Accessible Technology

With organizations relying heavily on their website to communicate critical information and opportunities, creators and developers often invest great effort into ensuring that it reaches the widest audience possible.   
 
As one of the millions of blind and partially sighted individuals who rely on screen-reading technology to access online information, I can speak to the challenges and barriers I often encounter when visiting inaccessible websites.        
 

While World Book and Copyright Day is recognized globally on April 23rd, the complex nature of copyright legislation with respect to electronic book access in both Canada and the U.S. is an ongoing issue.
 
The lobby to maintain these exemptions limits the market for authors, publishers, and from personal perspective, blind and partially sighted consumers. 
 

One of the biggest frustrations I encounter when surfing the net is inaccessible websites.   They pose problems in general, but for those of us using assistive or alternative technologies, they create real barriers to accessing information, participating online or simply navigating through pages.  
 
Web accessibility refers to the practice of making websites usable by people of all abilities and disabilities.  When sites are designed and developed with access in mind, all users can have equal access to information and functionality.

With the increasing availability of accessible cellular phone technologies, telecom service providers are proactively responding to the demand expressed by many blind and partially sighted consumers.  A variety of features and products such as speech recognition/output, colour/magnification adjustability, and alternative format instruction manuals allow for blind, deafblind and partially sighted consumers to utilize the full range of available cell phone options, ultimately translating into a greater consumer base for service providers.

While the advances in technology over the past decade have allowed organizations to reach a much wider client base, they have, in the same breath, exposed corporate North America to a greater potential of security risk.  Subsequently, when we think of “access to information” for blind, deafblind and partially sighted individuals, we think in terms of reaching this consumer base with alternate format communication materials.  Among the many benefits of providing such a service, security certainly tops the list, and with March declared fraud protection month internationally, I thoug

While the term “settlement agreement” often carries with it a somewhat negative connotation, some major financial institutions that have been involved in such cases arising from independent access requirements of blind, deafblind and partially sighted consumers have actually witnessed some subsequent advantages over the years.

It is an organizations responsibility to address the accessibility needs of blind, deafblind and partially sighted consumers, ensuring its compliance with acts of legislation pertaining to regulations, policies, programs, practices and services.  All too often, however, we hear negative press surrounding the lack of accessible services provided by organizations, resulting in the failure to effectively meet the diverse needs of their consumers.

With the recent and continuous incidents of fraud and identity theft, we are witnessing many credit card institutions beefing up security by implementing additional measures to protect consumers from potential risk. The CVV code, for example, a 3-digit number printed on the back of a credit card, has quickly become as critical as the card number itself for consumers attempting to make telephony and online purchases. This designated code is comparable to a debit card