Imagine you are visually impaired and are using screen reader software to fill out an online job application.
After reading half of the form, you get to a question with a drop-down option that screen readers can't access because online forms don't comply with accessibility standards. I was stuck. You will not be able to submit your application and your time will be wasted.
Assistive technologies such as screen readers can go a long way in bridging the gap between people who are blind or have low vision and sighted people. However, these technologies often run into failures because the information they are designed to handle, such as documents, websites, and software programs, fail and become inaccessible.
There are 8 million people in the United States who are blind or have low vision, more than 4.23 million of whom are of working age, but only about half of that working age population is employed. Employment rates for people with visual impairments and low vision have historically been much lower than for the general population.
The vast majority of jobs across all industries require digital skills. Assistive technologies such as screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille note takers give people who are blind or have low vision a chance to succeed in school and the workplace.
Assistive technology is evolving and new techniques for people with visual impairments are being developed all the time. Today, technology developed by big tech companies for the general public often includes built-in accessibility features like VoiceOver on the iPhone and Narrator on Windows (both text-to-speech capabilities). These advances in assistive technology have expanded employment opportunities, and the proportion of people who are blind or have low vision in the workforce has increased over the past decade.
Blind places, places that sight people don't care about
However, despite the abundance of assistive technology, people who do not rely on it are unaware of how it is used in their work and the challenges that users experience with it. is common. My colleagues and I are conducting a five-year longitudinal study of him to increase our knowledge in this area. We hope that this will help unemployed visually impaired people prepare for employment. The study is expected to continue until 2025, with the final study to begin at the end of 2024.
Most people we surveyed reported being satisfied with the assistive technology they use at work, but nearly all reported challenges with assistive technology. The most significant challenges related to assistive technology centered around inaccessible digital environments, such as documents, software, websites, graphics, and photos.
Digital content, while technically accessible, may not be usable by people using assistive technology. For example, online job application systems often have issues with accessibility and usability. Having a company's software inaccessible and unusable means that a blind or partially sighted person may be excluded from a job that they could easily perform simply because the employer's software is not compatible with a screen reader. It means that there are many.
Ross Birchucki, vice president of business development and strategic partnerships at Inclusively, says blind and partially sighted people are less likely to get jobs than people with other types of disabilities because they don't have access to internal software. said it was difficult. The organization supports companies wishing to hire people with disabilities, including matching them with qualified disabled job seekers.
digital accessibility
Although the Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly mention the digital environment, the Department of Justice has stated that Title III of the ADA, which covers public accommodations for people with disabilities, also applies to websites and mobile apps. taking a stand. Thousands of digital accessibility lawsuits are filed under the ADA each year, and that number has increased significantly over the past five years.
Digital standard setters are starting to take notice. The World Wide Web Consortium developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a standard for accessible web content, revised in version 2.2. These guidelines provide free guidance for developers to make their digital content accessible. The two relevant standards are the US Government's Section 508 and the European Telecommunications Standards Association's EN 301 549. Global Accessibility Awareness Day was established in 2012 to encourage people to learn and think about digital inclusion for people with disabilities.
Despite laws and guidelines that support an accessible digital environment, most digital content is still not fully accessible. The nonprofit organization WebAIM found an average of 50 accessibility errors per page in its most recent annual review of the accessibility of the top 1 million websites. To make matters worse, nearly all homepages (96.3%) violated Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.
what can be done
It's easier to build in accessibility from the beginning than to build it in later.
Incorporating accessibility from the ground up requires building accessibility into the digital developer curriculum, which is usually not the case.
Companies may require developers to create accessible software and refuse to purchase software that is not accessible. Individuals can help by creating their own accessible digital documents. Inaccessible digital documents were the most commonly experienced challenge in the workplace. Microsoft has been working to make it easier to create accessible digital documents with accessibility checkers and the new Accessibility Assistant.
It enables an accessible digital environment and increases employment opportunities for people who are blind or have low vision.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization that provides facts and trusted analysis to help you make sense of our complex world.Author: Michelle McDonall, Mississippi State University
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Michelle MacDonald receives funding from the National Institute for Research on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation. Grant number 90RTEM0007 funded the research described in this article.
