A wide variety of assistive tools, formatting, and consistency amongst interfaces are all factors that contribute to accessibility. Although, aspects such as the ableist roots in people’s subconscious thought, and ambiguity amongst accessibility laws, are greater deterrents to an all inclusive internet. Reversing the ingrained societal perception of disabilities, and implementing tools for deaf-blind people on the internet should be of great importance to web creators.
While researching accessibility for deaf blind people, every article has stated a byproduct, or form, of ableism as an obstacle to accessibility.
Sushil Oswal and Lisa Meloncon (2014) state that “Issues of access, as they relate to technology and to the instructors’ understanding of these issues, work to maintain the abled as the normative ideology and minimize the need to make accommodations for the disabled” (p. 284).
Jason Palmeri (2006) indicates that the dominant technology is adapted to “normal” people, in turn, subtly marginalizing disabled people and excluding countless groups. He argues that all technologies should be accessible so everyone has more ways to experience content, and question why the internet is primarily text based in the first place (p. 56).
Countless other quotes from the other articles could be included in this section. Regardless, they all argue that the “othering” and ignorance blind-deaf individuals face from society are significant reasons to why accessibility is stunted on the internet. The articles’ notion of rewiring one’s mindset to not view the impaired as someone who needs to be accommodated, but rather, should be initially included, has proven to be essential for an inclusive internet.
Webdale (2003), lists many assistive technologies that are helpful to deaf-blind people. He includes alt tags describing images, giving context, verbalizing where links redirect to, and providing downloading information about the graphic. Similarly, longdesc tags should be used with charts and graphs, providing further descriptions alongside alt tags. For multimedia, websites should have audio transcripts to go along with their content, and descriptions of video material (paras. 11-19).
Sushil Oswal and Lisa Meloncon (2014) believe that providing multiple means of representation, engagement, action, and expression amongst assistive technologies for blind-deaf, and disabled, groups is a crucial way to ensure internet accessibility for such a wide spectrum of people (p. 288).
Mandating, normalizing, and implementing various tools like these on a broad scale will create greater efficiency for visually, or hearing, impaired people. These tools are essential for the success of impaired groups, additionally, they could open up new opportunities for fully abled people to experience content.
Upon researching, it is apparent that people on the spectrum for blind and deafness heavily depend on consistency for logically navigating web interfaces. Consistency is key for not only formatting, but also content translation.
Jessica Ulmer (2019) reviews Zednek’s work detailing his frustration with closed captions. Many closed captions vary in how they translate the same noise, or cues, in the media. For someone who is deaf, experiencing content at the hands of translators’ subjectivity can be confusing, and greatly take away from the user’s experience (p. 2).
In terms of formatting and page organization, Webdale (2003) says that consistency allows blind and deaf people to access online information much faster. Style sheets are a good example of uniformity that aids the deaf-blind community in finding websites accessible.
Blind-deaf groups are susceptible to wasting a lot of time, being confused, or being unable to use an interface if it is not relatively homogenous. If a web organization is to be accessible, it must be giving the same level of user satisfaction and efficiency to disabled people as it does to fully abled individuals. Eliminating pattern and translation does not achieve this goal. Demanding consistent web interfaces is a basic step that creates monumental ease for blind-deaf groups, and people in general.