Digital Accessibility News

It’s nice when a newsroom experiment pays off in unexpected ways. In Arizona, ProPublica teamed up with the Arizona Daily Star to sponsor a story by Amy Silverman that looked into why the state’s Division of Developmental Disabilities turned down thousands of people who sought assistance. The investigative piece has all the heft and rigor you’d expect from a ProPublica deep dive. But what could...

IMAGINE IF, WHEN the president addressed the nation in those early, frightening days of March 2020, he had announced the launch of a user-friendly digital hub for citizens to access critical government services related to Covid-19. The site and corresponding iOS and Android apps would seamlessly integrate the latest COVID-19 data and content from multiple federal agencies, hospitals nationwide, and private sector companies. It would...

If anything has increased in recent months, besides the amount of people working and learning from home, it's online shopping. Research released in March by retailer ecommerce platform Mercatus indicated that new accounts opened in online stores increased by 1,200% from the previous year. Global ecommerce sales increased by 31% in June, up from 23% in April and May, while Walmart, among other retailers, reported...

Many people think of ramps and braille labels whenever they think of accessibility. But is that it? Before getting into this question, let’s deal with what accessibility means. Accessibility is when you can access certain things, for economic, social, technological feasibility. The meaning of accessibility is wide and deep and goes beyond popular understanding. There are different hurdles in exercising our right to access resources...

Disability is a prevalent experience among Canadians. The most recent Canadian Survey on Disability found that one in five Canadians aged 15 or above had one or more disabilities. The University of Toronto alone has more than 2,000 students registered with accessibility services. Whether physical, sensory, cognitive, or mental, all disabilities have the potential to pose significant barriers for individuals to fully enjoy the arts....

Lots of companies are pouring resources into teaching cars to see the world around them. Now a startup called Strap Technologies is developing a wearable pod that uses some of the same kinds of sensors used by autonomous vehicles—radar, lidar, ultrasonic—to give blind people a clearer sense of their surroundings. “Each sensor has a different resolution, has a different threshold,” said founder and CEO Diego...

Assistive Technology in relation to computer and IT systems can be life-changing for disabled people. Access to assistive technology can, in many cases, define the difference between full and equal access to the internet and computer operating systems and significant exclusion from any type of digital participation. Specialized technologies such as screen readers and magnification for blind and visually impaired people and text-to-speech software for...

For an investigation into denied disability benefits in Arizona and an accompanying editor’s note, ProPublica is experimenting with plain language — a type of text that uses common words, short sentences, and clear structure to make information more accessible to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities. ProPublica sponsored Amy Silverman‘s “State of Denial” series with The Arizona Daily Star through their Local Reporting Network. The...

I was fully prepared to perform my civic duty and vote on Election Day, but unfortunately the facility I was assigned to vote at was not prepared for me to cast my vote like everyone else. And why not, might you ask? Because I am blind. Yes, I am blind, but I am also an independent, competent adult who can compensate for my lack of...

Compared with the fundraising landscape of the first national lockdown, the danger of ’compassion fatigue’ or ’empathy overload’ means that persuading audiences to part with their hard-earned income is even more of a challenge for charities. And with the pandemic stretching on with no end in sight, and so many causes asking for help, who can blame people for becoming apathetic and wanting to switch...

In last month’s Disability Inclusion Summit, part of Adweek’s ongoing DEI event series, eight leaders in the marketing and advertising industry brought their unique experiences and perspectives forward to discuss the biggest opportunities for advancement for the disability community. We teamed back up with our amazing panelists to cover some outstanding but crucial questions from the audience. Ranging from questions in hiring and recruiting best...

Emerging technologies — augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) — will play a crucial role in creating an accessible future of work for individuals with disabilities, according to experts. Remote work environments amid the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of workplace technology trends. "What should have happened in five years, happened in a couple of months," Cathy Hackl, a futurist and...