World Wide Consortium

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) assists Ontarians by “developing, implementing and enforcing accessibility standards in order to achieve accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities…”. This act creates a standard that must be met through all facets of society. Whether it be in an in-store customer experience, in the workplace or online, AODA lays a framework that will assist in the day-to-day lives of Ontarians with disabilities. This act greatly impacts the IT field, in that it changes the way IT professionals utilize technology, in order to assist and accommodate disabled citizens. Disabled Ontarians occupy a significant population within all of Ontario, “15.5% of Ontario’s population has a disability and this

The internet has revolutionized the modern world like no other invention has before, except perhaps, electricity. The internet allows sharing and collaboration to take place between people on opposite sides of the globe. Vinton G. Cerf, often called the “Father of the Internet”, admits that when the original idea of an “intranet” was in its infancy, there was no possible way to imagine all of the ways we would come to use it (NDTV, 2013).

Even with the legislative measures taken to assist those who are blind, those with significant visual impairments still face oppression. According to Iris Marion Young, oppression “designates the disadvantage and injustice some people suffer not because a tyrannical power coerces them, but because of the everyday practices of a well-intentioned liberal society” (Adams, p 36). People who are blind face oppression when navigating the internet. There are many programs that aid those with vision issues- Braille keyboards and audio and text converters. However, these programs do not always work with websites. At the moment, no government standards exist in the United States (Williams). This is a problem because the internet is a very large part of society. The internet holds the keys to financial needs, educational advancement, and social interactions. Therefore, legislation needs to be passed to make the digital world as

Created 22 years ago on October 1st 1994 by computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee the W3 Consortium is the main standards organization for the World Wide Web. The W3 Consortium was created with the vision of “participation, sharing knowledge, and thereby building trust on a global scale” (W3C mission, 2016). As of today there is roughly 350 member organizations part of the W3 Consortium all over the world.

People with disabilities suffer discrimination such as the refuse of companies to hire those peoples. An estimated 386 million of the world’s working-age persons have some kind of disability, according to ILO. In a recent research, they found that two-third of the unemployed and disable persons said that they would like to work but they could not find jobs.

There are also many tools available to web designers to ensure that their sites are compliant with current ADA laws. In accordance with the ADA’s mission statement, the World Wide Consortium (W3) created the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). In turn, the (WAI) developed a set of guidelines (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines [WCAG]) with the intent of providing remedies for design concerns that may arise when designing with the needs of disabled people in mind. The WAI purpose is a means for developing standards,

There’s a law that relates to the Rehabilitation act that was enacted in 1973 and revised in 1998 that states, according to Section508.gov “requires Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology (EIT) accessible to people with disabilities. The law (29 U.S.C. § 794 (d)) applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508, agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others. The United States Access Board discusses the Section 508 law and its responsibility for developing accessibility standards for EIT to incorporate into regulations that govern Federal

Every person in the organization with a disability has a different need. Organizations work around the clock in many occasions to comply with the accommodations of each individual in the organization. Educating staff in how to comply with the requirements of ADA can be quite challenging. Organizations are afraid to hire, retain or accommodate workers with disabilities because of lack of awareness of disability and accommodations issues, concern over costs, and legal liability (Kaye et al., 2011). It is therefore the responsibility of the organization to educate management about the law and train on disabilities and accommodations. The guidelines, regulations, and building codes should be implemented to make the facility more welcoming and inviting to workers with disabilities (Stryker, R. (2013).

Unlike people who had experienced discrimination against the civil rights act of 1964, the ones who had experienced it on the basis of disability didn’t have any legal recourse to redress it. Therefore, with a very strong influence from the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids discrimination on the foundation of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 which set people with disabilities as a legitimate minority, the ADA became the "equal opportunity" law that has set an example for the rest of the world. This act finally defined what non-discrimination was in the context of disability. The 1990 ADA added the specifications of a new conduct that should be undertaken, for instance, architectural and communication barriers should be removed by providing reasonable accommodation to disabled workers, and finally, it also imposed accessibility requirements for public spaces.

The web designer must also use multimedia formats that have synchronized captioning to also aid disabled users access the interface freely and holistically. This is crucial and of great importance in section 508 as users should be able to access all information on the site freely and with minimum effort.

This may be harder than it looks. For many people the internet may be their only way of communicating, working, and everything else they may not be able to do like the rest of the world. I would even say that peoples with disabilities may depend on the internet more than people without disabilities. On top of that, many government agencies have switched to a paperless, virtual environment. This saves both money and time. With that said, that can make it even harder for peoples with disabilities to take care of their day to day business. Joseph J. Lynett and John A. Snyder for the American Bar Association (2013) write, "As it appears the DOJ is preparing to issue standards governing web accessibility under the ADA, covered entities should assess with their IT professionals and attorneys whether their websites are accessible to individuals with disabilities and whether doing so would as a legal matter pose an undue hardship or fundamentally alter the nature of the goods or services provided. Based on the assessment and any accessibility barrier discovered, covered entities should map out a plan to make their websites accessible even in advance of the looming regulatory action from the DOJ. Covered entities whose websites are inaccessible to individuals with disabilities may be the targets of lawsuits filed; therefore, it behooves employers to review the accessibility features of their websites and Internet-based services consistent with the accessibility issues outlined above." (para

Summary of Contributions: In essence, the CATO Institute has invariably aided the public, including segments of the population who have suffered from a disability. Their concerted and thoughtful efforts have empowered the masses with attainable information and a fortified sense of liberty and independence, all in a non-partisan, virtual atmosphere. This site addresses the general public with insightful research analyses about public policy issues. Comparatively speaking, this Institute, along with the ADA Network and Department of Labor, empower the disabled with educational resources. However, they are not responsible for enforcing regulations.

I collaborated with the Department’s Civil Rights Center to jointly develop a TEN on the WIA nondiscrimination requirements and resources to assist the workforce system in developing accessible infrastructures and programmatic access for individuals with disabilities. I co-wrote and produced guidance documents, including the “One-Stop Guide to Accessibility and Accommodation of Persons with Disabilities” to assist State and local One-Stop Centers in evaluating physical and programmatic access to services for individuals with disabilities and to comply with Federal nondiscrimination laws and regulations.

What the deaf-blind use to communicate with each other or with other people depends on the extent of their vision and hearing loss, their educational backgrounds and what opportunities were open to them (“American Association,” 2009). Some of the methods used include tactile sign language, which is when the deaf-blind person places their hand on the signer’s hand to follow the shape and movement of the hands to understand what is being said. Face-to-face communication devices are used as well, those include a screen braille communicator, a teletypewriter that sits on a braille keyboard, a Captel that is a telephone that is connected to the computer that will caption what the caller is saying and display it on the screen (“American Association,” 2009). These inventions have helped the deaf-blind communicate so much easier, but a look at these inventions and they are large in size, they can’t be carried around as easily as a smart phone, and they sometimes can be expensive to own. On the other hand the success of videophone technology proves that it that there can be a simpler, more face-to-face, less expensive communication. Even though face-to-face communication is easily accessible to anyone who has a smartphone, those who are deaf-blind have vision loss that does not allow them to see such small

Following the amendment and reauthorization of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Microsoft Corporation began an initiative to research, develop, and market software, hardware, systems, and services that would assist and appeal to people with disabilities. The corporation also turned its attention to attracting, hiring, and retaining people with disabilities who have the qualifications to work at Microsoft a division for accessibility and disabilities was formed by the company. The goal going forward was to make valuing diversity and accessibility an article of faith at Microsoft.