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Book Review: Digital Outcasts
benrothke writes "Many of us have experimented with what it means to be disabled, by sitting in a wheelchair for a few minutes or putting a blindfold over our eyes. In Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind, author Kel Smith details the innumerable obstacles disabled people have to deal with in their attempts to use computers and the Internet. The book observes that while 1 in 7 people in the world have some sort of disability, (including the fact that 1 in every 10 U.S. children has been diagnosed with ADHD), software and hardware product designers, content providers and the companies who support these teams often approach accessibility as an add-on, not as a core component. Adding accessibility functionality to support disabled people is often seen as a lowest common denominator feature. With the companies unaware of the universal benefit their solution could potentially bring to a wider audience. " Read below for the rest of Ben's review.
Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind
author
Kel Smith
pages
288
publisher
Morgan Kaufmann
rating
9/10
reviewer
Ben Rothke
ISBN
978-0124047051
summary
Manifesto for technology accessibility for all
One of the many examples of this which the book provides is how sidewalk ramps are often an easier access method to streets; not just for those in wheelchairs, but for those simply walking and desiring an easier method.
In the book, Smith details how digital outcasts often rely on technology for everyday things that we take for granted. The problem is that poorly designed products create an abyss for these outcasts, who number in the hundreds of millions.
So just what is this digital outcast? Smith notes that the term was first introduced by Gareth White of the University of Sussex to describe people who are left behind the innovation curve with respect to new advances in technology. The term is also relevant to today's Internet user who can't perform a simple function such as making an e-commerce purchase or checking their financial statement; due to inaccessibility of the content, platform or device. These outcasts represent large swaths of forgotten populations.
In the first chapter, Smith makes the chilling observation that all of us, at some point or another, will find that our capabilities have diminished. Today's disabled users are not outliers of the able-bodied population – they are a prototype of what our future looks like.
The book provides a detailed overview of how people with disabilities use technology. More importantly, it shows that creating effective user interfaces for those with disabilities is beneficial for all users.
It showcases numerous application and case studies, including how iPad apps have been used for cognitive therapy, video games to help many types of illnesses and more.
An important point the book makes is that there are no easy answers or silver-bullet solutions. There are no quick add-ons which a firm can use to quickly make their user interfaces outcast compliant. Rather it takes a concerted effort from senior management to make accessibility work.
A key point Smith makes many times is that students with disabilities are left behind. There are many students who fail in antiquated educational systems since the administration can't restructure their curricula around a child's individual talents or aptitudes. He writes that students with disabilities get stigmatized into special education programs, some of which are very good, but can be socially ostracizing.
Throughout the book, Smith quotes many studies and significant amounts of data that shows the power of how software can make significantly positive impacts on the lives of those with disabilities. In chapter 7, he writes that at the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas, they used virtual worlds and avatars to help autistic children. That form of therapy has proven to be successful and that 4 or 5 sessions using that technology, is worth 2 or 3 years of real world training.
As detailed in many parts of the book, many doctors say the best high-tech treatments are in fact the ones you can download from an app store.
As the end of the book, Smith writes that for accessibility to work, it has to be an enterprise initiative. He provides 8 strategic steps to doing that, including creating an accessibility task force (and engaging them from the very beginning of the project), knowing the legal landscape (and not to be driven solely by law), to designing mobile applications to be run universally, and more.
Smith sadly writes at the end of the book that while Apple has been at the forefront of accessibility, in 2012, despite having no legal mandate, Apple removed the Speak for Yourself (SFY) application; which was an extremely popular and helpful augmentative and alternative communication app. It seems that SFY is now once again available in the App Store, but with legal maneuvering what it is, that could change at any moment.
While the accessibility of technology is getting better every year, there are still many challenges to ahead. Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind articulately and passionately details the groundwork, itemizes what needs to be done, and implores the reader to do something to ensure this trend continues.
This book is an important read for everyone. As there are two types of people, those that are currently digital outcasts, and those that will be sometime in the future.
The book closes with a most accurate observation: digital outcasts are not a biological model for a future we should fear, they are an inspiration for what we can all become.
Reviewed by Ben Rothke.
You can purchase Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews (sci-fi included) -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
In the book, Smith details how digital outcasts often rely on technology for everyday things that we take for granted. The problem is that poorly designed products create an abyss for these outcasts, who number in the hundreds of millions.
So just what is this digital outcast? Smith notes that the term was first introduced by Gareth White of the University of Sussex to describe people who are left behind the innovation curve with respect to new advances in technology. The term is also relevant to today's Internet user who can't perform a simple function such as making an e-commerce purchase or checking their financial statement; due to inaccessibility of the content, platform or device. These outcasts represent large swaths of forgotten populations.
In the first chapter, Smith makes the chilling observation that all of us, at some point or another, will find that our capabilities have diminished. Today's disabled users are not outliers of the able-bodied population – they are a prototype of what our future looks like.
The book provides a detailed overview of how people with disabilities use technology. More importantly, it shows that creating effective user interfaces for those with disabilities is beneficial for all users.
It showcases numerous application and case studies, including how iPad apps have been used for cognitive therapy, video games to help many types of illnesses and more.
An important point the book makes is that there are no easy answers or silver-bullet solutions. There are no quick add-ons which a firm can use to quickly make their user interfaces outcast compliant. Rather it takes a concerted effort from senior management to make accessibility work.
A key point Smith makes many times is that students with disabilities are left behind. There are many students who fail in antiquated educational systems since the administration can't restructure their curricula around a child's individual talents or aptitudes. He writes that students with disabilities get stigmatized into special education programs, some of which are very good, but can be socially ostracizing.
Throughout the book, Smith quotes many studies and significant amounts of data that shows the power of how software can make significantly positive impacts on the lives of those with disabilities. In chapter 7, he writes that at the Center for Brain Health at The University of Texas, they used virtual worlds and avatars to help autistic children. That form of therapy has proven to be successful and that 4 or 5 sessions using that technology, is worth 2 or 3 years of real world training.
As detailed in many parts of the book, many doctors say the best high-tech treatments are in fact the ones you can download from an app store.
As the end of the book, Smith writes that for accessibility to work, it has to be an enterprise initiative. He provides 8 strategic steps to doing that, including creating an accessibility task force (and engaging them from the very beginning of the project), knowing the legal landscape (and not to be driven solely by law), to designing mobile applications to be run universally, and more.
Smith sadly writes at the end of the book that while Apple has been at the forefront of accessibility, in 2012, despite having no legal mandate, Apple removed the Speak for Yourself (SFY) application; which was an extremely popular and helpful augmentative and alternative communication app. It seems that SFY is now once again available in the App Store, but with legal maneuvering what it is, that could change at any moment.
While the accessibility of technology is getting better every year, there are still many challenges to ahead. Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind articulately and passionately details the groundwork, itemizes what needs to be done, and implores the reader to do something to ensure this trend continues.
This book is an important read for everyone. As there are two types of people, those that are currently digital outcasts, and those that will be sometime in the future.
The book closes with a most accurate observation: digital outcasts are not a biological model for a future we should fear, they are an inspiration for what we can all become.
Reviewed by Ben Rothke.
You can purchase Digital Outcasts: Moving Technology Forward without Leaving People Behind from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews (sci-fi included) -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Why do all of Ben Rothke's book reviews read like they were written by a 5 year old?
(including the fact that 1 in every 10 U.S. children has been diagnosed with ADHD)
Oh dear God. We're going to compare some kid who can't sit still with some poor bastard in a wheel chair?!
Really?!
For one, the diagnoses of ADHD ... is usually bogus.
Two, the word "disability" has been so overused like the term "special needs" that I don't know WTF it means.
You know guys, I'm pretty liberal myself, but Fuck'n A, we really need to get a grip on these euphemisms!
The choice is yours:
(a) Stop eating chocolate, drinking coke (yes, and pepsi) and all the other non-foods-masquerading-as-foods the are almost pushed down our throats by a consumerist society
(b) Whine about having ADHD
1 in 7 people in the world have some sort of disability, (including the fact that 1 in every 10 U.S. children has been diagnosed with ADHD)
Didn't even need to read the whole review, let alone the book. The first summary was enough. I'm sure that he could even get those figures looking worse, why not include other popular trending disabilities like peanut allergies and "Celiac disease"? I also feel that being a dyslexic white male with a bad attitude should entitle me to one of those reserved parking spots.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
The problem rests with application stakeholders, and the fact that the numbers don't match up. I'm in agile workshops all of the time to kick off projects, and at the beginning, they quantify that 5% of users is the efficiency cutoff.
You use IE6? You're under 5%. Out.
You use IE7? Now you're under 5% too. Out.
You need a JAWS compatible website? You're under 5%. Out.
One client actually had figures above 5%. They were kind enough to lump blind users in with those that used crappy old feature phones. If you combine those two groups, you're above 5%. Made it through the first story board meetings.
Half way through the project, features had to be dropped. Now they don't have JAWS, and the feature phone is no longer a feature.
Unfortunately, it's just not economically viable to cater for this market, so it suffers from a tragedy of commons, which seems to be par for the course these days.
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
"Many of us have experimented with what it means to be disabled, by sitting in a wheelchair for a few minutes or putting a blindfold over our eyes."
Er... No. Not all of us smoke whatever you are smoking.
"The book closes with a most accurate observation: digital outcasts are not a biological model for a future we should fear, they are an inspiration for what we can all become. "
Does the book have any advice on surviving saccharine poisoning from asinine feel-good nonsense like that? Outcomes don't come much worse than being irreparably betrayed by your own biology, and the fact that you sometimes only lose much, rather than everything, isn't what I'd call 'inspiration'...
I don't know if I have ADHD, but if anything moves on a webpage, it makes it impossible to read. If I want animation and movement on my screen, I'll go to YouTube or Vimeo.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Not sure whether it's the book or the review, but there seems to be two threads here, one how certain technology has helped certain disabled people, and two how everything ought to have support for the disabled built in. The one doesn't follow the other and there isn't a logical connection established, just a bunch of hugs and such. It's saying that since some people are ADHD and some programs help some autistic people, all programs ought to be written in a scatter brained manner to support those with ADHD. Huh?
It's like saying almost everybody use their computer for something out of the ordinary, but whatever that is it's not the same. For a lot of those people maybe their disability isn't relevant to your site, for the rest well maybe they need many entirely different solutions. I don't see a deaf person having a problem using 99% of the web, for example. Those with poor vision (not blind) maybe just need a font adjustment. What are you aiming for, 95%? 99%? 99.99999%? Designing a website a blind can read is basically a new site, start from scratch with a blindfold and a screen reader.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
In the future, everyone will have a disability.
In many cases it would be sufficient to just make sure all the ALT tags are set correctly for navigable images.
I have not read the book, and so cannot really comment on it. I am, however, a quadriplegic. It happened two and half years ago as the result of a diving accident.
Technology is both life-saving, and frustrating. Without it I would never be able to continue with my dissertation (even with current technology, I would not have been able to complete the type of difficult courses I had finished before the accident). Without it I would be reading books and turning the pages one at a time, with a stick in my mouth. Quite honestly, without modern technology, I might've already driven my chair off of a high place.
That being said, there is much to be desired. Most equipment labeled "adaptive" is five years out of date, with a x10-x100 markup in price. I fully understand that there's a lot of tech, both hardware and software, that I will never be able to use. The frustrating thing is when a simple oversight renders something completely unusable. If a developer had, just for one minute, put himself in someone else's shoes it would have been completely obvious.
That is not to say I blame developers. The truth is, unless you or someone close to you is disabled, you're much less likely to see the disabled people around you. You will see them as they passed, but you won't remember them. I know, I was the same way.
Here's the fix:
http://motherfuckingwebsite.com/
Creationist Textbook Stickers Declared Unconstitutional by CowboyNeal
In the IT world, ADHD isn't a disability -- it's a job skill.
-kgj
A guy I know well is in his early 50s with Cerebral Palsy. He's a well educated professionally employed man but his motor control challenges (including voice box) mean that almost none of the modern advances are of help to him. I'm an electronics guy, I'd love to help him - he's reliant on keyboard frames to type, touch screen keyboards are useless to him. I fear one day that phones with buttons will disappear entirely, his phone will break and that's that. Little things like the time to divert to voicemail are a challenge to him, just getting the phone from his pocket, opening it and pressing the green button in time are far from certain.
as a disabled person, I can attest that the barriers are real. in terms of functionality, my hands are about 20+years older than the rest of me.
here is one point that most accessibility developers ignore. accessibility starts in the application, not in the gui. by the time you reach the gui, you've lost most of the necessary information needed to make a good accessibility interface. you need an API granting access to all UI's on an equal footing in order to make accessibility work right.
There are guidelines for color usage for colorblindness, but very few know they exist, much less put them into use. For examples of the design issues involved, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness#Design_implications_of_color_blindness
Why is Snark Required?
Many of us have experimented with what it means to be disabled
Based on content of most comments here on Slashdot, I concur.
More recently, I've thought that the lack of interest in handicap solutions by non-handicapped people is actually the fault of the handicapped.
Follow me, patiently please.
Major intersections around here have bleeps and bloops to indicate "safe" passage for blind pedestrians. Do I know what they mean? No I don't. Do I pay for them? Yes I do. I'm forced to pay for them, yet no one has taught me how to use them. Why do I not care about them? Because I ignore them as an unknown background element.
Similarly, we have braille on our bank notes. I'm very proud that we have braille on our bank notes. Most of us don't even notice. The side-walk ramps are another excellent example. There are countless.
The reason I blame the handicapped is simply this: they say that I don't need the assistance.
In truth, I don't need the assistance. . .NOW.
I plan to live to 95 years of age, at least. I plan to lose much of my eyesight, and a fair bit of my hearing. I plan to walk very slowly, and to stop taking 15 flights of stairs for fun. I also plan to get some form of motorized side-walk vehicle, by the time I'm 70. I don't plan to get the off-roading model. I also fully expect to break my leg in my 40s, probably twice, and I expect to spend a year in a wheelchair following a significant car accident at least once in my life.
If today's handicapped would stop asking for me to assist them, and instead start asking me to invest in my own handicapped future, they'd treat me the way I deserve to be treated: as one of them. Right now, they treat me like an outsider; that's their fault; and it's to the detriment of us all.
Americans drug their children instead of dealing with their behaviour. We are aware of this. ADHD isn't a disability, its just the result of too much energy and not enough exercise.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
This statement is simple, to the point, and a product of basic common sense. It is also completely wrong.
It is also completely wrong.
No it isn't. It is only partially wrong. AHDH is a real disorder. My brother suffered from. I know it when I see it. I regularly volunteer to help out in my son's elementary school classroom for two hours every Friday morning. I know all his classmates, and work with all of them regularly. They are all normal kids. None of them are even close to ADHD. Yet, since I started working with them, several of the boys have been put on medication. That is insane. But I can see how it happens. Shoving pills into the kids makes the teacher's job easier. The parents are happy because they can continue to let the kid sit in front of the TV and munch potato chips, which is much easier than being a responsible parent. And the doctor is guaranteed a steady income stream. All the incentives are in the wrong direction.
thanks...no go back to your baby school.
u give new meaning to 'Anonymous Coward '
with ADHD????
It is also completely wrong.
No it isn't. It is only partially wrong. AHDH is a real disorder. My brother suffered from. I know it when I see it. I regularly volunteer to help out in my son's elementary school classroom for two hours every Friday morning. I know all his classmates, and work with all of them regularly. They are all normal kids. None of them are even close to ADHD. Yet, since I started working with them, several of the boys have been put on medication. That is insane. But I can see how it happens. Shoving pills into the kids makes the teacher's job easier. The parents are happy because they can continue to let the kid sit in front of the TV and munch potato chips, which is much easier than being a responsible parent. And the doctor is guaranteed a steady income stream. All the incentives are in the wrong direction.
And those parents don't know what they're getting their kids into. Years from now, even after they discover they were sold a load of bullshit, they'll find out that all those 'psych rejects' who are now teachers have been busily inspecting their children's files and will be treating them decisively different from the rest of the students.
They'll be lucky if one of them slips up and lets the parents know that's happening. Though you can be sure it'll be discussed in the teacher's lounge.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)