When the Least of Us Are Ignored

I was made a convert to the cause of accessibility a few years back when I attended an STC conference with a progression that dealt with handicaps. At each table was a different handicapped person. One was blind, another deaf, another with only limited use of his legs, and so forth. It sounds like a freak show, but it was shockingly enlightening. I never forgot the lessons I learned at that session, and if you ever get a chance to be taught those lessons yourself, I suggest you take it.

One big lesson I learned was that accommodating the handicapped is not necessarily a big or expensive proposition, but simply being conscious of them. Widen aisles a little. Don't use slick flooring everywhere. Give optional paths that are not demeaning. In my view, this applies to all of us in human factors.

Then I walked on the Sakai project, and was jolted again. The one person on the whole big, extended team who was thinking about accessibility for the visually handicapped was almost literally crying out in the wilderness of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Sakai's interface was a long way from being handicapped-friendly. Tests proved that screen readers couldn't use it. It's been improved, but it's still not exactly ready for screen-reader prime time. Portals are often difficult for screen readers to use. Flash, text in graphics, and scripts can be real headaches, too.

I've since been struck several times by how little attention is paid to accessibility online by any website owner. Even e-commerce sites are often impenetrable for the blind, and unnecessarily so. (This may change. The National Federation for the Blind is suing Target Corp. to make its online suit accessible, under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Very preliminary so far.)

But I also found out something else interesting -- concern about the handicapped is generally in direct proportion to how much contact a designer or marketing manager has with the handicapped. If someone in their workplace, church, or family is blind, deaf, or has physical problems, they're usually far more interested in making the blind welcome online. If they've never run across the handicapped except in movies, then they're often not just blind themselves, but dismissive.