[gui-talk] Fwd: E-Access Bulletin, May 2010: Disability Linked To Digital Exclusion.

[Steve Pattison]

 From:    Dan Jellinek dan at headstar.com
 To:      eaccess at headstar.com

++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
- ISSUE 125, May 2010.

A Headstar Publication.
http://www.headstar.com/eab/ .

Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details 
at the end). We conform to the accessible Text Email 
Newsletter (TEN) Standard:
http://www.headstar.com/ten/ .


++Issue 125 Contents.

01: Draft Web Access Standard Embraces Personalisation
- Customisation of social networking sites 'should be 
considered'.

02: Disability Linked To Digital Exclusion And 
'Disengagement'
- Some 59% of disabled people do not have home internet 
access.

03: Accessible e-Books "Tantalisingly Close"
- New best practice guide for publishing industry.

News in Brief: 04: Downloadable Delights - free audiobooks; 
05: Market Failure - responsible ICT procurement urged; 06: 
Broad Limitations - US study finds link between disability and 
lack of net access.

Section Two: 'The Inbox' - Readers' Forum.
07: Facebook Challenge - screenreader help requested for 
social networking site; 08: Apple Rolls - Mac accessibility 
technical support advice.

Section Three: Focus - Digital Exclusion.
09: Exclusion Zone: 'Digital exclusion' is a much-discussed 
topic, but attempts to measure it accurately and tackle it 
encounter many complex problems. Dan Jellinek reports on 
one academic Ellen Hesper's view of the relationship between 
digital inclusion and social exclusion, and how this can affect 
those with a disability.

[Contents ends].


++Section One: News.

+01: Draft Web Access Standard Embraces Personalisation.

Personalisation of website accessibility, including customising 
tools and offering different versions of sites to suit individual 
needs, should be considered for some specialist websites such 
as social networking platforms, according to the latest draft of 
a British standard on web accessibility.

The second draft of BS 8878 'Web accessibility - Code of 
practice', developed by a sub-committee of the British 
Standards Institution (BSI), IST/45, suggests that educational 
establishments, social networking sites, e-learning websites and 
other sites requiring a member login have an opportunity to 
provide users with personalisation facilities and "an 
individualised approach to dealing with their accessibility 
needs".

Jonathan Hassell, chair of IST/45 and head of audience 
experience and usability for future media and technology at the 
BBC, told E-Access Bulletin's sister publication E-Government 
Bulletin that although still in its infancy, the personalisation 
approach to website accessibility is likely to develop 
significantly in coming years. 

"In some situations, rather than trying to create a website for 
everybody, maybe the right thing to do is - where people's 
needs diverge - to create different versions of a website for 
different people. We may even want to have tools on a website 
enabling it to be personalised for the exact user."

Hassell also said the new draft was a "process map", intended 
for those who may not be accessibility specialists, giving them 
an idea of points to consider when making a website 
accessible, and taking into account the wide-ranging needs of 
disabled internet users. 

BS 8878 is not intended to replace existing guidance, such as 
version 2.0 of the international Web Content Accessibility 
Guidelines (WCAG), said Hassell: "We're not replicating 
anything you might find in WCAG 2.0. It's a great standard. If 
you're at the point of technical web production, then process-
wise and design-wise WCAG 2.0 is the document you should 
be looking at, and we point to it in BS 8878." 

Other new suggestions in the second draft of the standard 
include a bigger focus on the accessibility needs of elderly 
people; accessibility factors to consider when procuring a 
website from a number of suppliers; and how the advent of 
internet viewing on new channels such as on mobile devices, 
tablet computers and television may affect accessibility. 

Originally intended for publication in summer of last year, the 
second draft of BS 8878 was put back due to European 
intervention, Hassell said. The European Committee for 
Standardization (CEN) contacted the BSI after the first draft of 
BS 8878, expressing a desire for a common set of accessibility 
standards across Europe. However, this was retracted after a 
realisation that differing accessibility laws across member 
states would make a common standard extremely difficult to 
develop.

Feedback on the second draft of BS 8878 is invited before 30 
June, with an estimated publication date for the final standard 
of November. To give feedback, via the BSI website (the 
feedback mechanism of which has been made more 
accessible) or email, visit: http://bit.ly/cY8dND . The second 
draft is available in Rich Text Format, and can be read by a 
wide range of word processors and screen-readers, after 
feedback on the first draft suggested that it was not fully 
accessible to some users.

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=427


+02: Disability Linked To Digital Exclusion And 
'Disengagement'.

Levels of home internet access in the UK are directly linked to 
a wide range of traditional indicators of social exclusion 
including disability, a digital inclusion seminar at City 
University, London heard this month. 

Ellen Helsper, lecturer in media and communications at the 
London School of Economics and Political Science, told the 
seminar that among the disabled population, 59% do not have 
home access, compared with just 29% of the general 
population. 

The main theories relating to causes of digital exclusion tend to 
revolve around cost of access, but surveys show that people 
tend to offer other reasons for their non-use such as 
discrimination, Helsper said. Accordingly, the focus of analysts 
has switched towards models that look beyond access into 
areas like skills, confidence, attitude and motivation. 

People with disabilities have lower confidence levels and lower 
motivation to use the internet than others, she said. The average 
score for positive attitude towards internet use stands at 3.1 out 
of 5 for disabled adults compared to 3.3 for non-disabled 
adults; and 3.4/5 for disabled teenagers compared with 3.8/5 
for non-disabled teenagers. 

There are a few encouraging signs, however: research shows 
that one third of non-users have somebody else who uses the 
internet for them, so they are part of networks which allow 
them access to the technology, Helsper said. "In the health and 
social service sector, this is an important finding". People with 
disabilities tend to rely on children for proxy use, whereas 
people without disabilities tend to rely on friends or colleagues. 
  
One new measure of digital inclusion or exclusion used by 
academics and researchers is that of digital 'engagement', she 
said. This measures not just whether people have access to the 
internet, or have the skills or the motivation to use it, but how 
wide a variety of activities they engage in. 

"Engagement views activity in a more social environment, 
geared around technologies - people exchanging information 
with each other, for example." The opposite - disengagement - 
may sometimes be related to the fact that not much content is 
available for some social groups, Helsper said. For example the 
types of jobs some people may be looking for may not be 
widely advertised on internet job sites. 

NOTE: For a full report on the seminar see Section Three, this 
issue. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=430


+03: Accessible e-Books "Tantalisingly Close".

Many of the barriers that currently hinder access to electronic 
book reading platforms by people with disabilities are easily 
correctable by altering the implementation of existing 
technologies, according to a new report. 

The best practice guide on e-book accessibility was produced 
for the publishing industry by the Publishers Licensing Society 
and JISC TechDis, the disability and technology advisory 
agency for the education sector. Findings in the guide - which 
form part of a lengthier full report on the research - are based 
on the results of accessibility testing of e-book platforms 
carried out in 2009 by disability charity the Shaw Trust.

Disabled technology users tested a number of platforms for 
compatibility with screen-readers; voice recognition; keyboard 
commands; and colour contrast and magnification.

Alistair McNaught, senior advisor at JISC TechDis, told E-
Access Bulletin two of the research findings are particularly 
significant. "The first was how tantalisingly close we are to 
solutions; there are still barriers on many platforms but most of 
these are legacies or oversights that could be easily fixed in 
subsequent developments.

"The second was the positive engagement from the publishers 
and their responses to the feedback. Good accessibility leads to 
good products and the opportunity for disability organisations 
to be 'expert partners' can only benefit everyone."

The best practice guide and full report are available at:
http://www.pls.org.uk/news/Pages/goodpracticegudeebooks.asp
x?PageView=Shared .

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=433


++News in Brief: 

+04: Downloadable Delights: More than 1,000 audiobooks are 
now available to be lent for free over the internet, after the 
launch of a service for members of the charity Listening 
Books. The 'Downloadable' service allows a wide range of 
titles, including classics, children's books, and non-fiction 
titles, to be downloaded to a PC, iPod or other portable device, 
with some titles also being available for Mac systems. To 
become a member and borrow books, users must pay a 
registration fee, though a limited number of free places are also 
available: 
http://www.listening-books.org.uk/downloadable.aspx 

+05: Market Failure: There needs to be more emphasis on 
accessibility in procurement of ICT systems by governments of 
EU member states, according to Kevin Carey, head of 
eInclusion consultancy at ATcare and chair of the Royal 
National Institute of Blind People. In a recent speech at the first 
meeting of the UK government's new e-Accessibility Forum at 
the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in London, 
Carey claimed that "by and large, ICT accessibility has been a 
market failure": 
http://www.humanity.org.uk/articles/eu-uk-policy/living-with-
disability-digital-britain 

+06: Broad Limitations: Nearly 40% of Americans without a 
broadband internet connection have a disability, according to a 
new US government study, 'A giant leap and a big deal'. 
Published by Elizabeth E. Lyle, policy advisor on the American 
national Omnibus Broadband Initiative, the paper makes 
recommendations for improved government enforcement of 
accessibility laws, and for more information about disability-
specific broadband adoption issues to be gathered and 
analysed: 
http://blog.broadband.gov/?entryId=391546 .

[Section One ends].


++Section Two: 'The Inbox' 
- Readers' Forum. 

Please email all contributions or responses to: 
inbox at headstar.com . 

+07: Facebook Challenge: The trusty translator of the Italian 
version of our newsletter, Margherita Giordano, writes in to ask 
if any readers have advice for an acquaintance of hers who is 
having problems using the social networking site Facebook.

"One of my former students would like to get some 
information about Facebook. He uses [the screen-reader 
software] JAWS, but he says that he is experiencing many 
access difficulties, especially in using the chat features. Can 
you give him any suggestions?"

[Responses please to inbox at headstar.com]. 


+08: Apple Rolls: Jude DaShiell, a computer programmer in the 
US civil service from Lexington Park, Maryland, and regular E-
Access Bulletin correspondent, writes in to respond to an item 
in the inbox section of our September 2009 issue, 'Rotten 
Apple?', in which our reader Dan TeVelde urged Apple to 
communicate more effectively with the blind community, after 
failing to gain useful accessibility advice on a technical support 
line or at his local Apple store.

"Your best bet with Apple is not to try to contact the 
company," he suggests. "You get technical support by finding 
your local Apple User's Group, and getting involved. When a 
problem is beyond your local user group's ability to handle, 
you need to go to your local Apple store after having set up an 
appointment with the Genius Bar. If the local Apple Store 
Genius Bar people can't handle the problem, they may or may 
not pass that problem along to Apple Headquarters. Very 
decentralised I know, but that's just how the Apple rolls." 

[Further responses please to inbox at headstar.com]. 

[Section Two ends]


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++Section Three: Focus 
- Digital Exclusion. 

+09: Exclusion Zone 
by Dan Jellinek. 

The concept of 'digital exclusion' might seem simple enough, 
but it is actually a highly complex field to define and analyse, 
and academics and policymakers are divided on the best ways 
to address it, a City University, London seminar heard last 
week.

'Digital inclusion and social exclusion: is there a relationship 
and what are the policy implications?' was addressed by Ellen 
Helsper, lecturer in media and communications at the London 
School of Economics and Political Science.

Across the UK, and the whole developed world, the proportion 
of people not using the internet seems to be levelling off at 
between 20%-30%, Helsper said. Academics had developed 
four broad theory types covering the effects of digital 
exclusion, and how important a factor it is in social exclusion 
more generally, she said.

The first is that it has little or no effect, although this was not a 
widely-held or popular theory, not least because if true, it 
would render large swathes of government policy and 
academic research meaningless, Helsper said.

The second, 'equalising' theory holds that the reduction of 
digital exclusion reduces disadvantage by engaging people 
more in areas like education. "Sadly, there is not much 
evidence for this", she said.

The third theory is that of 'neutralisation'. This suggests that 
technology use in itself cannot significantly improve people's 
social situation, but for those who do not use it, the social gap 
will widen, so digital inclusion is needed simply to maintain 
"the status quo of inequality". There is more evidence for this 
theory, Helsper said.

Finally comes the bleakest theory of all: that of the 'vicious 
cycle'. According to this theory, "Even if we engage everyone 
with technology, the way in which we engage is so different 
that the gaps will still widen, because the socially 
disadvantaged will not use the internet for uses such as 
education but for uses like gaming, so the gaps get bigger and 
bigger."

Whatever the implications, it is clear that over time, the 
relationship between social disadvantage and use of the 
internet has remained stable, so patterns of internet use closely 
track patterns of social deprivation, she said.

Across Europe, we also find that areas of low take-up and use 
are poorer areas, and so the main theories relating to causes of 
digital exclusion (rather than their effects) tend to revolve 
around cost, Elsper said.

However, if you talk to people in these areas, you receive a 
more complex response about the reasons for their non-use of 
the internet such as discrimination faced by certain sections of 
the community. Theoreticians and policymakers are therefore 
now trying to look beyond the economic indicators, she said.

It is also becoming clearer that different types of access are 
better for different types of excluded groups, for example that 
home access is better than access in a library or other public 
place, because people have time to play around with it more.

But levels of home access are again linked to all traditional 
indicators of social exclusion such as disability, Helsper said. 
Among the disabled population, 59% do not have home 
access, compared with just 29% of the general population.

Accordingly, the focus of analysts has switched towards 
models that go beyond access and use into areas like skills, 
confidence, attitude and motivation, she said.

"People have started thinking differently about skills: they are 
not just asking how good at it people think they are, but are 
looking at things like critical online skills - whether people 
know how good an information source is - or creative skills, 
can you create content online?"

When it comes to confidence levels, we find that people with 
disabilities have lower scores, Helsper said. And the same is 
true for attitude and motivation, which looks at whether people 
see the value of using digital technologies even after they have 
the necessary access and skills: the average score for positive 
attitude stands at 3.1 out of 5 for disabled adults compared to 
3.3 for non-disabled adults; and 3.4/5 for disabled teenagers 
compared with 3.8/5 for non-disabled teenagers.

An even newer measure of exclusion is that of digital 
'engagement', she said. This measures not just whether people 
have access to the internet, or have the skills or even the 
motivation to use it for sustained periods of time, but how 
deeply they use it and in what ways - do they use it for a wide 
variety of activities?

"It is a parallel argument to that of education: people are now 
saying we need to focus on the ways people are becoming 
engaged. Engagement views activity in a more social 
environment, geared around technologies - people exchanging 
information with each other, for example. It is not something 
that you have to do."

There are controversies inherent in this kind of analysis, 
Helsper said, because it often can seem to involve value 
judgments as to what type of online activity is more valuable 
than another kind.

"There is a tendency to talk about digital participation, but I 
don't really like that term because it comes from the area of 
civic participation, the old view of the value of doing 
something active in society, but in fact if kids do gaming or 
social networks, they may be included.

"But I don't use digital inclusion any more as a term, either - 
what I tend to be talking about now is digital engagement."

The opposite - disengagement - may sometimes be related to 
the fact that not much content is available for some social 
groups, "because the internet was created by stereotypical 
white middle-aged men". For example the types of jobs some 
people may be looking for may not be widely advertised on 
internet job sites.

Ultimately, of the three main popular current theories 
mentioned at the opening of the seminar - equalising, 
neutralisation and vicious cycle - it is fair to say that all are 
true in some measure or other or at some time or other, 
depending on the type of engagement, or type of group you are 
looking at, Helsper said.

There are other encouraging signs, however, such as 'proxy 
use': research shows that one third of non-users have 
somebody else who uses the internet for them, so they are part 
of networks which allow them access to the technology, she 
said. People with disabilities tend to rely on children for proxy 
use, whereas people without disabilities tend to rely on friends 
or colleagues. "In the health and social service sector, this is an 
important finding".

Another possible hidden positive is that the benefits of have 
digital access or being engaged may not be easy to measure 
because they may accrue in areas unrelated to the specific 
activity, Elsper said. "So if you use technology in a geography 
class, it may not necessarily improve grades or attendance in 
that class, but it could boost confidence in a completely 
different area."

In this and all areas relating to digital exclusion, empirical 
research is "very much a work in progress", Helsper said.

In discussion at the end of the seminar, one delegate summed 
up a key shortfall of any public policy that attempts to address 
digital exclusion purely by providing more people with access 
to the internet.

"If you build hospitals in poor areas, and provide lots of 
doctors in them, it will not necessarily improve people's health 
in that area, that has been shown to be true. The same is true 
about giving people access, it won't necessarily mean they are 
more digitally included." 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=436

[Section Three ends].


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++End Notes.

+How to Receive the Bulletin.

To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, email
eab-subs at headstar.com
with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header. You can list other 
email addresses to subscribe in the body of the message. Please 
encourage all your colleagues to sign up! To unsubscribe at any 
time, put 'unsubscribe eab' in the subject header.

Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at:
dan at headstar.com .

Copyright 2009 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including 
this copyright notice are included, and as long as people are 
always encouraged to subscribe with us individually by email. 
Please also inform the editor when you are reproducing our 
content. Sections of the bulletin may be quoted as long as they 
are clearly sourced as 'taken from e-access bulletin, a free 
monthly email newsletter', and our web site address:
http://www.headstar.com/eab
is also cited.

+Personnel:
Editor - Dan Jellinek.
Reporter: Tristan Parker.
Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey.

ISSN 1476-6337.

[Issue 125 ends.]

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782