2007 PhD Thesis Final Revised.pdf - Curtin University

During this period of legislative and social changes, another significant
transformation was occurring that would also have a fundamental impact on people
with disabilities. The computing revolution was beginning to increasingly affect
many people’s daily working and family lives. With the first commercially available
home computer entering the market in 1975 and the introduction of more traditional
personal computers in 1977, the late 1970s and 1980s saw a vast and progressive
change in the acceptance of new technology (Carlson, Burgess, & Miller, 1996).
Although tens of millions of people used computers through the 1980s, very little
attention was paid to making this new technology accessible to people with
disabilities. Ensuring new hardware and software could be used by a majority of the
population received precedence over assisting people with disabilities to ‘keep up’
with the revolution. As such, many industry leaders did not cater for people with
disabilities during this time. For example, Microsoft Corporation, the world’s
biggest software manufacturer, did not embark on their first accessibility computing
project until 1988 and did not employ their first full-time accessibility staff member
until 1992 (Microsoft, 2002).
Through the late 1980s and the 1990s, it became apparent that computing
technologies were becoming such an integral part of daily life that it was vital for
computers to be accessible to all people, including those with disabilities. The
momentum from many advocacy groups, in conjunction with the promotion of
educational and legal resources led to the creation in the US Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 (U.S. Department of Justice, 2002). This legislation
was designed to legally enforce equality in all environments, including computing
technologies.
The introduction of the ADA led to the incorporation of accessibility features
in the development of major computing operating systems throughout the early
1990s. The momentum of these developments launched a variety of accessibility
initiatives in markets such as Australia. Examples of these initiatives include
products such as JAWS and ZoomText which were designed specifically for people
who are blind or partially-sighted (Walker, 2002).
The rapid arrival of the Internet into the public realm changed the perceived
importance of computing. Initially it was considered, at best, a corporate tool or
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