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‘Socialware’ Leveling the Global Playing Field

By William Loughborough

As the World Wide Web becomes an everyday and virtually indispensable part of modern-day communication, a set of tools has emerged that enables nearly everyone to – anonymously — be a reporter or editor instead of a mere consumer of information.

This has changed everything.

We can rant or rave via Web log (blog) or wiki (a collaborative Web site in which content can be edited by those with access to it). We can find groups with similar interests. We can organize face-to-face meetings with like-minded people. We even can bombard our elected representatives with petitions. Citizenry has become “netizenry” as dreams of a “global village” come true at last.

The advent of a comparatively new array of tools, what has come to be called “socialware,” sets us all free to BE the media instead of just being a target of conventional print or broadcast efforts by huge corporate entities. In essence, our voices have become potentially as strident and as effective as those of pundits of yore.

The pre-eminent collaborative experience is Wikipedia, the free Internet encyclopedia, which has become for many the portal to the Web. Its millions of articles increasingly contain whatever one is looking for about almost any subject, from archery to Zoroastrianism. Most important, anyone can create new articles or edit existing ones without having to join anything. One can become comfortable with the Wikipedia editing process in a short time using its tutorials and examples.

Many persons with disabilities (PWDs) already have Web sites, blogs, mailing list servers and other versions of community bulletin boards that deal with matters usually thought to be of interest only to others in the disability rights community. For example, it is now easy to find updated information on ADAPT and Not Dead Yet or stay informed about the latest news of particular interest in the field of independent living.

As more software like features become common through the availability of “Web 2.0,” there will be even more ways to make participation in society increasingly effective. Web sites such as YouTube, Facebook and Flickr reflect a growing tendency of enabling the Internet and World Wide Web to be playpens or professions.

The standards that underlie these innovations have been set forth by an enormous number of volunteer programmers and editors who participate in organizations like the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to streamline access.

The W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), for example, publishes recommendations (the equivalent of international standards) that seek to make all Web postings accessible to PWDs. The initiative holds weekly teleconferences to hammer out guidelines on accessibility, user agents and authoring tools, and explanatory documents urging those who design Web content and its associated tools — such as browsers, editors, screen readers, captioning assistants, and all manner of content-management software — to produce a Web that is accessible to everyone.

This intensive and time-consuming process demands a form of consensus that must satisfy the technical and disability communities.

The original guidelines were completely overhauled, a process that took nearly a decade. Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) went from an early version (1.0) that was dependent on HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to a better, more testable and specific version (2.0) that generalizes the “four principles” of being perceivable, operable, understandable and robust (POUR). The effort involved hundreds of participants over the years and thousands of suggestions from software engineers and those in the disability rights community.

Coupled with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, there are now a set of guidelines (called “Candidate Recommendations”) that, if followed, will make accessing the Web a routine act by anyone, regardless of physical or mental ability, while at the same time making the Web more technically sound.

In order for all this to be useful, it requires user participation, such as Wikipedia proofreading, or starting one’s own Web site or blog.

There are many professionals in the field of Web accessibility who provide their expertise in the field of Web design. In addition to the latter, conferences focus on laws or regulations in most countries and the European Union that prescribe the practices needed to make Web materials accessible. There are now bubbling up through the courts many cases that aim to enforce the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Section 508 and state laws requiring that all pubic presentations on the Web be accessible.

Increasingly, socialware is attracting commercial as well as academic interest. At many general Web conferences, it has become a field of major interest because of its social and business implications. Such features as the personal book reviews on Amazon.com and the ratings system for vendors on eBay are examples of what can be done in this area.

From the original Web conference slogan in 1997 (“Everyone, Everything Connected”) to this year’s “One World, One Web” phrase in Beijing, we are approaching an era that promises universal connectedness with attendant empowerment surpassing anything ever experienced by those outside “The Establishment.”

For PWDs, the Web’s original promise is being increasingly fulfilled by many who are determined that nobody will be excluded by the infamous “digital divide.” PWD advocates and activists are dedicated to ensuring everyone’s participation – not just because it’s the law or the right thing to do, but because it’s good business.

Some Web locations of interest include: (w3.org/wai), (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADAPT), (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_rights_movement), (volunteermatch.org), (flickr.com), (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_living), (meetup.com), (itodaynews.com), (ilusa.com), (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_Dead_Yet) and (youtube.com). Note: It’s not necessary to use the “http://www” prefix.

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William Loughborough has been active in the field of rehabilitation for more than 40 years with San Francisco’s Smith-Kettlewell Institute of Visual Sciences. He has served on several W3C/WAI working groups and is currently active with the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) that promotes the dissemination of WCAG 2.0.

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