Thinking the ‘why’ through

 As a society we now need to be digital citizens. For equality and to be accessible this comes with new responsibilities, the need for awareness and core digital values for inclusion.

Currently as a society awareness in the area of digital accessibility is not really being raised or addressed beyond those directly affected by the web regulations, such as web developers, users or enthusiasts. On the diffusion of innovation model (below), I'd suggest in wider society this is at the stage of innovators and some early adopters. 

With the momentum of the digital world we need to ensure society is more prepared than this, surely? We need the knowledge and skills of knowing how to be inclusive more widespread to prevent current and future barriers and exclusion, so everyone can more effectively engage in the digital space, at least at a very basic level.

 Barriers in society align to the social model of disability, yet this social model can only be addressed if people are willing or able to engage and contribute. This can only be done if people understand and are equipped for the digital context, I suggest it’s so behind that we need to address this at scale.

I argue, that at present with both awareness and skills limited and not yet in the mainstream this poses a significant problem. We have a society that is not prepared or equipped to address the social model of disability for digital accessibility and therefor we need to educate people. More pertinent is that we need to educate our future generations so they can contribute to a digitally inclusive future and society.

This education needs to be part of culture, part of the mainstream and part of our wider education system. Young people learn digital skills at a young age and this is where established routines and knowledge about the digital world is constructed. Therefor digital accessibility really should be included to prevent future barriers and safeguard against widespread exclusion.

To be able to include it in education we need to be aware the subject of digital accessibility maybe new, challenging or alien to many, and that includes both learners and teachers in schools. There are many pre-conceptions about digital accessibility already posing barriers to those attempting to train and embed it in organisations to meet legal requirements. 

This is crucial to acknowledge and understand but also interesting to explore what these pre-conceptions might be to those not yet exposed or aware of the technical specifications of WCAG that bring with them the assumption that digital accessibility is complex, time consuming or the responsibility of those with technical expertise and knowledge.

Schools have not yet been affected by the legal requirements in the same way and at this level of educating young people they don't need to know this level of WCAG knowledge to raise awareness or grasp some of the more simple principles that can be adopted for digital accessibility. 

I see digital accessibility as a spectrum of basic knowledge and understanding to apply some simple everyday principles all the way through to the technical audits, specifications and expertise. I have used Bloom's taxonomy to illustrate this. 

For the purpose of my intended research I am only concerned with looking at the basic awareness and application of the more simple digital accessibility principles.


Diagrams:

Diffusion of innovation model (Rogers, 1962) and my interpretation for digital accessibility adoption highlighting innovators and early adopters progress in society:




Blooms taxonomy (Bloom, 1956, 2001) and my interpretation and categorisation of digital accessibility skills:





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