The disabled need policies to ensure accessibility

The disabled need policies to ensure accessibility

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

If information technology can serve as an enabler, why then is
it often difficult for people with disabilities to access
information?

Luckily, as we explored last week, there are features in
Windows that can be activated, adjusted or amplified to enable
those with hearing, visual and other physical disabilities to use
the computer and be productive members of the community.

Outside the operating systems -- Windows and Mac OS, there are
a slew of other hardware and software products that can help make
it easier for them to read text, look at diagrams and interact
with the computer.

Talking about interacting with the computer, research centers
and universities around the world have been working on projects
that will enable people with speech impediments and paralysis to
directly control the computer and communicate through it.

One of the most progressive is perhaps the electrode brain
implant that sends brain waves directly to the computer. It has
been developed by neuroscientists at Emory University led by
Philip R. Kennedy, M.D., who founded and now leads Neural
Signals, Inc. (www.neuralsignals.com).

BrailleNote is a family of Braille note takers with PDA
functionality.

Made by Pulse Data (www.braillenote.com), the BrailleNote
devices run on Windows CE, have a built-in modem and 8 MB of
memory and come with a Type II PCMCIA slot that can accommodate
IBM MicroDrive for extra storage. They feature Word-
compatibility, schedule and database management applications,
calculator and other tools standard in a PDA.

A BrailleNote can also be attached to the computer and
function as a reading device.

Pulse Data also makes other technical aids such as
video magnifiers and voice synthesizers. We can download a
demonstration version of the company's KeyNote Gold from its
Website.

VideoEye Corporation (www.videoeyecorp.com) provides a simple
solution for people who suffer from visual impairment due to
macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and other
types of retina damage.

IBM is another technology provider that has offered solutions
for the disabled. In October last year, it released Version 3.0
of its Home Page Reader, a browser with JavaScript support that
will read aloud text, tables, graphics description, data input
fields, forms and image maps. With this product, even the blind
will be able to shop online.

For more comprehensive information on adaptive technology and
technology aids and products, Abledata (www.abledata.com) is a
great source.

In this Internet era, however, all the technology aids will
not be of much help if the Web pages are not designed with the
needs of the disabled in mind. Therefore, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), which is the governing authority of the WWW,
has for many years been working on guidelines as to how people
should author their Web documents.

Called the Web Accessibility Initiative, this program focuses
on ways Web contents can be made friendlier to people with
disabilities. It may surprise us, but according to a census the
U.S. has 54 million people with disabilities. It makes
accessibility very important.

And it is not surprising that a survey on the U.S. State and
Federal E-government, which was conducted by Darell M. West of
Brown University, also included an evaluation of accessibility of
the Websites. The Websites are built with federal funds and
therefore they should also comply with the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) and Article 508 of the Rehabilitations
Act.

West's survey found out that 27 percent of the government
Websites already incorporated some level of accessibility
features, such as Text Telephone or Telephonic Device for the
Deaf (TTY/TDD) phone numbers and other types of compliance with
standards set by W3C.

In the U.S., failure to accommodate the needs of the disabled
can in fact lead to a legal tangle. In November last year, for
instance, America Online was brought to court by advocates of the
blind for failing to include accessibility features in its
software.

What about here in Indonesia? We still need to create the
awareness. It is certainly a better cause for the public to rally
behind rather than the political infighting that seems to be on
the rise again in the country.