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The purpose of this essay is to conceptualize accessibility in digital education for school children through a minimal computing perspective. This perspective prioritizes the contextual, social, and relational as part of the ethic of minimal computing mantra to consider What. We. Need. To achieve our goals, we begin with a story from a classroom in rural New Mexico, then we problematize definitions of accessibility for computing in educational settings considering how an identification as having disabilities is situated within colonial monolingual/monocultural structures that position minds and bodies as deficient. We connect these structures to capitalistic educational technology movements like using personalized instructional materials that do little to support the identities of children in spaces like the rural Southwest. Finally, we highlight what accessibility might look like as conceptualized from a land/water perspective where children's connections to their current realities are given precedence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has often been called the "great equalizer" that will bring more opportunity and access with each advancement. That advancement has continued to grow exponentially for decades. Unfortunately, the promise of greater access has not always been fulfilled because digital accessibility for people with disabilities is not guaranteed without intentional effort. Higher education, like many industries, has a long history of failing to meet digital accessibility requirements by both user standards and legal requirements. COVID-19 accelerated the adoption of digital materials and technologies and further revealed the detrimental impact of not planning for accessibility. As a result, institutions of higher education are continuing to receive greater pressure to ensure digital accessibility, which includes growing interest from federal regulators and enforcement agencies. Despite clear expectations for accessibility, there is no single best practice to ensure those requirements are met. It is not clear where to start or how to build a proactive, systemic approach that does not solely rely on the time-consuming process of remediation. This practice brief proposes the adoption of the AEM Quality Indicators with Critical Components for Higher Education as a framework to help postsecondary institutions realize the vision of digital accessibility. The authors will describe the development and use of the AEM Quality Indicators with Critical Components for Higher Education and share experiences and narratives from three experts that have successfully utilized this framework at their institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has transformed how people communicate, access information, and shop. Despite widespread use of social media, digital content remains inaccessible for blind and/or deaf consumers because of missing or inaccurate accessibility features, such as alt text and closed captioning, and/or providers using automated technology to add such features. Findings from the authors' descriptive study show many posts across social media platforms lack or have inaccurate accessibility features. Interviews and focus groups with blind and/or deaf consumers illustrated multiple challenges accessing digital content, resulting in lost opportunities for both these consumers and organizations while emphasizing the need for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose of Review: In this review, we discuss the importance of digital health equity and how social determinants of health (and intersectionality with race, ethnicity, and gender) affect cardiovascular health-related outcomes in digital health trials. We propose strategies to improve digital health equity as we move to a digitally-connected world for healthcare applications and beyond. Recent Findings: Digital health has immense promise to improve population health by reaching individuals in their homes, at their preferred times. However, initial data demonstrate decreased patient engagement and worse cardiovascular outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities, leading to unequal uptake of digital health technologies. In addition, while women generally have higher uptake of technology, they are less likely to be referred by clinicians for digital health interventions. We highlight several exemplar trials and analyze their methodology for replication in future digital health research. Summary: The promise of digital health equity has not been reached due to exclusionary practices. Specific focus must be placed on societal/governmental policies that enable digital inclusion, particularly of racial and ethnic minority populations and women, to ensure that the expansion of digital health technologies does not exacerbate existing health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study examines the digital accessibility of information services for students with disabilities at the University of Jordan. Despite advancements in disability rights and technology, academic libraries often lag in providing fully accessible digital services. Design/methodology/approach: The mixed-methods research involved quantitative surveys from 173 students with disabilities and a qualitative interview with the head of the information application department, in addition to a focus group interview with 10 students with disabilities. Quantitative analysis included means, standard deviations and four-way ANOVA to identify significant differences in perceptions. Qualitative insights highlighted specific issues and recurring themes, revealing significant gaps in digital accessibility. Findings: The results revealed a weak level of digital accessibility of students with disabilities to information services in academic libraries in Jordan is very low. The findings indicate a need for improvements in library infrastructure, staff training and policy development. The study also offers insights into challenges in a developing country context and provides recommendations for enhancing library inclusivity and support structures, emphasizing the importance of aligning services with international accessibility standards. Practical implications: The findings will primarily be beneficial for library managers to understand their library's deficiencies and responsibility towards the local community and the enhancement of digital inclusion. This understanding will aid in planning training programs and workshops for employees on supporting students with disabilities. Additionally, it serves as a valuable resource for collaboration between libraries and educators to organize educational sessions for academic librarians in Jordan and other developing nations. Originality/value: It serves as a valuable resource for collaboration between libraries and educators to organize educational sessions for academic librarians in Jordan and other developing nations. This research adds value to existing literature by highlighting the context in one developing country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism for all, and especially accessible tourism, is a generalized social demand that must be made possible by public authorities and companies in some way linked to the provision of tourist services. International regulations on digital accessibility are advancing so quickly that in just 5 years they have been updated 3 times, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 3.0 draft is currently in place to face the technological challenges of the future. It applies flexibly to all kinds of content, apps, tools, publications and emerging technologies. The importance of this research is determined to learn more about compliance with digital accessibility in the tourism industry. A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review (SQLR) is applied with searches in WoS and Scopus, with a total of 28 articles analyzed from 1999 to 2021 period, using the search strings: “web accessibility” or “accessible tourism”. Results show that digital accessibility is a pending issue in this sector with significant accessibility problems or ignorance about its importance by the public involved in the tourism industry. It provides a vision on the future of digital accessibility in the tourism sector and designs a research agenda with the WCAG, the stakeholders and channels that influence in their environment.

Online and digital learning is becoming more widespread in a post-pandemic world. The rapid expansion of online education has introduced many accessibility concerns that may go unnoticed by inexperienced observers. With the number of students disclosing disabilities, and accommodation requests growing across the country, digital accessibility has become a necessity, going beyond following the letter of the law. Our institution conducted a quantitative analysis of 374 accessibility reports conducted by digital accessibility specialists across three semesters after reviewing faculty’s online courses. Reports evaluated course accessibility following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). By identifying the most frequent accessibility issues from these reports, one goal was to create actionable steps to better support faculty training in high needs areas. Findings revealed that providing early feedback to faculty on a subsample of course content increased the likelihood of their courses meeting more accessibility standards by the full final review. Faculty who had gone through the online course development process before were twice as likely to include accessible electronic documents (MS Office documents, PDFs) and link formatting in their courses, compared to faculty new to the process. Course level had no bearing on whether they met accessibility standards or not, except for electronic documents, where graduate courses were more likely to meet standards than undergraduate. Based on these findings, we developed empirically-driven recommendations that accessibility professionals, faculty, and instructional designers at higher education institutions can use to provide support to their faculty and online students with disabilities.

Online and digital learning is becoming more widespread in a post-pandemic world. The rapid expansion of online education has introduced many accessibility concerns that may go unnoticed by inexperienced observers. With the number of students disclosing disabilities, and accommodation requests growing across the country, digital accessibility has become a necessity, going beyond following the letter of the law. Our institution conducted a quantitative analysis of 374 accessibility reports conducted by digital accessibility specialists across three semesters after reviewing faculty’s online courses. Reports evaluated course accessibility following Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). By identifying the most frequent accessibility issues from these reports, one goal was to create actionable steps to better support faculty training in high needs areas. Findings revealed that providing early feedback to faculty on a subsample of course content increased the likelihood of their courses meeting more accessibility standards by the full final review. Faculty who had gone through the online course development process before were twice as likely to include accessible electronic documents (MS Office documents, PDFs) and link formatting in their courses, compared to faculty new to the process. Course level had no bearing on whether they met accessibility standards or not, except for electronic documents, where graduate courses were more likely to meet standards than undergraduate. Based on these findings, we developed empirically-driven recommendations that accessibility professionals, faculty, and instructional designers at higher education institutions can use to provide support to their faculty and online students with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web accessibility is crucial for ensuring universal access to information, a value highly regarded by the European Union and the Spanish government, which have enacted legislation mandating compliance, particularly within the public sector and to a lesser extent in the private sector. This study contrasts the commitment of private entities with that of public ones in adhering to web accessibility standards. Initially, a database of URLs, categorized for reference, was compiled. Subsequently, automated web analysis techniques were employed to produce comparative statistics by sector. The findings indicate that while the public sector has made progress in meeting the regulations, the private sector lags considerably behind. An examination of common errors on websites of private companies obligated to these standards suggests that ignorance of legal responsibilities is the primary cause of accessibility shortcomings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the creation of multimodal web interfaces to foster inclusive services, aiming to empower individuals with disabilities. This paper details the development of SEU (Services to Empower yoU), an online platform designed to improve access to offline services for persons with disabilities through personalised multimodal web interfaces. Developed using a participatory design approach, SEU involved collaboration with Human-Computer Interaction experts, occupational therapists, accessibility experts, and persons with disabilities. The platform supports multiple user needs across cognitive, visual, motor, and hearing impairments. SEU was evaluated in a two-phase usability study, which included expert assessment and testing by persons with disabilities, supplemented with interviews, observations, and questionnaires. Feedback highlighted SEU's effective design and usability, emphasising its utility in enhancing service accessibility. The study indicates that both experts and persons with disabilities consider the platform an added value. Although the platform was well-received, suggestions for better cognitive support and the addition of a mobile application were noted, acknowledging the regular smartphone usage among the target users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessibility of museum websites is important in an inclusive society. Despite international and national legislations and guidelines on digital accessibility for online public services, websites for museums continue to have different accessibility issues, which pose challenges for diverse visitors. This study aims to identify accessibility barriers in Norwegian museum websites and provide recommendations for improvement. In addition, by using both automated testing and manual evaluation, the study will contribute to the discussion on web accessibility evaluation methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid evolution of the digital landscape has catalyzed the integration of blockchain technology within the domain of cultural heritage, particularly in virtual museums within the Metaverse. This study introduces ArchaeoMeta, a novel framework designed to leverage blockchain technology to enhance security, authenticity, and visitor interaction in a virtual museum environment. Utilizing smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum Sepolia testnet, the framework manages visitor interactions and secures digital artifacts, addressing challenges associated with scalability and user experience under varying loads. The performance evaluation involved simulating user interactions, scaling up to ten thousand concurrent users, to assess the impact on transaction latency, gas usage, and blockchain size. Findings reveal significant scalability challenges, as transaction latency and blockchain size increased with the number of users, highlighting areas for optimization in managing high user traffic within the blockchain infrastructure. This study contributes to the understanding of blockchain applications in cultural heritage, suggesting that while ArchaeoMeta offers a robust platform for virtual museums, enhancements in scalability through layer-2 solutions or alternative blockchain platforms are essential for its practical implementation. The framework sets a precedent for future research in the convergence of blockchain technology and cultural heritage preservation, promising a transformative impact on how digital cultural experiences are curated and consumed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The responsibility for creating accessible software within the development of digital services is important for multiple reasons, mainly equity and inclusion. However, adopting and sustaining the development of accessible digital solutions has always been challenging, more so in countries that are relatively new to the concept of universal design, and physical and digital accessibility, and where legal sanctions are not yet established. This work investigates the technology scene in the State of Kuwait and analyses the responses of computing professionals with regard to their skills, best practices and procurement of accessible tech and to their level of awareness toward people with disabilities. The findings reveal a low level of awareness among tech professionals with regard to disabilities and digital accessibility-related standards. The findings also highlight a lack of available guidance for developing inclusive design and accessibility. Additionally, time constraints, lack of training, legal enforcement and fundamentals concepts during undergraduate and higher education contributed to observed weaknesses. Participants were keen to learn more and benefited from flyers and free professional development courses offered as incentives for survey completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an era of global interdependence, universities play a crucial role in promoting social responsibility and sustainable development. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities emphasizes the empowerment of individuals with disabilities, a key aspect of inclusion. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the necessity of digital platforms to ensure equitable opportunities, particularly for those with disabilities. It highlighted challenges in transitioning to remote operations and stressed the importance of accessible digital tools in maintaining inclusivity during disruptions. This study investigates how university websites promote social responsibility and empower individuals with disabilities in Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the US. It also examines how these websites foster inclusivity, advocate for disability rights, and contribute to societal change. Using a qualitative case study design, the study evaluated university websites focusing on accessibility services, inclusive policies, and academic accommodations. Qualitative content and thematic analyses identified recurring themes and variations. The findings reveal diverse strategies in empowerment initiatives, website maintenance practices, community engagement approaches, the accessibility of support services, and the presentation of success stories. Despite differences among websites, this study underscores their significance in empowering individuals with disabilities. Recommendations aim to guide universities worldwide in enhancing their digital platforms, ensuring inclusivity, especially during challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article aims to identify the current challenges faced by various stakeholder groups in increasing digital accessibility in EU countries. Design/methodology/approach: The main assumption of this article is that in order to enhance the level of digital accessibility, it is necessary to take not only legal actions but also engage in social and training initiatives. The basic research problem is: What challenges related to acquiring new competencies are currently being faced by stakeholders involved in ensuring website accessibility. The research was based on quantitative data collection methods. Findings: The results of quantitative research based on 432 surveys collected among project stakeholders in four countries: Slovenia (N = 173), Poland (N = 135) Greece (N = 89) and Spain (N = 35) shows that IT/Web development professionals, young adults, and those with higher education are more knowledgeable about accessibility standards and regulations. Preferences for additional training on web accessibility varied, with uniform importance placed on international certification. Training plans were positively correlated with occupation, particularly among IT professionals, but showed no correlation with age, country, education level, or employment status. Research limitations/implications: Implications resulting from the conducted research include both social and practical aspects. Socially, the findings highlight the need to engage non-IT professionals and older individuals in digital accessibility training to ensure broader inclusion. Practically, the research points to the necessity of developing comprehensive training programs and certification standards, as well as streamlining recognition systems for digital accessibility qualifications, to enhance overall digital competency and inclusion. Originality/value: The value and originality of this article lie in its dual focus on the legal and social dimensions of digital accessibility, particularly within the European Union. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the current challenges faced by stakeholders in ensuring website accessibility, emphasizing the necessity of both regulatory measures and practical training initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several works of literature contributed to the web evaluation process in recent years to promote digital inclusion by addressing several accessibility guidelines, methods, processes, and techniques. Researchers have investigated how the web evaluation process could be facilitated by including accessibility issues to obtain an inclusive and accessible solution to improve the user experience and increase user satisfaction. Three systematic literature reviews (SLRs) have been conducted in the context of past research, considering such research focuses. This paper presents a new SLR approach concerning accessibility in the web evaluation process, considering the period from 2010 to 2021. The review of 92 primary studies showed the contribution of publications on different phases of the web evaluation process mainly by highlighting the significant studies in the framework design and testing process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study focused on the web accessibility literature reporting the engineering assets for evaluation of new accessible and inclusive web-based solutions (e.g., websites). Besides, in this study, we aim to provide a new direction to the web designers and developers with an updated view of process, methods, techniques, tools, and other crucial aspects to contribute to the accessible process enrichment, as well as depict the gaps and challenges that may be worthy to be investigated in the future. The findings of this SLR introduce a new dimension in web accessibility research on determining and mitigating the research gap of web accessibility issues for web designers, developers, and other practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ensuring text accessibility and understandability are essential goals, particularly for individuals with cognitive impairments and intellectual disabilities, who encounter problems accessing information across various mediums such as web pages, newspapers, online administrative tasks, or health documents. Initiatives like Easy to Read and Plain Language guidelines aim to simplify complex texts; however, standardizing these guidelines remains challenging and often involves manual processes. This work presents an exploratory investigation into leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) approaches to simplify Spanish texts into Easy to Read formats, with a focus on utilizing Large Language Models (LLMs) for creating accessible texts, especially in generating Easy to Read content. The study contributes a parallel corpus of Spanish adapted for Easy To Read format, which serves as a valuable resource for training and testing text simplification systems. Additionally, several text simplification experiments using LLMs and the collected corpus are conducted, involving fine-tuning and testing a Llama2 model to generate Easy to Read content. A qualitative evaluation, guided by an expert in text adaptation for Easy to Read content, is carried out to assess the automatically simplified texts. This research contributes to advancing text accessibility for individuals with cognitive impairments, highlighting promising strategies for leveraging LLMs while responsibly managing energy usage.

The popularization of the smartphone has generated new financial technology opportunities for our society. In Brazil, with the emergence of Pix in 2020, several people are migrating to this tool to obtain new payment and income acquisition forms. However, the social characteristics of people facing longitudinal barriers, access to formal education, and computational systems must be considered to improve digital and financial access. We aim to provide a web platform, called Inclue Platform to help software developers design and evaluate their real-time payment systems promoting emergent user inclusion. The research combined a set of methodological procedures: literature review, questionnaires, interviews, two case studies and a viability test. Software development professionals, a riverside community, and residents of an Amazonian city engaged in this study. The communicability assessment method was used in the case studies. The Include Platform viability test results suggest that it can be an effective support tool for software development professionals, although its content could still be improved.

The purpose of research. The purpose of the study is to develop and test an approach to training digital content compilers in creating alternative text that accurately describes the original image, using a neural network to generate reference images reconstructed from the text. The lack of textual descriptions of visual content in a web resource limits digital accessibility, especially for users with visual disorders. To ensure accessibility, each informative image should be accompanied by the alternative text. Text alternatives generated by means of automated tools are known to be lower in quality to human-generated descriptions. Therefore, a digital content compiler must be able to develop the alternative text for images. It has been suggested that a neural network for generating images from text descriptions can act as a tool for checking the relevance of the developed text alternatives.Materials and methods. The study was carried out in April-May 2023. 17 undergraduate students studied the requirements for developing text alternatives, completed initial text descriptions for three proposed photographs, and then corrected the text using the Kandinsky 2.1 neural network according to the algorithm: generating an image from the description; visual comparison of the resulting image with the original; returning to editing the description or ending the process. Based on the initial and final descriptions, the researchers reconstructed the images using the same neural network. Further work consisted of assessing the quality of all text descriptions and the similarity of all generated images to the original ones. The results of the study (text descriptions; expert evaluations; links to generated images) were published as a data set in the Mendeley Data repository. The t-test, Pearson correlation and multivariate regression were used to analyze the data (at the specified significance level p = 0,05).Results. It was found that the quality scores of the initial and final text descriptions were not significantly different (p > 0,05), and also there were no significant differences for the length of the text (p > 0,05). At the same time, the similarity of the generated images and original photographs after students used the neural network has increased considerably (p < 0,05). Therefore, training in the neural network contributed to improving the quality (similarity to the original) of images generated from modified text descriptions, without losing the descriptions’ quality. It was also shown that the quality of the final text alternatives was higher the larger their size within the allotted limit, the better and shorter the initial descriptions (p < 0,05). Thus, concise and accurate alternative descriptions for images after training students in a neural network can be converted into equally high-quality text alternatives, the relevance of which is increased by adding plot details to the description.Conclusion. Neural networks generating images can be applied as a software tool to encourage potential content authors to create more accurate and complete alternative text while keeping it concise. It seems important to continue the research by extending it to other types of images and using a variety of neural networks.

The general aim of this study is to make a diagnosis on the accessibility of information made available on the websites of the Federal Higher Education Institutions (IFES) in the Northeast. It is based on the hypothesis that the websites of the IFES in the Northeast Region of Brazil do not have high levels of adequacy, results that do not allow any user, regardless of being a person with disabilities or other limitations, to access the knowledge made available there, either with the help of assistive technologies or autonomously. The methodological procedures will be bibliographical and documentary research with analysis of primary sources on institutional websites and administrative acts made available, or not, on these sources. All the open data portals will be evaluated and simulated to determine their suitability for eMAG. This will be done using the public software ASES, a system for comparing and validating the standards of construction and behaviour of the source code of electronic sites, pointing out the levels of usability, navigability, alternative text, and content markers regarding the eMAG parameters, which are mandatory for public institutional sites in Brazil in terms of digital accessibility. As a result of the research, it was possible to identify that the levels of accessibility on the websites of these institutions were not in line with the parameters of the Digital Government Accessibility Model (eMag) of Brazil. This reveals divergences in the promotion of access to information; while some IFES make information available autonomously, without facing noise, interference, or impediments to the use of information, others do not so much, which has a negative impact on the guarantee of rights such as the exercise of full citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Sciences Studies is the property of Social Sciences Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Research classification is an important aspect of conducting research projects because it allows researchers to efficiently identify papers that are in line with the latest research in each field and relevant to projects. There are different approaches to the classification of research papers, such as subject-based, methodology-based, text-based, and machine learning-based. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of classification method depends on the specific research question and available data. The classification of scientific literature helps to better organize and structure the vast amount of information and knowledge generated in scientific research. It enables researchers and other interested parties to access relevant information in a fast and efficient manner. Classification methods allow easier and more accurate extraction of scientific knowledge to be used as a basis for scientific research in each subject area. In this regard, this paper aims to propose a research classification model using data mining methods and techniques. To test the model, we selected scientific articles on digital workplace accessibility for the disabled retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science repositories. We believe that the classification model is universal and can be applied in other scientific fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in higher education institutions has increased in the past 20 years. While ICT has brought many benefits to students and faculty, research shows that it also creates barriers and challenges for students with disabilities due to the inaccessibility of digital tools and learning materials. Faculty members play an important role in inclusive higher education. Previous studies have emphasised the need to train faculty about digital accessibility to achieve inclusion in higher education. This systematic literature review aims to study existing work on increasing the faculty members' competence in providing accessible and inclusive digital learning materials and environments to students in higher education. Sixteen peer-reviewed papers were included and analysed. Most trainings included topics on disability and awareness, legislation, and methods of producing accessible digital materials and providing inclusive digital learning environments. While surveys and interviews were mostly used to evaluate training outcomes, there was a lack of objective data and commonly accepted instrument for evaluation. Good practices and further research opportunities are identified. This study has implications for researchers and higher education institutions that are interested in research and practice on increasing general competence in digital accessibility and inclusive education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: today, a significant part of professional tasks are performed in the digital environment, on digital platforms, in virtual and other meetings. This necessitates a critical reflection of traditional views on the problem of accessible environment and digital accessibility, taking into account the basic universal needs of persons with disabilities.Methods: a gap between the traditional legal perspective on special working conditions for persons with disabilities and the urgent need of a digital workplace (digital environment) clearly shows lacunas in the understanding of accessibility, which are identified and explored with formal-legal and doctrinal methods. The multifaceted aspects of digital inclusion are revealed based on an informative approach to legislation. It leads, among other things, to searching for recommendations which would fill this gap and contribute to the creation of a more inclusive and responsible legal, social and technological environment.Results: the research has led to a conclusion that the existing legal, social and technological paradigms need to be re-evaluated. This reevaluation should aim to develop a more inclusive and benevolent concept of accessible environment that takes into account the diversity of human experience and needs, and a wide range of behavioral and cognitive characteristics. Creating special conditions in the workplace for those with overt and covert health problems should become an integral part of the employer's focus, along with improving management efficiency.Scientific novelty: covert (hidden) health problems have traditionally been understudied, although they include a range of mental and physical impairments, which, like explicit health problems, vary in their origin, intensity, and permanent or episodic character. This study fills a gap in the issues of disability and its legal protection, taking into account the trend of digital inclusion, the dynamic labor activity of today, and the wide range of human abilities and needs.Practical significance: the aspects of hidden or latent disability considered in the study provide a different perspective at employment, focusing on the workplace conditions that could be created. Employers may be unaware of the need to create special working conditions for those with hidden health problems. This results in negative effects on unemployment, increased sick leave, limited opportunities in the workplace, and more. Employees are often reluctant to disclose their non-obvious health problems to employers; hence, employers should facilitate disclosure of such information by creating relevant conditions. Such an approach will contribute to the legal protection of this category of employees and to further development of the existing legislative regulation, since the latter does not fully comply with today's needs and changed reality.

Background: Inclusive access and use of technology are germane to sustainable development as contained in the United Nations’ transformation agenda. As such, the need to bridge the digital gap through digital inclusion has become a critical goal for developmental institutions like libraries. Purpose: This article seeks to theoretically explore how libraries can facilitate digital inclusion for sustainable development, from the Nigerian perspective. Method: The study’s theoretical assumption hinges on the resources and appropriation theory of the diffusion, acceptance and adoption of new technologies by van Dijk (2013). The conceptualisation was based on the critical dimensions of digital inclusion (acceptance, literacy and accessibility); upon which the specific objectives of the study were structured. The opinions of the authors were situated in the context of relevant literature. Result: The study established libraries as facilitators of digital inclusion across the lines of digital acceptance, literacy and accessibility. This invariably impacts on the digital equality for sustainable development of all and sundry. Conclusion: Libraries in Nigeria, especially those attached to academic institutions are at the forefront of championing the course for digital inclusion which is a vehicle to achieving sustainable development.

“The ADA Book” by Kris Rivenburgh is a clear, concise explanation of applicable Americans with Disabilities Act laws, its connection to the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and a thoughtful analysis of U.S. Department of Justice litigation and resolutions on website accessibility. This book is relevant for web developers, designers, digital content creators, faculty, instructional designers, legal professionals, and individuals responsible for producing accessible digital content. This book provides readers with up-to-date recommendations to address existing digital accessibility issues, ensuring readiness to address future obstacles and proactively prevent legal disputes. This book review summarizes the “The ADA Book” content, structure, and contribution to providing actionable digital accessibility recommendations.

Even though the digital church has been in existence for some time, it was mainly a transmission of onsite church services and programmes in the online space. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its demands for a global shutdown to mitigate and contain the disease moved almost all social activities including church services to the online space. It is evident that persons with disability experience extreme exclusion from the church’s theology, praxes, and ethos. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is replicated in the virtual space. Research proves that persons with disability were not considered in the migration of churches to the virtual space; hence, digital accessibility is minimal or non-existent during and after the COVID-19 era. Contribution: This article explores the various transformational stages of both the church and media while further exploring possible ways by which the virtual church may grant accessibility to persons with disability.

IntroductionDigital accessibility involves designing digital systems and services to enable access for individuals, including those with disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, or cognitive impairments. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to enhance accessibility for people with disabilities and improve their overall quality of life.MethodsThis systematic review, covering academic articles from 2018 to 2023, focuses on AI applications for digital accessibility. Initially, 3,706 articles were screened from five scholarly databases—ACM Digital Library, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Springer.ResultsThe analysis narrowed down to 43 articles, presenting a classification framework based on applications, challenges, AI methodologies, and accessibility standards.DiscussionThis research emphasizes the predominant focus on AI-driven digital accessibility for visual impairments, revealing a critical gap in addressing speech and hearing impairments, autism spectrum disorder, neurological disorders, and motor impairments. This highlights the need for a more balanced research distribution to ensure equitable support for all communities with disabilities. The study also pointed out a lack of adherence to accessibility standards in existing systems, stressing the urgency for a fundamental shift in designing solutions for people with disabilities. Overall, this research underscores the vital role of accessible AI in preventing exclusion and discrimination, urging a comprehensive approach to digital accessibility to cater to diverse disability needs.

The objective of this study was to analyze the experience of the process of planning and developing accessible educational resources for distance education from the perspective of professionals from the Open University of the Brazilian National Health System, linked to the Federal University of Maranhão (UNASUS/UFMA). A descriptive study was conducted with 27 employees from the educational resources production team at UNA-SUS/UFMA. The study collected sociodemographic data and the work experience of these professionals in relation to the Electronic Government Accessibility Model (eMAG). The results show a lack of knowledge about eMAG and some difficulties faced throughout the stages of developing accessible educational resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Texto Livre / Texto Livre: Linguagem e Tecnologia is the property of Revista Texto Livre: Linguagem e Tecnologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Countries in the Global South still have less well-established procedures and resources to enact public policies and surveillance of digital accessibility. This paper presents a comparative study on the legal handling of digital accessibility in one country in the Global North and one in the Global South - the United States and Brazil. The study analyzed federal-level procedures handled by government surveillance bodies concerning public and private organizations, involving 26 cases in Brazil and 124 in the United States. The results showed that most cases in Brazil were finalized based on automated accessibility evaluations and with little evidence of long-term actions for sustained accessibility. All cases analyzed from the United States resulted in settlement agreements leading to medium to long-term initiatives, which covered continuous verification of conformance to accessibility standards and, in many cases, demanded inspections by accessibility specialists and tests with users with disabilities. The paper discusses the implications of including effective accessibility evaluation methods and long-term solutions in legal cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over two billion people worldwide and over seven million people in the United States have severe to moderate visual impairment. People with visual impairments rely on inclusive design, which includes alternative text (alt text) to interpret messages, images, and videos digitally. Alt text has many nuances leading to numerous technical inaccuracies and/or inaccurate interpretations of the media. Around the world, the pandemic altered how people conducted simple tasks and interrupted in-person opportunities. It has forced many consumers to work, study, and shop online – creating a large shift to digital experiences. Digital media, including social media platforms and websites, became a major source of information and the gateway to e-commerce. Unfortunately, many consumers with visual impairments who are vulnerable were excluded and unable to learn about products, services, and opportunities due to the lack of accessibility features available and inclusive design. This study explores the difficulties marketing practitioners experience incorporating alt text, thus limiting accessibility and inclusion for vulnerable consumers, specifically visually impaired users. Findings from the current study examining the accuracy of alt text in social media posts indicate that over 95% of the social media posts examined were not inclusive due to either a lack of or inaccurate accessibility usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The massive expansion of digital platform has been responsible for the widespread progressive engagement created amongst learners and educators. The practice of requiring student feedback on online learning services ensures that teacher education continues to advance its strategic approach to online learning. This paper aims to examine the level of accessibility and adaptability of digital technology with particular focus on Malaysia, by elaborating the value of superior learning service and practical adaptability of online learning during the pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted using qualitative approach of data collection, namely via structured interview. The listed respondents included 30 higher learners who participated in the study by providing feedback on the issues encountered during the research process. Findings: The findings revealed that the strategic enhancement of digital accessibility continued with digital adaptability to sources of learning services would contribute to advancing achievement of digital learning pathway. Practical implications: Increasing accessibility to digital platforms in digital learning system can help to shape the digital environment. Digital expansion can create unlimited boundaries for online knowledge acquisition. Social implications: The social implication refers to acquiring the abilities developed through online engagement with peers by actualising and exploring information together with continuous inter-connectedness of sharing pathway in online platform. The instructor would need to give a proportional gateway to make learners experience the digital environment for future education. Originality/value: This study aims to assess the value of developing accessibility of digital technology for students' online learning services during the pandemic and beyond. A well-structured plan would enable digital learning capabilities and mutual accessibility amongst learners. This can allow digital abilities to be transformed into collaborative teamwork amongst learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]