The Universal Access Handbook


Book Description

In recent years, the field of Universal Access has made significant progress in consolidating theoretical approaches, scientific methods and technologies, as well as in exploring new application domains. Increasingly, professionals in this rapidly maturing area require a comprehensive and multidisciplinary resource that addresses current principles




Building Access


Book Description

“All too often,” wrote disabled architect Ronald Mace, “designers don’t take the needs of disabled and elderly people into account.” Building Access investigates twentieth-century strategies for designing the world with disability in mind. Commonly understood in terms of curb cuts, automatic doors, Braille signs, and flexible kitchens, Universal Design purported to create a built environment for everyone, not only the average citizen. But who counts as “everyone,” Aimi Hamraie asks, and how can designers know? Blending technoscience studies and design history with critical disability, race, and feminist theories, Building Access interrogates the historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts for these questions, offering a groundbreaking critical history of Universal Design. Hamraie reveals that the twentieth-century shift from “design for the average” to “design for all” took place through liberal political, economic, and scientific structures concerned with defining the disabled user and designing in its name. Tracing the co-evolution of accessible design for disabled veterans, a radical disability maker movement, disability rights law, and strategies for diversifying the architecture profession, Hamraie shows that Universal Design was not just an approach to creating new products or spaces, but also a sustained, understated activist movement challenging dominant understandings of disability in architecture, medicine, and society. Illustrated with a wealth of rare archival materials, Building Access brings together scientific, social, and political histories in what is not only the pioneering critical account of Universal Design but also a deep engagement with the politics of knowing, making, and belonging in twentieth-century United States.




Universal Design Handbook, 2E


Book Description

The Latest Advances in Universal Design Thoroughly updated and packed with examples of global standards and design solutions, Universal Design Handbook, Second Edition, covers the full scope of universal design, discussing how to develop media, products, buildings, and infrastructure for the widest range of human needs, preferences, and functioning. This pioneering work brings together a rich variety of expertise from around the world to discuss the extraordinary growth and changes in the universal design movement. The book provides an overview of universal design premises and perspectives, and performance-based design criteria and guidelines. Public and private spaces, products, and technologies are covered, and current and emerging research and teaching are explored. This unique resource includes analyses of historical and contemporary universal design issues from seven different countries, as well as a look at future trends. Students, advocates, policy makers, and design practitioners will get a theoretical grounding in and practical reference on the physical and social roles of design from this definitive volume. UNIVERSAL DESIGN HANDBOOK, SECOND EDITION, COVERS: United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities U.S. accessibility codes and standards, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Life safety standards and guidelines Universal design implementations in Norway, Japan, France, Germany, Brazil, Italy and the Old City of Jerusalem Planning ADA implementation in public educational institutions Urban scale and mass transportation universal design Designing inclusive experiences, including outdoor play settings Office and workspace design Universal design in home building and remodeling Products and technologies, including autos, web access, media, and digital content Universal design research initiatives, education, and performance assessments




Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design


Book Description

The Handbook of Human Factors in Web Design covers basic human factors issues relating to screen design, input devices, and information organization and processing, as well as addresses newer features which will become prominent in the next generation of Web technologies. These include multimodal interfaces, wireless capabilities, and agents t




Accessibility Handbook


Book Description

Get practical guidelines for making your website accessible to people with disabilities. With this handbook, you’ll learn how to design or develop a site that conforms to Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act—and in the process you’ll discover how to provide a better user experience for everyone. The Accessibility Handbook introduces you to several audiences that have difficulty using today’s complex websites, including people with blindness, hearing loss, physical disabilities, and cognitive disorders. Learn how to support assistive technologies, and understand which fonts, colors, page layouts, and other design elements work best—without having to exclude advanced functions, hire outside help, or significantly increase overhead. Develop solutions that accommodate: Complete blindness. Create a logical document flow to support screen readers Low vision and color blindness. Optimize images and color schemes, and ensure your site enlarges gracefully Hearing impairment. Provide video captions and visual alerts for interactive features Physical disabilities. Make forms, popups, and navigation easier to use Cognitive disorders. Adapt fonts and text styles for dyslexic users, and design consistent, well-organized pages for people with ADHD




Universal Design 2021: From Special to Mainstream Solutions


Book Description

Universal Design is a process for creating an equitable and sustainable society. It is a concept committed to recognizing and accepting each individual’s potential and characteristics, and promoting the realization of a built environment that does not stigmatize users, but enables everyone to participate fully in their community. This book presents 32 articles from the 5th International Conference on Universal Design (UD2021). Previous Universal Design conferences have been organized biennially, but the 2020 conference was postponed due to COVID-19 restrictions, and eventually held online from 9 - 11 June 2021. UD2021 brings together a multidisciplinary group of experts from around the world to share knowledge and best practice with the common goal of shaping the way we design; avoiding stereotyped or discriminatory views and solutions that could stigmatize particular groups of people. The articles are organized into chapters under seven broad themes: universal design and inclusive design; user experience and co-design; access to education and learning environment; web accessibility and usability of technology; architecture and the built environment; mobility and transport; and designing for older people. The current situation has highlighted not only the importance of web accessibility, the user-friendliness of interfaces and remote connections; during the last year, the importance and quality of our daily living environment, access to services and green space has also become ever more obvious. This book will be of particular interest to those working to enable all those with disabilities or impairments to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life.




Accessibility for Everyone


Book Description

Get sure footing on the path to designing with accessibility.




Accessibility and Diversity in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice


Book Description

Education is a necessary foundation for improving one’s livelihood in today’s society. However, traditional learning has often excluded or presented a challenge to students with visual, physical, or cognitive disabilities and can create learning gaps between students of various cultures. It is vital that learning opportunities are tailored to meet individual needs, regardless of individual disabilities, gender, race, or economic status in order to create more inclusive educational practices. Accessibility and Diversity in Education: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice examines emerging methods and trends for creating accessible and inclusive educational environments and examines the latest teaching strategies and methods for promoting learning for all students. It also addresses equal opportunity and diversity requirements in schools. Highlighting a range of topics such as open educational resources, student diversity, and inclusion barriers, this publication is an ideal reference source for educators, principals, administrators, provosts, deans, curriculum developers, instructional designers, school boards, higher education faculty, academicians, students, and researchers.




Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy


Book Description

Ensuring Digital Accessibility through Process and Policy provides readers with a must-have resource to digital accessibility from both a technical and policy perspective. Inaccessible digital interfaces and content often lead to forms of societal discrimination that may be illegal under various laws. This book is unique in that it provides a multi-disciplinary understanding of digital accessibility. The book discusses the history of accessible computing, an understanding of why digital accessibility is socially and legally important, and provides both technical details (interface standards, evaluation methods) and legal details (laws, lawsuits, and regulations). The book provides real-world examples throughout, highlighting organizations that are doing an effective job with providing equal access to digital information for people with disabilities. This isn’t a book strictly about interface design, nor is it a book strictly about law. For people who are charged with implementing accessible technology and content, this book will serve as a one-stop guide to understanding digital accessibility, offering an overview of current laws, regulations, technical standards, evaluation techniques, as well as best practices and suggestions for implementing solutions and monitoring for compliance. This combination of skills from the three authors—law, technical, and research, with experience in both corporate, government, and educational settings, is unique to this book, and does not exist in any other book about any aspect of IT accessibility. The authors’ combination of skills marks a unique and valuable perspective, and provides insider knowledge on current best practices, corporate policies, and technical instructions. Together, we can ensure that the world of digital information is open to all users. Learn about the societal and organizational benefits of making information technology accessible for people with disabilities Understand the interface guidelines, accessibility evaluation methods, and compliance monitoring techniques, needed to ensure accessible content and technology Understand the various laws and regulations that require accessible technology Learn from case studies of organizations that are successfully implementing accessibility in their technologies and digital content




Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Context Diversity


Book Description

The four-volume set LNCS 6765-6768 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, UAHCI 2011, held as Part of HCI International 2011, in Orlando, FL, USA, in July 2011, jointly with 10 other conferences addressing the latest research and development efforts and highlighting the human aspects of design and use of computing systems. The 47 revised papers included in the third volume were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: universal access in the mobile context; ambient assisted living and smart environments; driving and interaction; interactive technologies in the physical and built environment.