Evaluating the Accessibility of Digital Government Services for Family Law in the U.S. during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forced state courts to more fully embrace electronic filing, access to forms, and remote hearings. As a result, individuals navigating the legal system during this transition had to rely on digital access to court forms. While the courts have been praised for their ability to adapt, the extent to which online court forms are accessible for individuals with disabilities remains an open question. In this preliminary study focused on the policy implications of inaccessible court forms, we evaluated the accessibility of PDF divorce forms used in 10 states. The study revealed that that none of the forms were completely accessible, suggesting that individuals with disabilities may find it challenging -- if not impossible -- to independently complete and fill out family law courts forms. This lack of accessibility is more than a technical issue, as it also raises concerns about “accessibility to justice.

A qualitative enquiry into OpenStreetMap making

Based on a case study on the OpenStreetMap community, this paper provides a contextual and embodied understanding of the user-led, user-participatory and user-generated produsage phenomenon. It employs Grounded Theory, Social Worlds Theory, and qualitative methods to illuminate and explores the produsage processes of OpenStreetMap making, and how knowledge artefacts such as maps can be collectively and collaboratively produced by a community of people, who are situated in different places around the world but engaged with the same repertoire of mapping practices. The empirical data illustrate that OpenStreetMap itself acts as a boundary object that enables actors from different social worlds to co-produce the Map through interacting with each other and negotiating the meanings of mapping, the mapping data and the Map itself. The discourses also show that unlike traditional maps that black-box cartographic knowledge and offer a single dominant perspective of cities or places, OpenStreetMap is an embodied epistemic object that embraces different world views. The paper also explores how contributors build their identities as an OpenStreetMaper alongside some other identities they have. Understanding the identity-building process helps to understand mapping as an embodied activity with emotional, cognitive and social repertoires

AXMEDIS 2008

The AXMEDIS International Conference series aims to explore all subjects and topics related to cross-media and digital-media content production, processing, management, standards, representation, sharing, protection and rights management, to address the latest developments and future trends of the technologies and their applications, impacts and exploitation. The AXMEDIS events offer venues for exchanging concepts, requirements, prototypes, research ideas, and findings which could contribute to academic research and also benefit business and industrial communities. In the Internet as well as in the digital era, cross-media production and distribution represent key developments and innovations that are fostered by emergent technologies to ensure better value for money while optimising productivity and market coverage

Digital Accessibility and Disability Accommodations in Online Dispute Resolution: ODR for Everyone

Court systems are exploring and beginning to adopt online dispute resolution (ODR) systems, and it is critical that they make digital accessibility a priority. Even though we need to pay close attention to ODR developments in court systems, we cannot overlook the fact that there are ODR providers in the private sector whose systems also must be accessible for persons with disabilities. Plaintiffs filed more ADA Title III website accessibility lawsuits in federal court for the first six months of 2018 than in all of 2017. There were at least 1053 such lawsuits in the first six months of 2018, compared to 814 in all of 2017. As websites have become more sophisticated, access to them has worsened. This article will revisit the question of what digital accessibility standards are legally required. Although the threat of legal liability for failing to satisfy well-respected privately promulgated standards is still real, making a website digitally accessible will make it easier for everyone to use and may attract new users. Websites, mobile applications, software platforms, and other technologies will be accessible when developed and designed to internationally recognized accessibility standards. A host of best practices related to business processes and training are available to ensure accessibility for ODR systems. This Article offers ODR system designers, practicing neutrals such as mediators and arbitrators, information technology professionals, private and public decisionmakers, and policymakers essential information and tools to build and maintain systems that work for everyone. It is extremely important that the ODR community focus on digital accessibility at this moment, because ODR systems are not only being implemented in the United States; they are being adopted around the world

The Pandemic Preferred User

As COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, universities acted quickly to move their core business of teaching and research online. Classes shifted to platforms such as Zoom, Webex, Collaborate and Microsoft Teams and teachers and students alike were expected to adapt. And they did. While there has been much discussion of the unpaid labour involved in making this shift and the difficulties inherent in merging work, study and domestic life, there has been little acknowledgement or analysis of inherent notions of the preferred user in this rapid shift to technology. This paper draws on critical disability studies to offer a conceptual and theoretical analysis of a deeply problematic aspect of the rapid move to online education in response to COVID-19: the reliance of notions of the preferred user. The preferred user is simply the type of person technology creators or institutions envision using their product or service. Within critical disability studies the preferred user is often recognised as white, male and able bodied (see Ellcessor, 2017). In other words, the preferred user often excludes people with disability and other forms of disadvantage. Accordingly, in this paper we offer a preliminary overview, conceptualisation, and reflection on students with disability (and by extension other non-preferred users), their experiences and perspectives in relation to what might be described as disabling approaches to online learning, for example synchronous learning, video conferencing. Firstly, we introduce the concept of disability, as it has been redefined in the past two decades, as social, political, cultural, and rights-based – rather than some kind of biomedical condition or charity topic. We also give an overview of universal design for learning to reflect on the importance of adapting learning environments for all students. Secondly, we discuss the disconnect between students, teachers and support staff. From these cases, there are some significant challenges to key questions, such as how we understand students with disability, whose responsibility is it to provide access and support, and is mainstreaming accessible technology always the most appropriate answer? Thirdly, we chart the ways these already existing issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the opportunities that have also arisen. For example, accessibility features such as captioning for people with disabilities, or non-preferred users, are actually beneficial to everyone. Finally, while the forced shift to online learning during this pandemic has the ideal potential to accommodate “non-preferred” users, the actual roll out and delivery of online learning is still defaulting to modes that are both difficult and challenging, and in many cases exacerbates existing issues and inequalities. We conclude with suggestions about how a consideration of the non-preferred user might actually be the preferred approach for all

Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project

[EN] The EU4ALL project (IST-FP6-034778) has developed a general framework to address the needs of accessible lifelong learning at Higher Education level consisting of several standards-based interoperable components integrated into an open web service architecture aimed at supporting adapted interaction to guarantee students' accessibility needs. Its flexibility has supported the project implementation at several sites with different settings and various learning management systems. Large-scale evaluations involving hundreds of users, considering diverse disability types, and key staff roles have allowed obtaining valuable lessons with respect to "how to adopt or enhance eLearning accessibility" at university. The project was evaluated at four higher education institutions, two of the largest in Europe and two mediumsized. In this paper, we focus on describing the implementation and main conclusions at the largest project evaluation site (UNED), which was involved in the project from the beginning, and thus, in the design process, and a medium-sized university that adopted the EU4ALL approach (UPV). This implies dealing with two well-known open source learning environments (i.e. dotLRN and Sakai), and considering a wide variety of stakeholders and requirements. Thus the results of this evaluation serve to illustrate the coverage of both the approach and developments.The authors would like to thank the European Commission for the financial support of the EU4ALL project (IST-2006-034478). The work at aDeNu is also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (TIN2008-06862-C04-01/TSI “A2UN@”). Authors would also like to thank all the EU4ALL partners for their collaboration.Boticario, JG.; Rodriguez-Ascaso, A.; Santos, OC.; Raffenne, E.; Montandon, L.; Roldán Martínez, D.; Buendía García, F. (2012). Accessible lifelong learning at higher education:outcomes and lessons Learned at two different PilotSites in the EU4ALL Project. Journal of Universal Computer Science. 18(1):62-85. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/37117628518

A Study of Local Centers in The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

The purpose of this project was to update and expand the 2009 Local Centers Study for the Kingston Council. The team devised an improved audit methodology to obtain and synthesize data on the status and health of local urban centers. The study found most centers are in good health with only a small handful ailing. The report can serve as a template for future studies of center health and deficiency in Kingston and other boroughs

Clemson Libraries Inclusive Description Task Force Report

This report summarizes the findings of the Inclusive Description Task Force presented to the Libraries administration in December 2022. It serves as the final deliverable of the Task Force that outlines the research completed from July to December, presents recommendations on how Clemson Libraries can systemically implement inclusive description practices across all descriptive records, and lists the next steps and prioritized tasks to complete