Beyond standards : reaching usability goals through user participation

Abstract

The promise of social inclusion, reinforced by online technologies, has not become the reality for most people with disabilities. In 2002, over ten years after the implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, more people with disabilities are unemployed than at any time in the last thirty years. Most online educational environments are still not accessible to students with disabilities or those using assistive technologies. While enrollment of people with disabilities in colleges and universities has increased, few have been able to graduate, find successful employment, and move on to independent lifestyles, free of government assistance.To support the vision of universal usability, designers and instructors of assistive technology must go beyond the limited constructs of engineering standards and integrate actual users of assistive technology as participants into both the design and delivery processes.