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For Wikipedia's accessibility policy, see Wikipedia:Accessibility.
For the wider design concept, see Universal design. Universal design is a relatively new Paradigm that emerged from " Barrier-free " or " Accessible design " and " Assistive technology For the logical notion, see Accessibility relation. An accessibility relation is a binary relation R\\! between Possible worlds which has very powerful uses in both the formal/theoretical aspects of Modal logic
Universal access is provided in Curitiba's public transport system. Brazil.
Universal access is provided in Curitiba's public transport system. Curitiba (pron kuɾi'tibɐ or kuɾi'tʃibɐ is the capital City of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Rede Integrada de Transporte (also known as RIT, Portuguese: Integrated Transportation Network) is a Bus rapid transit system in Curitiba Brazil. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld

Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product (e. g. , device, service, environment) is accessible by as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" the functionality, and possible benefit, of some system or entity. 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 often termed Easy Access or Accessible.

Accessibility is not to be confused with usability which is used to describe the extent to which a product (e. g. , device, service, environment) can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use.

Accessibility is strongly related to universal design when the approach involves "direct access. Universal design is a relatively new Paradigm that emerged from " Barrier-free " or " Accessible design " and " Assistive technology " This is about making things accessible to all people (whether they have a disability or not). However, products marketed as having benefited from a Universal Design process are often actually the same devices customized specifically for use by people with disabilities. An alternative is to provide "indirect access" by having the entity support the use of a person's assistive technology to achieve access (e. g. , screen reader).

Contents

Disabilities

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. The disability rights movement aims to improve the Quality of life of people with disabilities.

This is the internationally recognized symbol for accessibility
This is the internationally recognized symbol for accessibility

While it 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. The Braille system is a method that is widely used by blind people to read and write A wheelchair is a wheeled Mobility device in which the user sits An elevator or lift is a Transport device used to move people or goods vertically from one floor to another Crosswalk button neJPG|right|thumb|The button one pushes to activate the crosswalk signal Web accessibility refers to the practice of making Websites usable by people of all abilities and Disabilities.

Various countries have legislation requiring physical accessibility which are (in order of enactment):

Transportation

Accessibility to all buses is provided in Curitiba's public transport system. Brazil.
Accessibility to all buses is provided in Curitiba's public transport system. Curitiba (pron kuɾi'tibɐ or kuɾi'tʃibɐ is the capital City of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Rede Integrada de Transporte (also known as RIT, Portuguese: Integrated Transportation Network) is a Bus rapid transit system in Curitiba Brazil. |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld

In transportation, accessibility refers to the ease of reaching destinations. Transport or transportation is the movement of people and goods from one place to another People who are in places that are highly accessible can reach many other activities or destinations quickly, people in inaccessible places can reach many fewer places in the same amount of time.

A measure that is often used is to measure accessibility in a traffic analysis zone i is:

Accessibility_i = \sum_j {Opportunities_j } \times f\left( {C_{ij} } \right) where:

For a non-motorized mode of transport, such as walking or cycling, the generalized travel cost may include additional factors such as safety or gradient. Mode of transport (or means of transport or transport mode or transport modality or form of transport) is a general term for the different Walking (also called ambulation) is the main form of Animal Locomotion on land, distinguished from Running and crawling Cycling is the use of Bicycles or - less commonly - Unicycles Tricycles Quadricycles and other similar wheeled Human powered vehicles Safety is the state of being "safe" (from French sauf) the condition of being protected against physical social spiritual financial political In Vector calculus, the gradient of a Scalar field is a Vector field which points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar

Automobile accessibility also refers to ease of use by disabled people.


Accessibility planning

In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport have mandated that each local authority produce an Accessibility Plan that is incorporated in their Local Transport Plan. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In the United Kingdom, the Department for Transport (or DfT) ( Welsh: Adran am Drafnidiaeth) is the government department Local governments are administrative offices that are smaller than a State. Local transport plans, divided into full local transport plans ( LTP) and local implementation plans for transport ( LIP) are an important 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. Accessibility targets are defined in the accessibility plans, these are often the distance or time to access services by different modes of transport including walking, cycling and public transport.

Accessibility Planning was introduced as a result of the report "Making the Connections: Final Report on Transport and Social Exclusion". This report was the result of research carried out by the Social Exclusion Unit. Social Exclusion has no agreed to defined or specific single application though one suggested definition is as follows Social exclusion is a multidimensional process

Housing

Most existing and new housing, even in the wealthiest nations, lack basic accessibility features unless the designated, immediate occupant of a home currently has a disability. However, there are some initiatives to change typical residential practices so that new homes incorporate basic access features such as zero-step entries and door widths adequate for wheelchairs to pass through.

Great Britain applies the most widespread application of home access to date. In 1999, Parliament passed Section M, an amendment to residential building regulations requiring basic access in all new homes. ("Doors to Be Swept Away in New Rules for Builders", Rachel Kelley, The Times, December 5, 1997. The Times is a daily national Newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar ) In the United States, the 1988 Amendments to the Fair Housing Act added people with disabilities, as well as familial status, to the classes already protected by law from discrimination (race, color, sex, religion and country of origin). Types of banned discrimination The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited the following forms of discrimination 1 Among the protection for people with disabilities in the 1988 Amendments are seven construction requirements for all multifamily buildings of more than four units first occupied after March 13, 1991. Events 1138 - Cardinal Gregorio Conti is elected Antipope as Victor IV, succeeding Anacletus II. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. These seven requirements are as follows:

  1. An accessible building entrance on an accessible route.
  2. Accessible common and public use areas.
  3. Doors usable by a person in a wheelchair.
  4. Accessible route into and through the dwelling unit.
  5. Light switches, electrical outlets, thermostats and other environmental controls in accessible locations.
  6. Reinforced walls in bathrooms for later installation of grab bars.
  7. Usable kitchens and bathrooms.

(From Fair Housing First, a website sponsored by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development).

In spite of these advancements, the housing types where most people in the United States reside --single-family homes--are not covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fair Housing Act, or any other federal law with the exception of the small percentage of publicly-funded homes impacted by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The US Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by Federal agencies in programs receiving Federal financial assistance in As a result, the great majority of new single-family homes replicate the barriers in existing homes.

The broad concept of Universal Design is relevant to housing, as it is to all aspects of the built environment. Furthermore, a Visitability movement begun by grass roots disability advocates in the 1980s focuses specifically on changing construction practices in new housing. Visitability is an international movement to change home construction practices so that virtually all new homes whether or not designated for residents who currently have Mobility This movement, a network of interested people working in their locales, works on educating, passing laws, and spurring voluntary home access initiatives with the intention that basic access become a routine part of new home construction.


Telecommunications and IT access

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.

Currently there are a few major movements to coordinate a set of guidelines for accessibility for the web. The first and most well known is The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), which is part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative ( WAI) is an effort to improve the accessibility of the World Wide Web (WWW This organization developed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG are part of a series of Web accessibility guidelines published by the W3C 's Web Accessibility Initiative. 0 which explains how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Web "content" generally refers to the information in a Web page or Web application, including text, images, forms, sounds, and such. (More specific definitions are available in the WCAG documents. )[1]

The WCAG is separated into 3 levels of compliance, A, AA and AAA. Each level requires a stricter set of conformance guidelines, such as different versions of HTML (Transitional vs Strict) and other techniques that need to be incorporated into your code before accomplishing validation. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure Online tools such as the Watchfire WebXACT engine or the imergo Web Compliance Manager will allow users to submit their website and automatically run it through the WCAG guidelines and produce a report, stating whether or not they conform to each level of compliance. Adobe Dreamweaver also offers plugins which allow web developers to test these guidelines on their work from within the program. Adobe Dreamweaver is a Web development application originally created by Allaire Systems who was acquired approximately 1998 by Macromedia and is now owned

Another source of web accessibility guidance comes from the US government. The federal government of the United States is the central United States Governmental body established by the United States Constitution. Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act is a comprehensive set of rules designed to help web designers make their sites accessible. They have also developed a website where you can take online training course for free to learn about these rules. 508 Universe

In general, for a website to comply with accessibility standards, they should at least have the following:

Another good idea is for websites to include a web accessibility statement on the site. In a web browser an access key or accesskey allows a Computer User to immediately jump to a specific part of a Web page via the keyboard Semantics is the study of meaning in communication The word derives from Greek σημαντικός ( semantikos) "significant" from This page details the accessible status of the page, lists access keys and can display which validations have been achieved for the site as well as include their pledge for accessibility. Example of a accessibility statement

Meeting and Conference Access

Meetings and conferences should consider the needs of all of their participants. Checklists such as this may make it easier to identify specific needs:

Mobility access:

Hearing access:

Sight access:

Other issues:

See also

References

  1. ^ WAI Resources on Introducing Web Accessibility

External links

Technology accessibility

Dictionary

accessibility

-noun

  1. The quality of being accessible, or of admitting approach; receptibility
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