Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology PDF Author: Jonathan Lazar
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812249232
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology addresses the global issue of equal access to information and communications technology (ICT) by persons with disabilities. The right to access the same digital content at the same time and at the same cost as people without disabilities is implicit in several human rights instruments and is featured prominently in Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The right to access ICT, moreover, invokes complementary civil and human rights issues: freedom of expression; freedom to information; political participation; civic engagement; inclusive education; the right to access the highest level of scientific and technological information; and participation in social and cultural opportunities. Despite the ready availability and minimal cost of technology to enable people with disabilities to access ICT on an equal footing as consumers without disabilities, prevailing practice around the globe continues to result in their exclusion. Questions and complexities may also arise where technologies advance ahead of existing laws and policies, where legal norms are established but not yet implemented, or where legal rights are defined but clear technical implementations are not yet established. At the intersection of human-computer interaction, disability rights, civil rights, human rights, international development, and public policy, the volume's contributors examine crucial yet underexplored areas, including technology access for people with cognitive impairments, public financing of information technology, accessibility and e-learning, and human rights and social inclusion. Contributors: John Bertot, Peter Blanck, Judy Brewer, Joyram Chakraborty, Tim Elder, Jim Fruchterman, G. Anthony Giannoumis, Paul Jaeger, Sanjay Jain, Deborah Kaplan, Raja Kushalnagar, Jonathan Lazar, Fredric I. Lederer, Janet E. Lord, Ravi Malhotra, Jorge Manhique, Mirriam Nthenge, Joyojeet Pal, Megan A. Rusciano, David Sloan, Michael Ashley Stein, Brian Wentz, Marco Winckler, Mary J. Ziegler.

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology PDF Author: Jonathan Lazar
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812249232
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 360

Get Book

Book Description
Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology addresses the global issue of equal access to information and communications technology (ICT) by persons with disabilities. The right to access the same digital content at the same time and at the same cost as people without disabilities is implicit in several human rights instruments and is featured prominently in Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The right to access ICT, moreover, invokes complementary civil and human rights issues: freedom of expression; freedom to information; political participation; civic engagement; inclusive education; the right to access the highest level of scientific and technological information; and participation in social and cultural opportunities. Despite the ready availability and minimal cost of technology to enable people with disabilities to access ICT on an equal footing as consumers without disabilities, prevailing practice around the globe continues to result in their exclusion. Questions and complexities may also arise where technologies advance ahead of existing laws and policies, where legal norms are established but not yet implemented, or where legal rights are defined but clear technical implementations are not yet established. At the intersection of human-computer interaction, disability rights, civil rights, human rights, international development, and public policy, the volume's contributors examine crucial yet underexplored areas, including technology access for people with cognitive impairments, public financing of information technology, accessibility and e-learning, and human rights and social inclusion. Contributors: John Bertot, Peter Blanck, Judy Brewer, Joyram Chakraborty, Tim Elder, Jim Fruchterman, G. Anthony Giannoumis, Paul Jaeger, Sanjay Jain, Deborah Kaplan, Raja Kushalnagar, Jonathan Lazar, Fredric I. Lederer, Janet E. Lord, Ravi Malhotra, Jorge Manhique, Mirriam Nthenge, Joyojeet Pal, Megan A. Rusciano, David Sloan, Michael Ashley Stein, Brian Wentz, Marco Winckler, Mary J. Ziegler.

Disability and Technology

Disability and Technology PDF Author: Alan Roulstone
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137450428
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
This book brings together formally disparate literatures and debates on disability and technology in a way that captures the complex interplay between the two. Drawing on disability studies, technology studies and clinical studies, the book argues that interdisciplinary insights together provide a more nuanced and less stylized picture of the benefits and barriers in disability and technology. Drawing on a breadth of empirical studies from across the globe, a picture emerges of the complex and multi-directional interplay of technology and disability. Technology is neither inherently enabling or disabling but fundamentally shaped by the social dynamics that shape their design, use and impact.

Disability and Technology

Disability and Technology PDF Author: Alan Roulstone
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317376889
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 289

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Book Description
This edited collection brings together keynote articles from the journal Disability & Society to provide a comprehensive and though-provoking exploration of the place of technology in disabled people’s lives, documenting and analysing the growing impact of technology on disability and society over recent decades. The authors explore theoretical, empirical and moral dilemmas that arise with the changing relationship between technological change and the lives, aspirations and possibilities of disabled people. The volume is organised into three parts which consider early foundational work connecting disability and technology; key empirical studies related to the optimum use of technologies for independence and inclusion; and new moral and social dynamics thrown up by technological developments for disabled people’s lives.

Disability, Society and Assistive Technology

Disability, Society and Assistive Technology PDF Author: Bodil Ravneberg
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317150074
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 114

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Book Description
The provision of assistive technology is an important individual and collective service of the welfare state. The state plays a significant role towards linking users and products, and the matching of devices and users is both a science and an art. However, many people feel it is stigmatising to use individually designed assistive technologies as they often, in a subtle way, convey discriminating barriers in society. The major challenges of assistive technology are thus to reduce social exclusion and marginalisation and, importantly, to reduce individual risks and societal costs related to non-use due to deficiencies in usability, aesthetics and design of the technologies. This groundbreaking book discusses the relationships among society, disability and technology by using different empirical examples (e.g., school, everyday life) to show why the combination of disability studies and STS-studies (science, technology and society) is a fruitful approach to understanding and meeting these challenges. The book explores the significance of the technologies for users, society and the field; identifies challenges to designing, adopting and using assistive technologies; and points at theoretical challenges in research as well as professional challenges in assistive technology service provision. The book also scrutinises the role of assistive technology devices, as well as the organisational structure of the assistive technology market, in relation to disabled people’s lives. This book will be valuable reading for students, academics, teachers and social educators interested in Disability Studies, STS Studies, Product Design, Sociology, Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy, as well as engineers working in the field of assistive technology.

Making Computers Accessible

Making Computers Accessible PDF Author: Elizabeth R. Petrick
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421416476
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
The revolution in accessible computer technology was fueled by disability activism, the interactive nature of personal computers, and changing public policy. In 1974, not long after developing the first universal optical character recognition technology, Raymond Kurzweil struck up a conversation with a blind man on a flight. Kurzweil explained that he was searching for a use for his new software. The blind man expressed interest: One of the frustrating obstacles that blind people grappled with, he said, was that no computer program could translate text into speech. Inspired by this chance meeting, Kurzweil decided that he must put his new innovation to work to “overcome this principal handicap of blindness.” By 1976, he had built a working prototype, which he dubbed the Kurzweil Reading Machine. This type of innovation demonstrated the possibilities of computers to dramatically improve the lives of people living with disabilities. In Making Computers Accessible, Elizabeth R. Petrick tells the compelling story of how computer engineers and corporations gradually became aware of the need to make computers accessible for all people. Motivated by user feedback and prompted by legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, which offered the promise of equal rights via technological accommodation, companies developed sophisticated computerized devices and software to bridge the accessibility gap. People with disabilities, Petrick argues, are paradigmatic computer users, demonstrating the personal computer’s potential to augment human abilities and provide for new forms of social, professional, and political participation. Bridging the history of technology, science and technology studies, and disability studies, this book traces the psychological, cultural, and economic evolution of a consumer culture aimed at individuals with disabilities, who increasingly rely on personal computers to make their lives richer and more interconnected.

Access to the Information Superhighway and Emerging Information Technologies by People with Disabilities

Access to the Information Superhighway and Emerging Information Technologies by People with Disabilities PDF Author: National Council on Disability (U.S.)
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
ISBN:
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
This report discusses the growth of the National Information Infrastructure (NII), or the information superhighway, and its implications for people with disabilities. Advantages for people with disabilities include: increasing the ability of individuals with some types of disabilities to access and use information; decreasing personal isolation due to mobility and communication restrictions; allowing individuals to interact with others in a way that makes their disability invisible or irrelevant; and allowing convenient access to educational and medical services. The barriers to the NII include: socioeconomic barriers; the complexity in the design of many products; the use of graphic interfaces; the use of touchscreens and pointing interfaces where alternate input techniques are not available; virtual environments; sound; animation and interactive systems; and the sealed nature of public systems that must have built-in access accommodations if they are to be made accessible. The report makes recommendations on how facets of the NII can be modified to allow greater access by those with disabilities and strategies that can be used to achieve changes. A list of 17 additional readings is included. An appendix describes the mission of the National Council on Disability. (CR)

World Development Report 2016

World Development Report 2016 PDF Author: World Bank Group
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464806721
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Digital technologies are spreading rapidly, but digital dividends--the broader benefits of faster growth, more jobs, and better services--are not. If more than 40 percent of adults in East Africa pay their utility bills using a mobile phone, why can’t others around the world do the same? If 8 million entrepreneurs in China--one third of them women--can use an e-commerce platform to export goods to 120 countries, why can’t entrepreneurs elsewhere achieve the same global reach? And if India can provide unique digital identification to 1 billion people in five years, and thereby reduce corruption by billions of dollars, why can’t other countries replicate its success? Indeed, what’s holding back countries from realizing the profound and transformational effects that digital technologies are supposed to deliver? Two main reasons. First, nearly 60 percent of the world’s population are still offline and can’t participate in the digital economy in any meaningful way. Second, and more important, the benefits of digital technologies can be offset by growing risks. Startups can disrupt incumbents, but not when vested interests and regulatory uncertainty obstruct competition and the entry of new firms. Employment opportunities may be greater, but not when the labor market is polarized. The internet can be a platform for universal empowerment, but not when it becomes a tool for state control and elite capture. The World Development Report 2016 shows that while the digital revolution has forged ahead, its 'analog complements'--the regulations that promote entry and competition, the skills that enable workers to access and then leverage the new economy, and the institutions that are accountable to citizens--have not kept pace. And when these analog complements to digital investments are absent, the development impact can be disappointing. What, then, should countries do? They should formulate digital development strategies that are much broader than current information and communication technology (ICT) strategies. They should create a policy and institutional environment for technology that fosters the greatest benefits. In short, they need to build a strong analog foundation to deliver digital dividends to everyone, everywhere.

Improving Accessible Digital Practices in Higher Education

Improving Accessible Digital Practices in Higher Education PDF Author: Jane Seale
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030371255
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
This book examines the role played by technologies in removing the disadvantage experienced by students with disabilities in higher education. Addressing five key themes, the editor and contributors explore the practices required of stakeholders within higher education institutions to mediate successful and supportive relationships between disabled learners and their technologies. Ultimately, the book argues that practice in the fields of disability, ICT and higher education is still not providing consistent and widespread positive learning experiences to students with disabilities. In order to address this situation, the field needs to creatively integrate knowledge gained through both research and practice, and to re-imagine what is needed for ICT to meaningfully contribute to a reduction in disadvantage for disabled students. This book will be of interest and value to scholars of disability studies, education and accessibility, and educational technologies.

Technology for Students with Disabilities

Technology for Students with Disabilities PDF Author: National School Boards Association
Publisher: National School Boards Association
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
This guide presents strategies for applying technology to help students who have cognitive and physical disabilities, and shows how technology is useful not only in presenting curriculum and assessing students, but also in the administration and organization of special education programs. Case studies and descriptions of state-of-the-art applications illustrate how technology can help students with disabilities master complex materials and basic skills and how technology can support educators in assessing and evaluating students' progress. Chapter 1 describes the most common challenges associated with educating children with disabilities and discusses research-validated approaches in assistive instruction and assessment technologies. Chapter 2 demystifies the process of determining what technology will best meet student needs and discusses the cost effective acquisition of those technologies. Chapter 3 delineates strategies necessary to ensure that technology investments produce continuous learning improvements, including the establishment of a technology team and devising a long-range technology plan. Chapter 4 provides assistance in finding the help needed to make technology "pay off." It includes an extensive resource list that provides contact information and describes national, state, and local organizations, information centers, clearinghouses, and research group that provide services, information, and demonstrations of technology. An appendix includes relevant federal documents on assistive technology. (CR)

Technology's Impact on Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities

Technology's Impact on Employment Opportunities for People with Disabilities PDF Author: Carl DeGeorge
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781622575770
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
This book examines the importance of social media and other information technologies in connecting people to job opportunities. Not surprisingly, digital barriers to our networked economy can reinforce rather than break down disproportionately low employment among people with disabilities. Delivering on the commitment to improve the performance of America's students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through the "Educate to Innovate"program, requires that all Americans, including people with disabilities, have the necessary digital tools to pursue careers in STEM. The ongoing transition to an economy based largely on the manipulation of information has sweeping implications for job creation for people with disabilities. New technologies create opportunities for people with disabilities to work alongside our non-disabled colleagues. However, the employment rate of people with disabilities still remains disproportionately low and we have yet to see evidence of real progress in increasing employment of people with disabilities.