Web accessibility standards and disability: developing critical perspectives on accessibility.

Submitted by mlb78 on Fri, 09/16/2016 - 17:25
TitleWeb accessibility standards and disability: developing critical perspectives on accessibility.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsLewthwaite, Sarah
JournalDisability & Rehabilitation
Volume36
Issue16
Pagination1375-1383
AbstractPurpose -- Currently, dominant web accessibility standards do not respect disability as a complex and culturally contingent interaction; recognizing that disability is a variable, contrary and political power relation, rather than a biological limit. Against this background there is clear scope to broaden the ways in which accessibility standards are understood, developed and applied. Methods -- Commentary Results -- The values that shape and are shaped by legislation promote universal, statistical and automated approaches to web accessibility. This results in web accessibility standards conveying powerful norms fixing the relationship between technology and disability, irrespective of geographical, social, technological or cultural diversity. Conclusions -- Web accessibility standards are designed to enact universal principles; however, they express partial and biopolitical understandings of the relation between disability and technology. These values can be limiting, and potentially counter-productive, for example, for the majority of disabled people in the "Global South" where different contexts constitute different disabilities and different experiences of web access. To create more robust, accessible outcomes for disabled people, research and standards practice should diversify to embrace more interactional accounts of disability in different settings.
DOI10.3109/09638288.2014.938178