovative multi-media approach to website design and has been ahead of his time for years. His designs not only make websites more engaging, they also make it easier for people with disabilities to use."

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

Resort Riviera—#10 of "Experience vs Data"

This month experience how a website can be navigated by pressing keys on your keyboard. Also experience a full screen presentation with audio.

Keyboard navigation and audio can greatly improve the experience of a site/brand for people with visual and physical disabilities.

Turn on your sound and visit: http://www.cldesign.biz/experience

Your comments are welcome!

Chris Lona
CL Design

Brand New Brand Logo for GAP

Since when do the masses know anything about design? The GAP caved because of public uproar but is that the way it should be? Sure the new logo was generified and unimaginative but the old one was nothing special either; it's just that people had become used to seeing it.

Unfortunately the generic design syndrome is pervasive what with web templates for anyone and clip art for the cheap and lazy.

It is my opinion that design should come from the intent of the client in concert with what s/he wants her/his customers' experiences to be. Not a bunch of text and shapes and colors slapped together to make something look "neat."

It is obvious that the new brand new brand logo for GAP was a victim of a corporate, heirarchical, bureaucratic, politically correct organization that was trying to please everyone and in the end pleased no one.

The Web Is Not TV!

The web is not TV! We all know the popularity of video on the web has exploded as exemplified by youtube and any number of sites that use video and accommodate video uploads.

But the web is not TV! In spite of people’s efforts to make it into TV. Most likely because it is something with which they are familiar. Add in that people are the center of their own universe (as we all are) and love the fact that they can place video of themselves online and then send it to their friends in addition to watching it themselves.

Still the web is not TV! An informal, unscientific observation of library users reveals that approximately 50% of people using the computers (and are assumingly online) are not wearing the headphones the library provides its visitors. Another library requires people to buy the headphones in order to hear the audio on the library’s computers. This library had no visitors using headphones while sitting at the computers. Extrapolating out to a larger view this implies, again in an informal and unscientific way, that at least 50% of the people using the internet are not experiencing the audio component of websites. What happens when a visitor without audio goes to a website that has video? They see moving images with no sound. If people in the video are talking, visitors experience nothing but talking heads which is fine if they happen to be a lip reader. The main benefit to video is that there is both a visual and audio component that together create the desired experience. Take one or the other away and the experience is compromised. Do at least 50% of TV viewers watch their television with the sound off? No.

The web is not TV! Have you ever watched a video online only to have it stumble and stutter because the streaming is not catching up with the playing? What size are most of the videos online? Would you accept watching 1/4 of your TV? Do you have to get up close to watch them? What happens when you play them at full screen view (if you can)? Does the quality become compromised? What happens if you print out the presentation? If there is a step by step presentation how do you instantly go from step 1 to step 10?

THE WEB IS NOT TV! Our approach is to combine aspects of TV with the benefits of the web. We use voice over audio that corresponds to large type. Together with photography, imagery and music, we tell a story online that results in a better experience for the visitor. If you don’t have audio you can read the large type. If you are visually impaired listen to the voice over describing the scene with music. The goal of our hospitality multimedia is to expand the experience of a physical experience to millions of online viewers. Thus the tagline “Expanding Your Experience”. Visit www.cldesign.biz