AccessAbility Blog

Ever since 2017 or so I’ve been noticing a huge increase in accessibility. A few examples that are coming to mind are, well, all about blindness accessibility, partly because I am, indeed, totally blind now. A few of these are, EA developing their own accessibility portal so gamers with disabilities can know what game has what accessibility feature, as well as, how to access it, Slack suddenly caring about accessibility all of a sudden when before it was a kind of “that’s a neat idea LOL” sentiment I’ve been hearing from them, and, Discord finally starts taking accessibility seriously.

Peter Korn, Director of Accessibility Lab 126, gives us an overview of the Toshiba Smart TV’s now available from Best Buy due to a partnership with Amazon that puts the Fire TV functionality built into the Smart TV. Meaning that Alexa, Voice View screen reader and magnification are all built in to the 43 inch, 50 inch and 55 inch, with 4K Ultra HD capability.

Adam Nemeroff, an instructional designer in Dartmouth College's department of academic and campus technology services, admits he has “super-complicated and conflicted” thoughts about the role of technology in ensuring that digital courses and curricular materials are fully accessible to all students. He’s seen his institution and others in recent years talk more about accessibility and invest in digital tools to address concerns head-on. But he thinks there’s a downside to being too tool focused.