Technology Can Address Digital Accessibility -- to an Extent - Response

Technology Can Address Digital Accessibility -- to an Extent - Mark Lieberman

Area 1:

   This week’s reading explores the relationship between evolving technologies and how they may be used to alleviate digital accessibility issues (with students in particular). As pressures to adhere to accessibility guidelines increase, institutions have begun to implement or research online services to bridge this gap. Of course, there is no simple solution to this issue, and this has revealed itself through the shortcomings of certain technologies and their campaigns. Furthermore, these technologies excel in identifying problem in a binary way, but fail to fully tackle the nuances of the broad range of accessibility issues.

Area 2:

   After this week's reading and the exercise on website accessibility we did in class, it seems like services are quick to point out the shortcomings of accessibility, but ignore or outsource the solutions; the idea of universal accessibility is not regarded as an imperative, but rather an afterthought that can be tacked on later or be dismissed if it is at least acknowledged. I think what Adam Nemeroff had to say in this article was especially relevant to this idea: “If you’re starting with the technology, you’re doing it wrong." In the case of the technologies mentioned in the reading as well as the examples we were able to find in class, the root of this problem is not entirely in the lack of technologies able to assist those with disabilities, but rather in the lack of operational planning, empathetic foresight, and general discussion on how these obstacles might manifest before the technology has even been developed.