This week, we learned about the importance of adapting technological resources to fulfill multiple accessibility needs. Accessible technology is crucial as it allows technology to be more inclusive. It allows all individuals, regardless of disabilities or capabilities to have equal access to information, resources, and technology. The Australian Human Rights Commission details the significance of accessibility in technology, but also highlights that “accessible design of new technology benefits everyone—people with disability, business and the whole community.” Often, many individuals see adaptions to the basic structure of objects to be solely for a small demographic; however, there are numerous accessible adaptions that everyone uses on a daily basis. Elevators, dropped curbs, tactile paving, and ramps are a few examples of products that were altered to adhere to everyone’s needs.
The first component of assistive technology that we learned how to use was in the alteration of photos. For individuals who have lessened eyesight, or are legally blind, they are unable to view photos. In order to provide these individuals with the opportunity to “see” what others can, one can add descriptive text to their image. The text would detail the specifics of the image so that individuals can interpret the words into their own representation of the picture.
To view the descriptive text of an image, all you have to do is right-click on your mouse and press “inspect” on the pop-up. On the right hand side a new panel should now be displayed, within it there will be an indicator that says “alt=” and the following words will be the descriptive text of the image. There are also extensions to various browsers that will read these descriptions to the user. Here is a website that goes into further detail about ways to access descriptive text on images: ww.businessinsider.com/guides/tech/how-to-check-if-an-image-has-alt-text
We were then tasked to alter a previously uploaded video of ours to make it more accessible. Last week when I made my radioooo.com screencast, I thought that I had incorporated enough tools to allow for an ease of viewing. However, upon watching the additional components that would further enhance one’s video, I realized that my screencast was lacking in text cues. Without text, my video would have had no purpose for if it were viewed by someone who was hard of hearing or required visual aids. As a result, I edited my screencast again and inputted text of the key components of my instructional video. Hopefully with this addition, my video is more accessible for a wider audience.
So, why do so many resources lack accessible features?
Well, the discussion of the availability of accessible resources in digital technology is complex. There are numerous factors to reasons why companies and individuals do not incorporate these adaptions within their products, some being due to financial, technical, and cultural factors. Making online resources accessible can require additional time, effort, and costs, which some individuals may not be willing to invest into. Additionally, accommodating those with accessibility requirements may be low on one’s priority list as well as they may not be legally required to do so. On the technological aspects, some programs that are used to build said resources, may not offer the opportunity to add accessible features or the individuals using these programs may not understand how to use them in order to do so. However, I believe the most common reason that more resources are not adapted to be accessible for all is due to the lack of awareness by those individuals. Often, when one is not facing the same difficulties as others, or have no connection to it, those difficulties do not cross their mind. The individual likely also does not recognize or understand the importance of accessible technology and the limitations it can place on those who rely on it. Hopefully with time, more and more individuals and companies see the benefit and importance of incorporating accessible adaptions to their resources so that everyone can have an equal opportunity to information.
7 February 2023 at 9:24 pm
Hi Miranda, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post! Great use of adaptive technologies in your post. I specifically appreciated your instructions on how to find alt text as it allowed me to check if your photo had it’s own alt text. I agree, adaptive technology should be used more but isn’t because lots of people don’t understand how life changing it can be for people. I wonder if in your first paragraph the colour contrast between the background and your link “Australian Human Rights Commission” may make it hard to read for some. Overall a great post!
– Eden