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Accessibility studies

Accessibility Studies is an emerging interdisciplinary academic discipline that examines challenges facing people in the process of participating in routine activities. It is within the scope of disability studies. While the major focus is on limitations in public accommodations related to disability, the broader definition of accessibility includes all people engaged in all environments (e.g. human geography). Given that approximately a fifth of all people have some type of disability that in turn affects their ability to participate fully in the normal functions of society, and that advanced age is highly correlated with increased disability, a knowledge base about accessibility is of interest for personal meaning for oneself as well as the care of one’s family and the performance of professional duties that serve a population with a range of capacities.

The curriculum of an Accessibility Studies degree program is of interest to the general public, not just for professional development in careers focused on rehabilitation, education, or construction serving the needs of a population with a predictable range of disabilities. As with the field of disability studies, it is focused on increasing individuals’ with disabilities access to civil rights and improving their quality of life by increasing general awareness and acceptance, the focus tends to be more aligned with a functional model World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Sociopolitical criticism and discourse analysis are acknowledged within the primary objective of cultural competence to recognize diverse identities and their practical experiences.

Competence includes facilitating accessible transitions and employment for people with disabilities and limitations, approached from different perspectives of employers, social service agencies, commercial enterprises, and the people requiring access themselves. This competence is attractive to employers who must all comply with legislation, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, intended to protect entitlement to activities of independent living in all environments- work, home, school, shopping, medical, leisure, and virtual. In addition to a risk management motive, others see accessibility as a social justice issue addressing a history of exclusion, marginalization, abuse, and stigma experienced by people of different appearance and ability.

The Emergence of an Undergraduate Accessibility Studies Program:

The first US Accessibility Studies program was launched in 2017 at Central Washington University offering an undergraduate minor and certificate. A degree in Accessibility Studies demonstrates competence in recognizing where, when, and how to accommodate such needs. The degree was styled as an interdisciplinary program, drawing on the expertise of several academic departments and professions. It was approved by the faculty after confirming that no single discipline provided a cohesive focus on the broad topic of accessibility nor were any courses treating the component topics in adequate depth to include theory and research. The university commitment to diversity and accessibility contributed to the nurturing of the new program.

It must be noted that this occurred just a quarter of a century after the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted but more than 40 years after the 1975 Education of All Handicapped Children Act which triggered a sea change in American public schools toward a policy of inclusion, that is, for children with disabilities to be educated in the "least restrictive environment" instead of in isolation. The education profession, therefore, had a legacy of inclusion and had developed clear standards of competence around differentiating instruction and promoting tolerance in the classroom environment. Thus it is not surprising that the originator of the Accessibility Studies Program at CWU was a teacher educator and the program continues to be administered by the Department of Curriculum, Supervision, and Educational Leadership.

By comparison, there were already over forty Disability Studies programs in place, some of which include some of the same curriculum. Disability Studies have traditionally focused on medical diagnosis and therapeutic rehabilitation as well as bio-engineering of assisstive technologies.

There are also myriad informal education opportunities to learn component aspects of the curriculum, especially through the US Access Board, a federal agency that promotes equality for people with disabilities through leadership in accessible design and the development of accessibility guidelines and standards for the built environment, transportation, communication, medical diagnostic equipment, and information technology.

Accessibility Issues

·      People with disabilities have been marginalized, abused, ignored, and excluded from everyday life.

·      There are enough people with disabilities around to make it necessary to minimize barriers.

·      Designing things to suit people with disabilities means designing them to suit nearly everyone.

·      People with disabilities can function in some capacities and not others.

·      Given enough information and without interference, people can function independently.

·      Disabilities can be chronic, temporary, situational, insidious, intermittent, and invisible.

·      Barriers to access can be physical, perceptual, psychological, and cognitive.

·      Disabilities are highly correlated with aging, which means every person who lives long enough will experience disability and therefore need accessibility knowledge.

Definitions:.

·       Universal Design is the underlying framework for understanding all efforts to minimize barriers for all people, especially those with specific limitations in their perception or mobility. This is distinguished from simple compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements that establish civil rights in case of litigation. ADA compliance is considered risk management to avoid law suits, whereas universal design is considered a progressive social strategy to ensure inclusion and engagement of all people as well as simply designing a better environment for everyone.

·      Accessible Information Design is a subset of universal design, focused on the need for all messages to be perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust. These are the P.O.U.R. guidelines promoted by the Worldwide Web Consortium in response to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which recognizes access to information and communications technologies, including the Web, as a basic human right.

·       Universal Design for Learning is a pedagogical approach acknowledges the diversity of learning processes and capacities. While this is associated with Special Education practices as prompted by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, its principles are best recognized as effective when trying to inform people of procedures they must follow, that is, the informal education that occurs in many transactions. Anyone expecting to influence other people would be well advised to provide information with multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression.

The Need for Accessibiility Studies:

The need for Accessibility Studies According to the US Census Bureau, about 56.7 million people — 19 percent of the population — had a disability in 2010. At Central Washington University, the regional comprehensive institution that launched the first Accessibility Studies Program, over 800 students out of 10,000 have registered with Disability Services, and many others do not choose to be so identified. This is half the estimated proportion of the larger population, but it is still greater than any other public institution, confirming the census report that persons with disabilities are less likely to gain a postsecondary education. As the general population becomes increasingly geriatric, there will be even more need as indicated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Disability remains the most common basis of housing discrimination complaints filed with HUD and its partner agencies. Last year alone, HUD received 4,548 disability-related complaints, or nearly 55 percent of all complaints. Thus an important skill set to be gained in this program is the competence to recognize violations of law related to entitlements of persons with disability. There are many jobs requiring skills of analyzing the challenges facing people with disabilities and designing solutions in order to serve them. This explains why CWU Disability Services office  experienced an alarming trend of first training its workers in those skills only to lose them very soon to higher paying careers elsewhere. This, in part, prompted the need to provide a more structured and rigorous opportunity to learn the knowledge base of accessibility.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity commission announced in 2016 that the EEOC expects every employer to have in place a policy that tells employees how to request a reasonable accommodation. The EEOC’s Strategic Enforcement Plan highlighted disability-related issues, those priorities include “Eliminating Barriers in Recruitment and Hiring;” Accommodations were the primary “Emerging and Developing Issues.”  Managers, who may not understand the implications of their statements, actions or lack of action when dealing with injured, ill or pregnant employees, may increase the risk of litigation for employers. This training should ensure that managers know how to recognize requests for accommodation (or leave under other applicable statutes) and then connect employees to the right person who can assess their needs.

Specialists will be needed to work in a wide variety of industries to ensure that employers are adhering to both existing and new regulations. In addition, technological advances will allow for the use of new machinery, and specialists will be needed to create the machinery, as well as procedures to ensure its safe use. In addition, specialists will be necessary because insurance costs and workers’ compensation costs have become a concern for many employers and insurance companies. An aging population is remaining in the workforce longer than past generations did, and older workers usually have a greater proportion of workers’ compensation claims. Thus there is a documented need for a knowledge base regarding accessibility in all experiential environments.

Accessibility Studies Curriculum

The curriculum of the original Accessibility Studies Program at Central Washington University was developed in consultation with faculty across all four colleges plus the director of the campus Disability Services. In addition, an exhaustive review of disability studies literature and the guidelines of the emerging International Association of Accessibility Professionals informed the course outlines. The curriculum included four core courses as well as field experiences and electives on topics such as how media depicts persons with disabilities. The original catalog descriptions serve as succinct summaries of the scope of study:

·      ASP 305 Accessibility & User Experience (4 cr) Quality of life issues of accessibility in everyday experiences and environments. Changes in laws and attitudes about the need for proactive accessible design. Current careers requiring competence in troubleshooting accessibility.

·      ASP 325 Universal Design (4 cr) Proactive accessibility design for high incidence problems in commercial, leisure, occupational, and personal living spaces. Assisstive technology, adapted architecture, differentiated activity. Standards for safety and equity.

·      ASP 435 Accessible Information Design (5 cr) Standards for public communication, such as advertising and agency information. Effective Job coaching. Issues of disclosure and advocacy. Laws and civil rights legislation and court decisions. Social justice and social psychology.

·      ASP 485 Accessibility Capstone (2-3 cr) Experiential-based capstone course. Accessibility competence demonstrated in portfolio and capstone project. Laboratory time will include a variety of service learning, professional visits and applied practical experience. Strategies for engaging stakeholders in trouble-shooting accommodations.

Future Research

The concept of Accessibility Studies includes not just the dissemination of a knowledge base but the discovery of new insights from empirical research and the articulation of new theories to explain the phenomenon observed. Capstone projects are designed to engage undergraduate students in that process of inquiry and scholarly expression, as seen in a short list of examples from the first graduating cohort: Guidelines for Accessible Documents at Green River Community College; Accessible Museum Experiences; Accessibility at the White River Ampitheatre; Does Everyone Get to Play? A Study of Accessibility in Ellensburg Parks & Recreation; Adults with Autism Navigating the Bus System in Kenosha, Wisconsin; Improving Tsunami Hazard Inundation and Evacuation Maps for Port Angeles in the Puget Sound of Washington. The topics reveal the range of majors seeking the minor but also the range of possible scholarly investigations to be seen regarding access in the environments of public accommodation.

Interestingly enough, not all disciplines recognize accessibilty the same way. At the Association of American Geographers' annual meeting, accessibility is synonymous with human geography as opposed to physical geography. Research was presented about accessible transportation systems affecting whole regions, but not in terms of a vulnerable population's experience compared to the majority. When Shapiro first wrote No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, he concluded with a strongly worded scold that the history of disabilities has not been written. This has been addressed somewhat with more books and museum exhibits as well as an impressive collection of TedTalks and YouTube testimony. What remains to be seen are studies of the everyday experiences that contribute to continued perceptions of marginalization, exclusion, and even abuse. For instance, one might study how convenient grocery checkout aisles are, or just how many people with what personal conditions find the heights of beds in hotel rooms challenging. Another interesting study would be to analyze the posts on #everydayacademicableism, and to conduct surveys of people regarding their experiences. As some advocacy groups have chanted: Nothing about us without us!