Computers, the internet, and the larger communications network of which it is a part, provide an informational structure within which many of us spend a large part of our working day and a significant part of our leisure. We are, during those periods, ``infonauts in cyberspace,'' using the internet to get information from places near and remote, and acting in various ways through the internet to have an effect on computers and people in those places. This cyberspace revolution is changing the human condition in fundamental ways.
These changes have the potential to reduce differences between disabled and non-disabled individuals. As infonauts, none of us receives the information we need directly from our senses, nor do we produce the effects we intend directly by use of our limbs. We all depend on technology to aid our senses and magnify and transform the effects of our movements. Neither the blind person nor the quadriplegic nor the sighted mobile employee can access the latest government regulations or send instructions to colleagues in distant places without the help of the internet. The difference between individuals with disabilities and those without becomes simply a matter of the particular input and output devices that they need to access the computer network. The first person needs voice or Braille output, the second needs voice input, and the sighted employee is used to using a monitor and a keyboard.
From a theoretical perspective the differences in input and
output needs seem minor in comparison to the shared
dependence on technological infrastructure. As a practical
matter these differences can be immense. Increased
computing power is complicating the lives of disabled people
because more and more applications are becoming available
with inaccessible user interfaces. Complex sound, ever
faster and more brilliant graphics, and real-time video all
create problems for some individuals with
disabilities.
Part of the problem is economic. Because the financial resources of mainstream computer companies are linked to applications, access issues take a back seat. But part of the problem is lack of imagination. Too often the designer focuses on the standard mix of sensory and motor abilities, with at most some vague plan to later retrofit solutions for individuals with disabilities.
We believe that decisions and innovations that create difficulties for individuals with disabilities are often more a result of confused thinking than ill-will. In this paper we will try to provide a framework for thinking about design that we hope will lead to better designs for all individuals.
In the next section we distinguish between an impairment, a disability, an inability, and a handicap, and we use these to distinguish two perspectives on the connection between disability and handicap, which we call the intrinsic and the circumstantial perspectives.
In Section 3 we discuss achievement space, distinguish tools from infrastructure, and define cyberspace according to these concepts. We note that individuals who cannot access cyberspace have an inability; this inability is a serious handicap in today's information age regardless of whether or not the reason for the inability is a disability. In Section 4 we discuss some dilemmas connected with potential access solutions. In Section 5 we present an architecture for accessible design, the ``Total Access System'', show how it is based on the circumstantial conception of disability and how it minimizes the difficulties of designing for access, and discuss some implementations. In the last section, we relate the circumstantial model and the Total Access System to the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) and argue that from the point of view of the circumstantial conception of disability and handicap, the requirements legislated by the ADA are simply the application to individuals with disabilities of the same approach to inability that society takes toward others.