Question

What is Accessibility?

A 1997 report by the U.S. Census Bureau categorizes 19.6% of the U.S. population as having some sort of disability. Within that group are individuals with visual, hearing, cognitive, and motor impairments. Each category includes a much wider range of conditions. For example, visual impairments include limited vision, color blindness, and blindness. Disability categories can also include temporary disabilities; for example, someone with a broken wrist may have difficulty using a mouse but still needs access to the web to meet day-to-day job requirements.

At the same time, statistics about individuals with disabilities may be misleading. As people get older, most face a disability of some kind. While nearly 20% of the total U.S. population has a disability, as the population ages, the proportion of people with disabilities grows (see Table 1). In fact, almost 75% of the population over 80 years old has a disability. Thus, accessibility is not just about opening doors — it is about keeping them open.

Answer 1

Although there are laws and policies that boasts of supporting the disabled, in reality they are not able to get the opportunities due to lack of accessibility in terms transportation, elevators, voice assisted services etc. This would mean that lack of accessibility prevents people with disability to move around and work in places where there is no technological help in terms of fulfilling their job. This is one of the most important reasons for the disabled to lose their opportunities to normal people. The second challenge is to address the mentally challenged people in terms of facilitating counselling and treatment facilities that would bring them back to the society as normal people. Thus, it’s true that it’s not important to open the doors for the disabled but keep the doors open with enough accessibilities.

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