The Disabled: A Significant Demographic
In North America, census figures indicate that one in five persons lives with some sort of disability. These disabilities can include visual, hearing, speech, mobility or mental impairments.
Depending on their specific disabilities, these people use a variety of products and methods to access the information available on the Internet.
- Many blind people utilize screen readers or Braille readers to read web pages.
- Less severely affected visually impaired individuals often use screen magnifiers.
- People with mobility problems might use special joysticks, mouth sticks, adaptive keyboards or voice recognition technology instead of the mouse and keyboard.
- Deaf or severely hard of hearing persons are unable to make use of the audible clicks and beeps that accompany many computer applications.
- Colourblindness can prevent some users from interacting effectively with inaccessible web content.
It is estimated that of the 20% of North Americans with disabilities, nearly half have impairments that can make it difficult or impossible to access material which has not been designed with accessibility in mind. The disabled represent a significant portion of the overall web user population.
The ability to access information from the comfort of a person's accessible home or office has meant that information technology has been embraced by the disabled community. The drive toward an accessible Internet will help to eliminate a digital divide between the disabled and able-bodied users.