History of UD for Information: U.S.A.
UD for Information in American Law
The U.S. was one step ahead of Japan when spreading the concept of
Universal Design for information. There are also sources that believe
the origin of the Internet to be the U.S. On the contrary, the level of
information technology, including public broadcasting and computers in
Japan has steadily flourished.
In the U.S., the success of UD for information can be traced to the
enactment of several laws that have assured the right for equal
information for persons with disabilities. In 1990, the ADA Law,
which assures equal rights to all persons with disabilities, was
established. With the enactment of this law followed a requirement for
all products and services to be accessible to all persons with
disabilities. A rush to acquire knowledge regarding universal design
arose from product and service industries and suppliers.
The History of Closed Caption Broadcasting as UD
In America, before the spread of Universal Design as a concept, there
were movements towards ensuring equal information to all people. One
exemplary movement was the development of American closed caption
broadcasting. The American closed caption broadcasting generally refers
to subtitles that can be turned on and off. This is useful not only to
persons with hearing disabilities, but also to citizens whose native
language is not English, and this service is also viewed as an
educational tool for children; closed caption broadcasting is therefore
considered to be a universally designed form of information.
Closed caption broadcasting in America officially began in 1973. At
first, this service was offered only to a few broadcasted programs, and
was not applied to all programs. With time, closed caption broadcasting
spread and now, there is a regulation that mandates all programs to be
subtitled by the year 2006. The development of the closed caption
broadcasting is a result of (1) ardent grass roots activity by
organizations of citizens with hearing disabilities, (2) the development
of new technology championing these causes by industries, and (3) the
development of laws. Regarding laws that pertain to closed caption
broadcasting, in 1990 the Television Decoder Circuitry Act
was implanted - the same year as the ADA. This law states that all
televisions over 13 inches must have a preinstalled television decoder.
The culmination of many efforts has helped to transform closed caption
broadcasting into a service useful not only to persons with hearing
disabilities, but a larger market of consumers with similar needs.
UD for Information Technology
In 1996, the Telecommunications Act (Section 255)
was enacted. This law declares that persons with disabilities have the
right to normal access of all forms of telecommunication, including
information technology and its contents.
When the ADA and the Telecommunications Act were established however,
they pertained to the general assurance of information and did not
include the Web or other specific forms of information media.
These laws were not created to mandate the exact form which information
should take on the Internet or public broadcasting. If however a
consumer with a disability could not use a certain service as a result
of their disability, this consumer can use this law to claim a
complaint. With the emergence of this law, many industries brainstormed
how to support these new needs. In 1997, the afore-mentioned
Telecommunications Act has been a strong force in activating the
creation of a guideline for telecommunications technology. This
guideline explains what features must be taken into account when
producing telecommunication devices. This guideline highlighted mostly
hardware related interface regulations for individuals with
disabilities, but it is also considered a reliable basic reference for
homepage design.
The enactment of Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1986 was a catalyst in spreading Universal Design
for information technology. This law that requires all IT machinery and
tools to be accessible to persons with disabilities, has reached Japan,
heavily influencing our way of thinking. In 1998, this law was amended
and included in the Workforce Investment Act. (The Workforce Investment
Act of 1998, Public Law 105-220, was enacted on August 7, 1998. Title IV
of the Act is the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Subsection
408(b) amended section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C.
794d)). This subsection 508 requires all Federal agencies to provide
information technology that is accessible by all federal employees with
disabilities.
Section 508 also states that all electronic and information technology
created in the United States must be developed, procured and managed to
be accessible for all persons with disabilities, and persons seeking
information from the government. The bottom line - information
technology created by the government of the United States of America
must be accessible in order to be manufactured. Since June 21 of 2001,
all consumers have been able to use this law to bring civil action
against the U.S. government. In addition, the breadth of this law does
not only pertain to the U.S. government. All institutions receiving
funding from the Technology Act must also abide by this law; this
includes almost all of North American public facilities.
Members of IT industry in America have created special departments to
specifically oversee product development that abide by Section 508. This
was in effort to avoid costs of creating specially manufactured
products both publicly and privately, and to supply products efficiently
to the government.
Internet
The Web Accessibility Initiative(WAI)
was established in 1996. The WAI is a group within the WWW Consortium
(W3C: a consortium which deliberates web standards on an international
level) that concentrates on issues of web accessibility. Due to the
strong influence of the WAI, accessibility under universal design
principles has been considered for the standardization of Internet
technology. Version 4.0 of HTML was created under such standards. In
1999, the Web Contents Accessibility Guideline 1.0
was announced, offering more constructive insight on creating
accessible homepages. In addition, there have been increased
developments of accessibility technology parallel to the development of
Internet technology.
The aforementioned ADA, Telecommunications Act, and Rehabilitation Act
are also applicable to the Internet; Section 508 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1998 is based on fulfilling Priority 1 and 2 of the Web Contents
Accessibility Guideline 1.0. Each of these steps has propelled this
movement forward, and continues to support the motions of UD for the
Internet.