What Is the Disability Divide

Closing The Disability Divide

The digital disability divide exists between people with impairments and those without impairments. The digital disability divide is seen in relation not only to access but also to accessibility and usability. For people with impairments, new technological innovations offer solutions for everyday challenges. Such as, finding information, communicating with others and using electronic services.

A lack of societal incentives for the increased inclusion of those with disabilities aggravates the digital disability divide. Government initiatives in regulating accessibility standards and providing support programs are crucial in empowering people with technology to reduce the digital disability divide. The role of assistive technology is to overcome the gap between what people with disabilities want to do and what the existing social infrastructure allows them to do. Societal inclusion is not just about enabling technologies and accessible services, but rather should be more about effective design around real life experiences. That is, education, skills development, and social behavior must be an inclusive interactive engagement, so as to understand and remove real barriers to close the digital divide.

Communication Barriers

Design is all around us, but for the most part it reflects the perception of the designer, and if the product or service fails your need then the design concepts are flawed. So, design is the bridge that overcomes barriers between the delivery of information and the understanding knowledge that impacts life decisions for greater Productivity, Inclusion and Communications.

  • Productivity: That enables employees to be productive and satisfied through performance and security design strategies.
  • Inclusion: That integrates people, products, and services through multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement design strategies.
  • Communications: That informs people, builds knowledge, and creates confidence through information technology standards and best practice design strategies.

Disability Design Principles

Sustainable business growth is a major challenge in our era of global digital economic transformation, and Accessibility is at the heart of success in a highly competitive business environment. That is, bridging the digital divide is about closing the gap between leadership understanding of Accessibility, and management implementation of Accessibility, through effective productivity, inclusion, and communication strategies. To help create a barrier free society, governments around the world, are implementing accessibility standards based on four core customer service principles.
Council of Ontario Universities: Module 1 – The Four Principles of Customer Service (new window)

Dignity: From Information To Knowledge

Knowledge Is Power

  • Dignity: A sense of pride in oneself and self-respect.
  • The Digital Divide: From information to knowledge (Knowledge is power).
  • The Barriers: Message delivery and bias attitudes (Access, Understanding, Knowledge).
  • Designing For Dignity: Designing a functional room, building, smart city, or website, requires features that allow humans to perceive their environment and make decisions.

The Design Challenge

What design barriers impact your ability to access, understand, and act upon information?
Entering a dark room, a sighted person dependent upon visual cues, will be disoriented, but if handed a flashlight, will be able to probe the environment to build a virtual model of the room in their mind. If the room is designed with audible and tactile features a blind person using assistive tools will be able to probe the environment to build a virtual model of the space within their mind. Likewise, humans probe the internet communication services to find and access information, to assimilate and understand content, to gain knowledge and make smart decisions. The level of pride and self-respect in achieving this goal will depend upon the model of Universal Design. The Dignity challenge is to bridge the accessibility gap, through multiple means of representation, multiple means of expression, and multiple means of engagement, that will create the best possible end-user experience.

Dignity Resources

Independence: From Accessibility to Usability

Usability Is Enabling

  • Independence: Free from the influence or control of another and Self-governing.
  • The Digital Divide: From accessibility to usability (Usability is enabling).
  • The Barriers: Design standards and government regulations (perceptions, myths, experiences).
  • Designing For Independence: Assuming you have access to the information and understand the options, can you independently act upon your decision, or are you dependent upon human assistance?

The Design Challenge

What activities prevent you from taking independent actions, due to design flaw barriers? Having the information, but not able to act upon the decision, creates dependencies.
A sighted person crossing the street will first look at the stop light, while a blind person may listen for traffic movement, search for an audible signal button or ask for assistance, but in both cases the individual is capable of walking across the street on their own power. Likewise, internet communication services (online shopping, application forms, virtual learning, touch screen kiosk, and software tools) must be designed for independent use.

Independence Resources

Integration: From Passive To Active

Active Is Inclusive

  • Integration: Assimilation within Social, economic and identity interpenetration.
  • The Digital Divide: From passive to active (Active is inclusive).
  • The Barriers: Inclusive dialogs and active participation (Innovation, Availability, Affordability).
  • Designing For Integration: Assuming you have access to the information and able to act independently upon your options, are you an active participant or a passive observer?

The Design Challenge

Is accommodating the same as integrating? Are you prevented from actively participating in activities due to the availability and affordability of technology?
Government open and transparent processes encourage citizens to participate in online forums and consultation sessions, but for the most part marginalized groups are not included in the mainstream dialog. Service organizations often function as a facilitator for disabled people to accommodate government and business communication processes, as the voice of their constituents. Should innovative emerging technologies despite their imperfections be made available to organizations to support the digital communication needs of blind persons, as part of infrastructure upgrades. We have smart devices and artificial intelligent services that could be integrated into the design of buildings and transit, but are designers aware of the digital communication needs of blind persons?

Integration Resources

Equality: From Chaos To Stability

Stability Is Satisfaction

  • Equality: Social justice and Equal opportunities; achieve wealth, prestige, power.
  • The Digital Divide: From chaos to stability (Stability is Satisfaction).
  • The Barriers: Collaborative processes and top down innovation (Attitude, Policies, Behavior).
  • Designing For Equality: The digital revolution has imposed unprecedented pressures upon organizations, and has disrupted the traditional management model. The struggle for competitive advantage has forced organizations to respond to the rapid changes in technology innovation and human rights demands. This has had a huge impact on the health of Canadian workers, and has resulted in systemic barriers in the job market for blind persons.

The Design Challenge

Do diversity inclusion and accommodation programs equalize the workplace for blind employees? Is separate but equal acceptable? Universal design must consider, not just products and services, but also management and human resource processes.
Bridging the divide between Leadership understanding of accessibility and management implementation of accessibility is often the battle ground of Employment policies and real life experiences. Should accessibility barriers be the causality for job dismissal?

Equality Resources