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In human-computer interaction, computer accessibility refers to the usability of a computer system by people with disabilities or age-related limitations. It is largely a software concern. However, when hardware or software is used to customize a computer for a disabled person, that equipment is known as Assistive Technology. Human-computer interaction (HCI) or, alternatively, computer-human interaction (symbolized as Χ χ Chi, the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet) is the study of interaction between people (users) and computers. ...
Accessibility is a general term used to describe how easy it is for people to get to, use, and understand things. ...
Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. ...
A computer system is an automated data-processing system that uses a programmable electronic device to store, retrieve, and process data. ...
Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...
Assistive Technology (AT) is a generic term that includes assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices and the process used in selecting, locating, and using them. ...
There are several types of disabilities that impact computer use:
Designing with accessibility in mind can often enhance usability for all users and for automated access to the site, such as by search engines. A key to accessibility is to let people access content in their preferred way. This can benefit fully able users as well as those with disabilities: for example, some people may prefer icons and others may prefer text; even fully able people may want to adjust text sizes depending on their viewing circumstances; search engines, like blind people, generally cannot make much use of graphics. This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
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Autism is classified as a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests itself in markedly abnormal social interaction, communication ability, patterns of interests, and patterns of behavior. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Color blindness in humans is the inability to perceive differences between some or all colors that other people can distinguish. ...
The word deaf can have very different meanings depending on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ...
This article is about hearing impairment in the pathological sense. ...
Paralysis is the complete loss of muscle function for one or more muscle groups. ...
Cerebral palsy or CP is the most common childhood physical disability. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Different sites will require different degrees of concern for accessibility. For example: a site providing information specific to ADHD would have a lot more need to be easily accessible by people with ADHD than would a site about atomic physics; a government site of general interest or a resource directory for people in crisis would need to take into account as many disabilities as possible, whereas a site selling spectacles probably would have no reason to make itself easily accessible to the totally blind. A requirement is a singular documented need of what a particular product or service should be or do. ...
Glasses, spectacles, or eyeglasses are frames bearing lenses worn in front of the eyes, sometimes for purely aesthetic reasons but normally for vision correction or eye protection. ...
Many people with visual impairments or dyslexia will want to change the colours of text or the background to make it easier to read. Many people with dyslexia or ADHD will want to stop moving images on the screen whilst they are reading, as they are easily distracted. People with ADHD may also be confused or distracted by link-rich sites: they can have difficulty when presented with so many options.
Accessibility is strongly related to universal design in that it is about making things as accessible as possible to as wide a group of people as possible. However, products marketed as having benefited from a Universal Design process are often actually the same devices customized specifically for use by people with disabilities. It is rare to find a Universally Designed product at the mass-market level that is used mostly by nondisabled people; Oxo Good Grips housewares are continually held up as an example. Universal design or inclusive design is an approach to the design of products, services and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation. ...
Considerations for specific disabilities
Cognitive disabilities and illiteracy The biggest challenge in computer accessibility is to make resources accessible to people with cognitive disabilities — particularly those with poor communication skills — and those without reading skills. For starters, site designers should ensure that navigation and content is as plain and simple as appropriate is a useful start; long texts should provide summaries. Texts can be supplemented by symbols, illustrations, comics and photographs. Screen readers are of only limited use, due to the differences between spoken and written language and the complexity of text. A set of guidelines [1] and two accessible[2] web portals designed for people developing reading skills are peepo.com [3] — try typing a letter with your keyboard for more — and peepo.co.uk [4] with enhanced graphics, unique style controls and improved interactivity (requires SVG supported browser).
Visual disabilities Another significant challenge in computer accessibility is to make software usable for people with visual impairment since computers are largely visual devices. For people with poor vision, it is helpful to use large fonts, high-contrast icons etc. supplemented with auditory feedback and screen magnifying software. In the case of blindness, text to speech (screen reader) software is essential. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...
The Savior (1410s, by Andrei Rublev) For other senses of this word, see icon (disambiguation). ...
Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ...
A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. ...
About 8% of people, mostly males, suffer from some form of colorblindness. In a well-designed user interface, color should not be the only way of distinguishing between different pieces of information. However, the only colours that matter are colours that people with a deficiency might confuse, which generally means red and green and blue and green.
Motor disabilities Some people may not be able to use a conventional input device, such as the mouse or the keyboard. Therefore it is important for software functions to be accessible using both or either device; ideally, software uses a generic API that permits the use even of highly specialized devices unheard of at the time of software development. Keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures are ways to achieve this. More specialized solutions like on-screen keyboards and alternate input devices like switches, joysticks and trackballs are also available. A number of devices, called input devices, are used for entering data into a machine, typically a computer. ...
Operating a mechanical 1: Pulling the mouse turns the ball. ...
A computer keyboard is a peripheral modeled after the typewriter keyboard. ...
API may refer to: In computing, application programming interface In petroleum industry, American Petroleum Institute In education, Academic Performance Index This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...
A keyboard shortcut (also known as an accelerator key, shortcut key, or hotkey) is a set of keyboard keys that when pressed simultaneously, perform a predefined task. ...
A spiral mouse gesture in the computer game Black and White. ...
Many people with severe physical or cognitive impairment use one or more switches to access computers. ...
For other uses, see Joystick (disambiguation). ...
Logitech Marble Mouse Trackball A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball housed in a socket containing sensors to detect rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down mouse, but with the ball sticking out more. ...
The astrophysicist Stephen Hawking is a famous example of a person suffering from motor disability. He uses a switch, combined with special software, that allows him to control his wheelchair-mounted computer using his remaining small movement ability. This performs as a normal computer, allowing him to research and produce his written work, and as a Voice Output Communication Aid (VOCA) and environmental control unit. Spiral Galaxy ESO 269-57 // Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties (luminosity, density, temperature and chemical composition) of astronomical objects such as stars, galaxies, and the interstellar medium, as well as their interactions. ...
Stephen Hawking in 2005 Professor Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, (born 8 January 1942) is considered one of the worlds leading theoretical physicists. ...
Wheelchair seating in a theater A lightweight manual wheelchair A wheelchair is a medical device that takes the form of a chair on wheels, used by people for whom walking is difficult or impossible due to illness or disability. ...
Aural disability While sound user interfaces have a secondary role in common desktop computing, usually limited to system sounds as feedback, software producers take into account people who can't hear, either for personal disability, noisy environments, silence requirements or lack of sound hardware. The system sounds like beeps can be substituted or supplemented with flashing parts of the screen or text (akin to close captions). The word deaf can have very different meanings depending on the background of the person speaking or the context in which the word is used. ...
Environmental Noise is unwanted sound, which may cause both nuisance and damage to health. ...
Silence is a relative or total lack of sound. ...
For the one-of-a-kind switcher locomotive of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, see Beep (SWBLW). ...
Web and accessibility
Standards and guidelines On the World Wide Web, the W3C has produced specific guidelines for web accessibility via the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/mnt/upload3/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/First_Web_Server. ...
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is a consortium that produces standards—recommendations, as they call them—for the World Wide Web. ...
Web accessibility refers to the practice of making Web pages on the Internet accessible to all users, especially those with disabilities. ...
The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is an effort to allow people with disabilities to access resources on the World Wide Web. ...
The Cascading Style Sheets system has been devised with this in mind, since it gives the reader full control over the appearance of the page. In computing, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. ...
Laws In the US, the Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that federal agencies' web sites be accessible to people with disabilities; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability; and Section 225 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires suppliers to make telecommunications products and services accessible unless not requiring sigificant difficulty or expense. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, was enacted by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, Pub. ...
The 1973 Rehabilitation Act was an American piece of legislation that guaranteed certain rights to people with disabilities. ...
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, 104 Stat. ...
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of United States telecommunications policy in nearly 62 years, modifying earlier legislation, primarily the Communications Act of 1934. ...
Examples of considerations Most web browsers have an option to ignore the font size specified in a webpage, so that the user can circumvent a small font forced upon him or her by a webpage author. However, sometimes a webpage author fails to take into account that users may want to apply such an option and designs a webpage such that applying this option gives poor results, such as too small a distance between lines, disabled scrolling even though texts do not fit in assigned spaces, overlapping texts, etc. It has been suggested that Comparison of web browsers be merged into this article or section. ...
See also Modding is a slang expression for the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software to perform a function not intended by someone with legal rights concerning that modification. ...
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