New media has the potential to help people with disabilities across a number of different areas. Primarily, focus on accessibility for people with disabilities relates to people with extreme or obvious physical and/or mental impairments. However, new media is also assisting those with less obvious, and therefore marginalised disabled groups, such as dyslexia, a learning disability that affects a person’s ability to uptake and process verbal and written information.
In the Disability Discrimination Act 1992, the definition of disability includes ‘ a disorder or malfunction that results in the person learning differently from a person without the disorder or malfunction’. This is also extended into the NSW Education Act 1990, where the Objects state there must be ‘provision of special educational assistance to children with disabilites’
With the advancement of new media technologies, options and assistive technology have become more accessible to those with learning disabilities. In Demystifying Dyslexia: Screen Solutions for young students, Vize provides examples of new media that can assist people with this learning disability. Included in these examples are software that assists with spelling and provides the option for dictation, as well as options for iPad tablet computers, which include the ability for voice dictation. Other options include apps that can be installed on Apple iPhone and iPad devices, as well as Andriod devices.
In The Business of Digital Disability, Goggin and Newell call for the accessibility and inclusivity of people with disabilies in the production and design of new media technologies.
While calls for accessibility to all forms of media for all disabled people is both ideal and should be expected, the diversity of possible impairments is endless. This causes us to question is if anticipating and accommodating for all known impairments and disabilities is possible, particularly when considering marginalised disabilities such as learning disabilities.
References:
Goggin, G & Newell, C. 2007, ‘The Business of Digital Disability’, The Information Society: An International Journal, Vol 23, No 3, pp.159-168
Vize, A. 2012, ‘Demystifying dyslexia: Screen Solutions for Young Students’, Screen Education, No. 67, pp.42-46, accessed via informit database
Australian Government, Disability Discrimination Act 1992, accessed via http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/C2013C00022
New South Wales Government, NSW Education Act 1990, accessed via http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/fullhtml/inforce/act+8+1990+FIRST+0+N#pt.2-sec.4
Emerging Issues in Media 