First, is this book available in an accessible format?

Second, the description seems to raise an issue I’m currently arguing about accessible document design.

PDF/UA – 1 states that Heading levels are not to be skipped which is a position I support. However, there is currently a discussion about what “accessibility” means that seems to counter what those of us who have been teaching/training accessible document design for over a decade have been doing.

My experience in accessible document design dates back to 1998 when online learning first gained recognition as a way to facilitate learning. In full disclosure I wrote the first book on creating and working with accessible PDF and the first book on creating more accessible Word documents. I also use adaptive technology.

The current argument against sequential use of Headings includes a few use cases that are admittedly (by the author of the article) the minority of document structure combined the statement from those creating international standards that “accessibility doesn’t mean that you have access to well-structured documents, it means you have equal access to poorly structured documents.”

“We” fought this battle with WCAG 1. WCAG 1 helped people understand the importance of well structured content and although WCAG 1 and 2 do not forbid the skipping of Heading levels, those doing training encourage sequential Headings for consistency of navigation. Likewise with PDF, word processed, presentation and desktop published documents…we teach/train the use of sequential Headings and “really discourage” skipped Headings.

We developed the “you don’t skip Headings” structure as we developed our understanding of how people using screen readers or Text-to-Speech tools both navigated a document and decode information about the structure of the document from the Heading levels used.

We also saw numerous instances where a document author liked the look of Heading 3 so everything in a document was a heading 3. This meant that there is no real structure or levels of importance to any content other than a third level topic. We also see this in web pages.

Some are now arguing that this “is” a logical document structure.

I’m looking for concepts of exactly what “access” means. As someone with a disability, I have “access” to a car but it doesn’t mean that the car is accessible

Is there any literature on this topic?

I’m concerned that international standards may be regressing and caving to the pressure of poorly structured content and that we are substituting “access to ”. for “accessibility of.”

Cheers, Karen

Dear DISABILITY-RESEARCH Subscribers,

A new publication from the Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights

Free postage to UK customers

Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

Edited by Jonathan Lazar & Michael Ashley Stein

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/disability-human-rights-and-information-technology

   "This is an exciting and much-needed project. The right to accessibility has received relatively little academic attention and this book performs a field-defining role."—Anna Lawson, University of Leeds

   "As information technology continues to transform human endeavor, it poses new challenges to law and regulation in many sectors. Disability is such a sector. There is no other book that provides so many insights into the rapidly evolving international scene."—Clayton H. Lewis, University of Colorado, Boulder

   Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology addresses the global issue of equal access to information and communications technology (ICT) by persons with disabilities. The right to access the same digital content at the same time and at the same cost as people without disabilities is implicit in several human rights instruments and is featured prominently in Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The right to access ICT, moreover, invokes complementary civil and human rights issues: freedom of expression; freedom to information; political participation; civic engagement; inclusive education; the right to access the highest level of scientific and technological information; and participation in social and cultural opportunities.  

   Despite the ready availability and minimal cost of technology to enable people with disabilities to access ICT on an equal footing as consumers without disabilities, prevailing practice around the globe continues to result in their exclusion. Questions and complexities may also arise where technologies advance ahead of existing laws and policies, where legal norms are established but not yet implemented, or where legal rights are defined but clear technical implementations are not yet established.

   At the intersection of human-computer interaction, disability rights, civil rights, human rights, international development, and public policy, the volume's contributors examine crucial yet underexplored areas, including technology access for people with cognitive impairments, public financing of information technology, accessibility and e-learning, and human rights and social inclusion.

Contributors: John Bertot, Peter Blanck, Judy Brewer, Joyram Chakraborty, Tim Elder, Jim Fruchterman, G. Anthony Giannoumis, Paul Jaeger, Sanjay Jain, Deborah Kaplan, Raja Kushalnagar, Jonathan Lazar, Fredric I. Lederer, Janet E. Lord, Ravi Malhotra, Jorge Manhique, Mirriam Nthenge, Joyojeet Pal, Megan A. Rusciano, David Sloan, Michael Ashley Stein, Brian Wentz, Marco Winckler, Mary J. Ziegler.

Jonathan Lazar is Professor of Computer and Information Sciences and Director of the Undergraduate Program in Information Systems at Towson University. He is author of numerous books, including Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy and Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction. 

Michael Ashley Stein is Cofounder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School, and Extraordinary Professor at University of Pretoria Faculty of Law, Centre for Human Rights.

University of Pennsylvania Press | Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights | May 2017 | 360pp | 9780812249231 | HB | £58.00*

20% discount with this code: CSL17HURIG**

 *Price subject to change.

 **Offer excludes the USA, South America and Australia.

Author and independent bookshop blog - Bookscombined.com 

 Follow us on Twitter @CAP_Ltd, Facebook Combined Academic Publishers and 

 Sign up to our newsletter email alerts here

________________End of message________________

This Disability-Research Discussion list is managed by the Centre for Disability Studies at the University of Leeds (www.leeds.ac.uk/disability-studies).

Enquiries about list administration should be sent to [log in to unmask]

Archives and tools are located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html

You can VIEW, POST, JOIN and LEAVE the list by logging in to this web page.