The Key to Sustainable Global Prosperity is at the Margins

1. The Key to Sustainable Global Prosperity is at the Margins • Jutta Treviranus • Inclusive Design Research Centre • OCAD University

2. Digital Exclusion • access to online systems is no longer an option • new entranceway to government services, commerce, education, employment, recreation, social engagement, civic engagement.... • powerful potential to address barriers to accessibility • but current systems failing • estimated social and economic cost of digital exclusion (55.2 billion annually in the US)

3. Bridging the Gap? • Standard information and communication technology (ICT) developers design for the typical or average user • Specialized Assistive technology (AT) is intended to bridge the gap to reach anyone that requires alternative access systems

4. Technology Gap • Assistive Technology bridge is inadequate and crumbling • impossible technical task (interoperate with all applications) • impossible business conditions (very small customer base) • only serve some disabilities • only serve a small part of the world • Unlike standard ICT, AT is: • increasing in cost • Decreasing in availability, functionality, reliability and diversity • Costs up to 10 times more to “get online”

5. Special Services for excluded individuals • Currently spend more on policing and excluding people from specialized services than on delivering service • Vicious cycle of increasing administrative overhead: • certify individuals as qualifying for service • authorize technology or training as qualifying for funding • During budget cuts - limit costs by tightening criteria • squeezed-out groups advocate for new categories • more spent on administering new categories

6. Accessibility Legislation • Essential for cultural change, but hard to update and keep current • Blunt and rigid instrument for such a complex and evolving domain as the Web and the internet • Seen to constrain innovation, flexibility and customization

8. We need a new approach • must be sustainable • must be integrated • must take advantage of technical advance rather than trying to catch up • must include the full spectrum of users who face barriers • must recognize that people with disabilities are very diverse • must be available globally

9. Emerging Approach • Leveraging global networks and connectivity • Taking advantage of the flexibility of digital content and applications • Stretching the trend toward personalization to encompass all potential users • Addressing the needs of consumers at the margins through the rise of 3D printing • Crowdsourcing accessibility • Developing a future-proof economic driver that can engage producers and suppliers at the margins

11. Benefits far more than individuals with disabilities…

12. Mainstreaming Digital Inclusion • Recognizes and serves the full spectrum of human diversity • Reframing as relative • Disability = a mismatch between the needs of the individual and the service or environment offered • Accessibility = the ability of the system to match the needs of the individual

13. Push to Pull • Creates powerful pull market that reduces barriers to entry and provides accessible employment opportunities • In extreme push market • most of capital spent pushing products, leaving little time for production and innovation • emerging developers can’t break into market • compelled to address largest markets and ignore the rest • Enable pull market • diversity of requests • Reduced barriers to entry for new producers and suppliers • encourage diversity of supply and innovation

14. Requires Global Cooperation and Participation • Global infrastructure • Open standards • Pooling and sharing of resources across national boundaries • Connecting demands with supply globally

15. Enabling greater diversity of participation and thereby... • innovation and creativity • resiliency • cumulative, collective production, pooling and sharing

17. Questions, suggestions.... • http://gpii.net • http://idrc.ocadu.ca • http://floeproject.org • http://cloud4All.info