CHI 2021: Redefining accessibility to build more inclusive technologies
Accessibility and inclusion represent a growing space in the technology landscape, and how research and development are being used to empower people across abilities is expanding in exciting ways.
Instead of treating disabilities as conditions in need of solutions—as has been the case over the years with the medical-based approach to accessibility—research is moving toward a social approach, examining and addressing the societal expectations imposed on people with disabilities and society’s lack of inclusion. The world comprises people of various abilities but accommodates the abilities of the majority. A world in which everyone were blind would be designed very differently from the world we know today.
This leaves a gap between what people with disabilities are capable of and what the environment set up for the