Americans With Disabilities Act 22nd Anniversary [infographic]

Why Accessibility Matters

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.  You might wonder why an Ann Arbor web design and internet marketing firm is honoring the occasion.  We have learned through many of our clients – Deque Systems, ASK Interfaces, and DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen of Ann Arbor, to name just a few, how important it is to make websites and technology accessible to all customers.

We have created the below infographic to explain why accessibility is so important – for the good of your business, your customers, and for society at large. As we mention below, the topic of accessibility is a very broad one, and we couldn’t possibly cover everything we wanted to in this infographic. So we’re throwing it back to you! Did we miss something that absolutely should be included on an infographic about accessibility? Did we get anything wrong? We’d love to get your feedback in the comments!

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 

Signed into law on July 26, 1990, this act is a civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. It was intended to be a flexible set of laws that could only be strengthened, not weakened, by future case law.

How Does ADA Define disability:

A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.

Approximately 50 million Americans are living with a disability, about 16% of the population

Age Distribution of Americans with a disability: 5-17 year olds: 5%, 18-64 year olds: 10%, 65 year olds and over:  38%

Types of Disabilities that Americans (ages 18-64) have:

3.2 million: Visual
3.4 million: Self-Care
3.9 million:Hearing
6.6 million: Independent Living
7.9 million: Cognitive
9.8 million: Ambulatory

Education

Of people over the age of 25:13% of those with a disability have a bachelor’s degree or higher, while 31% of those without a disability have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

28% of those with a disability have less than a high school education, while 12% of those without a disability have less than a high school education

Employment

The unemployment rate for people with a disability often doubles those without a disability:
Approximately 10% unemployment rate for people without a disability
Approximately 20% unemployment rate for people with a disability

Home

There are ADA Standards for accessible design, which have specific building code requirements.  For example:

• Bedroom and bathroom on the first floor


• Light switches no more than 48” from the floor


• Outlets 15” above the floor


• Clear width for a single wheelchair: 36”


• Have a ramp for the entrance

Web Accessibility

When websites are poorly designed or built, they create barriers to people with disabilities

Tips for making websites more accessible:

• Making a website navigable using the keyboard improves accessibility for people with motor limitations


• Adding alternative text to an image, makes that image accessible to the blind


• Providing the text format for audio files makes them accessible to those with a hearing disability

An estimated 90% of websites are not accessible

Studies show accessible websites have: better search results reduced maintenance cost, increased audience reach

Assistive Technology

• Screen readers-Identify what is on the screen


• Speech recognition-translates spoken words into text


• Screen magnifiers-Present enlarged screen content


• Braille translator-Translates script into braille cells

Courtesy of: The Whole Brain Group

Disability Milestones

1880-National Association for the Deaf founded
1920-Disabled veterans of America and national Mental Health Association Founded
1940-National Federation of the Blind founded
1947-President’s Committee on Employment of the Handicapped created
1956-Social Security Act is amended so that working age people with disabilities receive income benefits
1961-American Council of the Blind founded
1968-Architectural Barriers Act passed which required that all buildings constructed, renovated, or financed by the federal government to be  physically accessible
1973-Rehabilitation Act passed****
1975-Education for all Handicapped Children Act Passed
1982-President Reagan appoints heads of National Council on Disabilities  (NCD)
1988-Senator  Lowell Weicker and Congressman Tony Coelho support NCD by sponsoring the ADA
1990-ADA is passed and becomes law

****Significant Sections of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

#501 – Federal agencies are to develop affirmative action programs for hiring, placement and advancement for persons with disabilities

#502 – Establishes the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board to ensure compliance with the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 and to eliminate transportation barriers and seek ways to making housing accessible

#503 – Parties contracting with the US government are required to use affirmative action to employ qualified persons with disabilities

#504 – States that “…no otherwise qualified handicapped individuals in the United States…shall solely by reason of his handicap be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Section 504 was crafted using language in the Civil Rights Act and Education Amendments Act of 1972. Section 504 became known as “The Civil Rights Law for the Handicapped.”

#508-The law applies to all Federal agencies, and requires that electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities.

Post ADA

The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), of 2010, requires telecommunications services and video content to be accessible to users with a disability.

How to make audio or video compliant with CVAA:

Audio

• Hearing impaired: in depth captions should be visible and in sync with the multimedia


• Vision impaired: a full text transcript which describes the media should be available

Video

• Hearing impaired: make content accessible to the hearing impaired through captioning


• Vision impaired: include audio narration which contains descriptions of key elements