FCC sees problems with web access for people with disabilities
Monday, April 26th, 2010From TheHill.com:
A report by the Federal Communications Commission concludes that people with disabilities face significant barriers in gaining access to internet communications, including inaccessible hardware, software, services and web content, as well as expensive specialized assistive technologies.
“Only 42 percent of people with disabilities have high-speed Internet services at home — and an astounding 39 percent of all non-adopters have a disability,” said Joel Gurin, Chief of the [FCC's] Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. “This is not acceptable, and we are implementing an ambitious accessibility agenda to ensure that people with disabilities are not left behind.” (FCC technology access press release here.)
The report, Delivering on the Promise of Equal Access to Broadband for People with Disabilities, calls for the removal of barriers to access through such measures as improved enforcement of access laws and collaboration between public and private sectors.
It notes that people with disabilities have led the way to technological innovation in the past, with teletypewriters, touch screens, closed captioning, voice command technology and predictive text software. But gains have often been lost as new technologies have been introduced, the report said, leaving people with disabilities once again left behind.
From the report’s conclusion:
Indeed, delivering on the promise of equal access to the broadband infrastructure will be one of the “giant leaps” of our generation. Now is the time to engage in this endeavor in earnest and show that we do indeed believe that this is a big deal, for people with disabilities and for all Americans.

