The Growing Disability Divide, is anyone listening?

By Donna Jodhan

What exactly is the disability divide and why am I so up in arms these days about this? The disability divide refers to the gap between what is available on the Internet to the mainstream person and what can be accessed by those with disabilities. To those stakeholders and others who are closely familiar with this topic, this comes as no shocker nor shaker and the best that we can hope for now is to work extra hard to convince website owners and content developers to change their approach and attitude.

To put things in more perspective, the disability divide is made up of three distinct components; Information, websites, and technology and these three components need to be addressed individually.

Information: As more and more information becomes available on the Internet, it is important that a way is found for persons with disabilities to keep up with this information.

Websites: As the number of websites continue to multiply at an exorbitant rate, it is vital for special needs Canadians to be able to access as many of these as they can.

Technology: With the ever increasing growth and evolution of technology, stakeholders need to find a way for persons with disabilities to keep in step.

Who are the persons most affected by the growing disability divide? The print disabled, generally those who are blind and visually impaired, the hard of hearing, and those with learning, cognitive, and physical disabilities. Added to this large group are those whose first language is neither English nor French and those who are technically shy or those who did not grow up in the age of technology. In short, aging baby boomers and seniors.

We might as well start first with the Federal government. We need to convince our government that they must take steps to make their websites more accessible to special needs Canadians as a whole and in so doing they will help to start bridging the disability divide. If they can do this then they will be setting a precedent for others to follow. In addition to this, we need to convince our government to take decisive action to make information more accessible in alternate formats. Any information that can be accessed by the mainstream Canadian should or must also be made accessible to special needs Canadians. We need to work with all levels of government as well as with companies and organizations to develop ways for technology to be made more available to those with disabilities.

So often, financial barriers play a huge role in making technology inaccessible to persons with disabilities. It simply will not be enough for us as a community to just say that the government must do this and must do that because it is our right to have all of this made accessible to us. No! It may go a long way if we can point out the benefits to helping to bridge the disability divide. Benefits such as: If the disability divide is dealt with affirmatively then not only special needs Canadians benefit; those who are financially disabled also benefit. The technically shy, baby boomers and seniors who did not grow up in the age of technology, and those whose first language is neither English nor French.

As Canada grows older and becomes home to more and more immigrants, it would be very important for all levels of government to be able to deal with these two additional challenges as they can be seen as being directly related to the ramifications of the disability divide.

Attacking the disability divide head-on can help to solve many other challenges and it is my hope that someone out there in authority is listening. The disability divide is not going to go away and will only become more serious if all stakeholders do not start working together soon to come up with concrete action.

I'm Donna J. Jodhan, your freelance writer and reporter wishing you a terrific day.

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