Abstract
Communication problems that arise as a side effect of someone having a disability (or being subjected to disablism) include difficulty accessing Internet content and participating fully in online activities. Restricted Access offers a thorough account of obstacles that affect Internet users with special needs as Elizabeth Ellcessor, Assistant Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University and former web developer, alerts her readers to the fact that ‘digital media cultures take for granted an able-bodied user position, potentially restricting access for users with a variety of disabilities’ (p. 2).
The book begins with a number of ocular examples: D/deaf and hard-of-hearing users may find it hard to access audiovisual content if captions are absent; blind and visually impaired people are likely to find it impossible to benefit from the content of audiovisual material if it is not accompanied by audio-description. Moreover, if proper HTML attributes are absent, web forms become inaccessible for those who use screen readers and alternative input devices (other than a mouse). Online shopping, browsing, social networking – everything that contemporary digital natives (and even digital aliens) seemingly take for granted – are accessible only for some people and not others.
While Internet may seem like a phenomenon that equalises people with different abilities, allowing a wider range of stakeholders to engage with a broad selection of social activities, Ellcessor’s analysis confirms that there is some way information technology creates disability and as such is an instrument of disablism and oppression. In her effort to counteract this, Ellcessor engages with critical disability studies and contemporary cultural studies of media exploring ways in which disability-related issues could be exposed to reveal diverse contexts that would change our conventional perception of media’s meaning, use and access.
In Chapter 1 ‘Regulating Digital Media Accessibility: #CaptionTHIS’, the author interrogates a range of issues affecting accessibility and access: definition of access, structures that limit or expand access and power relations between stakeholders. Legal structures, official policies, regulations and international agreements are accounted for alongside informal forms of regulation, such as corporate standards and professional norms. Ellcessor uses the captioning of online media as a case study revealing ‘myriad regulatory forces’ (p. 31) involved in digital media accessibility processes. She demonstrates further the complexity of access regulations by, for example, explaining that in the United States, ‘legal sources for the regulation of digital media accessibility are located within civil rights, employment and telecommunications law’ (p. 34), whence we can see that relevant documentation is fragmented and thus may not be easily accessible itself.
Chapter 2 ‘You Already Know How to Use It: Technology, Disability, and Participation’ analyses the image of a digital technology consumer, exploring user positions developed by users with disabilities. In particular, Ellcessor’s interrogation of advertisements going back to early 1990s reveals the suggested position of disabled users of new technology as ‘disempowered’ and ‘at best … [as] passive beneficiaries of these advances’ (p. 68). Ellcessor argues that disability challenges ‘preferred user positions’, the term that Ellcessor introduces to describe the consumer image entailed in contemporary advertisements. The ideal user of video games, digital audio and communication devices is presented as active, able-bodied and empowered, and such imagery excludes people with disabilities, thus positioning them outside the cultural discourse that involves the latest media technology. The author calls for a revision of the imagery whereby alternative user positions should be explored to include those who, for example, cannot use default interfaces.
Chapter 3 ‘Transformers: Accessibility, Style, and Adaptation’ examines the material and encoded structures and the ways in which they could be modified in order to allow access for people with special needs. Thus, the graphical user interface, HTML, Flash and mobile media are discussed in the context of assistive computing technologies, web accessibility and accessible web technologies. This chapter contains a detailed evaluation of particular devices and technologies and reveals, for example, that assistive technologies per se were less popular than iPad2 and iPhone 4S as ‘[a]mong disability bloggers, mobile devices were particularly useful in creating alternatives to traditional keyboards’ (p. 109).
Chapter 4 ‘Content Warnings: Struggles over Meaning, Rights, and Equality’ investigates how media content – ‘what we access’ (p. 126) – is ‘imagined, produced and received in relation to disability and technology’ (p. 125). In this context, Ellcessor identifies instances where disabled people are treated as a disadvantaged audience, which for Ellcessor constitutes ‘a pervasive paternalism in which those without advantages are expected to pursue civic-minded, developmental, or practical material rather than more popular or entertainment-orientated offerings’ (p. 130). She criticises Mark Warschauer who, in his study of technology and social inclusion, expects people with disabilities to be interested specifically in ‘rehabilitation programs, assistive technology, special education, workplace adaptations, legislation, and training’ (p. 130).
However, it is reassuring to find evidence of positive societal trends towards genuine empowerment of people with disabilities as ‘increasing … social participation by people with disabilities … continues to be a priority for U.S. policies related to digital media access’ (p. 130). Ellcessor quotes Section 508 that requires federal agencies to produce accessible web content, which is used ‘as the basis for public universities’ accessibility policies’ (p. 130). She also notes that government educational and other resources are accessible more often than commercial, entertainment or retail material.
Personal experiences of the use of technology are explored in Chapter 5 ‘The Net Experience: Intersectional Identities and Cultural Accessibility’, which begins with an example of a blind person using Instagram. The process of taking pictures and sharing them with other people, without being able to see, has a different meaning for him than for a sighted person. The photographer, in this case, enjoys the social component of sharing while ‘having little creative investment in his photographs’ (p. 157) – an atypical use of Instagram technology. Drawing on this example, Ellcessor stresses the importance of investigating access ‘in terms of experience’ (p. 158) where concrete situations involving diverse stakeholders’ standpoints challenge stipulated assumptions and help deconstruct and reconstruct the meanings of the experience of access.
In the conclusion, Ellcessor notes that theories of participation and inclusion often fail to acknowledge the importance of access and stresses that ‘access is not a prerequisite to participation – access and participation depend upon each other’ (p. 196). The challenge that the author undertook in Restricted Access was to confront our habitual preconceptions of access, and I can confirm that my understanding of media discourses has been transformed thanks to her.
Issues raised in this ambitious book would be of special interest to disability studies and media specialists, but must not be overlooked by those who are practically engaged with digital media and technology: technology manufacturers, web designers, web content writers, IT service providers and legislators. The book could also form the basis of a professional development programme for various practitioners who deal with the general public (which may include people with disabilities) as its text is engaging and very readable despite occasional lengthy and wordy passages and absence of a glossary explaining abbreviations and specialist terms.
This study was supported by Russian Scientific Fund, grant number 16-18-00016.