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		<!-- END ODIOGO LISTEN BUTTON v2.5.7 (WP) -->{"id":348,"date":"2009-05-22T16:15:31","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T16:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/slewth.wordpress.com\/?p=348"},"modified":"2009-05-22T16:15:31","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T16:15:31","slug":"accessibility-and-hierarchies-of-impairment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/2009\/05\/22\/accessibility-and-hierarchies-of-impairment\/","title":{"rendered":"Accessibility and Hierarchies of Impairment"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\t\t<!-- BEGIN ODIOGO LISTEN BUTTON v2.5.7 (WP) -->\r\n\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\r\n\t\t<!--\r\n\t\t\/\/ ODIOGO_START:do_NOT_remove_this_comment\r\n\t\tshowOdiogoReadNowButton (\"687068\", \"Accessibility and Hierarchies of Impairment\", \"348\", 290, 55);\r\n\t\t\/\/ -->\r\n\t\t<\/script>\r\n\t\t<br\/>\r\n\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\r\n\t\t<!--\r\n\t\tshowInitialOdiogoReadNowFrame (\"687068\", \"348\", 290, 0);\r\n\t\t\/\/ ODIOGO_END:do_NOT_remove_this_comment\r\n\t\t\/\/ -->\r\n\t\t<\/script>\r\n\t\t<!-- END ODIOGO LISTEN BUTTON v2.5.7 (WP) -->\r\n\t\t\n<p>Following on from yesterday\u2019s <a title=\"Wendy Hall MRL lecture\" href=\"http:\/\/slewth.wordpress.com\/2009\/05\/21\/hyperland\/\" target=\"_self\">MRL lecture<\/a>, I was fortunate to talk with Prof. Dame Wendy Hall about my research and a short paper I&#8217;ve written on &#8216;Aversive Disablism and the Internet&#8217;, borne out of <a title=\"Aversive Disablism Blogging Against Disablism post\" href=\"http:\/\/slewth.wordpress.com\/2009\/05\/01\/web-development-and-aversive-disablism\/\" target=\"_self\">Blogging Against Disablism Day<\/a>. This paper has been accepted for the 1st Symposium for Humanities and Technology <a title=\"Interface 2009 website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.interface09.org.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Interface 2009<\/a>, at the <a title=\"University of Southampton\" href=\"http:\/\/www.soton.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\">University of Southampton<\/a> in July. The Symposium looks to explore many of the themes of <a title=\"Web Science\" href=\"http:\/\/webscience.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Web Science<\/a> advocated by Dame Wendy and other Soton and MIT colleagues, alongside more diverse interdisciplinary projects.<\/p>\n<p>Interface requires that all delegates present either a <em>Lightning Talk<\/em> of 2 minutes, or a poster presentation.\u00a0 I\u2019ve pulled on my size 6.5 Lightning Boots, and opted for the former presentation style \u2013 and in conversation with Dame Wendy had a chance to rehearse my pitch on aversive disablism and it\u2019s relevance for advancing debate and action on digital inclusion. Professor Hall immediately related this notion back to W3C web standards and asked my view on this \u2013 was I stating that (dis)ablism occurred at this level?\u00a0 This turned the conversation to hierarchies of impairment.<\/p>\n<p>Within accessibility practice (as in many other spheres) research and resources frequently prioritise certain communities and their requirements above others for a nexus of reasons.\u00a0 In brief terms, hierarchical views of disability and impairment have been researched since the 1970s, but in 2003, Deal published <em>Disabled people&#8217;s attitudes toward other impairment groups: a hierarchy of impairments<\/em> (Disability &amp; Society,18:7,897-910) to explore potential inter-group discrimination amongst disabled people.\u00a0 Deal\u2019s thorough review of the literature relating hierarchic understandings of impairment by both disabled and non-disabled people is essential reading.\u00a0 Deal concludes with a call for research in this area, and notes that:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8230;it is important that, whilst disabled people fight a common cause in seeking equality within society and the removal of discriminatory practices, strategies for attitude change are targeted in a manner that makes them most effective. This may include focusing attention on impairment groups that face the most discrimination in society (i.e. those ranked lowest in the hierarchy of impairments), rather than viewing disabled people as a homogenous group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Deal\u2019s later PhD research explores the nuances of this hierarchy. His thesis <em>Attitudes of Disabled People Toward Other Disabled People and Impairment Groups<\/em> from 2006 can be found hosted at the <a title=\"Mark Deal Thesis\" href=\"http:\/\/www.enham.org.uk\/pages\/research_page.html\" target=\"_blank\">Enham Research<\/a> pages.<\/p>\n<p>When relating these sociological frameworks to the internet, there is no doubt that, in pro-disabled accessibility discourse, certain groups are privileged above others. Whilst there is increasing sensitivity to this in Computer Science, with developers and researchers working to close the distance, this reasons for this divide are under-theorised within ICT discourse.<\/p>\n<p>Much accessibility research focuses strongly on achieving accessibility for people with mobility, sensory and some text impairments &#8211; this is clearly important work, however, it does not represent the totality of necessary accessible practice.\u00a0 For example, when <a title=\"Brian Kelly\" href=\"http:\/\/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Brian Kelly<\/a> and others cited limits to the W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative in their paper 2007 <a title=\"'Accessibility 2.0: people, policies and processes' paper\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ukoln.ac.uk\/web-focus\/papers\/w4a-2007\/\" target=\"_blank\">Accessibility 2.0: People, policies and processes<\/a> they upheld <a title=\"Joe Clarke blog\" href=\"http:\/\/www.alistapart.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Clarke<\/a>\u2019s observation that the WACG development process lacked adequate provision for users with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties.\u00a0 Kelly et al also cited Lisa Seeman\u2019s <a title=\"Objection to WACG\" href=\"http:\/\/lists.w3.org\/Archives\/Public\/w3c-wai-gl\/2006AprJun\/0184.html\" target=\"_blank\">formal objection<\/a> to WCAG 2.0, requesting that implicit claims that the guidelines did cover cognitive disabilities be omitted from the guidelines&#8217; abstract altogether.\u00a0 I would argue that this is one example of an occassion where cognitive and learning disablities have been afforded lower status in development discourse history and suffered aversive disablist outcomes as a result.<\/p>\n<p>Clearly, accessible practise contends with the grey areas of potentially conflicting subjectivities. But viewed in light of Deal\u2019s call to arms; adopting theory and strategies emergent from disability studies in the heart of mainstream internet practice would, I feel, create stronger debate pushing foward positive outcomes for all disabled people.\u00a0 Is this a matter for a &#8216;Disability Web Science&#8217;?<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\r\n\t\t<!-- BEGIN ODIOGO LISTEN BUTTON v2.5.7 (WP) -->\r\n\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\r\n\t\t<!--\r\n\t\t\/\/ ODIOGO_START:do_NOT_remove_this_comment\r\n\t\tshowOdiogoReadNowButton (\"687068\", \"Accessibility and Hierarchies of Impairment\", \"348\", 290, 55);\r\n\t\t\/\/ -->\r\n\t\t<\/script>\r\n\t\t<br\/>\r\n\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" language=\"javascript\">\r\n\t\t<!--\r\n\t\tshowInitialOdiogoReadNowFrame (\"687068\", \"348\", 290, 0);\r\n\t\t\/\/ ODIOGO_END:do_NOT_remove_this_comment\r\n\t\t\/\/ -->\r\n\t\t<\/script>\r\n\t\t<!-- END ODIOGO LISTEN BUTTON v2.5.7 (WP) -->\r\n\t\t\n<p>Following on from yesterday\u2019s MRL lecture, I was fortunate to talk with Prof. Dame Wendy Hall about my research and a short paper I&#8217;ve written on &#8216;Aversive Disablism and the Internet&#8217;, borne out of Blogging Against Disablism Day. This paper has been accepted for the 1st Symposium for Humanities and Technology Interface 2009, at the [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15,18,33],"tags":[282,285,94,147],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-disability","category-forthcoming-events","category-papers","category-webtech","tag-accessibility","tag-disability","tag-hierarchy","tag-shameless-name-dropping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slewth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}