Book Excerpts

Operation and Input

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Assistive technologies that support user accessibility needs relating to operating a user interface include both hardware and software solutions. Alternative input devices are hardware devices with supporting software that together perform a similar role to a standard mouse and keyboard but do not… continue reading
Content and Output

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — There is a range of assistive technologies that support user accessibility needs relating to access to content, including providing alternative ways to output content and adapting content to better address user accessibility needs. These are mainly software‑based solutions provided through dedicated applications and… continue reading
Programmatic Access to Accessibility Information

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Visual user interface characteristics enable perception and understanding of content and the operation of functionality. A control may look like a button because of its shape and border and the presence of a text label or icon within the control. But this visual… continue reading
Chronic Illness

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have chronic illnesses, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and endometriosis, which limit the amount of physical and mental energy they may have in a given day. The impact of chronic illness may vary within and between days and is likely to… continue reading
Physical/Motor Disabilities

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect the ability to move and control movement, in particular the use of the hands to operate a computer, smartphone, tablet, kiosk, or other hardware device. Within this category of disability, there are a range of diverse conditions… continue reading
Speech Disabilities

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect speech, specifically the ability to produce speech that other people (and machines) can understand. This includes conditions that may cause: Some conditions, such as certain brain injuries, anxiety, or hearing loss, may result in a temporary or… continue reading
Auditory Disabilities

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect the auditory channel and are not fully correctable through a hearing aid. The phrase “hard of hearing” categorizes conditions that cause people to have some hearing loss, which may reduce their ability to distinguish some sounds from… continue reading
Visual Disabilities

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect the visual channel and are not fully correctable through glasses or contact lenses. The impact may range from loss of functional vision to reduced visual acuity, field of vision, or color perception. Low vision and sight loss… continue reading
Cognitive Disabilities

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some people have disabilities that affect cognitive functioning, including the ability to read, learn, process, remember, and communicate information in various formats and in different contexts. The group of people with accessibility needs related to cognitive functioning is large and varied, yet it… continue reading
Shared Responsibility for Accessibility

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — There’s been a trend over the years to see accessibility as overwhelmingly the responsibility of development. As the people writing the code that will run the digital resource, it’s true that developers have a significant responsibility to ensure the code they write meets… continue reading
Principles of Universal Design

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — Some accessibility principles emerged from efforts to create accessible and inclusive physical environments and products. The Principles of Universal Design were developed in 1997 by a multidisciplinary team at North Carolina State University and remain a useful resource for digital product engineers. Universal… continue reading
Digital Inclusion

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — As someone designing and building digital products, you have a responsibility to avoid introducing barriers that might inhibit or prevent disabled people from using digital products. We can think about digital accessibility as an intentional effort to meet our responsibility for avoiding creating… continue reading
Disability Language and Representation

By Sarah Horton and David Sloan — A deeper understanding of disability involves an awareness of how disability is represented in everyday life. In particular, we want to look specifically at the language of disability and how disability is represented in media, which are both significant and dynamic areas of… continue reading