Disabilities, Barriers, and Solutions Flashcards
What are assistive technologies?
Products, devices, systems, or items used by people with disabilities to perform tasks which they could not do otherwise.
Also called adaptive technologies or adaptive software when used with computers.
What are adaptive strategies?
Tweaks and adjustments that people with disabilities use to perform daily living activities. They increase independence and ability to participate in society.
What are the 9 main categories of disabilities?
- Visual
- Auditory
- Deaf-Blindness
- Speech and Language
- Mobility, Flexibility, and Body Structure
- Cognitive
- Seizure
- Psychological
- Multiple/Complex
What are visual disabilities?
- Some amount of vision loss
- Loss of visual acuity (sharpness)
- Increased or decreased sensitivity to specific or bright colors
- Complete or uncorrectable loss of vision in either or both eyes
What is blindness?
A sensory disability involving varying degrees of vision loss. Some people are completely blind, others can perceive light vs. dark or general shapes of objects.
How many people globally have a vision impairment or blindness?
2.2 billion people
Of these, at least 1 billion have a vision impairment that could have been prevented or has yet to be addressed.
What are the leading causes of vision impairment globally?
Uncorrected refractive errors and cataracts.
What age are most people with vision impairment?
Over 50 years old.
What is color blindness (or Color Vision Deficiency)?
A sensory disability where a person may not be able to distinguish certain color combinations.
How common is red-green color blindness?
1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 females.
How common is blue-yellow color blindness?
Fewer than 1 in 10,000 worldwide.
What is low vision?
Uncorrectable vision loss that interferes with daily activities. It is better defined in terms of function, rather than numerical tests. Characteristics can include low vision contrast and difficulty distinguishing certain colors.
What percent of people have low vision worldwide?
3.5%
What percent of people with vision impairments live in low-income settings?
90%
Barriers for people with Visual Disabilities (10)
- Printed materials not available in digital files or braille
- Inadequate lighting
- Sounds interfering with informative sounds
- Non-tactile signs
- Obstacles in path
- No text alternatives
- Text, images, and layouts that cannot be resized or lose information when resized
- Video content with no text or audio alternatives, or audio description
- Insufficient color contrast
- Sites, browsers, and authoring tools that do not work fully when using a keyboard or are unable to customize colors.
Accessibility solutions for People with Visual Disabilities in a physical environment (5):
- Raised tiles on the ground to indicate the edge of a platform, curb, staircase, etc.
- Eliminate low-hanging architectural features that a person could bump into
- Clear obstructions in hallways and on sidewalks
- Information in Braille on signs and controls (e.g., elevator buttons, code locks, etc.)
- Tactile controls on flat devices like microwaves and dishwashers
Accessibility solutions for People with Visual Disabilities in an ICT environment (5):
- Provide text alternatives for non-text information
- Make sure graphical design allows for magnification
- Use color combinations with high contrast
- Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning or information
- Standard, consistent positioning and visual presentation of objects
Assistive tech for people with vision disabilities (9):
- Screen readers
- Audio description
- Screen magnification
- Large print
- GPS-based navigation with an audio interface
- Mobile apps that provide audio descriptions of photographs objects or people
- Software to customize color contrast, color filters, and color themes
- Canes
- Service animals
What are auditory disabilities?
Sensory disabilities that range from partial to complete hearing loss.
What is Deafness?
The Total or near total loss of hearing. Some learn Sign Language as their first language, and others never learn sign language (particularly when they lose hearing later in life).
What is Hard of Hearing?
People with hearing loss ranging from mild to severe who still have some useful hearing. They may communicate through sign language and/or spoken language, with or without amplification. Many use hearing aids.
What is Central Auditory Processing Disorder?
Greater than expected difficulty hearing and understanding speech even though no measurable hearing loss exists. APD can be confused with other disabilities like ADHD or other language and learning disabilities.
APD is not an inability to hear. It’s an inability to interpret, organize, or analyze what’s heard.
How many people have APD globally?
5%
What are barriers for people with auditory disabilities (8)?
- People who speak softly or in large spaces without aids like microphones
- Absence of sign language interpretation
- Loud environments or competing sounds (background noise)
- Conversations, interactions, and meetings where accessing communication from multiple speakers is challenging
- Poor lighting conditions that prevent lip-reading
- Websites and other tech that require voice interaction or listening to engage with content
- Audio in videos and films presented without captions or transcripts
- Media players that do not support captions or options to control volume or customize size and color of captions
Solutions for people with auditory disabilities (7):
- Sign language interpretation
- Captions for videos, live online meetings, live presentations
- Text alternatives such as transcripts for audio content
- Provide alternative visual alerts such as lights flashing for doorbells, alarms, and other alerts
- Quiet work environments or the option to work in different settings
- Clear signage for meeting rooms with microphones connected to audio induction loops
- Environments designed with good acoustics and lighting
Assistive tech for people with auditory disabilities (10):
- Assistive listening systems and devices in meeting rooms
- Personal listening devices (PLD) to connect with assistive listening systems
- Hearing aids
- Cochlear Implants
- Audio Controls
- Haptic alerts/feedback
- Visual labels / notifications / alerts
- Text-to-speech (TTS) software
- Sound field systems to amplify voices of speakers
- Noise-canceling headphones
What is Deaf-Blindness?
A rare sensory disability that includes both deafness and blindness. Touch is the only viable means of complex communication.
What percentage of the world’s population is Deaf-Blind?
.2 - 2%
Barriers for people with Deaf-Blindness (4):
- Lack of printed braille
- Incorrect or incomplete output to a braille keyboard
- Lack of braille transcripts of video or audio
- Lack of tactile sign language interpretation
Solutions for people with Deaf-Blindness (3):
- Transcripts of video or audio materials made available in braille
- Tactile sign language interpretation
- Other solutions based on individual needs
Assistive Tech for Deaf-Blindness (9):
- Screen reader converting text to braille on a refreshable braille device
- Conversion of transcripts to braille for audio and video
- Printed braille
- Haptic alerts/feedback
- Cane
*Service animals - Tactile navigation aids
- Tactile sign language interpretation
- Deaf-Blind communicator
What are speech and language disabilities?
Language disorders may affect not only speech but also the ability to write, read and understand information.
Speech disorders concern the way people say words and make sounds.
What are Speech Sound Disorders?
An umbrella term for difficulties ranging from mild slurred speech to a complete inability to move the mouth to speak.
What are Organic Speech Sound Disorders?
Include disorders resulting from motor-neurological disorders including:
* Apraxia (what the person knows what they want to say, but the brain has difficulty planning the movements)
* Dysarthria (difficulty controlling the muscles used to speak)
* Structural deficiencies (cleft lip palate)
* Sensory/perceptual disorders (e.g., hearing loss)
What are Functional Speech Sound Disorders?
These disorders do not stem from acquired or developmental disorders and have no known cause. They typically include errors in articulation (clear and distinct sounds) and phonology (sound patterns).
What is No Speech?
Mutism, an inability to speak. It can be caused by damage to the brain and/or speech muscles, by emotional or psychological reasons, or by a combination of causes.
What is Neurogenic mutism?
Mutism caused by a brain injury.
What is Psychogenic mutism?
Where speech loss has psychological rather than neurological causes.
What are the three types of psychogenic mutism?
- Elective mutism, where a person chooses not to speak
- Selective mutism, where a person wants to speak but cannot do so in certain situations due to anxiety
- Total mutism, in which a person does not speak at all.
What is Aphasia?
A language disorder resulting from neurological damage. It affects all use of language, not just speech, meaning it affects the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain, most commonly from a stroke. There are multiple types of aphasia.
Barriers for people with language and speech disabilities (4):
- Complex communication systems
- Not enough time to communicate, access information, or respond
- Lack of understanding and patience by persons when communicating
- Lack of alternatives for speech communication, such as multimodal or text-based alternatives
Solutions for people with language and speech disabilities (4)?
- Simplified communication methods, including multiple options for communication
- Increased understanding, patience, and adaptations
- Additional time to complete tasks
- Providing the option to use text-based alternatives to speech to communicate
What is a mobility disability?
Limit independent, purposeful movement of the body or of one or more limbs. Can be permanent or temporary.
What are fine motor skills?
Intricate hand and wrist movements needed to manipulate, control, and use objects. Fine motor skills involve coordinated efforts of the brain and muscles.
