Contested knowledge

Technical checklist verses people. 

Web accessibility and fixes versus inclusive design.

Medical model and return on investment verses social model and not being expensive.

Wentz, Jaeger and Lazar (2011)
Wentz, B., Jaeger, P.T. and Lazar, J. (2011) Retrofitting accessibility: The legal inequality of after-the-fact online access for persons with disabilities in the United States. First Monday.

Compared to a project planned with universal access in mind, retrofitting websites often adds extreme challenges, is time consuming and adds significant expense (Slatin, 2001; Ossmann, et al, 2008; Wentz, Jaeger and Lazar, 2011)
Wentz, Jaeger and Lazar (2011) offer an example of retrofitting costs, they describe a simple Tic–Tac–Toe computer game for accessibility that resulted in the lines of code growing from 192 to 1,412 when it didn't need to. 

ADD EXTRA REFERENCES FOR THE ABOVE CITATIONS.

Carlsson, G., Jonsson, O., Olander, S., Salén, M., Månsson Lexell, E. and Slaug, B. (2023) Exploration of a Web-based accessibility tool for public facilities. Facilities, 41(15/16), pp.66-84.

(Carlsson et al, 2023) explains that one of the consequences of retrofitting to meet the inherent complexity of increased accessibility is that experts with appropriate competence need to get involved to suggest solutions.
Keeps it with the specialists not mainstream…
*follow on with hero

IBM retrofitting:

Shift left for easier adoption

Development is the wrong place to begin accessibility. There are many historical reasons accessibility has usually fallen to developers. However, this approach turns accessibility into a piecemeal remediation effort that often requires a fair amount of redesign. The process is expensive, and the outcome is not great.

https://www.ibm.com/able/toolkit/plan/project/


Microsoft:

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/engineering-at-microsoft/shifting-accessibility-left-with-accessibility-insights/

Similar to the three definitions related to digital accessibility, the way the web regulations are being met appears to have its own debates and conflicted opinions. There appears to be compliance as a fix, adhering to a product checklist, or as a process of inclusive design informed and co-produced by disabled users. There are many mentions of this which appear to impact how accessibility is viewed, valued or invested in. 

Literature and reports additionally suggest that training in accessibility is sparse with no formal education for those developing digital products or websites, and this lack of training or awareness extends beyond web teams across whole organisations.

Hero model in the hands of specialists- quote about retrofitting needing expertise.

When it comes to education and relating it to real life there appears to be several approaches such as conformance to the legal obligations such as WCAG standards and the teaching of technical skills, working with people with disabilities to aid learning and experiencing the barriers faced by people with disabilities using empathy modelling or empathy labs which is more inline with the equality act. With the topic of digital accessibility being described as multifaceted or multidisciplinary each of these perspectives will have merit for this research. The fact that the legal requirements or formal guidance offers these different perspectives too warrants using each, and exploring what activities would be appropriate for a beginner’s level intervention at school.

Without a structured education there is no clear definition or direction for how digital accessibility should be adopted and defined, but literature and lessons learned do agree that it should be thought of from the start and align to the inclusive design perspective, which also upholds the ethos of the social model of disability.

*One particular study (or more) use the creation and test scenario showing how people don’t design for accessibility.

Say no to the checklist: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=WCAG+checklist&oq=#d=gs_qabs&t=1696366509568&u=%23p%3DAHL28wZws_wJ



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