True Accessibility in Technology

We have all heard the warnings on the various TV news magazine programs about why you have to be careful on the Internet. Nothing is as it seems on thw World Wide Web, you can't trust anyone. If someone claims to be a Nigerian prince, or a potential hot date, or a government agency, odds are they are in in reality a con artist out to steal your vital information. We all know why this is an issue in the Internet. The Web is abstract it's "out there" in the ether where no one has to follow the physical rules of our universe. Which means any sleezy character can take on some new fictionalized identity and suddenly become someone new.

I raise this because it demonstrates the commonly held belief that, while the Internet exists parallel to our world, it doesn't actually conform to it. All the rules a different in cyberspace and we are all in some way liberate by this. It doesn't matter if we can't go to a store because the Internet can bring the store to us. If we aren't comfortable meeting people in person, the web allows us to meet them virtually. Once you give someone technology they are reborn out in the ether as a new entity with freedoms and powers they never had before. This all works well in theory, but I recently had my eyes opened to a very important flaw in the Internet's underlying thinking. It claims to create equal oppurtunity through equal access, but the truth is modern computer technology isn't equally accessible.

I recently met with someone working on bringing computer technology to disabled students. He demonstrated some of the difficulties those with handicaps face in using computers. For instance the keyboard I am typing this with relies on an assumption that I am not dyslexic. The screen I am using may be much harder to read if I were color blind. This is to say nothing of the assumption that I have control over my hands or any vision at all. These problems are so rarely recognized by all of us who are currently abled that many of the resosurces we have created to be accessible by computers don't even take it into account. These challenges can be true barriers for a disabled person to the treasure trove computers have opened, requiring additional work and cost to overcome. I raise this issue because I feel compelled to make some statement that it should not be their burden. If those of us who design and distribute computer tech did so with more consideration of making it truly accessible we could save many people a tremendous amount of hardship. Those of us who wish to use technology as a teaching tool could benefit from this as well, as it would allow us to guide our students to various resources with much more ease and confidence that the Internet would provide truly equal oppurtunities.