Disability Accessibility: News and Information

Author: Disabled World - Contact Details
Updated/Revised Date: 2023/09/16
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Synopsis: The Disabled World accessibility category covers a range of topics including ADA and DDA accessible regulations. While accessibility is often used to describe facilities or amenities to assist people with disabilities, as in "wheelchair accessible", the term can extend to Braille signage, wheelchair ramps, elevators, audio signals at pedestrian crossings, walkway contours, website design, and so on. An Accessibility Plan sets out how each local authority plans to improve access to employment, learning, health care, food shops, and other services of local importance, particularly for disadvantaged groups and areas.

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Accessibility

Accessibility can be defined as the "ability to access" the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity and is used to describe the degree to which a product such as a device, service, environment is accessible by as many people as possible. The concept of accessible design ensures both "direct access" (i.e., unassisted) and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology (for example, computer screen readers). Accessibility is strongly related to universal design, which is the process of creating products that are usable by people with the widest possible range of abilities, operating within the widest possible range of situations. This is about making things accessible to all people (whether they have a disability or not).

Main Document

Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities and their right of access to entities, often through use of assistive technology. Several definitions of accessibility refer directly to access-based individual rights laws and regulations. Products or services designed to meet these regulations are typically termed Easy Access or Accessible.

While accessibility is typically used to describe facilities or amenities to assist people with disabilities, as in "wheelchair accessible", the term can extend to Braille signage, wheelchair ramps, elevators, audio signals at pedestrian crossings, walkway contours, website design, and so on.

Another dimension of accessibility is the ability to access information and services by minimizing the barriers of distance and cost, as well as the usability of the interface. In many countries, this has led to initiatives, laws, and regulations that aim toward providing universal access to the internet and to phone systems at reasonable cost to citizens.

The disability rights movement advocates equal access to social, political, and economic life which includes not only physical access but access to the same tools, services, organizations, and facilities which we all pay for.

Disability Management (DM) is a specialized area of human resources, to support efforts by employers to better integrate and retain workers with disabilities. Some workplaces have policies in place to provide "reasonable accommodation" for employees with disabilities. However, many do not. In some jurisdictions, employers may have legal requirements to end discrimination against persons with disabilities.

Different Countries Have Legislation Requiring Physical Accessibility

An Accessibility Plan sets out how each local authority plans to improve access to employment, learning, health care, food shops and other services of local importance, particularly for disadvantaged groups and areas.

Urban Design Accessibility

Accessibility modifications to conventional urban environments has become common in recent decades. The use of a curb cut, or kassel curb, to enable wheelchair or walker movement between sidewalk and street level is found in most major cities of wealthy countries. The creation of priority parking spaces and of disabled parking permits has made them a standard feature of urban environments. Features that assist people with visual impairments include braille signs and tactile paving to allow a user with a cane to easily identify stairways, train platforms, and similar areas that could pose a physical danger to anyone who has a visual impairment.

Disability Accessibility Guide for Towns - Americans with Disabilities Act

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Cite This Page (APA): Disabled World. (2023, September 16). Disability Accessibility: News and Information. Disabled World. Retrieved November 30, 2023 from www.disabled-world.com/disability/accessibility/

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