The Disabled Divide

In class, we watched this video about the digital divide and accessibility for the disabled. When comparing all aspects of the digital divide, I believe that disability is the most important concern, rather than race, age, gender, or other factors.

I think we all take our senses for granted sometimes, but I have to admit, I never thought about disabled people accessing the internet. In the digital age, the internet is becoming more and more entwined with our daily lives. From online banking to work related intranets, the internet is an important tool, and denying access to a group because of their physical limitations can have serious consequences for the future.

According to usability guru, Jakob Neilsen, disabled users face many hurdles. People who are blind must tab from link to link to find what they are looking for on a website. Other users are disabled and cannot use a mouse for navigation. Some internet users cannot hear and are limited by audio directions for navigation.

Neilsen performed a study in which disabled users performed simple tasks such as buying a CD at Target.com, checking stock reports, and getting a local weather report. I did not understand everything about the survey methodology and testing, but I was shocked to learn that users with disabilities, on average, took almost 17 minutes to perform these basic tasks. The control group of non-impared users performed the tasks with an average of 7 minutes. Neilsen's findings included evidence that non-disabled users can use the internet 3 times faster than disabled individuals. That's shocking!

In the past, I've criticized Neilsen's website as ugly and bland, but I realize now that it would be incredibly user-friendly to users with disabilities. We should strive so that the "internet revolution" does not leave out these individuals.