Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy

Book description

Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy provides readers with a must-have resource to digital accessibility from both a technical and policy perspective. Inaccessible digital interfaces and content often lead to forms of societal discrimination that may be illegal under various laws. This book is unique in that it provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of digital accessibility. The book discusses the history of accessible computing, an understanding of why digital accessibility is socially and legally important, and provides both technical details (interface standards, evaluation methods) and legal details (laws, lawsuits, and regulations). The book provides real-world examples throughout, highlighting organizations that are doing an effective job with providing equal access to digital information for people with disabilities. This isn’t a book strictly about interface design, nor is it a book strictly about law. For people who are charged with implementing accessible technology and content, this book will serve as a one-stop guide to understanding digital accessibility, offering an overview of current laws, regulations, technical standards, evaluation techniques, as well as best practices and suggestions for implementing solutions and monitoring for compliance.

This combination of skills from the three authors—law, technical, and research, with experience in both corporate, government, and educational settings, is unique to this book, and does not exist in any other book about any aspect of IT accessibility. The authors’ combination of skills marks a unique and valuable perspective, and provides insider knowledge on current best practices, corporate policies, and technical instructions. Together, we can ensure that the world of digital information is open to all users.

  • Learn about the societal and organizational benefits of making information technology accessible for people with disabilities
  • Understand the interface guidelines, accessibility evaluation methods, and compliance monitoring techniques, needed to ensure accessible content and technology
  • Understand the various laws and regulations that require accessible technology
  • Learn from case studies of organizations that are successfully implementing accessibility in their technologies and digital content

Table of contents

  1. Cover image
  2. Title page
  3. Table of Contents
  4. Copyright
  5. Critical Acclaim for Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy
  6. About the Authors
  7. Preface
  8. Chapter 1. Introduction to accessible technology
    1. Introduction
    2. Defining Accessible Technology
    3. Various Types of Disabilities
    4. Various Types of Technologies
    5. Accessible Technology vs. Augmentative Communication and Prosthetics
    6. Various Types of Policies
    7. How Policies and Laws Can Lead to Improved Access to Digital Information
    8. Summary
    9. A Note About the Usage of Terms
    10. References
  9. Chapter 2. The history of access technology
    1. Introduction
    2. Early History of Assistive Technologies (through the 1960s)
    3. The 1970s-Present
    4. Current Events and Trends
    5. How Accessible Technology has Crossed Over into the Mainstream
    6. Understanding Why/How People with Disabilities Adopt Technology
    7. How the Changes in Technology Over Time Must Influence Changes in Solutions
    8. Summary
    9. References
  10. Chapter 3. The discriminatory impact of digital inaccessibility
    1. Introduction
    2. Separate But Equal in the Context of Disability
    3. Summary
    4. References
  11. Chapter 4. Technical standards for accessibility
    1. Accessibility Standards
    2. The World Wide Web Consortium and the Web Accessibility Initiative
    3. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
    4. Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
    5. User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
    6. Accessible Rich Internet Application
    7. EPUB
    8. Applying WCAG 2.0 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies
    9. Summary
    10. References
  12. Chapter 5. U.S. laws and lawsuits
    1. Introduction
    2. Federal Statutes that have an Impact on the Accessibility of Technology
    3. State Laws Applicable to Accessible Technology
    4. Summary
    5. References
  13. Chapter 6. International disability law
    1. Introduction
    2. Disability Law in the United Nations: A Brief History
    3. The European Union
    4. Statutory and Case Law on Digital Accessibility
    5. Summary
    6. References
  14. Chapter 7. Regulations
    1. Introduction
    2. How Regulations Are Influenced by International Technical Standards
    3. The Role of Performance Standards
    4. Existing Regulations Related to Digital Accessibility
    5. Summary
    6. References
  15. Chapter 8. Evaluation methods and measurement
    1. Introduction
    2. Metrics for Accessibility?
    3. Core Methods for Evaluation
    4. User Testing
    5. Expert Inspection (Also Known as Expert Reviews)
    6. Automated Review
    7. What to Do with All of the Evaluation Data
    8. Summary
    9. References
  16. Chapter 9. Compliance monitoring policies and procurement
    1. Introduction
    2. Compliance Monitoring is Often Missing from Regulations
    3. Different Types of Technology and How Compliance Monitoring Differs
    4. Spending Money as the Trigger
    5. Updating Content as the Trigger
    6. Updated Versioning as the Trigger for Evaluation
    7. Annual Reports
    8. Putting an IT Accessibility Plan in Place
    9. Summary
    10. References
  17. Chapter 10. Case studies of success
    1. Introduction
    2. Best Practices in Libraries
    3. Best Practices in Education
    4. Best Practices in Government
    5. Best Practices in Corporations
    6. Summary
    7. References
  18. Chapter 11. Culture change
    1. Introduction
    2. The Cultural Meaning of Disability
    3. The Predominant Disability Narrative of “Disability as Tragedy”
    4. The Segregating Effect of the “Tragedy Narrative” of Disability
    5. The Counter-Narrative: A Disability is a Trait to be Dealt with in Leading a Normal Life
    6. Effecting Culture Change—How to Make the Counter-narrative, Equal Opportunity, A Reality in the Context of Technology
    7. Barriers Ahead
    8. Summary
    9. References
  19. Index

Product information

  • Title: Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy
  • Author(s): Jonathan Lazar, Daniel F. Goldstein, Anne Taylor
  • Release date: June 2015
  • Publisher(s): Morgan Kaufmann
  • ISBN: 9780128007105