Is Accessibility the last great Alchemy?

Understanding the needs of the 'extra-ordinary' user has for too long been seen as a 'magic art'. Indeed, you don't need to look too hard to find someone who might ask 'how do blind people use a computer?'. Accessibility has so many guises, and it is found in every corner - but what is ironic is the fact that accessibility is so ubiquitous (in that it affects all areas of life) that we can not see it. Only in a few apparently disparate sectors does accessibility standout from the crowd.

The blinkered wider world of accessibility

In healthcare and medicine we have "Rehabilitation Science", for independence in work and study we have "Assistive Technology and Strategies", in computer science / design we have "Usability", in the building industry we have the 'Access' Auditors and in education we have the great "Inclusion Agenda" that has lead to aim of "Long Life Learning".

Some of these sectors have completely different routes and often will never cross paths. Yet unless everyone from all sectors embraces accessibility, recognises their own identity, and pro-actively seeks out expertise in other fields, then wonderful opportunities will be lost.

And more relevantly to this website audience, we are still educating thousands of software / computer designers who do not have a rounded knowledge of how to create an accessible interface. Indeed some usability postgraduate degree courses today only have the odd class that even mentions accessibility. By contrast, there are now some HCI departments who are moving in particular accessibility fields and have done a lot of active research. However, there must be an equal exchange of knowledge - usability professionals need to continue to research into accessibility but also accessibility professionals need to move towards taking their work from a practitioner base to a more academic format.

Accessibility knowledge is currently trapped in all these sectors and only relatively few people, like myself, have moved between sectors and as such it is difficult for the average person to see the wider world of accessibility.

My experience of the world of accessibility

Even my story demonstrates the way accessibility is so compartmentalised and blinkered. I started learning about accessibility through personal experience by meeting a variety of changing challenges (including periods of hearing impairment, speech impairment, blindness, visual impairment and dyslexia). At university I became a representative for students with disabilities and worked across campus with disabled students and a wide cross section of staff. Whilst at university, I found, hidden at the bottom of campus, the world of assistive technology (at the time, separated from normal student services and related to no academic department) where I trained after leaving university. Eventually the team's work with assistive technologies was recognised nationally and were moved into an academic education faculty - jumping across fields. We ended up forming part of a national advisory service for technology and disability where my knowledge grew to encompass web accessibility and accessible e-learning amongst other things.

Now I run my own accessibility and assistive technology consultancy - but I could not have gained all of my current knowledge simply by attending a course. And for that reason, it should be recognised that there will always have to be a place for accessibility specialists who have gained their knowledge, not from education alone, but through, working with real people with disabilities. It would be 'fools gold' to believe that everyone should be able to use switch-access technology or a screen reader, especially in the way that a disabled person would.

To answer my initial question - Accessibility knowledge is tangible and out there, you just need to look for it!

Positive steps for the future

There are a number of positive things the usability community can do to help:

• Make connections with experts in other accessibility fields and if possible take part in a job shadowing exercise.
• Encourage usability conference submissions from practitioner-based research and provide funding or discounts when experts come from poorly funded sectors that don't provide much support for professional development.
• Actively publicise usability research and events on accessibility forums and emails lists.
• Encourage accessibility practitioners to move into academia and engage in formal research activities.

Contributed by Peter Rainger, Key2Access. Article originally published December 2004.