- Dec 2016
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dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu
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universal design is efficient
Universal design creates a smooth navigation through a particular process for everyone including the disabled. This could save on time, money, and resources.
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First, ensuring that digital resources created with federal funding are accessible is the law in many countries.
When thinking on a federal level in the U.S., we understand more of why universal design is important when we think of how diverse and tolerant our country is with people of many different walks of life.
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Something created to assist a person with a disability—to make their environment more accessible in some way—might not be affordable or aesthetically pleasing even if it is usable and helpful. Something created using universal design principles, on the other hand, is designed “for a very broad definition of user that encourages attractive, marketable products that are more usable by everyone” (Mace).
Accessibility caters to the specific, while universal design is broad and thinking of people as a whole.
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Mace argues for the importance of distinguishing between universal design principles and accessibility principles. To embrace accessibility is to focus design efforts on people who are disabled, ensuring that all barriers have been removed. To embrace universal design, by contrast, is to focus “not specifically on people with disabilities, but all people” (Mace).
An important concept broken down, it is important to understand the difference in the two. So overall accessibility can be achieved with universal design in mind.
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Wendy Chisolm and Matt May write that to embrace universal design principles is to “approach every problem …with the ultimate goal of providing the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people possible” (2).
But even if you may not ever be able to reach total usability for all, by keeping a universal design in mind, you can get as close as possible.
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The term “universal design” was invented by architect Ronald Mace, founder of North Carolina State University’s (NCSU) Center for Universal Design. According to the NCSU College of Design, the term “describe[s] the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life” (“Ronald L. Mace”).
A designer could create certain aspects of a web page or digital document to assist someone with a physical disability, like blindness or deafness, but it maybe more difficult to help those who lack in the ability of technology or there status of life disallows them to use technology. So a universal design isn't exactly absolute.
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In fact, such tools actually do the work of disabling people by preventing them from using digital resources altogether.
By not including a large number of people because of the disabilities is a disability within itself becomes it prevents them even further.
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While professionals working in educational technology and commercial web design have made significant progress in meeting the needs of such users, the humanities scholars creating digital projects all too often fail to take these needs into account. This situation would be much improved if more projects embraced the concept of universal design, the idea that we should always keep the largest possible audience in mind as we make design decisions, ensuring that our final product serves the needs of those with disabilities as well as those without.
The idea of attempting to reach the largest possible audience is helpful and will probably result in the best designed resource.
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What has remained neglected for the most part, however, are the needs of people with disabilities. As a result, many of the otherwise most valuable digital resources are useless for people who are—for example—deaf or hard of hearing, as well as for people who are blind, have low vision, or have difficulty distinguishing particular colors.
Often times when we think disabilities, we think of extreme cases. But in fact, having to wear glasses or contacts is considered a disability because without aid, it would be very difficult to engage in the majority of activities. This is why it is necessary to understand disabilities and make sure that digital resources caters to everyone's needs.
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Digital knowledge tools that assume everyone approaches information with the same abilities and using the same methods risk excluding a large percentage of people.
In a ever changing, more accepting world, one of the most important aspects is to remember that everyone does not think the same has you or have all of the same abilities as you. When you have a tool that excludes are large population of people, the product isn't very usable at all which is one of the primary end goals.
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