A report submitted to:
Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
16 April 2013
Jutta Treviranus, Vera Roberts, Eve Rotstein, Cathy Berry
Inclusive Design Research Centre
Figure 1: Internet access costs increases substantially when assistive technology is required.
Figure 2: Trends arising from environmental forces within the Inclusive Design Industry.
Figure 4: An illustration of the economic ramp represented by a multi-sided platform for inclusion.
Figure 5: Multi-sided platform model
Figure 6: Regional composition of survey respondents.
Figure 7: Number of employees by region.
Figure 9: Respondents indicate a broad range of focii.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AD | Audio description: Uses a program host or announcer to provide a basic voice-over, reading text and describing graphics that appear on the screen. AD is often used for newscasts, weather reports, sports scores or financial data, and is best suited to live, information-based programming. |
| ADA | (US) Americans with Disabilities Act |
| ADP | (Ontario) Assistive Devices Program |
| AODA | Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act |
| API | Application Programming Interface |
| ARIA | Accessible Rich Internet Applications |
| ATAG | (W3C) Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (version 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation, version 2.0 is in development) |
| ATIA | Assistive Technology Industry Association |
| Badging | A system to provide verifiable credit for learning and demonstrated skills outside of formal educational institutitons. |
| DRM | Digital Rights Management |
| Conversion-ready | defined within the AODA legislation as an electronic or digital format that facilitates conversion into an accessible format |
| DV | Described video: A narrated description of a program's main visual elements, such as settings, costumes, or body language. The description is added during pauses in dialogue and enables people to form a mental picture of the program. It works best for pre-recorded programs such as dramas and documentaries. Described video uses a separate audio track. |
| EU | European Union |
| FCC | (US) Federal Communications Commission |
| G3-ICT | The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICTs (and advocacy initiative of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development) |
| GDP | Gross Domestic Product |
| GPII | Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure |
| Garage Inventor | An individual who creates new products and models in home workshops. |
| HAC | Hearing Aid Compatibility |
| ICT | Information and Communication Technology |
| Hacklab | Physical gathering of people with a common interest—usually in programming or other sciences—to collaborate and develop open source software or alternate formats |
| IDE | Integrated Development Environment |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| Maker-community | Individuals with an interest in building and extending computer applications who work together in hackerspaces and hacklabs (see definition above) |
| OAF | Open Accessibility Framework |
| OCR | Optical Character Recognition |
| OECD | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development |
| OS | Operating System |
| PWD | Persons with disabilities |
| QR | Quick Response |
| SME | Small and Medium Enterprises |
| TTS | Text-To-Speech |
| UAAG | (W3C) User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (version 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation, version 2.0 is in development) |
| W3C-WAI | World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative |
| WAI-ARIA | (W3C) Accessible Rich Internet Applications, W3C Candidate Recommendation |
| WAI-PF | (W3C) WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group |
| WCAG | (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines |
| Cloud | Refers to web-based networked services that allow access to personal applications and documents from any connected device |
| Peer-learning | Non-traditional form of education in which instruction is derived from working with or observing other individuals with common interests/background/age. |
| Pull Market | A market in which production is directly in response to a consumer where consumers express a need for a product to producers and then the product is made--initiated by demand. In contrast to a push market in which products are marketed to consumers following production. |
| Badging | A way to earn credit for non-traditional learning such as through online workshops or training courses that are not affiliated with schools of higher learning. The badging system is an open source technical standard to allow individuals to accrue and state learned skills in a way that is verifiable and substantiated. |
From an economics and social perspective the inclusive design industry in Canada has the potential to power a virtuous cycle of greater innovation, greater productivity, increased GDP, higher average earnings and better quality of life for Canadians. It can address barriers to employment in all organizations, at the same time as it provides new opportunities for employment in a growing new industry with rising global demand. Unlike many other possible investments, inclusive design is future-proof. Even if we discover a "cure" for age-related impairments, the incidence of disability will continue to rise as survival rates from man-made and natural disasters continue to increase through advances in health care. Unlike other industries, there is no "downside" to inclusive design. Inclusive design benefits everyone and is a powerful impetus for innovation.
This report addresses the questions:
The accessibility or inclusive design industry is defined as the manufacturers and service providers whose target consumers are persons with disabilities[1] or entities that want to/must provide inclusive products and services. When defined in this way, the industry includes a very broad set of products and services that could include prosthetics, ramps, software, counselling, furniture, clothing and so on. While this report will examine the accessibility industry as a whole, it will focus on accessible information and communication technologies because of the wide range of products, services and daily activities incorporating digital technologies and the transformative impact of digital systems and networks. It can also be said that we are currently in a networked and digital economy with most growth markets encompassing some form of digital systems (Industry Canada Media Relations, 2012)
The inclusive design industry suffers in part from a lack of awareness of the benefits of inclusion and/or the extent of the consumer base requiring inclusively designed products and services. While legislation that supports inclusion such as Ontario’s AODA compels some sectors and business to become more engaged in inclusive design there is still a need to more widely disseminate information about the financial benefits of inclusion as shown in recent reports: Leveraging Inclusion and Diversity as Canada's Digital Advantage Treviranus, Stolarick, Denstedt, Fichten, & Ascunsion, 2011) and Releasing Constraints Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario (Kemper et al., 2010), and advocated by economists such as Richard Donovan (Tancock, 2012)
A number of initiatives globally are advancing a new approach to digital inclusion that addresses the systemic problems and weaknesses in the assistive technology or inclusive design industry. This approach was initially developed in Canada to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and other consumers who are currently marginalized (frequently referred to as AccessForAll after the international standards that support the approach). Simply described, AccessForAll provides a means for individuals to discover/determine and declare what it is that works best for them with respect to digital resources and user interfaces; the infrastructure then delivers a personally customized resource or user interface wherever and whenever the individual happens to access services. When they request a specific service or resource this infrastructure matches the stated individual preferences by transforming the resource or interface, augmenting it, replacing it with an equivalent resource from a federated repository of pooled resources or reaching out to producers and suppliers who can fill the gaps. (See http://gpii.net for a simple animation). This approach capitalizes on the pace and path of technical innovation rather than trying to continuously catch up to it. It also treats inclusive design or accessibility as a mainstream issue.
Demographic trends, technology developments, economic factors and policy changes are helping to change the way we approach accessibility. A powerful social trend that has been noted in many sectors is the changing demands of the baby boomers for inclusively designed goods and services as they age. This large segment of the population continues to influence markets as they enter their senior years. Digital technologies and resources are more mutable or customizable than their non-digital counterparts. Global networks enable pooling and sharing of resources. Several emerging market approaches have resulted in a reduced need to address only the largest market or consumer groups as the costs of producing "extreme" products decreases. At the same time, interest in and need for inclusion is increasing due to policies such as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, US legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD).
As one of the research activities to support this report, a questionnaire was distributed to over seven hundred Canadian and European accessibility industry organizations to develop an overview of the industry. The information gathered from the twenty-seven respondents provides some insight into the current industry in Canada and Europe. It is clear from the responses that the industry is very fragmented, underdeveloped and unable to address the large diversity of demands.
Despite the increasing numbers of individuals with disabilities nationally and internationally as well as the need for skilled labour and projected labour shortages, we see that there is a market failure in the accessibility industry that leads to a vicious cycle of digital exclusion. Strategic government intervention is needed to overcome this market failure and propel development of a viable and economically rewarding industry to support digital inclusion. A 2010 report by the Martin Prosperity Institute, Releasing Constraints Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario projected that inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Ontario labour-force could boost the province’s economy by $510-$4,918 million dollars (Kemper et al., 2010, p. 17) through increased employment income. This potential increase is only the leading edge of an economic ramp that has yet to be fully realised.
The factors that contribute to the failure on the part of the current accessibility industry to address the needs of the growing number of consumers with disabilities include: fragmentation, redundant effort, poor communication and marketing, inefficient social service supports, ever-increasing technical challenges, inability to keep up with mainstream products, lack of interoperability, inadequate training, poor maintenance and lack of consumer awareness. One emerging approach, considered a best practice in other jurisdictions but originating in Canada, has the potential to address many of these systemic issues. A cloud-enabled multi-sided platform would provide a means to:
Canada has an opportunity to leverage global interest in this made-in-Canada approach to inclusion to create an economic driver and reclaim a leadership role in the global digital economy.
Canada has the necessary conditions and is well placed to foster an accessibility or inclusive design industry that will assist in making jobs more accessible and can also create jobs for currently unemployed individuals including youth and persons with disabilities.
Given demographic trends globally, the demand for inclusively designed products can only grow and will not dissipate. With the move toward mass customization and personalization the capacity to provide inclusively designed services and products is broadly applicable, far beyond the needs of persons with disabilities. With the maturation of 3D printing and 3D scanning, Canada has the opportunity to harness a transformative technology that will revolutionize manufacturing. With Cloud infrastructure that provides direct links to global demand, Canada is ideally situated to establish an inclusive design industry that will serve a growing demand that is aggregated through these networks.
Both the US and EU administration are investing in Canada-initiated research innovations that address digital inclusion. The Canadian government can capitalize on this interest and investment, assert provenance, and steer the direction of the research to benefit Canada. As the cloud infrastructure supporting the research and development is in Canada and as the infrastructure serves to aggregate demand for inclusively designed services and products in both the EU and the US, the infrastructure can act as a direct pipeline for global demand for accessible services and products.
To capitalize on this opportunity requires the following actions:
A multi-sided platform could foster a robust and inclusive design industry that is able to meet the rapidly changing needs of individuals who experience functional limitations when accessing technology either through disability or context-based limitations. This approach would help to connect supply with demand for accessible and assistive technologies, enable Canada to capitalize on investments it is already making in technology initiatives that could support such a platform as well as provide an opportunity to create jobs, enable training and better meet the needs of individuals who require assistive technology. This last opportunity is especially important in order to create and sustain an inclusive society where individuals have equal access to the myriad technologies that are increasingly a part of our daily lives and as disability rates in the population increase with aging. There is a time limited window to transform the challenge of inclusion and accessibility for persons with disabilities into an economic opportunity for a new global industry within Canada.
The accessibility industry is defined as the manufacturers and service providers whose target consumers are persons with disabilities[2] or entities who want to/must provide inclusive products and services. When defined in this way, the industry includes a very broad set of products and services that could include prosthetics, ramps, software, counselling, furniture, clothing and so on. While this report will examine the accessibility industry as a whole, it will focus on accessible information and communication technologies because of the wide range of products, services and daily activities incorporating digital technologies and the transformative impact of digital systems and networks.
Accessibility is a subset of design that is often erroneously viewed as a separate field altogether. The development of the assistive technology industry is an example of this presumed dichotomy: one technology is developed for the typical user and then another separate technology must be used to make it accessible to users excluded by the typical design. Like the disregard for the environment in the name of progress during the Industrial revolution, technology evolved rapidly over the last few decades without regard for the diverse access needs of consumers. Inclusion, if thought of at all, was commonly an afterthought. Just as we have come to recognize the important contribution to our prosperity and well-being that is brought by a healthy environment, parks and green spaces; there is increasing recognition of the importance of inclusion and the role of diversity in our cultural and economic prosperity. There is however a great deal of clean-up to be done and a need for new policies and incentives moving forward to ensure that inclusion and accessibility are an integral aspect of design.
As is noted in the report Leveraging Inclusion and Diversity as Canada's Digital Advantage (Treviranus et al., 2011), access to ICT is not an option but rather a necessity. More and more of our daily activities are mediated in some way by digital technology: point-of-sale devices, self-service kiosks, Internet-based services, interpersonal communication, PVRs, etc. Access to these technologies is critical for full participation in commercial, cultural, recreational and social activities. The urgency to address inequities in access is heightened by social and economic forces that put large segments of the population at risk for exclusion and make exclusion of workers from the economy unsustainable (see section 5 for an expanded discussion). The incidence of disability, especially age-related disability, within the Canadian population is expected to increase as the swell in population created by the baby boomers moves towards old age. It is projected that by 2021, 18.5% of the population will be 65 years and over (Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, 2011). Furthermore, as is noted in Rethinking Disability in the Private Sector (Fredeen, Wafer, Birch & Martin, 2013), 795,000 unemployed Canadian adults with disabilities are not prevented from working because of their disabilities and almost half have a post-secondary education. There is an urgent need to support the accessibility industry in its enterprise: 1) to help aging workers stay in the labour force and 2) to enable an untapped pool of talented workers with disabilities to participate in the workforce.
This report addresses the questions:
As noted earlier, the inclusive design industry includes multiple services, organizations and manufacturers. Prescription eyewear and related assessment services are not considered in this report nor is hardware such as grab bars, fixtures such as specialized bathtubs, transportation devices and mobility devices. Instead, this report focuses on personalized devices and assistive technologies. The tables in Appendix A: Canadian Industry Examples provide examples of the industries and organizations that are the focus of this report.
As one of the research activities to support this report, we distributed a questionnaire to over seven hundred Canadian and European Inclusive Design or Accessibility Industry organizations to develop an overview of the industry. The information gathered from the twenty-seven respondents provides some insight into the industry in Canada and Europe. The respondents were almost evenly split between Canadian and European organizations with most of the respondents identifying as companies. Respondents indicated that they used a wide variety of sales channels with web being the most common channel and most exported their products and services to other countries. One third of the respondents indicated that further funding was needed to assist the industry. The detailed analysis of the survey is found in section 10. It is clear from the responses that the industry is very fragmented, underdeveloped and inadequate to address the large diversity of demands
One success criteria of the inclusive design industry, especially with regards to technology where advances and updates are frequent, is the transfer of new developments to practical applications that are accessible, affordable and useful to consumers. Financing the transfer to market at the early development stages is challenging in nearly all sectors with the mining and oil industry being notable exceptions. The challenge of securing venture capital investment was also noted in the recent Taking Ontario Mobile report:
In a February 2011 report, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC)’s Venture Capital Industry Review[Business Development Bank of Canada, 2011] noted that low returns have caused private investors to exit the venture capital market, and it will take significant efforts to encourage their re-entry. In the last decade, Ontario has moved to create policies that seek to attract venture and angel investment to Ontario. It has provided some support for programs that focus on early-stage funding for small companies (through the ONE network, for example). The venture capital system fails where there is not clear value. Without the private sector taking on financial risk, there needs to be government involvement (Diamond & Roberts, 2013).
The inclusive design industry suffers in part from a lack of awareness regarding the benefits of inclusion and of the size of the consumer base requiring inclusively designed products and services. While legislation that supports inclusion such as Ontario’s AODA compels the public and private sector to become more engaged in inclusive design there is still a need to disseminate information about the financial benefits of inclusion more widely as shown in recent reports: Leveraging Inclusion and Diversity as Canada's Digital Advantage (Treviranus et al., 2011 and Releasing Constraints Projecting the Economic Impacts of Increased Accessibility in Ontario (Kemper et al., 2010).
Research funding in Canada, and support for industry efforts by the federal government (e.g., Industry Canada’s Assistive Devices Industry Office) have largely focused on research and development of specialized or segregated assistive technologies (e.g., rehabilitation engineering, biomedical engineering, and specialized assistive technologies), rather than supporting research or industry efforts to ensure that standard, mainstream systems are accessible. This segregation has exacerbated interoperability problems between assistive technologies and the mainstream technologies they are meant to make accessible. This approach has also served to intensify a cultural attitude among researchers, programmers and developers that accessibility is a separate domain and outside the responsibility of general design and development.
Information technologies, networks and practices are not the domain of any one nation. Designing these systems, that have become essential infrastructure within our economy, inclusively requires a global approach; this approach requires cross-jurisdictional collaboration. Research funding mechanisms in the ICT domain do not support research collaboration. Federal granting agencies such as Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) encourage international collaboration by supporting the participation of Canadian researchers in research projects approved by research competitions in other jurisdictions (e.g., the European Commission FP7 program[3]). The same is not the case for ICT projects: Canadian researchers wishing to participate in European or US collaborative efforts must seek funding in Canada through unaligned Canadian research competitions. This focus makes the global collaboration required to address digital inclusion for the growing number of individuals with disabilities very difficult.
The failure of the inclusive design industry is highlighted by considering the relative cost and ease of use of something that most Canadians view as an essential service: access to online services, applications and information. As shown by the example cases in Figure 1, the cost of required assistive technology can be prohibitive. For an individual with cognitive challenges, the additional cost exceeds C$2000; for an individual requiring alternative display options, the additional cost exceeds C$10 000.
| Hardware and Software | No Functional Limitations | Alternative Display Requirements | Alternative Input & Organization Requirements |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer with operating system, camera, keyboard, speakers and screen | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| Printer/scanner | $200 | $200 | |
| Screen Magnifier | $600 | ||
| Screen Reader | $1 100 | ||
| Scanning and Reading software | $1 400 | $1 400 | |
| Voice dictation | $600 | ||
| Braille Display | $4 500 | ||
| Braille Printer | $4 500 | ||
| Mind mapping software | $60 | ||
| Literacy software | $80 | ||
| Total without internet connection fees | $700 | $12 600 | $2 840 |
Unfortunately, "The 2006 Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) results indicate that most people with disabilities (or their immediate family) had paid for the assistive devices themselves" (Statistics Canada, 2008a). This additional cost must be borne by a group of consumers who are significantly over-represented among individuals living under the poverty line. In Canada," in 2005 almost half a million (20.5%) working-age adults 15 to 64 years with disabilities lived on a low income. . . . Canadians with disabilities are twice as likely to be living in poverty as people who do not have disabilities (20.3% vs. 10.7%, respectively)" (Council of Canadians with Disabilty, 2006). In addition, public services designed to assist in providing access to assistive technologies require complex and onerous administrative steps to qualify for funding and frequently result in the purchase of technologies that are out of date and incompatible with online applications and devices. The interoperability of assistive technologies with the computers and applications they are intended to make accessible is extremely brittle. Most assistive technologies are not compatible with the most recent versions of browsers, operating systems, applications or devices. If consumers requiring alternative access systems are to achieve meaningful digital inclusion an alternative to the current state of the assistive technology supply chain must be found.
Another unfortunate and common phenomenon is redundant effort in the accessibility field. During a recent symposium to discuss access to publications for print impairments, Canadian Association of College and University Student Services 2012, participants discovered that a popular required textbook had been redundantly scanned and converted to text by more than 400 parents and students with disabilities. Each of these efforts would result in an inferior copy of the textbook. The tragedy of this phenomenon is that this effort is wasted by individuals who already have higher demands on their time.
A number of demographic trends, technology developments, economic factors and policy changes are helping to drive change in how we approach accessibility. A powerful trend that has been noted in many sectors is the changing demands of the baby boomers for inclusively designed goods and services as they age. This large segment of the population continues to influence markets as they enter their senior years. Digital technologies and resources are more mutable or customizable than their non-digital counterparts. Global networks enable pooling and sharing of resources. Several emerging market approaches have resulted in a reduced need to address only the largest market or consumer groups as the costs of producing "extreme" products decreases. The following figure illustrates the forces acting within the AT environment and the trends that arise within each force that have an impact on the industry.
Figure 2: Trends arising from environmental forces within the Inclusive Design Industry.
Certainly in Canada our aging boomers contribute to the demand for inclusively designed products and services and help move the concept of inclusion to the mainstream. In 2011, seniors (65 years and over) accounted for 14.8% of the Canadian population; by 2036 when all baby boomers will be over age 70, seniors will account for 37.9% to 40.3% of the population depending on the rate of population growth. This large segment of the population is comprised of technology users who have an expectation that the benefits afforded by technology will continue as they age. This trend will be sustained as the children of boomers (born in 1975-1995) enter their sixties at the same time. Globally, as of 2004, There are 237 million people, 65+ years of age living in the top 20 emerging markets" (Jacobs, 2004).
The incidence of disabilities is increasing globally due to a number of factors including aging. "There are over one billion people with disabilities in the world, of who between 110-190 million experience very significant difficulties. This corresponds to about 15% of the world’s population" (World Bank & World Health Organization, 2011) In most western nations seniors will surpass children aged 14 or under for the first time ever sometime between 2015 and 2021 (Barnato, 2013). The incidence of disability increases dramatically as we age, 37% of persons age 65 to 74 and 60% of persons age 75 and over experience a disability compared to 15% of the general population. A second factor is improved survival rates from injury, illness or problems in pregnancy or birth largely due to an improved health system globally. Increased disability rates are compounded by natural and manmade disasters, violence or conflict. A current instance is Haiti, which saw a sudden unexpected rise in persons with disabilities. The global market for inclusively designed products and services is unlikely to diminish in the near future.
The ease of access to information has democratized learning in that individuals can access free learning objects, lectures, scholarly articles, training and other education resources through the internet. This change in how we are able to learn and in how we connect with relevant experts is driving the trend of informal learning and peer mentoring. Related to this trend is a parallel trend in informal certification methods. One mechanism to recognize informal learning and training is called badging. Mozilla Open Badging[4] is an example of a movement towards recognition of informal learning. Training, education and lifelong learning opportunities and programs can take new forms and provide meaningful certifications with this paradigm shift to informal training and evaluation.
Currently in Canada, rates of youth unemployment are higher than unemployment for other age groups (see section 6 A View of the Possible Inclusive Design Industry for details) and persons with disabilities have lower rates of participation in the labour force than people without disabilities (Statistics Canada, 2008b). In a time when labour shortages especially within information and communications (Economics & Analysis, 2011 are projected for the near future, we cannot continue to exclude whole segments of our population from participation in the drivers of our economy; our prosperity depends upon inclusion. Indeed, (Treviranus et al., 2011) note that "An increase in employment among persons with disabilities due to the adoption of inclusively designed ICT alone could result in an additional $4.5 million in employment income and an additional $283 in GDP per capita" (p.22).
Globally it has been noted that the segregated, specialized services established to serve individuals who face barriers to access are the most vulnerable during economic downturns and crisis. In addition it is estimated that more is spent in ensuring that only qualified individuals receive only qualified services, than is spent in actual service delivery, reducing public funding available to address accessibility requirements. It has also been estimated that upwards of 16% of the population requiring alternative access systems do not qualify for specialized services given eligibility criteria and qualification processes.
Market systems that support digital inclusion and more inclusive market participation are needed to address global challenges beyond accessibility for persons with disabilities. According to the World Economic Forum 2012 and 2013 Global Risk Reports, wealth inequality is the greatest challenge facing the world. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum asserts " We have too large a disparity in the world; we need more inclusiveness. . . . If we continue to have uninclusive growth and we continue with the unemployment situation, particularly youth unemployment, our global society is not sustainable" (Barnato, 2013). Numerous policy analysts concur, supporting the assertion that there can be no sustainable prosperity without inclusive prosperity.
This inequality is not just a between-countries challenge but a within-country challenge as well. Wilkinson and Pickett argue that inequality and income disparity have dire social and health consequences for society as a whole, that there are "pernicious effects that inequality has on societies: eroding trust, increasing anxiety and illness, (and) encouraging excessive consumption" (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009). The researchers have amassed considerable data to support the finding that for each of eleven different health and social problems: physical health, mental health, drug abuse, education, imprisonment, obesity, social mobility, trust and community life, violence, teenage pregnancies, and child well-being, outcomes are significantly worse in more unequal rich countries (Wilkinson & Pickett, 2009).
Given the inextricable move into a digital society, digital exclusion and income disparity are compounding factors. Access to online and digital systems is no longer an option but a necessity. Digital exclusion is estimated to cost the US$ 55.2 billion a year (Digital Impact Group, 2010). Wealth and digital inclusion are closely correlated for both the country and the individual and the correlation is continuing to increase (gov3 limited).
Paradoxically, the inclusive design market is one of the most certain investment opportunities. The US-based company, Fifth Quadrant Analytics specializes in understanding the economics of disability; they note that:
The disability market represents 1.1 billion people globally who face challenges across three general areas—dexterity, cognition or sensory issues. Equivalent in size to the population of China, the disability market represents an annual disposable income of $1 trillion—and $300 billion in the US alone. When you include friends and family, this adds another 1.9 billion people who control an incremental $8.1 trillion in annual disposable income.
A more integrated and sustainable, network-delivered or multi-sided-platform-enabled approach can be developed to address both: a) the growing global demand and urgent need for inclusively designed products and services as well as b) the challenge of unemployment and underemployment of youth and persons with disabilities, at the same time. This system can connect consumers currently at the margins with potential producers and suppliers also at the margins.
The technological changes present both challenges and opportunities for the accessible technology industry[5]. The following is a list of opportunities:
While there is technology to support wide-reaching and inexpensive accessibility solutions, the current accessibility industry model does not fit these opportunities and instead is subject to the additional pressure represented by multiple devices, multiple platforms and built-in access alternatives. As a segregated industry, the largest challenge facing developers of assistive technologies is the need to continue to interoperate with a growing number of applications, each potentially representing a "mash-up" or whole application that is built from a combination of parts of applications from multiple sources, which are continuously updated; as well as a growing number of devices, operating systems, and development platforms. The technical strategies AT developers rely upon will cease to work as software applications shift to a new component-based, distributed paradigm.
A consequence of this failure to keep up is that while mainstream technologies are decreasing in price and increasing in reliability, functionality, and diversity, the opposite is true for assistive technologies that act as alternative access systems which are increasing in price and decreasing in reliability, functionality and diversity. For example, several alternative access system features for individuals with severe motor impairments available in the 80’s and early 90’s are no longer offered on the market. G3ICT has developed an e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities[7] that provides information about solutions that work and guidance on setting policies that resist obsolescence.
All of the technological forces and trends impacting the AT industry are typified by the mobile trend which includes every aspect of the forces listed above. With the advent of the smartphone and tablet computers, individuals carry powerful, pocket-sized computers around at all times. These devices are digital equivalents of the multi-tooled Swiss Army knife. For example, not only is the smartphone a communication device, it is also an internet browser, a credit card, an alarm clock, a camera, a toy, a book, a gps, a device controller, and so on. Cloud computing, further extends the power of these devices by enabling access to information and files from any location. This trend is worldwide; in 2012 the number of smartphones (this doesn’t include feature phones and tablets) worldwide surpassed the 1 billion mark and this amount is expected to double by 2017 (Diamond & Roberts, 2013). This distinction highlights the importance of access to information and services by the individual no matter where or when or how. The researchers note
Mobility redefines the individual as part of a network that links data, technologies, content, context and other users and systems to create a profoundly new way of being in the world. Because of these factors, design plays a crucial role in creating processes, systems and products in the mobile sector. Successes in the mobile industry are the results of battles for excellent design—design that understands and responds to its users. (Diamond & Roberts, 2013, p. 2)
This definition indicates that technology must fade into the background and the individual and the needs of the individual must be at the forefront. The ubiquity of information and services afforded by mobile technology has made daily and frequent digitally mediated interactions a given. The challenge now is to design this technology so well that it will fade into the background for every user. The most memorable moment of one’s day should not be the fact that one could not use technology when it was needed because it was not inclusively designed.
The mobile trend is also represented by device convergence. Smartphone and tablets are familiar examples of one device that carries out multiple tasks: camera, phone, browser, scheduler, calculator, game, social networking, GPS, document reading and editing, etc. We are also seeing convergence of mobile technology in more novel ways such as wearable sensors. Much of mobility is supported by cloud computing that enables a single point of access to multiple information and applications that is independent of context or location but also has the capacity to respond to context or location.
In the last decade, small-medium enterprises (SMEs) accounted for 54% of all jobs created in the private sector and represent 54.3% of the GDP(>Business Development Bank of Canada, 2011). However, even though 86% of Canada’s exporting companies have less than 100 employees, they account for only 25% of the total value of Canadian exports. Small companies with expertise in inclusive design may benefit from supported access to global markets.
While there is a growing demand for inclusively designed products, the segregated nature of the industry, the modes of delivery employed, the impediments to collaboration, the barriers to interoperability all contribute to a highly fragmented market that cannot generate enough critical mass to pass the threshold to sustainability. Mainstream markets, as they are currently configured will also not address the growing demand. A new market model is needed.
Currently most consumer markets can be characterized as push markets. Producers and suppliers develop and mass-produce products and then persuade consumers that they need these products, through marketing and commercialization efforts. These push markets have become so extreme that some producers spend most of their capital in marketing and commercialization, leaving very little for production and innovation (Asmundson, 2012). (This is acceptable if these products are related to optional needs such as hobbies or esoteric tastes. Unfortunately most individuals with disabilities have marginal needs that represent essential services and products they depend upon. Consequently the spending power of this group of consumers, that is already more likely to live below the poverty line, becomes even more compromised.)
In contrast a pull market enabled by global networks (such as that supported by the approach discussed below), begins the transaction with the demand rather than the supply. This direction for commerce greatly reduces the need for marketing and commercialization. Producers respond to demands expressed by consumers directly. This process removes the barriers to market entry experienced by new producers, indie developers and emerging economies who cannot easily reach consumers in a push market heavy with costly marketing campaigns from established companies. Consumers also drive the design and can thereby steer production in more diverse directions; enabling a diversification of demand prompting a diversification of supply and triggering greater innovation. This pull market is dependent on a means of effectively communicating consumer demands to appropriate suppliers in a timely manner, potentially through a multi-sided platform (Hagiu, 2006).
A number of initiatives globally are advancing a new approach to digital inclusion for individuals with disabilities and other consumers who are currently marginalized (frequently referred to as AccessForAll after the international standard that supports the approach). Simply described, AccessForAll provides a means for individuals to discover/determine and declare (using an ISO AccessForAll standard), what it is that works best for them with respect to digital resources and user interfaces; the infrastructure then delivers a personally customized resource or user interface wherever and whenever the individual happens to access services. When they request a specific digital service or resource this underlying infrastructure matches the resource or interface to the stated individual preferences by transforming it, augmenting it, replacing it with an equivalent resource from a federated repository of pooled resources, or reaching out to producers and suppliers who can fill the gaps. (See http://gpii.net for a simple animation of this approach). This approach capitalizes on the pace and path of technical innovation rather than trying to continuously catch up to it.
While not originally intended to address the needs of marginalized producers and suppliers, the AccessForAll approach has been identified as a means of addressing barriers to entry for young entrepreneurs, small enterprises, indie developers and emerging economies (a known phenomenon when designing for "extreme users", referred to as the "digital curbcut") (Jacobs, 2002). The approach was originally developed and implemented in Canada to support multi-user community access points and learning object repositories (through the Web4All and TILE projects funded by Industry Canada). Canada also introduced the supporting ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standards. The network infrastructure for these initiatives continues to be hosted in Canada. Jurisdictions such as the US and the European Commission as well as large philanthropic foundations such as the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation have collectively invested more than 50 million dollars in advancing this approach and researching the feasibility of implementing the approach in multiple domains.
Significant, large-scale efforts (described further in 11 Appendix C: Worldwide Exemplary Practices) that involve multiple partners from multiple countries developing and advancing this approach include:
The approach represents a paradigm shift in addressing the needs of diverse consumers. Global networks are used to deliver "one-size-fits-one" personalized user interfaces and resources to each consumer, by sourcing federated repositories of resources (including interface components), leveraging the ability to restyle digital content, and by reaching out to a growing network of potential producers and suppliers to create the needed application. This approach has the potential to reduce barriers to entry for new entrepreneurs and provides service entrepreneurship opportunities for currently unemployed youth or individuals with disabilities by creating a pull market[8] through a multi-sided platform.
As discussed above there is increasing global investment in initiatives to develop inclusive technology solutions. In Europe under the FP7 framework programme, work is underway to extend the AccessForAll approach originally developed in Canada, through a project called Cloud4All and a new project call Prosperity4All. Canada is involved in these projects through the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) of OCAD University who have an integral role in building the infrastructure of the system. These projects have four basic objectives:
The group of international projects based on AccessForAll are a mechanism for direct access to a global market for inclusive solution producers.
As a key participant in the design, development and leadership of the group of AccessForAll initiatives, Canada has an opportunity to leverage the global investment to create an economic driver that brings together skills development and entrepreneurship with a channel for delivery to a global market. This chain of demand and supply, skills development and entrepreneurship are just a few aspects of a multi-sided platform (discussed further in Multi-sided Platforms p. 25) that can drive economic prosperity through inclusion. This integrated approach is our primary recommendation for a new paradigm for the accessibility industry. This provides a new way to approach inclusion that no longer relies upon development of a separate and unsustainable industry. As is shown in the following figure, digital inclusion has wide-reaching effects on prosperity and cycles of personal, economic and creative prosperity interact to fuel and maintain prosperity.
Figure 3: This virtuous cycle of Digital Inclusion illustrates how inclusion interacts positively with cycles of personal, economic and creative prosperity.
Inclusive design should be ubiquitously integrated into all design and development fields. There is an opportunity to leverage the capacity within new networks and platforms such as Cloud4All, FLOE, Preferences for Global Access (a US implementation) and Prosperity4All (see pp. 32, 45, 45 & 45 for more information on these projects) to propel Canada forward in an inclusive design industry that spans all sectors. This paradigm shift is boosted by changes in technology and approaches to technological developments that include not only global networks such as those noted earlier but also open standards, open hardware, personal manufacturing capacity of 3-D printers, sensors in anything (even stickers), wireless technology and proliferation of "smart" wireless devices that enable location-aware, 24/7 access to information and applications.
Accessibility policies such as Ontario’s Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) or the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) and related accessibility standards and guidelines such as those of W3C and ISO are also driving the need for inclusively designed products and services. Organizations are increasingly concerned with accessibility as legal obligations compel them to provide accessible services and as the growth and potential afforded by inclusive design are realised. Organizations that are obligated to adhere to accessibility legislation can be seen as consumers within a global inclusive design market platform such as the one described above.
There are a number of current contextual forces that are shaping and heightening demand for inclusive design. At the same time the ways we utilize technology in our daily lives becomes increasingly varied and complex creating challenges in meeting the demand. Responding to these forces may require rethinking how we conceive of training and skill development as well as developing economic strategies and policies to foster growth and resilience in the industry.
The multiple demands of rapid technological change and the obligation to meet legislated requirements may be well met by a diverse pool of designers, developers , administrators and engineers who have been trained in concepts of inclusion. Training a labour force that is skilled in inclusive design is an important part of any strategy to foster a culture of inclusion because inclusive design crosses over virtually every domain. However, within Canada there is only one inclusive design program[9] and no other training programs are specifically geared towards teaching the tenets and approaches for inclusion across domains. In Ontario, the demand for inclusively designed information and communication technologies is increasing as deadlines for AODA compliance have approached. While there are several disability studies programs in Canada that foster a theoretical understanding of disability (e.g., York Critical Disability Studies, Ryerson Disability Studies, etc.), there are no programs other than the graduate program at OCAD University that focus on the skills required to meet the demands for inclusively designed products and services. These skills include understanding international accessibility guidelines for technology and how to implement them as well as training in needed media skills such as captioning, inclusive web design and inclusive media production. There is further need for inclusion skills for policy design and corporate or organizational inclusion. This training in the field of inclusive design could be developed through formal programs devoted to inclusive design (such as the Master of Design in Inclusive Design program), through cross-disciplinary programs of study that introduce inclusive design into disciplines like computer science and business administration, or through lifelong learning opportunities such as apprenticeship, training and reskilling programs that help workers develop new and in-demand skills. We cannot create an inclusive society without developing the skills needed to support this cultural change. Many of the recommendations made in this report, address the need for skills training (see p. 29).
Approaches to training should be infused with the concepts of inclusion. In recognition of diverse needs, abilities and interests a wide variety of training approaches should be considered and tested. Non-traditional approaches such as badging, hacklabs, mobile learning, peer supported learning and open education may better meet the needs of individuals who are often outside the formal education system: disenfranchised youth, care-givers and persons with disabilities. As is discussed further in section 6, there is a need to build our skilled labour force and to address unemployment of youth and people with disabilities. Other programs that support reskilling and professional development through inclusion training for those already in the workforce will also help foster understanding of and demand for inclusively designed products and services. Organizations that want to foster inclusion need more than good intentions to accomplish this goal, instead they need opportunities to develop these skills in staff through widespread training or through training of inclusion champions within strategic areas of the organization.
In the same way that skilled workers are required to meet the need for inclusively designed policies, applications and communications; there is a need for development environments, toolsets and widgets that enable individuals to develop inclusive software applications, web sites and document templates. Developers and entrepreneurs who do not have training in inclusion are especially likely to build inaccessible products because development environments typically do not do enough to help developers identify potential barriers in their work. Also, developers do not have access to enough inclusively designed "components" for constructing, for example, web sites or applications. Individuals who want to create accessible Word documents, cannot easily access accessible document templates. For example, a Google search with the terms "accessible Word templates" retrieved 22 million results but brought up only two templates that could be downloaded. Both were specialized templates: one for faculty at an Ontario college and the other for drafting ISO standards. These templates were found on the second and third pages. A search on the term "Word templates, " however, retrieves 34.8 million results with the first three pages being almost completely links to downloadable but almost certainly inaccessible templates. There needs to be an investment in the underlying tools that we use to build our information and communications so that we can support a shift towards inclusion throughout the public and private organizations that rely on technology to communicate and share information.
As noted in section 5.6, platforms such as that for Cloud4All are being developed through collaboration with Europe and the USA to support better exchange between individuals who need assistive technology applications and training and those who can provide related services and technologies. Discovering ways to connect to these platforms and the global markets they represent may provide a way for the inclusive design industry to meet the challenges of changing technology and diverse user needs while providing the economies of scale that enable individuals to bring home-grown products, solutions and services to market as well as receive requests for needed products and services. Section 6.1 outlines this mechanism in greater detail.
Certainly, legislation such as Ontario’s AODA and the federal requirements regarding accessible Web sites support the inclusive design industry, however, there is room for further intervention by government to promote inclusion and generate additional demand for inclusively designed products and services. Without the need for new spending, the Government of Canada can have a significant impact on inclusion and on related industries simply by implementing procurement policies that contain accessibility requirements. This approach directs already budgeted funds towards products that support, promote and create a culture of inclusion as well as support the industries and organizations that incorporate inclusive design into their products and services. Other policies that support training programs in inclusive design would complement the regulatory forces.
Other policies to support social change being explored in the UK and in the US include social impact bonds. This model provides financial support for programs that will have a measurable impact that includes cost-savings by the public sector. Investors in programs that meet specific measureable success criteria (e.g., reduction in recidivism or sustained long term employment figures) receive specified compensation for their investment. This approach by government may help entrepreneurs and organizations to gain start-up capital for programs, products and services that promote inclusion of persons with disabilities and support inclusive design. Social impact bonds enable promising programs and practices to offer some of the projected savings expected from their efforts as a return for investors. This approach enables government to support the inclusive design industry but only with savings to the public purse that are gained by this support.
A cross-sector challenge for inclusion is the proliferation of technology and digitally mediated interactions within our daily lives. Information and communication technologies are a mandatory part of the average citizen’s life. These digital, wired and wireless technologies pervade every facet of typical activities from personal interactions, to the workplace, healthcare, culture and recreation. The failure to make these interactions inclusive is creating a widening digital divide that is no longer chiefly related to one’s ability to purchase assistive technology or understand new technology. Currently, the access solutions are too complex and not streamlined enough to cope with changing technology and highly diverse requirements. Part of the solution to this problem is the globalization of accessibility standards. Canada has leading expertise and exemplary practices in this area and should participate in the proliferation of inclusive design solutions to these technology problems.
The approach to inclusive design, however, requires a sustainable model. The concept of a segregated industry that tends to the needs of people with disabilities is not sustainable or optimal for a number of reasons:
The segregated market has challenges from the consumer perspective as well:
At the same time as there is a growing unmet demand for inclusively designed products there is currently a major gap in human capacity. However, Canada like other jurisdictions has a large untapped labour force in un/underemployed youth and employment-capable individuals with disabilities.
The recent seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in Canada is more than double that of older workers: 14.7% and 6.2% respectively. When underemployment of youth and involuntary part-time employment of youth as well as discouraged youth are considered, the youth unemployment rate grows to 20.7%[10] (Sandell, 2012). The strain of the challenging job market is most strongly felt by young workers (15-24 year-olds). As of November 2012, there were 266 000 fewer workers aged 15-24 in the workforce than in 2008 when the employment of this group peaked (Sandell, 2012). An inclusive design industry that connects training and skills with not only a consumer demand structure but also a channel for service delivery could provide an opportunity for our unemployed youth and disenfranchised youth. This multi-sided approach (discussed further on p. 25) is a viable model for the inclusive design industry and could have a broader impact on our economy than simply enabling better access and participation for persons with disabilities.
Despite the increasing numbers of individuals with disabilities nationally and internationally as well as the need for skilled labour and projected labour shortages, we see that there is a market failure in the accessibility industry. There is a need for intervention by government to overcome this market failure and propel development of a new model for inclusion. In a 2010 report ,the Martin Prosperity Institute projected that inclusion of persons with disabilities in the Ontario labour-force could boost the province’s economy by C$510 - C$4.92 million (Kemper et al., 2010, p. 17) through increased employment income and decreased Ontario Disability Support Program payments. As is illustrated in the following figure, this potential increase is only the leading edge of an economic ramp that has yet to be fully realised.
Figure 4: An illustration of the economic ramp represented by a multi-sided platform for inclusion.
The concept of inclusive design as an important industry that must pervade growth and development is a widely accepted principle but requires a better mechanism for implementation. Indeed, the United Nations hosts Expert Group Meetings (EGMs) on "mainstreaming disability." This expert group convenes to map out ways to ensure that policies, processes and mechanisms of development such as those related to the millennium development goals (MDG) consider and include persons with disabilities. In their April 2009 report, the group states:
The UN EGM regarding disability and ICTs provides several important recommendations that relate to how governments can promote inclusive design within ICTs:
The need for national and international cooperation and collaboration is echoed by Dr. Mike Short[11] in his comments at the 2013 Accessible ICT conference in London (January 22); he notes that new technology needs to be a global product and service, built to global standards (both geographically and with regards to customer needs).
We need to rethink our model of inclusion. We need to stop viewing inclusion as a specialized practice. We need a labour force skilled in inclusive design that can cross all sectors and we need a way to address the demand for inclusive design with a skilled supply chain.
A promising approach that could achieve inclusion and its related economic boosts is a multi-sided platform (MSP). This approach would remove inefficiencies and silos of activity that prevent effective take-up of inclusive technologies and devices. Such a platform would address the gap between consumer demands and what is actually produced by placing consumer-defined demand at the forefront of the market rather than marketing-created demand. At the same time the platform creates a space for entrepreneurs to access broad markets and respond to consumer-defined demand. We have described MSPs in a related report of the ICT industry:
Multi-sided platforms (MSPs) are a business mechanism that involves bringing together two or more, distinct, but inter-dependent groups of customers; potentially with very different goals. For example, an auctioneer creates a two-sided market the serves item sellers and item buyers, while a ride-share program operator might create a three-sided market that serves: passengers seeking drivers, drivers seeking passengers and employers seeking to provide an employment benefit and reduce demand for parking.
MSPs are very common in ICT where they support activities as diverse as web search, entertainment, dating and hiring. An especially relevant group of MSPs are those that serve the domain of freelance work. These MSPSs connect paying customers with developers, artists, musicians, etc. and provide tools to facilitate their creative exchanges, such as search tools, trust systems, and escrow accounts.
The ability of MSPs to simultaneously serve multiple groups with potentially very different needs in efficient, scalable ways, suggests that MSPs might have the potential to address the serious fragmentation problems that plague ICT accessibility. For example, an ICT accessibility exchange might be setup that could serve individuals with disabilities, organizations obligated by regulations to provide accessibility, ICT developers, assistive technology (AT) developers, accessibility service providers (e.g., sign language interpreters, captioners, accessible document producers), and healthcare professionals. Such an exchange might:
- Provide opportunities for individuals to efficiently discover what tools, formats and user interface configurations are available and which would work best for them.
- Connect consumer demands with existing products or services and unmet demands with developers.
- Enable the pooling, curating, sharing, and re-purposing of existing accessibility resources and pointers to products and services.
- Provide trust mechanisms to enable review and credentialing of products, services and developers.
- Enable obligated organizations to discover existing resources and accessibility service providers.
- Provide quality assurance tools for assessing accessibility.
- Provide developer tools and authoring tools for creating accessible products and services.
- Provide toolkits, APIs and other software resources to ICT product/service developers and AT developers to encourage interoperability.
- Connect Canadian developers and service providers with international markets for accessible products and services.
- Provide training to potential entrepreneurs (including youth) who wish to address consumer demands for services such as captioning, description, file conversion, app development or modification, etc.
The following image illustrates how a multi-sided platform would function.
Figure 5: Multi-sided platform model
The Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto has launched the Global Solution Networks (GSN) initiative which will, "study of the potential of global web-based networks for cooperation, problem solving and governance" (Martin Prosperity Institute, 2012). This Canadian endeavour is complementary to the MSP approach and can inform the growth of this platform as well as build and analyse the implementation of a MSP.
The following two scenarios illustrate how the recommendations might transform the experience of persons with disabilities.
Since she lost her sight Susan requires a screen reader to access a computer. She is eligible for provincial funding but the nearest clinic that can authorize funding and determine the best technology for Susan is many miles away and has a lengthy waiting list. To be seen Susan must obtain a doctor’s referral. The program only funds specialized assistive technology that has passed a qualification process and not the latest mainstream technology. When Susan finally receives approval and funding she has difficulty finding training and maintenance for her screen reader in her community. She also discovers that the technology she is prescribed only works with older operating systems and applications, not the systems her husband uses or the systems she must use at work. The documentation is geared to someone with professional experience in assistive technologies. The assistive technology Susan has worked so hard to obtain does not meet her expectations and does not enable her to perform work activities as she had hoped. The system does not work with her banking application, the music download site, the social networks or the teleconferencing application she wants to use to connect with her daughter who is across the country at university.
With the help of colleagues in her local community Susan explores an online environment that helps her discover and try out a variety of assistive technology features that might work for her. Once she has determined the configuration she prefers, she saves this as her personal preference set to her smart phone and to her personal drive on the cloud server. When she next goes online to access online banking, create documents for work, or connect with her daughter the user interface reconfigures to read text aloud and to allow her to navigate through the functions in her preferred way. When she downloads a graph that she requires from the internet that is missing alternative text she sends out a demand message which is answered by Tom, a young entrepreneur across the country who provides the alternative text description as she waits. Susan has the opportunity to provide feedback on his performance. Tom can use this feedback to earn a digital badge that certifies him as a qualified alternative text provider. This credit will put him in good stead to address demands coming from the US and Europe as well. Tom is well on his way to creating a viable service entrepreneurship. He plans to take a course in service entrepreneurship available from the same platform that Susan used to discover and receive the assistive technology features she needs. He wants to add accessible mobile app development to his skills and there is a course, open development kit and very active online community that can help him achieve this. Meanwhile Susan uses the preference set she has saved to cause the service kiosk, point of sale device, check-in kiosk and ticket machine to read aloud to her. When she has difficulty with an information kiosk at the nearby mall she uses her mobile device to connect to the same platform and reach out to Jan who guides her through the interface by using the camera on Susan’s smart phone.
Canada has the necessary conditions and is well placed to foster an accessibility or inclusive design industry that will assist in making jobs more accessible and can also create jobs for currently unemployed individuals including youth and persons with disabilities. Given demographic trends globally, the demand for inclusively designed products can only grow and will not dissipate. With the move toward mass customization and personalization the capacity to provide inclusively designed services and products is broadly applicable, far beyond the needs of persons with disabilities. With the maturation of 3D printing and 3D scanning, Canada has the opportunity to harness a transformative technology that will revolutionize manufacturing. With Cloud infrastructure that provides direct links to global demand, Canada is ideally situated to establish an inclusive design industry that will serve a growing demand that is aggregated through cloud networks.
Both the US and EU administration are investing in Canada-initiated research innovations that address digital inclusion. The Canadian government can capitalize on this interest and investment, assert provenance, and steer the direction of the research to benefit Canada. As the cloud infrastructure supporting the research and development is in Canada and as the infrastructure serves to aggregate demand for inclusively designed services and products in both the EU and the US, the infrastructure can act as a direct pipeline for global demand for accessible services and products. To capitalize on this opportunity requires the actions described in the following sections.
There is a shortage of human capital to provide a number of services related to accessibility. Training and education are required at a variety of levels. As noted in the report Leveraging Inclusion and Diversity as Canada’s Digital Advantage, the skills required are quickly evolving, especially in the area of apps and other ICT. In fact,
A recent scan of leading ICT firms shows that RIM, Apple, Google, Oracle, Cisco, Dell and Microsoft have all increased the size of their accessibility teams in the past year. The same is true for organizations such as governments and banks. In discussions with these organizations there is a common frustration that inclusive design skills are not part of ICT education and training and that there are too few programs focusing on inclusive design of ICT specifically (Treviranus et al., 2011).
More agile and responsive training is required in addition to post-secondary education programs.
Developers, potential entrepreneurs and innovators require tools, building blocks and development environments that support inclusive design. These should be made readily available, ideally free and open, to also allow collective updating and refinement. This includes accessible Web development tools such as the WordPress and Drupal efforts, accessible component toolkits such as Fluid Infusion and the JQuery efforts[13].
The demand exists and is growing, Canada has the right conditions to foster innovative and responsive producers and suppliers for a variety of products and services. A multi-sided platform or networks can serve to connect demand to supply, as well as support training, development, pooling of resources, repurposing of resources and awareness. Canada is in the unique position of hosting a nascent multi-sided platform that provides a direct pipeline to demands in Europe and the US and is connected to considerable investments from both the US and Europe. To retain a leadership role and harness this economic driver Canada should support Canadian participation in the global effort. This can be leveraged to both support accessibility in Canada and to support job creation in Canada.
To function effectively a multi-sided platform requires links to demand, supply and a variety of support mechanisms. The Canadian government is in an ideal role to connect social services, employment programs, training programs, community services, government procurement programs, research and development programs, education programs and investment programs to the platform.
By supporting strict requirements that all government procurement instruments require clearly laid out and monitored accessibility specifications, the government will direct its purchasing power to boost this emerging industry.
Investment in inclusive design efforts should be encouraged. An ideal and fitting investment instrument is the Registered Disability Savings Plan. RDSP policies can encourage investments to be directed toward accessibility and inclusive design start-ups. RDSP funds could also be used to establish a venture capital fund for inclusive design entrepreneurs. The fund can give priority to youth and entrepreneurs with disabilities.
The Canadian government should consider the judicious application of social impact bonds in the area of employment programs for persons with disabilities. Monitoring and evaluation of progress should be in the hands of persons with disabilities and success criteria should be the sustained gainful employment of persons with disabilities in upwardly mobile and meaningful employment.
The multi-sided platform mentioned above can be used to also host a Kickstarter-like [14] platform for inclusive design and accessibility projects. Programs such as kickstarter bring promising projects to the attention of established and informal investors.
From an economics and social perspective the inclusive design industry in Canada has the potential to power a virtuous cycle of greater innovation, greater productivity, increased GDP, higher average earnings and better quality of life for Canadians. It can address barriers to employment in all organizations, at the same time as it provides new opportunities for employment in a growing new industry with rising global demand. Unlike many other possible investments, inclusive design is future-proof. Even if we discover a "cure" for age-related impairments, the incidence of disability will continue to rise as survival rates from man-made and natural disasters continue to increase through advances in health care. Unlike other industries, there is no "downside" to inclusive design. Inclusive design benefits everyone and is a powerful impetus for innovation.
A promising approach, a multi-sided platform could foster a robust and inclusive design industry that is able to meet the rapidly changing needs of individuals who experience functional limitations when accessing technology either through disability or context-based limitations. This approach would help to connect supply with demand for accessible and assistive technologies, enable Canada to capitalize on investments it is already making in technology initiatives that could support such a platform as well as provide an opportunity to create jobs, enable training and better meet the needs of individuals who require assistive technology. This last opportunity is especially important in order to create and sustain an inclusive society where individuals have equal access to the myriad technologies that are increasingly a part of our daily lives and as disability rates in the population increase with aging. Canada has a timely opportunity to realise the social and economic benefits of inclusion, build a global industry and lead the world in providing inclusively designed products and services.
The provincial and national data for such a broad industry is scant. For the purposes of this report we focus on Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec. The following tables list organizations operating within the accessibility industry space. These lists are not comprehensive but help bring a sense of scope and breadth of the industry.
From a consumer perspective access to assistive technologies is unevenly distributed across the country, information about what is available, how to obtain it, where to receive guidance regarding what would work for a specific issue is fragmented and often confusing. Access to training, setup and maintenance of assistive technology is hard to find or non-existent. Many technologies for individuals who require alternative control systems (such as single switch scanning) are listed in the research literature but do not appear to be on the market. If a consumer searches for assistive technologies to help in augmentative communication, for example, research articles from many years past will appear but no vendors or services that offer these options currently.
In speaking with assistive technology specialists tasked with prescribing assistive technologies, many are unaware of the full range of options. Given time constraints, locally available technologies and training options, many AT prescribers will prescribe according to a diagnostic category and local availability, rather than an assessment of individual requirements (e.g., work context and what will interoperate with work system). Many assessments are formulaic and prescribe for only a single context (e.g., school and not home).
| Company | Area of AT | Product(s) or Services |
|---|---|---|
| SMART Technologies Inc. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | List of products is extensive. Refer to website. |
| Company | Area of AT | Product(s) |
|---|---|---|
| ALDS - Clear Sound Hearing Products | Assistive Technology | Assistive Devices: ALDS product distribution includes infrared, FM, and Induction loop transmitters and receivers, amplified telephones, TTY's, TV and Personal Listening Systems. |
| PDG Product Design Group Inc. | Mobility, Daily Living | Wheelchairs (more data needed) |
| Secrest Resources Ltd. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Learning Disability Products: Secrest offers a range of tools for individuals with learning and attention difficulties. Our hardware products include handheld text scanners, portable keyboards and voice recorders, while our software products include speech recognition, literacy support, and educational programs. |
| Creative Mobility Products Inc. | Mobility, Daily Living, Assistive Technology | Assistive Devices (check website for more details) |
| Comfort Software Group – Hot Virtual Keyboard (Windows), Comfort On-Screen Keyboard (Windows) - Vancouver, BC | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | On Screen Key board |
| Aurora Systems Inc. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Application software, Aurora 3.0 for Windows, Telehealth (check website for more details) |
| Word Logic Corportation | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | predictive text input technology |
| NaturalSoft Ltd. – NaturalReader Personal (Windows and Mac), Natural Reader Professional, Ultimate and Developer versions (Windows), Natural Reader for Education Silver, Gold and Platinum versions | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Text to speech software: superior speech solutions for personal computers and portable devices. |
| Neil Squire Foundation | Mobility, Daily Living, Assistive Technology, Job Support |
|
| Company | Area of AT | Product(s) |
|---|---|---|
| BRYTECH Inc. | Vision and Reading Aids | Canadian Bank Note Reader: A battery-powered portable device to allow blind and visually-impaired Canadians denominate paper currency. The device speaks, beeps or vibrates to indicate the amount of the note inserted. |
| Color Teller - Colour identifier for the blind: A portable, talking colour identifier that announces the colour of an object in the selected language. | ||
| Note Teller 2 - Bank note reader for the blind: Battery powered, portable device for blind, visually impaired and deaf-blind enabling denomination of various currencies by audio or tactile signal. Currently available for US currency. | ||
| Handicare | Mobility, Daily Living | Aluminum Ramping Systems: Ramping product comes in small portable sizes and up to larger modular systems that aid in accessing buildings or uneven/elevated areas. |
| Battery powered seating device that facilitates the entry or exit to a standard bath tub. | ||
| Scooter: Scooter (electric motorized 3 & 4-wheeled vehicle) | ||
| Tilt in Space Wheelchair: Tilting wheelchair designed to relieve the pressures of sitting long periods of time. | ||
| Wheelchair Electric: Electric Wheelchair-mid wheel drive all power options available | ||
| Federal Elevator Systems Inc. | Mobility, Daily Living | Elevators: Passenger and freight elevators for commercial industrial and residential buildings from 2 to 20 floors. LULA Elevators for ADA retrofits as per ANSI A.17.1, part XXV Code |
| Handicap Lifts: Lifts specially designed for the disabled for public buildings such as churches, schools, community centres. Calbe hydraulic drive provides smooth ride with multiple safety features. Meets international codes. | ||
| Residence Elevator: Elevators designed for single family houses. A smooth and safe ride is enhanced with numerous upgrades. | ||
| Assistive Vocational Technology Associates | Information Communication | AODA Preparedness: Assists organization with meeting their requirements under the AODA, in particular the Information and Communication Standard and the Employment Standard. |
| Assistive Technology Consultation: Assist consumers, employers and educators to determine appropriate assistive technology as part of an accommodation package. | ||
| Web Accessibility: Web Accessibility audits of web sites and web-based applications to ensure equal access by user's of assistive technology. WCAG 2.0 compliance | ||
| Accessible Media Inc. | Information Communication | The Accessible Channel-TACtv: The Accessible Channel, also known as TACtv, is a national English language, descriptive video, closed-captioned, basic HD digital TV specialty service. On Tuesday, 24 July 2007, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved and supported an application from The National Broadcast Reading Service Inc. (NBRS) for a license to set up a unique English-language TV service- The Accessible Channel-TACtv. By regulation, TACtv is part of the basic digital package of TV programming offered by all Class 1 & 2 cable systems and satellite direct-to-home services. TACtv broadcasts popular TV programs from conventional and specialty TV services and foreign-rights holders in open format for people who are blind, vision-impaired, deaf or hard of hearing- a world first. |
| WiVik (Windows) | Information Communication | On screen keyboard - software |
| Cantor Access Inc. | Information Communication | Accessibility and Usability Consulting: Assess products for barriers to persons with disabilities, recommends improvements |
| Sterling Creations | Information Communication | Consulting: Our suite of services include: consulting, needs assessments, evaluation, design, development, training and support in addition, we gives lectures, presentations, and mini courses on accessibility awareness. |
| Tactile Vision Inc. | Vision and Reading Aids, Assistive Technology |
Braille Calendar: A
raised graphics is included for each month. An Academic format is available
on request. Design of Originals for Producing Raised Prints:Tactile Vision has the capability to design products which would fill the needs of customers. We can also assist in the modification of the customer's originals. |
| Braille Children's Books: Booklets include raised graphics with Braille and print labels or short narratives. Alphabet books, shapes, My Counting Book, Mark's Clothes, Fruits and Vegetables Raised Printing for the Blind: Raised prints are produced from originals supplied by the customer. The technique is particularly suitable for graphics but also produces excellent Braille. Originals can be in hard copy or may also be sent electronically in sizes up to 11" by 17". For optimum results, the details of the design should be discussed with Tactile Vision. | ||
| Braille Greeting Cards: Cards include Braille and print greetings and raised graphics. They are available with or without insert. A wide variety of Christmas, Easter and Special Occasion designs are available. Custom cards are produced on request. | ||
| Tactile Maps: A Tactile Atlas of Canada as well as a large range of tactile maps are available. All maps include Braille labels. | ||
| Frontier Computing | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Frontier Computing is a complete sales and service provider of assistive technology products for vision loss, learning disabilities, communication aids and physical access. We offer a number of associated services which create independence and life long knowledge for our valued customers. |
| Sight Enhancement Systems | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Sight Enhancement Systems: assistive devices for people with low vision for use at home, school and work. |
| Abletech Solutions Inc. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Abeltech’s mission is to provide access to educational, vocational and quality of life opportunities for people with disabilities, through the implementation of assistive technology. They specialize in all aspects of assistive technology as well as ergonomic solution. |
| Quillsoft Ltd. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | SpeakQ Speech Recognition: SpeakQ plugs into WordQ and adds simple speech recognition. SpeakQ features a simple training interface where the computer prompts you by voice what to say. You can then dictate directly into any document or dictate into WordQ's prediction list. Your speech is combined with the word prediction. To keep it simple, there are no verbal commands. You only dictate text. |
| Wintertree Software | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | linguistic and text-processing software, which is licensed primarily to other software developers |
| Special Needs Computer Solutions, Inc. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | List is comprehensive. See website for details. |
| Bridges Canada | Vision and Reading Aids, Assistive Technology | Screen Rover: Screen reader & force-feedback mouse allows blind, physically impaired user to use a mouse to access Windows Operating System by feeling and guiding to all elements on screen. |
| VisAble Low Vision Scientific Calculator: World's first large display, large keypad, scientific calculator, specially designed for low vision users. | ||
| Advanced Hearing Aid Clinic Inc. | Assistive Technology | Assistive Devices, all makes and models (see webtsite for more detail) |
| The Canadian Hearing Society | Information Communication, Assistive Technology |
Communication Devices: We sell a range of communication and assistive
listening devices for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing individuals: TTYs,
alerting/signalling devices, amplified phones, VCO phones, FM & Infrared
systems. Accessibility: CHS provides range of services to enhance accessibility for deaf, deafened and hard of hearing individuals: Realtime Translation), translation services English to ASL, French to LSQ. |
| Hearing aids: Test hearing; prescribe, fit, dispense and service hearing aids Counselling: Counselling services include mental health, general support, employment, hearing health care. | ||
| Public Awareness and Information: Distributes unbiased information about deafness, hearing loss and the prevention of hearing loss through website, public relations, media relations, printed materials, professional client interaction. | ||
| Sign Language Interpreting: Provide professional fee-for-service American Sign Language interpreters for medical, educational, legal, employment, social services, and government-related settings. | ||
| Starling Access Services | Information Communication | Design of Accessible Web-Sites |
| Training | ||
| Web-Page Accessibility Training |
| Company | Area of AT | Product(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | English Talking Dictionary: The English Talking Dictionary, first and foremost, is a comprehensive dictionary. It is, however, much more than a dictionary. The English Talking Dictionary speaks. It reads the definition of a word aloud. The user can hear the word used in a sentence. It has a fully integrated thesaurus for referencing synonyms and antonyms of all words. It includes slang jargon and historical figures. It contains over 250 000 words and allows the reader to look up a word without knowing exactly how it is spelled. It is also possible to search for words by concept. Premier AT Home: The Premier AT Home program is an exciting program option that is available for purchase to school districts participating in the In-School Program. It is designed to provide students with access to the same learning technology at home that they use while in school. |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | E-Text Reader: E-Text Reader reads. It is a practical and meaningful application that reads e-books, e-mail and almost any electronic document. The E-Text Reader is a powerful study tool that can make Universal Design for Learning a reality. Premier In School Program: The Premier In-School Program incorporates a comprehensive collection of learning tools combined with a unique approach to licensing. Learning technologies level the playing field providing everyone with equal opportunities for success in school, graduation and life. |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | French Talking Dictionary: The French Talking Dictionary, first and foremost, is a comprehensive dictionary. It is, however, much more than a dictionary. The French Talking Dictionary speaks. It reads the definition of a word aloud. It allows the reader to look up a word without knowing exactly how it is spelled. It also displays all the derivatives of word searched. A multi-lingual interface allows the user to choose from an English or French interface making the French Talking Dictionary an ideal product for bilingual organizations. It can be used without leaving the current application. Premier Netalker: Let Your Website "Speak" for Itself. Give your website a voice! NETalker, by Premier Literacy, gives any institution the ability to enable website text to be spoken aloud to users. Users download the NETalker application from your website; and by simply using their mouse to point to any text on the website, can hear it read aloud. |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | Key to Access: The Key to Access is the next generation of portable learning technology. With the same suite of learning tools found on the Premier to Go, the Key to Access provides portable solutions for learning that have expanded beyond traditional learning environments. Complete with voice recording and the ability to play audio files, the Key to Access allows students to record notes, lectures and textbooks for listening. |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | Scan and Read Pro: If you find reading difficult, Scan and Read Pro will make reading easy and enjoyable. Scan and Read Pro changes printed text into understandable sound. The program helps you in reading and comprehension by highlighting each word as it's read aloud. Scan and Read Pro's voice can also be turned off if you prefer to focus on the visual input only. |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | Talking Word Processor: Talking Word Processor© is an easy-to-use word processing program that combines text-to-speech capability with powerful learning technologies. It is compatible with most standard word processor files, including the latest versions of Microsoft Word, standard text, and Rich Text Formats (WordPerfect). |
| Premier Assistive Canada Inc | Assistive Technology | Text to Audio: Text-To-Audio is an industry leader in converting electronic documents to audio files. Use of high-quality digital voices provides the highest fidelity digital speech audio. Text-To-Audio can even be used to turn E-books to "audio books". |
| ADM Multimedia Solutions Inc. | Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Digitize IT - transcription, captioning, scanning, data entry, imaging and annotation: ADM Solutions is an outsourcing company that specializes in the transcription, captioning, scanning, data entry and annotation of multimedia files. |
| Company | Area of AT | Product(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Orthofab Inc. | Mobility, Daily Living | (more data needed) |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | Communicator: This technologically advanced multimedia communication aid has united the powerful science of ideograms and the educational advantages of both text and sound to facilitate verbal exchanges and effectively enhance language learning strategies. |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | eSpeak Internet: eSpeak Internet is a computer-assisted reading utility. Users can listen to text selected on the Internet and hear the proper pronunciation of words. In addition to being particularly useful for learning language and how to read, it helps users understand sentences and words. |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | IdeoVoice: IdeoVoice was designed to facilitate communication in a simple, quick and repetitive way. The application includes a set of prerecorded sentences, which are grouped according to context and symbolized by ideograms. It is ideal for encouraging language and speech development (vocabulary, classification, syntax, written language, etc...) and can be used as a learning tool in schools. In addition, IdeoVoice can be configured to suit the user schedule. |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | Mobile Communicator: Designed as a PocketPC application, this software offers all the benefits of the Communicator on the go. The mobile and versatile solution makes communication possible in all types of life's situations; whether during an emergency, at the doctor's office, grocery store, bank or restaurant, etc. Say what's on your mind, wherever you are. |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | Mobile LSQ Communicator: Oralys joined forces with the Fondation des sourds du Québec to include Quebec sign language (LSQ) in Mobile LSQ Communicator on Pocket PC. For people who are profoundly deaf and unable to discriminate speech, LSQ is the only sign language accessible to them in a natural way. As such, it is their primary language for communicating. Available on Pocket PC |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | Type'N'Talk: Type'n'Talk is designed to facilitate verbal communication by literate individuals who have speech disorders and may have related motor difficulties. With its word predictor and capacity to save the most frequently used sentences, Type'n'Talk enables users to develop optimal writing skills. More importantly, it is equipped with a very powerful, next-generation text-to-speech synthesizer that transforms written text into a male or female voice with the same acoustics as a human voice. |
| Oralys | Assistive Technology | Type'N'Talk Mobile: Type'n'Talk enables users to compose text and messages on a keyboard. The integrated speech synthesizer then dictates the sentences. This tool designed for the PocketPC is combined with a highly advanced and powerful speech synthesizer that produces a very human-sounding masculine or feminine voice. Sentences can also be saved in user-defined categories for future applications. This solution is ideal for people always on the road. |
| HumanWare | Vision and Reading Aids, Information Communication, Assistive Technology | Product list is extensive (see website) |
| Adaptatech inc. | Assistive Technology | Amplified phones: Amplified phones corded or cordless for hard of hearing Electronic Repair Shop: Communication repair shop for assistive devices, mainly for the hard of hearing and deaf persons. |
As part of our research, we sent a questionnaire out to over seven hundred Canadian and European Inclusive Design Industry organizations to get an overview of the industry. The information gathered from the twenty-seven respondents provides some insight into the industry in Canada and Europe. The respondents were almost evenly split between Canadian and European organizations with most of the respondents identifying as companies. The composition of respondents is shown in Figure 6
| Which of the following best describes your organization? | |
| Answer Options | Response Count |
|---|---|
| Canadian Company | 11 |
| Canadian Organization | 1 |
| Non-Canadian company | 13 |
| Non-Canadian organization | 2 |
| Total | 27 |
Figure 6: Regional composition of survey respondents.
The sizes of the companies spanned sole proprietorships to companies with 800 employees. Nearly all of the respondents (22) are small to medium enterprises (SME) as defined by Industry Canada’s personnel count criteria. Interestingly, no Canadian organizations that responded fit in the 10 to 49 employees range while 5 European respondents did. The number of personnel for each of the respondent organizations is shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 : Number of employees by region.
Areas of focus for each of the respondents was cross-tabulated to indicate the number of organizations that focus on serving multiple disability groups or have a specific focus. This analysis is shown Figure 8. Two companies selected other; one indicated that they were focused on technology access and the other on media access
| What areas of disability- related products or services does your organization focus on? | ||||||
| Answer Options | Mobility | Hearing | Sight | Cognitive | Speech | Response Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobility | 7 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 |
| Hearing | 5 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Sight | 5 | 6 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 14 |
| Cognitive | 4 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 7 |
| Learning | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 |
| Speech | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 10 | 10 |
| No specific focus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other (please specify) | 1 | |||||
| answered question | 21 | |||||
| skipped question | 0 | |||||
Figure 8: This cross-tabulation indicates that most respondents focus on providing assistive technologies and services that relate to multiple functional requirements.
Figure 8 can be further understood in terms of geographic region as is shown in Figure 9
| What areas of disability- related products or services does your organization focus on? | |||||||
| Which of the following best describes your organization? | |||||||
| Answer Options | Canadian Company | Canadian Organization | Non-Canadian company | Non-Canadian organization | Response Count | Response % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mobility | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 28% | |
| Hearing | 5 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 32% | |
| Sight | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 52% | |
| Cognitive | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 28% | |
| Learning | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 36% | |
| Speech | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 40% | |
| No specific focus | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8% | |
| Other (please specify) | 2 | 8% | |||||
| answered question | 25 | ||||||
| skipped question | 2 | ||||||
Figure 9: Respondents indicate a broad range of focii.
We asked the respondents if they export their products and services to other countries. As is shown in Figure 10 twenty-one of the respondents are exporters of goods and services.
Figure 10: Nearly all respondents (13 European, and 8 Canadian) indicate that they export their goods and services to other countries.
Respondents indicated that they use a variety of sales channels with the company website being the most common sales channel. Channels that are direct to consumer such as phone or mail were the second most commonly indicated channel.
| What are your sales channels? | |||||
| Answer Options | Canadian Company | Canadian Organization | Non-Canadian company | Non-Canadian organization | Response Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct to end users via phone/mail/fax | 6 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 13 |
| Wholesaler | 3 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 9 |
| Retailer | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 8 |
| Company web site | 7 | 0 | 9 | 1 | 17 |
| Third party web site (e.g. ebay) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| App "store" | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Does not apply | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Other (please specify) | 5 | ||||
| answered question | 25 | ||||
| skipped question | 2 | ||||
Figure 11: The most common sales channel was the company web site for both Canadian and European organizations.
Both Canadian and European organization indicated that email and tradeshows or seminars are the communications tool they use most to communicate information about their products and services.
| How does your organization communicate your products or services to customers? | ||||||
| Answer Options | Canadian Company | Canadian Org. | Non-Canadian company | Non-Canadian org. | Response Percent | Response Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blogging | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 13.0% | 3 |
| RSS | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.3% | 1 |
| Social Networking Sites | 4 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 47.8% | 11 |
| 9 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 91.3% | 21 | |
| Mobile Apps | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8.7% | 2 |
| Online Marketplaces | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 17.4% | 4 |
| Online Networking | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30.4% | 7 |
| Tradeshows / Seminars | 10 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 91.3% | 21 |
| Promotional Material | 6 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 43.5% | 10 |
| Television Ads | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8.7% | 2 |
| Program Sponsorship | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.0% | 3 |
| Radio Ads | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 |
| Direct Marketing | 5 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 47.8% | 11 |
| Disability Organizations | 4 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 52.2% | 12 |
| Government Assistive Device Programs | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 30.4% | 7 |
| Other (please specify) | 2 | |||||
| answered question | 23 | |||||
| skipped question | 4 | |||||
Figure 12: Email and Trade-shows are the most common method used by respondents to communicate information about products and services.
We asked our respondents: Is there a need for investment from government, private sector or other sources of funding to stimulate research and development within or expansion of the inclusive design/accessibility industry? Eight respondents indicated that they felt that there was a need. One respondent pointed to the uneven and disparate approach to supporting purchase of assistive products across European countries: countries like the UK are noted for having dedicated budgets and others were acknowledged for having value added tax rebates. Another respondent indicated that requiring procurement policies that support inclusion though legislation like the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the US Section 508 is equivalent to having the same funding support. Other respondents indicated that in order to meet the needs of a growing population with disabilities and in order to provide equitable access, that further funding would be needed within the ecosystem.
The following section provides quotes and summaries from selected project web sites.
Cloud4all is an international project funded by the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union that will advance the concept of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) . The GPII is a project of Raising the Floor Consortium of academic, industry and non-governmental organizations and individuals. Cloud4all is an European Commission FP7 grant that will develop key parts of the GPII, building the knowledge base and algorithms needed and evaluating the ability of the concept to work across platforms, technologies and applications. Cloud4all/GPII aim at the following objectives:
From the innovation perspective, Cloud4all/GPII aims to develop a complete new paradigm in accessibility, by augmenting adaptation of individual products and services (2nd generation) with automatic personalization of any mainstream product or service a user encounters, using cloud technologies to activate and augment any natural (built-in) accessibility or installed access features the product or service has or recommending the appropriate third-party solutions, based on the user's needs and preferences.
For further information: http://www.cloud4all.info/
Floe provides the resources needed to enable inclusive access to personally relevant, engaging learning opportunities for the full diversity of learners and content producers. Through the Open Education Resources community, Floe makes tools that help transform, augment, and personalize the learning experience. FLOE implements and supports the AccessForAll approach to inclusive design for learning.
For further information: http://floeproject.org/
GAATES was incorporated in 2007 by an international consortium dedicated to promoting accessibility worldwide. GAATES' mission is to promote the understanding and implementation of accessibility of the sustainable built, social and virtual environments, including architectural, infrastructural design, transportation systems, habitat, and electronic information and communication technologies so that everyone, including persons with disabilities and older persons are able to fully participate and contribute to society. GAATES has an international presence and membership in six regions: the Asia-Pacific, Arab, North America, South America, European and African Regions.
For futher information: http://www.gaates.org/index.shtml
The purpose of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) is to ensure that everyone who faces accessibility barriers due to disability, literacy, digital literacy, or aging, regardless of economic resources, can access and use the Internet and all its information, communities, and services for education, employment, daily living, civic participation, health, and safety. . . . .
GPII is a paradigm shift. The GPII will, for the first time, introduce automatic personalization of user interfaces and user context adaptation based on user preferences. Each information and communication technology (ICT) device will be able to instantly change to fit users as they encounter the device, rather than requiring users to figure out how to adapt, configure or install access features they need. It also introduces a system of shared components and services to reduce cost, increase interoperability, and foster innovation.
Further information: http://gpii.net/index.html
The U S Department of Education and National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation have commissioned the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, the Inclusive Design Research Centre, IBM's Accessibility Software Division, Raising the Floor International, Inclusive Technologies, and WGBH National Center for Accessible Media to research "Profile Creation Support for Cloud-Based Accessibility." The team researching the best ways to create the personal statement, capturing individual preference sets that will ensure successful access to information and services. These "preference sets" automatically configure information and applications to meet individual needs.
Further information: http://wiki.fluidproject.org/display/fluid/Preferences+for+Global+Access
Avaava is a completely new, holistic concept in accessibility for building professionals and constructors. For the first time in Finland you can get services and products for accessible building from one company. The know-how and visions of specialists from a wide variety of disciplines are brought together in the Avaava solution. The interdisciplinary co-operation of design, architecture, associations for the disabled and the elderly and officials, guarantees that the freshest, most interesting and most relevant information is taken into consideration during the construction process. Avaava provides all the information and solutions you need for barrier-free and accessible building. They offer guidance during all stages of planning and building, for both new building projects and renovation projects.
The specialists at Avaava advise architects, interior designers, construction companies and constructors in a wide range of issues concerning accessibility. Avaava offers the following services:
For further information: http://avaava.fi/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=66.
The Technology Taskforce is a Business Disability Forum partner initiative which brings together some of the world's largest procurers and suppliers of ICT including: BBC, Department for Work & Pensions, GlaxoSmithKline and Microsoft. Member organisations have, at Chief Information/Technology Officer level publicly committed to enhancing the accessibility performance of their business and industry through the work of the Technology Taskforce.
List below are some of the motivating factors that motivated partners to find out more about accessible technology:
Accessibility Maturity Model - One of the Taskforce’s first objectives was to define common business language about accessible technology through shared experience. The 'Accessibility Maturity Model' (AMM) self-assessment tool enables businesses to identify and plan key policies for accessible and usable technologies.
For further information: http://businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/our-offer/technology-taskforce
The Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (C.E.R.T.H.), the largest research centre in Northern Greece, was founded in March 2000. CERTH is a non-profit organization that directly reports to the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT), of the Greek Ministry of Development.
The mission of CERTH is to carry out fundamental and applied research with emphasis on development of novel products and services of industrial, economic and social importance in the following fields:
For further information: http://www.certh.gr/3DA02C98.en.aspx
A registered charity, CAE has been the leading authority and resource in the UK, for over 30 years, on inclusive design and access to the built environment for disabled and older people. As an information provider and resource, services and activities include:
For further information: http://www.cae.org.uk/about.html
EIDD - Design for All Europe is a European network, founded in Dublin, Ireland in 1993 with the name of European Institute for Design and Disability. The original aim of the network, to use design to achieve the inclusion of disabled people in society in European countries, has since been reinforced with inclusion of a more mainstream approach, enhancing the quality of life through Design for All. The name change in 2006 reflects this development.
EIDD - Design for All Europe is now a federation of 34 Member Organisations in 23 European countries. With a strong inter-disciplinary approach, the majority of members are professionals in design-related fields.
For further information: http://www.designforalleurope.org/
The Estonian Association of Designers has started a project Cities For All – Tallinn For All , introducing the megatrends of this century that should be known by all designers, architects, producers, public service employees as well as service designers. The purpose is to make the city easily accessible and comfortable to use to all age groups, nations, mothers with small children and persons with special needs by means of social involvement. The challenges arising from the needs of users in the process of creating new products and services where problems are turned into new possibilities and profitable innovations.
For further information: http://www.edl.ee/cities-for-all-tallinn-for-all
The F123 Group designs and manages projects in the areas of poverty reduction, technology, and disability. The group provides NGOs, educational institutions, foundations, government agencies, individuals, and international organizations with project management and technical development services, as well as professional low-cost software and training for blind and visually impaired persons.
In 2010 the F123 Software was selected from more than one hundred submissions from countries throughout the Americas to receive the "A World of Solutions" Award from the Inter-American Development Bank. The award recognizes technological innovation with a high social impact potential among persons with disabilities.
In 2009 the F123 Group started the Educação Livre Project in partnership with Mais Diferenças. Educação Livre assists NGOs with technology and training so that they may enhance the educational and professional prospects of their blind and visually impaired clients.
For further information: http://f123.org/en/project-f123org
The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT helps to shape the future with novel, market-oriented products. Our researchers work in interdisciplinary teams and combine insights from computer science with questions from other fields. Thus, the institute invents and develops applications custom-tailored to support people in their jobs and to enrich their leisure time.
Our specific strength is a comprehensive system design process, from test and validation of concepts to the handover of well-implemented systems. We apply it to create complex systems that combine our technological innovations with significant benefits in their practical use, and to derive product frameworks from these systems. FIT's current research focuses on:
For further information: http://www.fit.fraunhofer.de/en.html
G3ict – the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies – is an Advocacy Initiative of the UN GAID, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, launched in December 2006 in cooperation with the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN DESA. Its mission is to facilitate and support the implementation of the dispositions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the accessibility of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and assistive technologies. G3ict relies on an international network of ICT accessibility experts to develop and promote good practices, technical resources and benchmarks for ICT accessibility advocates around the world. It is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the State of Georgia, USA, and headquartered in Atlanta. . . . .
G3ict’s key constituents include policy makers and public sector institutions, organizations of persons with disabilities, ICT industries, the private sector, international standards development organizations and academia. Participating international institutions in G3ict programs include the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the World Bank. . . . .
To accomplish its mission, G3ict works in collaboration with its constituents to:
For further information: http://g3ict.org/about
The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art undertakes design research and projects with industry that will contribute to improving people's lives. Our approach is inclusive and interdisciplinary.
Our work is organised in three research labs:
Age & Ability: design for a more inclusive society irrespective of age and ability
Health & Patient Safety: creating safer and better health services
Work & City: research into changing patterns of work and urban life
We collaborate with business, academic, government and voluntary sector partners. We engage with four design communities: students, new graduates, professional designers and academics. We develop innovative and empathic research methods – and we exchange knowledge via education, events, publications and industrial collaboration.
For further information: http://www.hhc.rca.ac.uk/
The Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD), founded in Boston in 1978 as Adaptive Environments, is an international non-governmental educational organization (NGO) committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities through excellence in design.
IHCD has been the lead organization in the international Universal Design movement, having hosted or co-hosted five international conferences (New York -1998, Providence -2000, Yokahama – 2002, Rio de Janeiro – 2004, Kyoto – October 2006). They are currently exploring an international event that would offer nations in the Middle East multi-disciplinary consultation for post-conflict reconstruction from a Universal Design perspective. They are working with the UN on the implementation of the new Treaty on the Human Rights of Persons with Disabilities that endorses Universal Design as the basis for design guidelines.
For further information: http://www.humancentereddesign.org/
In the spring of 2005, the Organization of American States’ (OAS) not-for-profit affiliate Trust for the Americas, teamed up with Microsoft to launch the Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas (POETA) to provide job opportunities to persons with disabilities. Just five years later, more than 178,000 people in the hemisphere have benefitted from the program. The original priority of providing training for individuals has been modified to include a greater emphasis on strengthening local institutions and developing economic opportunities for the participants. Today, 66 POETA centers exist in 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries. By the end of 2010, 89 centers will be operating in 20 countries and more than 50 local organizations will be committed to fulfilling the mission and strengthening the program.
For further information: http://www.microsoft.com/publicsector/ww/international-organizations/projects/Pages/partnership-in-opportunities.aspx
The Trace R&D Center was formed in 1971 to address the communication needs of people who are nonspeaking and have severe disabilities. The Center was an early leader and innovator in the field that came to be known as "augmentative communication" (a term first coined by the Trace Center).
As the personal computer emerged, the Trace Center became a leader in making computers accessible to people with all types of disabilities. In 1984, the Center served as a coordinator for the nationwide Industry-Government Initiative on Computer Accessibility. The computer design guidelines developed through this effort were used as the basis for many industry guidelines and accessibility standards.
During the 1980s and 1990s, the Trace Center worked directly with the computer companies to integrate disability access features into their standard, mass-market products. As a result of this work, disability access features are incorporated directly into most operating systems and environments today.
As technology became more pervasive in the workplace, education, entertainment, and daily living, Trace's research and development focused on universal design of information and communication technologies, so that they are more accessible and usable by elders and persons with disabilities. Key accomplishments:
For futher information: http://trace.wisc.edu/about/
G3ict – the Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies – is an Advocacy Initiative of the UN GAID, the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development, launched in December 2006 in cooperation with the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN DESA. Its mission is to facilitate and support the implementation of the dispositions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on the accessibility of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and assistive technologies.
G3ict’s key constituents include policy makers and public sector institutions, organizations of persons with disabilities, ICT industries, the private sector, international standards development organizations and academia.
G3ict works in collaboration with its constituents to:
For further information: http://g3ict.org/about
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[1] It should be noted that inclusive design or accessibility also indirectly addresses the needs of consumers who are "disabled" by their environment, examples include mine workers whose gloves reduce dexterity, where noise reduces hearing and dust reduces vision. A more common example is the "eyes and hands busy" environment produced by driving a car.
[2]It should be noted that inclusive design or accessibility also indirectly addresses the needs of consumers who are "disabled" by their environment, examples include mine workers whose gloves reduce dexterity, where noise reduces hearing and dust reduces vision. A more common example is the "eyes and hands busy" environment produced by driving a car.
[3] The European Union has a special funding category called "Joint Programming" designed to pool national resources for greatest research impact. Information about this program is available at http://ec.europa.eu/research/era/joint-programming_en.html
[4] Open badges are a way to earn credit for learning acquired though non-traditional online sources. The badging system is an open technical standard that enables skills learned from a variety of sources to be documented and verified. For example, an online workshop on accessible web design may issue the learner a digital badge that is tied to the learner’s email account. The learner can collect, combine, display or enable searchers of their badges. See http://openbadges.org/about/
[5] This list is adapted from a 2013 IDRC report on Information and Communication Technologies.
[6] It is important to note that negative reference to hackers, especially in the media, usually describe what the hacker community would term "crackers." Essentially, "Hackers build things, crackers break them." From http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is
[7] Freely available for download at http://g3ict.org/resource_center/e-Accessibility%20Policy%20Handbook
[8] Traditional markets are push markets where producers create products and then use marketing tools to increase or heighten the demand for the product. The product is pushed to the consumer. In a pull market, the product is produced after the consumer states a need for it. The consumer pulls the product from the producer.
[9] Ontario College of Art and Design University has just invited its third cohort of students to enter the Master of Design Program in Inclusive Design (MDID) Program.
[10] 20.7% is the supplementary employment rate of Youth in July 2012.
[11] Dr Mike Short CBE FREng CEng FIET is the Vice President Telefonica Europe and immediate-past President of The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
[12] See section 1 for definitions of these terms.
[13] These efforts may be explored further at http://wordpress.org/, http://drupal.org/, http://fluidproject.org/products/infusion/, https://jquery.org/
[14] Kick-starter is a platform for entrepreneurs and artists to post project ideas and recruit investors. Each project has a target fundraising goal and no money is invested unless target is reached. See www.kickstarter.com for more details.
Figure 2
Social Trends: