The Work Continues, 36 Years After the ADA

On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a monumental piece of legislation into law: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A landmark civil rights bill, the ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations, and imposes accessibility requirements on public accommodations.

This bill transformed the ways Americans with disabilities could interact with the world. It changed the way our infrastructure is built, our public transportation is run, and our society functions. There’s no denying how significant the ADA has been to American society and the physical world we live in. But 36 years on, there is one place society still falls short: the digital world.

As someone with a disability, I navigate accessibility issues every day. And frequently, they occur online or with digital products. The websites, the apps, and the services we rely on these days aren’t always made for people with differing abilities — and it’s a major barrier to access.

Accessibility Isn’t Abstract

I was shot in the head in 2011. The shooter killed 6 people(opens in a new tab) and injured 13, including me. I’m lucky to be alive. But like so many victims of gun violence, my life was forever changed. I have aphasia, a language disorder that impacts my ability to put my thoughts into words. I also have vision issues, and I’m partially paralyzed on the right side of my body. I often have my walking stick with me. As a result of my injury, I can’t give long, on-the-spot speeches like I used to as a congresswoman.

Many of the physical accommodations I need to get around and live my life are already in place, courtesy of the ADA — the ramps, the curb cuts, the elevators. But there are countless digital accommodations that would help me, and the millions of others like me, in our daily lives. And these accommodations aren’t abstract ideas; they’re real, concrete changes that make the difference between participating fully in society and being left out.

Inclusive digital design matters in more ways than you may realize:

• Screen readers and other visual accommodations: Making sure text or photos on a website or app can be read aloud or described to the people who need it is a necessity in a world where so much of our lives are online. Easy-to-use magnifiers, screen readers, and color-adjusting tools to increase legibility must be commonplace.

• Captions, transcripts, and other auditory accommodations: Captions on videos, transcripts of audio or visual content, and audio narrations of videos are crucial to ensure everyone has access to the same information.

• Speech recognition, keyboard navigation, and other mobility accommodations: Being able to dictate text or control devices using spoken commands is an important accommodation. If you have trouble typing, these tools can allow you to still send digital messages or search for information. If you can’t use a computer mouse, keyboard navigation or alternative keyboards allow you to still navigate a site.

Why Universal Access Matters

I want to make one thing clear: universal access benefits everyone. While people with hearing loss may require captions for videos, the benefits of closed captions are much broader. They increase information retention and comprehension, allow non-native speakers to understand what’s being said, and help people watch content in noisy environments.

Improving accessibility in our digital world isn’t something we should do to help a select few; it’s something we should do to help everyone. While the ADA succeeded in making American life more accessible for millions of Americans living with disabilities, new technologies can inadvertently erect new barriers that prevent an entire class of people from reaping their benefits.

As we recognize 36 years of this transformative legislation, it’s important that institutions — from businesses to governments — understand that the job isn’t finished until all parts of American life are open and accessible to all.