a11yTOConf2019

Niel Miliken - A Sustainability Based Approach To Accessibility - Why We Need To Treat Exclusion Like Pollution

Speaker: Neil Milliken
Twitter: @NeilMilliken

Note: on this note CogDis refers to Cognitive Disabilities.

• Average age a person acquires a disability is 59
• Older people with disabilities are workers
• They work for longer
• Others work because they have to
• Modern lifestyles are contributing to increased incidence of acquiring disabilities
• We’re going to have a huge number of people with disabilities.

• It’s imperative that we enable aging people to remain independent.

• Tech is giving people options to work in ways that suit them.
• 3D printing is delivering prospect of personalized and localized a11y solutions for people
• Smart devices may unlock potential to make our homes & cities much more inclusive
• Augmented Reality gives us opportunities to support people with CogDis
• Xbox Adaptive controller box can be opened with one finger.
• Businesses already report on sustainability and reporting metrics are starting to include disability metrics.

Society is paying high price to deal with the negative externality of inaccessibility.

We need to create certainty that there will be penalties for being inaccessible.

Just like with environmental protection, prevention is better than the cure.