I will admit that I’m probably not the best person to write this article. I’m not the most technologically informed, and I only just heard about Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) today. But I haven’t seen anyone else post an article about it today, so I might as well be the one.
If you’re looking for more comprehensive information about what this day is and what we are doing to help people with disabilities navigate the digital world, you might have better luck at the GAAD website here. But if you’re interested in the needs I see in this regard as someone who works with disabled children, keep reading here.
I work with two children and live with one adult who have disabilities, which is why this issue is important to me. We are more focused on physical accessibility with them, but there is a lot that they will need the digital world for someday. My mission is to give a voice to the voiceless, and in this era, that has to include teaching them how to connect with the larger world. More and more through the generations, smartphones and WiFi have gone from luxury to necessity. Job applications are now online, school is often done remotely, and important information is communicated through texts or email. You might think this isn’t the case here in Mexico, but we’re following the same trend. My boss and his wife both have remote jobs aside from this one, and three of us here are enrolled in online classes that we wouldn’t be able to do locally.
The internet connected the world faster than what we were ready for, and accessibility online is becoming almost as important as physical accessibility. (I don’t think they will ever be quite equal, but it is close enough that we should be paying attention.) So what needs do I see?
Nacho
My roommate, Nacho, is deaf and illiterate. He is currently learning to read and write, but it’s a lengthy process. Even once he can read and write well, there’s an overwhelming amount of vocabulary for him to learn. He has his own phone, and, well… some of his random texts are hard to decipher.
Thankfully, though, we do have emojis. We can communicate a decent amount this way. Here’s an example of one of our conversations. See if you can figure it out before reading my translation.
Our friend, Sam, invited us to exercise and play soccer with him at 5. Nacho remembered that Sam had talked about exercising, and his response was basically, “Let’s do it!” And I think the pie meant “and let’s reward ourselves with dessert afterward.” Then he replied to the image he had sent earlier of the door with a cup of coffee. I’m… not really sure what the cup of coffee meant. But with the next message, he clarified that he was trying to figure out the doorknob. The context is that he kept accidentally locking our bedroom door (which is a pain when he can’t hear my knocking) and he was trying to figure out how it kept locking.
So you see, we can communicate a decent amount with emojis and pictures. As you can also see, it’s not always easy. I still have no idea what that cup of coffee meant.
For him, this communication method is temporary as he learns to read and write. But with some disabilities, that will always be a hurdle. That’s why it’s important to have the option to communicate with images such as emojis.
Many organizations are working with this idea in mind. A great (and free) online resource is ARASAAC, where you can type in what you want to say and put together images in order to say it. This is also very helpful for cases of nonverbal autism, and there are tablets to assist communication with similar methods.
However, this method of communication still has definite shortcomings. Emojis and pictures can only explain physical things, not abstract concepts. What you don’t see in the example conversation I used above is that Nacho was not ready at 5pm, because 5pm is not a concept he’s accustomed to. The clock emoji helps only if he has an analog clock he’s looking at. Since he grew up without a solid language structure, abstractions like time are very hard for him.
So what’s the solution? How can we improve this system? I have no idea. But by spreading awareness of the conversation, I hope those who do have solutions will come forward.
(Sorry, the rest of this post will be behind the paywall. I don’t like talking about the problems the kids I care for face for just anyone to see, but it felt okay to use Nacho as an example of what I’m talking about since he’s an adult.)
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