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Dear Colleague:

     By working with Americans in many walks of life,
the Clinton Administration is developing a broad
vision of an advanced information infrastructure. As
an interconnection of computer networks,
telecommunications services, and applications, the
National Information Infrastructure (NII) can make a
difference not just in how people work but in how well
they live. This document explores some of the benefits
and barriers to how people and organizations will use the
NII.

     Last May, the Administration released "Putting
the Information Infrastructure to Work," which
explored applications of the NII in several important
areas. The report, released as a draft for public
comment, has been successful in drawing input from
industry, educators, governmental agencies, and the
general public.

     We are releasing a second group of papers as a
draft for public comment. This set of papers examines
eight areas in which NII applications can enhance the
quality of life. Specifically, they address how an
advanced information infrastructure applies to people
with disabilities, electrical power, transportation,
telecommuting, emergency management, arts and
humanities, public safety, and environmental
information.

     This report was prepared by the Committee on
Applications and Technology of the Information
Infrastructure Task Force. The Committee is charged
with coordinating Administration efforts to:

         develop, demonstrate, and promote
          applications of information technology in
          numerous application areas, including, but
          not limited to, manufacturing, electronic
          commerce, education, health care, government
          services, libraries, environmental
          monitoring, and those addressed in this
          document; and

         develop and recommend technology strategies
          and policy to accelerate the implementation
          of the NII.

     We invite you to comment on the papers by
responding to the questions they pose and raising
other issues relevant to the application areas. Your
response will illuminate and guide government policies
and investments to accelerate NII applications.

     We look forward to hearing from you.


                        Sincerely,



                        Ronald H. Brown
Last Updated:  September 7, 1994



Introduction


PART I:  Introduction

This document is the second volume of papers in which
the Information Infrastructure Task Force has
attempted to articulate in clear terms, with
sufficient detail, how improvements in the National
Information Infrastructure can help us meet other
social goals.  These are not plans to be enacted, but
the material with which the citizens and their elected
government may have a structured conversation, a
purposeful interaction and deliberation on the issues
raised in the evolution of more capable means of
information processing and human communications.  At
the highest levels of rhetoric and abstraction it is
not necessary to reconcile opposing values like
freedom and equality. But working out the details of
how new communications media will be introduced
involves some crucial choices on matters that have
historically been the intellectual underpinnings of
our democratic society:  What is the proper balance
between individual liberty and the functioning of
social and political institutions like governments,
businesses, and associations?  How may citizens
maintain a sphere in which their private actions are
revealed to no one, while deriving the benefits of
technological systems whose healthy functioning
requires that demand and usage be anticipated,
measured and controlled?  How can we ensure that the
chorus of our community includes the voices of
everyone?

Our first volume, titled Putting the Information
Infrastructure to Work, discussed NII applications in
the areas of education and lifelong learning, health
care, libraries, manufacturing, electronic commerce,
environmental monitoring, and government service
delivery.  The chapters of this volume help define a
national vision for how advanced communications and
computing technologies can:

 enable Americans with disabilities to achieve full
citizenship in our society

 improve the production, consumption, and management
of our energy resources

 increase the safety and efficiency of our
transportation system

 allow greater flexibility and worker satisfaction
through telecommuting

 save lives and property in times of large-scale
emergencies and natural disasters

 empower citizen action to maintain a clean
environment

 ensure that nonprofit cultural institutions
maintain their position on the front lines of popular
creativity and expression

 further educate and better inform both citizens and
the agencies they rely upon to maintain public safety

We raise these issues in part to render them
accessible to the broadest number of Americans.  Yet,
their identification as public decisions serves
another purpose.  Some of the benefits of an improved
information infrastructure are public goods that, like
air and water, must be maintained collectively by the
community at large in order that each of us may share
them.  Much of the evolution of the National
Information Infrastructure will be driven by private
investment decisions on new network capabilities or
individual consumer spending decisions on new access
devices people may want to buy.  But there are also
crucial components to an infrastructure that we can
only establish and maintain as a community, not merely
as a collection of individuals.

PART II:  Issues Common to all of the Application
Papers

Not surprisingly, many of the same themes that emerged
from our first volume of papers continue to be
expressed in this volume.  However, with a different
set of examples some of these themes take on new
meaning in their new context.

Equity of Access

The most urgent requirement that these papers express
is that no one's ability to be a full citizen in our
republic can be lessened by technological change.
Equity of access here is broadened in two ways.  It
includes not just fully abled citizens but also
Americans who are experiencing either temporary or
permanent loss of one of their senses or who are
mobility impaired.  Almost a fifth of the U.S.
population is disabled in some way, and that number
will increase as the number of older Americans
increases.  America cannot afford to marginalize the
contribution these citizens have to make to our
collective enterprise.  How can the NII be used to
compensate for, rather than exacerbate, the gap
between the abled and the disabled, so that one's
standing as a citizen is not affected by the strength
of one's eyes or ears or legs?  Equity of access also
means inclusion of America's thriving and vibrant
private associations alongside profit-making
organizations and public institutions.  While we often
organize ourselves in groups to engage in profit-
making activities, much of what we do is through our
associations and voluntary activities.  This is
especially true in the area of arts and culture, and
will have a great impact upon the content available
with an improved NII.  An improved NII must enhance
the ability of many people to engage in creative
endeavors: to be writers, artists, performers, and
historians.  How can we ensure that the ability to
express ourselves is not limited only to the small
portion of the population who are able to earn their
living as artists and performers?  What actions must
we take to extend the capacity for expression?

Technologically Robust Architecture

All of the papers here contribute to a broadened
understanding of what the NII can be.  These papers go
well beyond the narrow conception of the NII as a
means by which people can have more choices of what to
watch on television.  A more intelligent management of
our energy resources, for example, could be enhanced
if the information infrastructure allowed energy
production and storage to be decentralized.  The
onboard display of vehicle location in conjunction
with current road conditions could reduce the amount
of time people spend in transit.  And remote work
locations could reduce the distance they have to
travel as well.  None of these application areas will
be able to develop if we build a specialized
infrastructure whose exclusive purpose is to deliver
more entertainment on television.  They require full
connectivity at many different points on the network,
and interoperability between networks and services.
What is the most thoughtful implementation, especially
of the emerging wireless communications
infrastructure, that can facilitate these public
purposes?  How can we ensure that capabilities that
can improve the quality of our lives evolve along with
the sorts of services that offer more immediate, short
term commercial reward?

Diversity of Content

Just as no technology or social strata of our society
should be able to dominate what is pictured here as a
shared, common set of capabilities for information
processing and communication, no one part of our
society should have exclusive control over what gets
communicated.  A system designed exclusively around
the dynamics of commercial exchange risks leaving out
significant parts of our cultural heritage, producing
a society in which we had bookstores in which to buy
but no libraries from which to borrow.  How can the
creation and dissemination of messages be as
widespread as their receipt and consumption?  How can
we ensure that the richness of the message content is
as diverse as our population?

Safety in our Homes and Protection of our
Neighborhoods

More than ever, citizens are aware of the work of the
public officials who run the criminal justice and
transportation systems on our behalf.  The NII can
facilitate community-based policing and other means by
which the concerns of the professionals who serve us
may be shared with the citizenry at large.  How can we
partially recover the long-lost protection against
aggression that small towns and word-of-mouth once
offered?  How can the disparate community of agencies
who must respond to emergencies and disasters best
coordinate their efforts and solicit our energies?
Citizens, armed with information, are also becoming a
very potent ally of the agencies charged with
environmental protection.  Their ability to monitor
and call attention to pollution greatly strengthens
the fight against environmental degradation.  How can
we harness environmental consciousness so that people
know how to act to protect their homes and
communities?

Citizen Control over Private Information

Citizen control over private information  is essential
if the benefits of an improved NII are to outweigh the
costs.  If people fear that traffic or energy control
systems will be misused as tools of surveillance then
they will never be implemented and the efficiencies
they offer never realized.  And yet, there are cases
in which the authorized release of government-held
private information can be of tremendous benefit to
the citizens concerned, as when a disaster has left
them without a home or the ownership records it
contained.  The information contained in police
records is also highly sensitive.  How can we be sure
that careful auditing of those with access to these
systems and the information they authorize for release
accompanies widespread implementation of distributed
information systems?

PART III: Conclusions

A successful consultation between citizens and their
public officials requires not just the accurate
expression of the problems to be solved, but the
solicitation of advice on solutions, and active
listening to the responses.  We hope that this
document is widely read by people concerned about
these specific areas of public policy and with the
improvement of the National Information
Infrastructure, as well as those concerned more
broadly with our historic committment to democratic
values. We believe that widespread access to advanced
communications technologies can be as enlightening as
was the arrival of the electric light, and as
empowering as the nation's vast and meticulously
maintained power grid.  But as technologies they are
merely facilitative.  Only the application of these
technologies as tools for solving social problems can
translate technological innovation into social
evolution.

Last Updated:  September 7, 1994



People with Disabilities and NII:
Breaking Down Barriers, Building Choice


DRAFT FOR PUBLIC COMMENT


     In a competitive global economy, our country
     does not have a single person to waste
     opportunity must be open to everyone... I
     believe our entire nation will share in the
     economic and social benefits that will
     result from full participation of Americans
     with disabilities in our society.

                          - President Clinton, 12/1/92


PART I:  What Is the Application Arena?

On September 15, 1993, the Administration issued "The
National Information Infrastructure(NII): Agenda for
Action," which formalized several federal NII policy
development mechanisms and enumerated the guiding
principles and goals for future policy development.  A
portion of the vision is as follows:

A major objective in developing the NII will be to
extend the Universal Service concept to the
information needs of  fundamental fairness, this
nation cannot accept a division of our people among
telecommunications or information "haves" and "have-
nots".  The Administration is committed  to developing
a broad, modern concept of Universal Service   one
that would emphasize giving all Americans who desire
it easy, affordable access to advanced communications
and information services, regardless of income,
disability, or location.

The National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for
Action addresses responsiveness to the usage
requirements of people with disabilities as a founding
principle.  Providing choices in the modes of
information representation and manipulation will break
down existing barriers and accelerate progress toward
the full participation of people with disabilities in
society as envisioned by the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA).  The technologies that deliver
for the NII will be the technologies that LEAD the way
in Liberating Expressiveness, Amplifying Dignity for
all Americans.

LEAD by Design:  Breaking Down Barriers, Building
Choice

Ensuring that the NII accommodates the rights of the
49 million Americans with disabilities to equitable
communication and information access amplifies
innovations and economic returns from national
investment in the NII.  Existing Federal, State, and
local investment activities underway are demonstrating
that accommodating people with disabilities is finally
gaining recognition as a driving force for advances in
human and organizational performance.  As this
investment strategy gains momentum, information
technology developers are weighing in on the broad-
based, competitive advantages of this universal design
approach, that readily accommodates individual needs
associated not only with disability, but also worker
re-training, aging, illiteracy, and high performance,
critical mission information environments.  Adoption
of universal design will stimulate the deployment of
applications that all consumers will value for
convenience, customer choice, and equal opportunity.

Americans with disabilities represent a large customer
base already discussing with industry and government
how they envision the information infrastructure will
work for them.  Most important is customer choice.
Until now, choice of  the mode or form in which
information is represented or communications conducted
has not been available.  Due to this inflexibility,
many people with limitations of hearing, vision, or
information processing have been inconvenienced by, or
excluded from using these single modality services.
Newspapers and documents available in a visual mode
only, excluded or inconvenienced customers who were
blind until the choices of auditory or Braille modes
became available.  Auditory-mode-only telephones
excluded deaf individuals until multi-modality
telephone services were developed that today
incorporate hearing relay operators who convert
communications between users of auditory-only devices
and visual-only devices.

If future telephones or information appliances
accommodated the choice of either visual mode (typing)
or auditory mode (speaking), direct communications
could be achieved and communicating parties would no
longer be handicapped by single-modality services that
are not compatible.  Greatly anticipated as well are
visual communications appliances that accommodate a
range of needs from sign language transmission to
handwritten note-sharing as an alternative to auditory
mode only for conversations.

As the NII takes shape, being in the minority in terms
of information mode requirements, due to a disability,
need not be a significant handicapping condition, if a
useful alternative mode is available.  People who
flexibly accommodate to either auditory or visual
modes of information transmission, frequently fail to
realize how single-modality services hamper and
inconvenience access by people who are unable, due to
a sensory mode limitation, to also alternate between
both modes.

Many people who can accommodate either visually
presented information or auditorially presented
information, but not both, due to hearing or vision
loss, are now high demand  users of on-line services
that readily accommodate their choice of mode(s) and
media, including visual display (standard or
magnified), Braille display, or machine-generated
speech.  This pattern of early and sustained demand by
people with disabilities can enhance the evolution of
NII services.  It will ensure that the full range of
information mode choices unavailable in the past, can
now be provided to enhance learning and communications
by individuals and organizations.

Historical and Current Evidence of the Benefits

Two of the world's most valuable information
technologies, the typewriter and the telephone,
emerged from early efforts to accommodate greater
choice in information mode by people whose
disabilities made them less adaptable to mode
differences. The typewriter was invented as a private
writing device for a blind member of a royal family.
Other developers of early typewriters also designed
for blind people.  Modality choice of writing device
was critical to these early users.  Realization of
commercial advantages and transfer of this technology
to business came much later.

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, he
was attempting to convert speech to a visual
representation in order to accommodate a greater
choice of information modalities for his wife who had
a hearing loss.  Unfortunately Bell's invention failed
to accommodate conversion of information from auditory
to visual mode as intended.  Instead the telephone
extended the range of the auditory mode and broke down
distance as a barrier to spoken communication.  The
originally intended benefits to deaf people have been
late and inadequate.  Only in the last 30 years has a
usable choice for telephone access by deaf people
become available.  At that time, deaf people began
purchasing and adapting old Western Union
teletypewriters (TTYs) that only enabled
communications with other TTY users.  Communications
between TTY users and standard telephone users has
only become widely available in the last 2 years due
to the establishment of ADA mandated state relay
services.

Like the typewriter, transfer and extension of text
messaging took a long time and could have taken even
longer.  One of the lead engineers of the originial
Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET),
the predecessor of Internet, was very accustomed to
modality choice because he used a text messaging
device (TTY) when communicating with his wife by
telephone due to her hearing loss.  This exposure
positively influenced the inclusion of text messaging
as an ARPANET application even though it was not part
of the orginial planning.  Today the value of this
electronic text messaging or e-mail capability to
people around the world is beyond estimation and
choice of information mode is becoming an inherent
feature in well-designed information applications.

Another contemporary ARPA example of choice driving
innovation is infrared-based eye-tracking.  This
technology has been matured and commercialized by a
small business, that targeted individuals with severe
disabilities as the first customers of this hands-
independent and body-movement-independent intelligent
interface device.  Today, this eye-tracking product is
being sold around the world to a small, but growing
number of people with extensive mobility limitations
for whom keyboard use is not an option.

This product, after being commercialized and matured
by users who demanded high performance and
reliability, is now being purchased by federal and
private sector laboratories.  Oak Ridge Laboratories
is exploring its use to control tele-robotic vehicles
in hazardous environments.  A number of usability
laboratories world-wide have purchased a related
product  that enables user performance measures to
drive advanced designs of visual interfaces.  A head-
mounted display incorporating eye-tracking is next; it
will accommodate not only people with disabilities but
anyone in high demand, high performance environments,
including national security.

Speech recognition, a technology increasing in power
and potential, also originated through ARPA resources.
Quadriplegic individuals have become recognized by the
speech recognition industry for the significant
contributions they've made to maturing a technology
that is likely to revolutionize human-computer
interactions in the near future.  These pioneer users,
without functional use of a keyboard, were driven not
by device novelty, but by true performance demands and
the need for choice of information input mode that
accommodated effective interactions with a computer.
Other user groups who have begun to derive significant
benefits from speech recognition are people with
learning disabilities and people whose repetitive
strain injuries preclude continued use of a keyboard.

Another powerful telecommunications advance was
spearheaded recently by a person with a profound
hearing loss who worked with an engineer to overcome
her dependence on text telecommunications. She wanted
another choice.  The resultant product is elegant in
its simplicity and cost effectiveness.  With this
product, she is able to use both standard and cellular
phones directly.  All amplification is provided by her
existing hearing aid.  While the cost-per-unit is
approximately $80, there are immense long-term
benefits and value of this technology to a segment of
the hearing impaired population around the world.

Federal Evidence of Benefits

The General Services Administration, Clearinghouse on
Computer Accommodation (COCA), has been tracking these
little-known innovation synergies for a number of
years.  Through the Congressionally chartered Federal
Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer, COCA
has recently begun serious discussion with the Army
Research Laboratory and other labs that exhibit strong
interest in user interfaces that accommodate choice.

COCA became aware of this innovation dimension during
the past decade while assisting federal agencies in
identifying and shaping their investments in
technology to fully accommodate people with
disabilities.  Public Law 102-569, Section 508, (1992
Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) is the
source of this Federal policy.

As implementation of federal accessibility statutes
proceeds, federal agencies are discovering that
purchasing information systems that accommodate a wide
range of user interface requirements promotes
productivity and ensures access to work-related and
public information by people with disabilities.
Organizations are benefiting from the ability to
recruit and retain quality employees and the ability
to effectively interact with all clients, including
those with disabilities.

Agency experiences with user interface options that
incorporate maturing technologies such as speech
synthesis, speech recognition, or infra-red
technologies also provide an effective means for
evaluating near-term applications with potential
benefit to all users.  Many employees in "hands-busy,"
"eyes-busy," or noisy environments can benefit today
from flexible interface alternatives that have already
been adopted by people with disabilities.

Applications with user interfaces that accommodate
choice of alternative displays and keyboards are also
being employed to minimize or prevent the visual
fatigue and repetitive strain injuries associated with
keyboard-intensive environments.  As the work-force
ages, accessible information services must support the
requirements of people who develop age-related
limitations of vision, hearing, or mobility.  As
planning by the Federal Government increasingly
addresses a comprehensive information infrastructure,
planning for choice represents a solid foundation to
maximize the value of information applications and
acceptance by users.

LEAD by Design as an NII Innovation Driver

As awareness of disability-driven innovations becomes
recognized, and societal dependence on technology for
community participation and economic growth continues,
breaking down barriers and building choices will
become recognized as an innovation driver globally.
E.H. Sibley summarizes this strategic opportunity:

"In reflecting on the problems of the multiple
language and character sets faced by the world, it
appears that a large portion of the potential computer
user population is at a disadvantage.  They must use
difficult interfaces or learn another language.  When
we add up the cost of not having good input/output
devices for the many people who can compute but find
it cumbersome, we can conclude that the cost of
efficient new devices would pay for themselves many
times over.  Particularly at a time when the world's
political barriers are being removed, perhaps our new
opportunity frontier should be to remove the barriers
to computing for all humanity, be they different in
language, representation, or device needs."[endnote 1]

The recent report on High Performance Computing and
Communications: Toward a National Information
Infrastructure by the Office of Science and Technology
Policy also acknowledges this opportunity.  Addressing
intelligent user interfaces, the report states, "A
large collection of advanced human/machine interfaces
must be developed in order to satisfy the vast range
of preferences, abilities, and disabilities that
affect how users interact with the NII."

The NII affords a unique opportunity in the design of
human interface technologies to formalize
collaborations among early demand user groups with a
wide range of preferences, abilities and disabilities
in order to reduce the lag time between technology
transfer and user acceptance.

The Electronic Industries Foundation has reported that
"manufacturers who have found ways to simplify the
user interface have seen positive consumer response in
terms of increased sales and decreased product
returns... A growing body of research suggests that
there are ways to design products that can accommodate
functional limitations, and actually enhance their
ease of use for everyone."[endnote 2]

The use of generic performance benchmarks such as
those developed by Pirkl and Babic (1988) would
stimulate the design needed to ensure customer choice.
The benchmarks include:

 cross-sensory redundant cuing, feedback, and  modes
  of operation that supports choice

 reduced complexity of operations

 adjustable product/user interfaces designed for a
  variety of populations and accommodation levels

 designing beyond basic needs in a manner that
  enhances user's independence, self-respect, and
  quality of life.

These findings are congruent with the growing
recognition that technological advance only provides a
competitive advantage for a short time; superior
design and manufacturing   doing it right for the
customer and quickly the first time ensures true
economic advantage in a customer driven, global
economy.

What is the Public Interest in Investing in NII and
People with Disabilities?

This section outlines how significant benefits are
anticipated in at least five areas.  The public will
be particularly interested in how building choice in
NII:

 removes communications and information access
  barriers that restrict business and social
  interactions between people with and without
  disabilities

 removes age-related barriers to participation in
  society

 reduces language and literacy-related barriers to
  society

 reduces risk of information worker injuries and

 enhances global commerce opportunities

Removes Communications and Information Access Barriers
that Restrict  Interactions Between People with and
without Disabilities

An individual with limited mobility may not have easy
access to public libraries, places of employment or
business, or retail outlets.  Although these
facilities may be "accessible" for the wheelchair
user, getting to and from such locations often poses a
serious challenge.  Loss of hearing or sight are
obvious barriers to information access.

The capacity to communicate with, and collect
information from almost any point on the globe from
one's home has already expanded the ability of persons
with disabilities to participate in an information
oriented society more effectively than ever before.

Federal policy promoting the coordination of a NII
holds great promise of protecting the gains already
made in information access by persons with
disabilities.  However, if the design and development
of the NII does not accommodate the technical
requirements for choice needed to provide universal
access, then information utilization by persons with a
variety of disabilities will be set back to the days
before the development of  computers.

At present, even without the development of a
coordinated infrastructure, people with disabilities
are carrying out electronic banking, shopping on-line,
telecommuting, providing information services to
others, all from their homes.  In the office setting
via electronic document processing, visually impaired
and blind employees have access to vital information
equal in some cases to their sighted colleagues.  The
economic impact of developing an information system
that fails to accommodate the choice of modes of
operation including access devices that convert
electronic information into a form that can be used by
a person with a disability (i.e., Braille displays,
speech synthesizers, or voice input processors) will
be far greater than the cost of ensuring this
universal access in the infrastructure from its
inception.

Personal Experiences of How the NII is Reducing
Barriers

"There are many truths of which the full meaning
cannot be realized until personal experience has been
brought home."

               John Stuart Mill 1800-1873

What follows is a list of personal experiences that
offer insight into how the NII can benefit citizens
with disabilities.

 Reduced Barriers to Full Participation in Society

I am a C7 quadriplegic who has completed a course in
desktop publishing.  I have been disabled for two
years and very eager to get back into the work force.
I have learned I'm still employable regardless of my
disability.  I recently learned about
telecommunications and the different networks for
communicating.  With electronic mail I communicate
with various people from all around the world.  My
life has really opened up with my career change and
the electronic information systems.

 Reduced Barriers to Business and Employment

I am a C5 quadriplegic living in the Silicon Valley
and a current intern with the Networking and
Communication Department.  I have been disabled for
ten years from a motor vehicle accident in 1983.

I use computer telecommunications daily in numerous
different functions.  Telecommunications has opened up
a new world, allowing me to communicate via e-mail
with colleges, government agencies, and organizations.
The future success of telecommunications is
phenomenal, especially for the  disabled community.
It not only allows a person unable to go out into the
community to access endless amounts of information,
but also permits disabled persons, such as myself, to
eventually return to the workforce (via telecommuting)
and become productive citizens again.

I have a dream of some day starting a nationwide
bulletin board for attendant care for the disabled
community.  It would be an attendant registry that
would permit disabled persons to hire attendants
anywhere in the United States and find qualified and
compatible employees.

 Reduced Communication Barriers

I am 17 years old.  I am an oral, profoundly hearing-
impaired student who is fully mainstreamed in the 12th
grade at the Park School in Baltimore, MD.  I did not
really have access to e-mail until early October, when
a friend of mine proposed that we e-mail each
other...e-mail turned out to be easier than I thought,
and it has been wonderful because it has enabled me to
communicate with my friends from around the Atlantic
Seaboard region.

The "electronic super-highway" is a boon for
deaf/hearing impaired people because it enables them
to communicate via the written word, which is a very
effective alternate means of obtaining vital
information in a relatively short period of time.  It
is my hope that the White House will make access to
the information highway universal.

Thank you for allowing me to voice my concern
regarding this matter.  E-mail is such a wonderful
thing and I am fortunate to be living in an age where
communication opportunities (especially for the
deaf/hearing impaired) are expanding.

 Reduced Information Access Barriers

I am using e-mail every day on campus at Gallaudet
University, and because of my social shyness, it is
much easier for me to socialize on the keyboard.  I
also find it great for research, and am doing my best
to learn about Internet services as quickly as
possible. I have been hard of hearing since birth,
50db equilaterally.

 Reduced Barriers to the "Basics" in an Information
  Society

Rodney, a senior at Rogers High School, Puyallup,
Washington, has no use of his arms or legs and uses a
mouth wand to operate a computer.  He began using a
computer at age 6, and learned to read and write in
this manner.

When asked a question, Rodney balances his wand on a
box strategically placed near his terminal.  A
computer he says "is sort of like running water.  You
don't know what you'd  do without it."

 Removes  Age-related Barriers to Participation in
  Society

According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, by the
year 2000, the U.S. population of those over 65 years
will be greater than 34 million, this figure world
wide will be over 419 million.  The Bureau projects
that in the next 50 years, the U.S. population will
increase overall by 19.8 percent; however, the
population of those 65 years or older will increase by
117 percent, more than doubling from 31.6 million to
68.5 million.  By designing the NII to meet the needs
of people with disabilities, the NII will also have
the flexibility and competitive advantage of
accommodating the freedom of choice and independence
desired by this unprecedented number of older people.
A well-designed NII that accommodates a wider range of
vision, hearing, and mobility differences will
normalize and not stigmatize our aging society.
Personal and economic loss associated with past age-
discriminatory designs can be minimized.

The NII will increasingly be a key factor in the
independence, productivity, commerce, and community
participation of a significant percentage of older
people in our society.  User acceptance will be
accelerated by designs that make the NII easier and
simpler to use.  Those over the age of 50 control over
50 percent of America's discretionary spending funds
(Ostroff 1989), and those over 65 control 77 percent
of all assets (Pirkl and Babic 1988).

Reduces Language and Literacy Related Barriers to
Society

Full implementation of the Television Decoder
Circuitry Act of 1990 will ensure not only full access
to broadcasting by deaf Americans, but will also
provide the choice of text captioning that may serve
as a powerful application to reduce illiteracy in this
country.  According to the most comprehensive literacy
study ever done by the U.S. government, the literacy
levels of 90 million people in the United States is
deficient.[endnote 3]  This situation represents a
direct threat to the U.S. economy.  Another
significant benefit of television with text captioning
will be its usefulness as an effective learning
technique for people who are learning English as a
second language.

Reduces Risk of Information Worker Injuries

With 70 million personal computers in use, strain
injuries  have skyrocketed.  The U.S. Department of
Labor figures show repetitive stress injuries
represent 60 percent of all job-related illnesses.
Estimates of the annual cost to business is $20
billion.[endnote 4]  Pilot demonstrations of speech
recognition for all workers are underway in several
large companies as a strategy to increase productivity
and decrease keystrokes.  Again, pioneer users of this
technology have been people with disabilities who
needed a choice other than a standard keyboard.  NII
applications must interoperate with intelligent user
interfaces accommodating a wide range of user needs
and preferences such as speech interfaces.

Enhances Global Commerce Opportunities

There are approximately 750 million people with
disabilities in the world.  Meeting the needs of
people with disabilities in the NII will provide U.S.
companies an early competitive advantage in the global
marketplace.

The global advantages of the increasing U.S. market
responsiveness to people with disabilities was noted
in the 1993 report of the Commission of the European
Communities.  The report, European Technology
Initiative for Disabled and Elderly People - Call for
Proposals, states as follows:

"Technology transfer from the major European
Information Technology industry to the Small and
Medium-sized Enterprises, with the knowledge of the
customer, will be critical to the competitiveness of
the European Rehabilitation Technology industry.  This
technology transfer opens new markets for European
technology.  It also helps counter the threat posed to
European industry by US legislation in favor of people
with disabilities which is both forcing the
Information Technology industry to take their needs
into account and stimulating a strong rehabilitation
technology industry in the US."

Deploying technologies such as real-time captioning,
originally developed to accommodate deaf individuals
could also enhance international commerce activities.
For example, U.S. economists working on General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) spent many hours
transcribing and comparing notes from working sessions
before strategizing on next steps.  Delegates with
limited English proficiency may experience even
greater difficulties processing meeting content when
it is only presented in spoken English.  This
situation may tend to increase misunderstanding and
decrease trust, resulting in costly negotiation
delays.  Deploying real-time captioning would provide
all delegates with a written English transcript of the
proceedings at the end of  the meeting. The captioning
equipment would also provide to the entire group a
real-time text display of the speaker's words that
would serve to enhance language comprehension by
delegates with limited English proficiency.

The technical solutions employed today to magnify text
displays for low vision users are identical to
solutions being evaluated in Saudi Arabia to make
English software applications readily translatable to
Arabic.  This approach can be applied to any foreign
language and may reduce barriers to market entry for
U.S. software developers.

PART II:  Where are We Now?

This section addresses the emerging consensus on
universal design and convergence of  policy and design
practices in both the public sector (Federal, State,
foreign governments) and the private sector that are
becoming examples and support mechanisms for NII
applications to break down barriers by building in
customer choice.

National Laws and Policies

Since 1988, statutory requirements for federal
agencies have been in place to ensure that agency
investments in information technology integrate
requirements to meet the needs of people with
disabilities are met.  This policy is based on two
laws, Public Law 100-542 and Public Law 102-569.
Public Law 102-569, Section 508 addresses the
requirement that Federal investments in information
technology be conducted in a manner that ensures
access to computer and telecommunications products and
services by employees with disabilities and citizens
with disabilities accessing public information
services. Public Law 100-542, the Telecommunications
Accessibility Enhancement Act, mandates a proactive
approach within the government to advancing
accessibility to the Federal telecommunications system
by individuals with hearing or speech limitations.

These laws do not represent a radical new direction
for federal agencies, but serve to reinforce existing
mission requirements under the Rehabilitation Act of
1973.  This Act requires federally conducted or
federally sponsored programs to be accessible to
persons with disabilities and mandates that management
policies must not discriminate in the hiring,
placement, and advancement of persons with
disabilities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) has
adapted and extended many of the existing
responsibilities of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for
implementation outside the Federal Government.  The
law requires barrier-free access to places that serve
the public, such as theaters, restaurants, and
museums.  State and local government services,
transportation, and telecommunications services must
also be accessible.  Discrimination on the basis of
disability in private sector employment is also
prohibited.

Protecting the rights of access to the evolving
information infrastructure by customers with
disabilities is a national responsibility as a result
of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  As
implementation of ADA continues, accessibility to the
information infrastructure represents an important
area for Federal, State and private sector sponsored
pilot demonstrations to conduct performance benchmarks
and showcase early benefits and successful
implementation strategies.

Efforts of Federal Agencies

General Services Administration, Council on Accessible
Technology

In 1984, GSA created an interagency committee that is
now called the Council on Accessible Technology.  The
Council, comprised of senior executives from 30
agencies, promotes the planning and investment in
information infrastructure that demonstrates the
flexibility of choice needed to accommodate people
with disabilities.

The Council advances the business practice of
including persons with disabilities in the design,
pilots, and early implementation of all new government
information infrastructure investments.

Last Fall, the Council co-hosted with the Department
of Commerce a seminar entitled "Universal Design:
Accommodating Diversity and High Performance."  The
seminar was attended by approximately 200 people from
Federal and State Governments and industry. The
seminar took place in conjunction with the Department
of Commerce' Sixth Annual Accessible Computer
Technology (ACT) Exhibit.

At the Department of Commerce's Seventh Annual ACT
Exhibit, on Oct. 5/6, 1994, the Council, together with
the Committee on Application and Technology, will be
showcasing Federal, State, and private pilot
demonstrations of applications that exemplify how the
needs of people with disabilities can be met in the
NII.  The Clearinghouse on Computer Accommodation will
assist in pre-selection of applications that meet
existing accessibility guidelines.

The Council will conduct a similar showcase of NII
applications that are usable by people with
disabilities at Interchange ' 94, October 12/13, 1994.

General Services Administration (GSA) Clearinghouse on
Computer  Accommodation (COCA)

Since 1984, the GSA Clearinghouse on Computer
Accommodation (COCA) has served as a model
demonstration center for advancing accessible
information environments, services, and management
practices in order to stimulate the governmentwide
capacity-building needed to meet statutory
requirements.  The center provides technical
consultation, presentations, training, and assistance
to federal agencies.  The center also serves as a
pilot demonstration site and market need/market
utilization conduit between federal agencies and
laboratories, universities and industry.

COCA facilitates a network of Federal employees with
disabilities and their support personnel that provides
early customer feedback on new service delivery
technologies and practices.  Coordinating with COCA
and this network, the Computer/Telecommunications
Accessibility Resource Exchange (CARE), is now a part
of many agency programs. CARE members piloted with GSA
developers, the first accessible information kiosk.
GSA continues to advise and provide accessible kiosk
services to customer agencies.

Current projects underway include:

 working with Government Printing Office, National
  Institute of Standards and Technology, and Internal
  Revenue Service to ensure development of electronic
  document services that are accessible

 providing guidance on developing accessible CD-ROMs

 developing a tutorial to assist blind users
  becoming oriented to Windows

 preparing a COCA handbook as a model for universal
  access in electronic document preparation

 evaluating Internet browsers, including Mosaic and
  Lynx to enhance the access modes supported

Last summer, COCA piloted a program that exposed
future human interface designers to the government's
need for an accessible information infrastructure.
Stanford University participated in the program and
inquiries for future participation were received from
the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Kennedy
School of Government at Harvard University.

Due to changing research priorities, Federal
laboratories committed to dual-use technology and high
performance technology are also beginning to approach
COCA to discuss collaborative efforts.  In this
manner, market demand will be stimulated for
alternative modes of computer interaction needed by
persons with disabilities.  The synergistic goals of
dual-use technology and accommodation of diversity can
be achieved.  It is anticipated that this technology
push initiative will be complemented by a market pull
within the labs for user interfaces offering greater
flexibility to accommodate a  wider range of
abilities, disabilities and preferences.

Microcomputer Training Program for Persons with
Disabilities (MTPPD)

(MTPPD) serves persons with disabilities within and
outside the Department.  MTPPD also supports the
Department's Nationwide Office Automation for the VA
(NOAVA) implementation to ensure employees with
disabilities receive equal access to NOAVA OA systems
and platforms.

The MTPPD program provides training to employees
within the VA and from other federal agencies. The
cost-reimbursable training addresses both adaptive
technology and common application packages. Other
program services include consultations, tours,
equipment demonstrations, and product evaluations.
Document scanning and converting services, including
brailling, are available to agencies on a cost-
reimbursable basis.

Department of Commerce (DoC) Committee on Resources
for Electronic Accessible Technology to End Users
(CREATE)

CREATE is the vehicle responsible for planning and
coordinating Department-wide activities in increase
awareness of accessible technology issues and explore
ways to ensure that the information environment is
usable by people with disabilities.  CREATE hosts the
Accessible Computer Technology Exhibit hosted annually
in October to increase awareness and effective use of
commercially available products and services that
accommodate people with disabilities.

Department of Agriculture (USDA) Technology Accessible
Resources Gives Employment Today (TARGET) Center

The Accessible Technology Program has established the
TARGET Center to support USDA employees nationwide and
other federal agencies.  TARGET provides evaluations,
demonstrations, resource information, needs
assessments, and training on accessible technology.
The center uses open systems concepts to highlight
accommodation solutions available on personal
computers.  TARGET demonstrates how accessible
technology optimizes productivity and job retention of
career employees by reducing worker compensation costs
and disability retirements from end-user computer
injuries.

Department of Defense Computer/Electronic
Accommodations Program (CAP)

The CAP Office assists DoD activities to procure
adaptive equipment which provides access to computer
systems and telecommunications as required by Public
Laws 102-569 and 100-542.  The CAP Office provides
technical, educational and financial support to assist
employees, supervisors and managers identify and
procure appropriate accommodations. The CAP Office
conducts special projects to assist DoD activities to
ensure an accessible work place. Projects include
working with DoD components to ensure that training
centers, libraries, and programs are accessible; and
coordinating with system acquisition activities to
ensure that accessibility is considered in the
procurement of DoD systems.  CAP also established the
Technology Evaluation Center (CAPTEC), a facility
dedicated to the evaluation and testing of emerging
technology.  The CAPTEC assists DoD supervisors and
employees in choosing appropriate adaptive equipment
for creating work environments that are accessible to
persons with disabilities.

Internal Revenue Service Computer/Telecommunications
Accessibility Program (CAP)

The Computer/Telecommunications Accessibility Program
(CAP) was established to ensure the IRS makes
electronic information accessible to people with
disabilities.  CAP assists the managers and employees
in selection and procurement of appropriate adaptive
technology.  The CAP office works with acquisitions
and procurement personnel to ensure that accessibility
is included in information technology procurements.
CAP has a demonstration center with adaptive
equipment.

National Security Agency Center for Computer Assistive
Technology (CCAT)

The National Security Agency's CCAT provides
demonstration of assistive technology devices and
professional resources for agency employees with
hearing visual or physical limitations. The goal of
the center is to provide assistance and identify
alternative solutions for persons with disabilities.

Federally Sponsored Activities

Department of Education (DoEd) National Institute on
Disability and Rehabilitation Research  (NIDRR)

    Technology-Related Assistance Act Funded States

In 1994, Congress re-authorized Public Law 100-407,
the Technology-Related Assistance For Individuals with
Disabilities Act (P.L.103-218).  Administration of the
law continues to be conducted by the NIDRR.  The
states have received grants for "systems change"
activities to eliminate barriers that impede
information and acquisition of assistive technology
services and devices through implementation of
consumer-responsive systems.

    Project Enable, West Virginia Research &
Training Center

Project Enable is a full featured computer bulletin
board system providing information on disability,
rehabilitation, employment, and education. It is used
primarily by people with disabilities and their
families, educators, students, and rehabilitation
workers who participate in over 150 special interest
discussion groups.

    Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center
(RERC) on Communications and Information Technology
Access, Trace Center, University of Wisconsin,
Madison.

The Trace RERC studies access problems of people with
disabilities to computer and information systems, and
disseminates information on solution strategies.
Trace works with computer manufacturers and software
producers to outline how existing products can be made
more accessible to people with disabilities.  Through
Trace efforts, disability access features are being
built into commonly used operating systems.  Current
cross-disability goals include working with a broad
coalition to:

    identify ways that manufacturers can build
access directly into next generation systems to
accommodate the widest possible number of customers

    identify strategies to allow customer choice of
mode of operation.

National Science Foundation (NSF)

DO*IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internet- working,
and Technology), University of Washington:  DO*IT
enables high school students with disabilities to
explore careers in science, engineering, and
mathematics through "mentorships" conducted via
Internet with practicing engineers and scientists from
around the world, many of whom also have disabilities.

Selected Non-profit and Academic Activities

Project EASI (Equal Access to Software and
Information)

Provides assistance to higher education in developing
computer support services for people with
disabilities.  Project EASI provides information and
guidance on campus applications of adaptive computer
technology for access to information, instruction,
research, and employment.  Project EASI's Internet
server hosts an active discussion about
computer/telecommunications access issues.

WGBH-Caption Center, Boston, MA

WGBH has pioneered advances in accessible programming
for more than 20 years since captioning the first
nationally broadcast program.  WGBH is working to make
all programming accessible to the nation's 24 million
deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.  Instrumental in the
Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990, they also
launched Descriptive Video Service (DVS) in the same
year.  DVS makes television accessible to millions of
people who are blind or visually impaired through
narrated descriptions of key program elements.

Corporation for Public Broadcasting/WGBH National
Center for Accessible Media (NCAM), Boston, MA

NCAM was established in 1993 with funding from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  NCAM is taking
steps to accelerate media access to populations that
have been underserved or denied access.  Project
examples include:

    Closed Caption University -- empowering
individual public television stations to caption their
own programming

    Access Primer and Toolkit -- primers for
stations interested in technology applications such as
captioning, descriptive video, and foreign language
(especially Spanish) translations and tips on building
relationships with deaf, blind, and minority-language
communities

    International Broadcasting -- study of how
countries around the world are providing access to
their TV systems

    Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) Project -- is
experimenting with using the VBI of the television
signal instead of the third audio channel in routing
descriptive video or Spanish video

    Print Access Project -- to digitize newspapers
and deliver them into the home fully accessible to
blind, low-vision, and other print-disabled people.

World Institute on Disability (WID)

WID focuses on creation of public policy that will
give people with disabilities access to the
information age. WIDnet is a network that focuses on
disability policy.

Stanford University, Center for the Study of Language
and Information (CSLI)

CSLI's Archimedes Project works to improve access to
information for individuals with disabilities by
influencing  the early design stages of emerging
technologies.  The project:

 applies basic research about information and
communications to the design of access for people who
are disabled

 educates those who will develop the next generation
of technology about the advantages for the whole
community of designing general access.  In both
instances maximum leverage is obtained by emphasizing
design rather than retrofit.

Private Sector Activities

Disability Action Committee for Xwindows (DACX)

DACX is working to solve accessibility issues
presented by the Xwindows graphical user interface.
Membership includes the major Xwindows vendors
including DEC, IBM, SUN, and representatives from
academia.  The purpose of DACX is to develop solutions
which will allow users with disabilities to access
systems running the Xwindows GUI.  The group has
succeeded in developing access utilities for users
with motor impairments.  It is also working on
developing necessary "hooks" for screen reading
programs.  Access-related software developed by DACX
is distributed through the Xwindows Consortium.

The International Committee on Accessible Document
Design (ICADD)

ICADD promotes standards for producing documentation
for "print disabled" individuals. Membership includes
representatives from industry, academia, and
government from many countries around the world.  The
purpose of ICADD is to develop and encourage the
document transformations that print-disabled persons
are working toward.  ICADD has succeeded in
implementing accessibility in existing International
Standards Organization (ISO) standards such as the
Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML)

Electronic Industries Association (EIA)

Electronic Industries Association's Consumer
Electronics Group and the Electronics Industries
Foundation (EIF) are currently working to create a
Seal of Accessibility for consumer electronics
products.

When completed, the Seal will certify that designated
mainstream products can be used by persons with
functional limitations associated with aging, a
temporary injury, or permanent disability, and that
the products meet the accessible design guidelines
established by a committee comprising manufacturers,
disability experts, consumers, and representatives of
organizations serving the needs of people with
disabilities.  The seal should help manufacturers
during the design process and consumers during the
selection process.

Industrial Design Excellence Awards (IDEA), Industrial
Designers Society of America and Business Week
Magazine

Promotes recognition of industrial design excellence
as a strategic tool for competitiveness in the
domestic and global marketplaces.  Industrial
designers make products easy to use, safe,
comfortable, appealing, and ecologically responsible.
One of the 18 gold medal winners for 1994  was James
Pirkl, designer of a book on Transgenerational Design:
Products for an Aging Population which highlights the
marketplace advantages of well-designed products that
also accommodate older people and people with
disabilities.

International Activities

There are three major European program efforts
underway to accelerate the productive application of
technology on behalf of people with disabilities.  The
largest of the three is Technology Initiative for
Disabled and Elderly (TIDE). TIDE is a community
research and development initiative in the field of
rehabilitation technology designed to stimulate the
creation of a single market in Europe.  TIDE assists
elderly and disabled people to live independently and
participate more fully in the social and economic
activities of the community.

The main goal of the RACE program (Research and
Development on Advanced Communication in Europe) is to
develop technology and infrastructure in order to
prepare for the introduction of broadband network
services and to promote European industry
competitiveness in this field.

This activity includes delivery of services to the
largest possible cross-section of the user population,
including people with disabilities.  The project
includes development of a standard reference manual of
specifications for designers that will provide the
necessary knowledge about human factors to ensure
network accessibility to all users.

Member States of the European Union recognize the
importance of education, employment, and accessibility
for people with disabilities. Institutions of the
European Union have issued resolutions to promote
equality of opportunity and integration of people with
disabilities.

Canada's information infrastructure planning has also
begun to address integrating the needs of people with
disabilities.  Canadian representatives have requested
information about U.S. plans.

PART III:  Where Do We Want To Be?

"Information, which will be  education, which will be
employment, which will be income, which will be
possibility, must flow to all Americans on terms of
equal accessibility without regard to physical
condition.  And we are committed to doing that."

                  - President Clinton 5/13/94

This section addresses examples of user expectations
of important NII capabilities.  These capabilities
will be needed to address the national goal of equal
accessibility in communications, commerce, and
community among people with and without disabilities.
The examples are grouped under the four functional
capability areas identified in the Vision for a 21st
Century Information Infrastructure report of the
Council on Competitiveness:

  1) widely accessible and interoperable
  communications networks

  2) digital libraries, information databases and
  services

  3) information appliances and computing systems

  4) trained people to build, maintain, and operate
  these resources.

This May 1993 report envisions:

The information infrastructure of the 21st Century
will enable all Americans to access information and
communicate with each other easily, reliably, securely
and cost-effectively in any medium   voice, data,
image or video anytime, anywhere.

Widely Accessible and Interoperable Communications
Networks

 Expectations of business owners with disabilities
  will be met for commerce, information, health, and
  manufacturing networks that offer the visual and
  auditory redundancy needed to accommodate their
  choice of modes of communications and information
  processing in a manner that is also transparent to
  and convenient to their customers.

 Education networks should accommodate the needs of
  parents, children, and teachers to have alternative
  modes of communication and information sharing
  available to accommodate situations when one or
  more of the communicating parties has a disability
  associated with hearing, seeing, or speaking.  For
  example, text messaging might substitute for
  telephone conversations between a parent and
  teacher.  Multi-media learning applications would
  support redundancy options allowing student choice
  of information presented either visually or
  auditorially/tactile or both.

 Accommodating people with disabilities will be a
  tangible and widely recognized citizen benchmark
  for responsive and respectful service.  Citizen
  expectations will be met for equal access and
  improved services at all levels of government
  service delivery.  For example, 911 emergency
  service calls will accommodate text telephone users
  who are deaf or speech impaired.

 Enhanced service/routing features on 800-number
  arrangements need to accommodate people with
  disabilities by detecting text telephone users and
  routing their calls to a data server when voice
  telephone calls to the same number are routed to a
  recorded voice response unit.  800 numbers placed
  to an information service agent would automatically
  patch to the nearest State relay operator service
  if the agent failed to respond with a device
  capable of communicating directly to a text
  telephone.

 The 800 number service capability should also
  provide in a similar manner an automatic linkage
  option to the language translation services
  industry when needed by a caller or information
  services agent to complete a communication
  transaction when a common language is not available
  to the two parties.

 The large federal investment in Federal
  laboratories and the technology transfer and dual-
  use programs should meet citizen's expectations by
  contributing to advanced communications and
  information services that are designed to
  accommodate all user choices of modes of operation.
  This will be achieved through the Federal
  Laboratory Consortium and other organizations.

 Expectations by hearing impaired and speech
  impaired executives that their requirements for
  real-time captioning through text or sign language
  inserts will be available in standard video
  conferencing environments will be met.  This
  capability will also accommodate participants at
  international conferences who experience language
  barriers.  Blind participants will be able to
  receive transmitted text by Braille if desired.

 Participants in courtroom proceedings including
  judges, jurors, and attorneys will be accommodated
  as requested using the suite of service choices
  described above to accommodate hearing loss, vision
  loss, or language differences.

 Wireless voice and data service offerings and
  equipment will be able to accommodate people with
  disabilities in a manner that represents a
  significant improvement from what is commercially
  available today in terms of interoperability,
  competitive offerings, and user  choice and
  customization options.

 The access component between the customer premises
  equipment and the user with a disability will be
  designed with as much care and attention to
  flexibility and interoperability as the access
  component between the customer premises equipment
  and the transport carrier.

 Expectations from current users with disabilities
  that uninterrupted choice of access mode to
  existing network utilities and services will
  continue as the technologies advance.  This
  currently includes electronic mail (video mail,
  multimedia mail, etc.), directory service, security
  service, electronic commerce, and bulletin board
  systems.

 Expectations that students with auditory or visual
  limitations will also be able to benefit from the
  commercially prepared multi-media and "real-time
  video" capabilities employed for individual and
  group learning.

 Expectations from community members that electronic
  town meetings and government provided kiosk
  services will accommodate full participation by
  all.

 Expectations from blind people as well as those
  learning English that descriptive video services
  would become a standard option.  Descriptive video
  services provide a spoken description that
  accompanies visual events.

Digital Libraries, Information Data Bases and Services

 Federally funded activities of the High Performance
  Computing and Communications Program, will address
  the needs of people with disabilities to use these
  services and include people with disabilities in
  their pilot projects. This includes projects such
  as NSF funded digital libraries research, NASA
  developed prototype digital libraries, ARPA funded
  hypermedia systems with intelligent user interfaces
  and National Institutes of Health developments in
  medical datebase management.

 Expectations of people who are print-handicapped
  due to vision problems or have problems handling
  printed materials due to dexterity limitations will
  be met.  These members of society will be able to
  access all publicly and commercially available
  electronic information services using their choice
  of access modes.

 The Government Printing Office "Access" Act of 1993
  will accelerate services that are fully usable by
  people with disabilities including:

  1) an electronic directory of federal electronic
  information

  2) on-line access to the Congressional Record, the
  Federal Register, and other  appropriate
  publications and

  3) an electronic storage facility for federal
  electronic information.

 Expectations of retirees for intensive, early, and
  satisfied use of NII education, commercial, and
  leisure applications will be closely tied to the
  ease with which their age-related choices for large
  print, amplification, and speech-based interfaces
  are met.

Information Appliances and Computing Systems that are
Easy to Use

 Expectation that information appliances or customer
  premises equipment that used to include only
  telephones, PCs/workstations, fax machines, optical
  character scanners, LANs, modems, video equipment,
  cellular phones, pagers, personal digital
  assistants, and notebook/laptop computers will now
  also include braille displays, braille computers,
  alternative keyboards, captioning systems, closed
  circuit televisions, CD-ROM drives, text
  telephones, text-to-speech devices, voice
  recognition systems, augmentative communication
  devices, assistive listening devices, and wireless
  personal communication services.

 Expectation that end-to-end telecommunications
  service will fully deliver to people with
  disabilities and include not only transport
  service, but also equipment and software choices
  needed for end to end connectivity.  These services
  will offer user preference of modality or
  combination of modalities in which to present
  information or communication including:

  1) voice-oriented

  2) data-oriented

  3) video-oriented (including video conferencing)

  4) multi-media oriented

  5) wireless-based

    Older Americans will not be resistant to change
     as sometimes predicted if new appliances
     accommodate age-related vision, hearing, or
     dexterity limitations through better designed
     technologies offering greater range and mode
     options than are available today.

    The capability to accommodate people with
     disabilities will be recognized as an essential
     performance measure during selection from among
     competing appliances. This benchmark will ensure
     the flexibility of choices needed to access all
     communications networks and services and also
     accommodate learning preferences, noisy
     environments, hands busy environments, and high
     performance environments, including national
     security.

    Expectation that executives with disabilities
     while on travel will be able to secure an
     equivalent level of access to information and
     communication services as their non-disabled
     colleagues through well-designed information
     services such as kiosks, e-mail, and
     FAX-on-demand that accommodate choice.

Trained People to Build, Maintain, and Operate these
Resources

    Expectation that designers will invite people
     with disabilities to be beta users of all new
     products and service offerings recognizing that
     this class of user is both more demanding of
     functionality and more likely to quickly adopt a
     capability that offers real advantages.  This
     design approach has unfailingly promoted greater
     ingenuity and innovation for many years, however,
     it has not been well known or consistently
     applied until recently.

    Expectation that designers with disabilities are
     more likely to stimulate increased design     foresight for range of functionality and mode
     options in their organizations.

    Businesses that offer separate special
     customized products and services to meet needs of
     people with disabilities in a manner that
     accommodates choice as an afterthought will be at
     a distinct disadvantage to businesses fully
     integrating the choices of people with
     disabilities early through universal design and
     pilot demonstrations that include people with
     disabilities.

    Businesses will advertise their products and
     services as "access-screened" in a manner similar
     to being "green" or environmentally conscious.
     Perhaps a AAAS rating for "Application Adequacy
     for Accessibility Services" or a Seal of
     Accessibility as advanced by the Electronics
     Industry Association could be utilized.

    Businesses will expect federal pilot
     demonstrations to demonstrate how the
     accessibility of products and services can be
     advanced in the NII.  There will a strong
     emphasis on access performance and
     reliability benchmarks for universal design in
     public and private interoperability testbed labs.

    Businesses will expect opportunities to showcase
     how they are investing in universal design to
     competitive advantage.

PART IV:  How Are We Going To Get There?

This section addresses the scaling opportunities
afforded through the NII to establish the leadership,
policy, and marketplace roles and alliances necessary
to ensure that the design of the NII will meet
national expectations for breaking down barriers.
These expectations can only be fulfilled by building
choice and full usability for people with disability
into the development of the NII.

Strengthen Market Pull -- Current Effort Level Can Not
Ensure Uninterrupted Access

Although the Federal Government in its role as a major
employer and information technology consumer is taking
steps to use its "buying power" to communicate to
industry its need for information technology products
and services that are usable by people with
disabilities, this process must be scaled up in
priority and include pilot demonstration activities in
order to shape the capabilities needed earlier in the
technology design cycle.

Agencies are demonstrating progress in formulating
access policies and meeting current employee
accommodation needs; however, increased attention is
needed on leveraging market demand to ensure long-term
uninterrupted access as future technologies are
introduced and the information infrastructure
proceeds.  The current restricted usefulness of
graphical user interfaces by blind users represents
inadequate foresight in the marketplace to changing
needs.  Today blind users face graphics-mode-only
applications whose designs neglect to accommodate
choice, thus providing marginal utility of popular
applications that have been fully utilized for more
than a decade.  Discussions in recent White Papers on
the  information infrastructure will need to be
expanded in order to adequately address requirements
of people with disabilities to the NII.

At a time of rapid technological change, the needs and
requirements of customers with disabilities must be
fully integrated in all technology development,
replacement, and refreshment initiatives.  Realizing
the full benefits of the NII also depends on the
development of open system standards.  Without these
open systems, small firms developing application
devices important to individuals with disabilities
will be crowded out of markets by larger, more
established firms.

Fortunately, industry champions for improved access
within large computer companies report that they are
actively seeking greater evidence that equitable
access is a high priority customer requirement of the
government's information infrastructure.

Leadership by Example

Although the Federal Government is commonly associated
with technology push R&D funding, within the
information technology arena, the Federal Government
also has a unique role as buyer for the largest and
most complex information environment in the world.
The ability of the Federal Government to demonstrate
technology foresight in the marketplace can have a
significant impact on the quality of life of people
with disabilities.  This consumer foresight can
accelerate the readiness of the U.S. information
industry to respond to similar application challenges
beyond the Federal marketplace and abroad.  The
Federal Government should strengthen its investment
commitment to universal design in order to achieve not
only equal access to NII by all Americans, but also to
recognize the innovation incentive it provides to
industry to better prepare for consumer interface
demands globally.

The Office of Science and Technology Policy is
currently providing an example of LEAD by Design by
assessing how well a new White House information
service can be used by people with disabilities.  This
action will signal   in a manner that echoes tapping
on the Liberty Bell during the first transcontinental
call   our national commitment to an information
infrastructure that will deliver in terms of global
competitiveness and in a manner that liberates the
expressiveness and amplifies the dignity of all
Americans.

New Roles and Alliances

Deploying the National Information Infrastructure
(NII) in a manner that promotes universal service,
access to government information, and technological
innovation with performance benchmarks for customer
choice, equal opportunity, and convenience will
provide the needed context for the following actions:

    Due to the high stakes requirements of people
     with disabilities, establish a citizen
     participation mechanism or use an  existing
     capability such as Americans Communicating
     Electronically (ACE) to ensure that citizens with
     disabilities have the means to give input and
     feedback directly to NII planners and developers
     throughout the process.  This is the NII category
     of customer with great need and at great risk for
     being well-served by the NII.

    Establish pilot demonstration partnerships among
     regional associations of people with
     disabilities; regional business innovation and/or
     industrial design consortiums; regional federal
     laboratory consortiums; and regional
     rehabilitation engineering centers.

    Increase collaboration among committed
     individuals involved in next generation design
     within universities, industry, and Federal
     laboratories to provide the focused technology
     push to human interface technologies that will
     readily accommodate capabilities required by
     people with a wide range of preferences,
     abilities, and disabilities.

    Increase collaboration among Federal, State and
     private sector organizations to operationalize
     performance benchmarks and showcase pilot
     demonstrations of infrastructure capabilities
     that also offer improved and uninterrupted access
     by people with disabilities.

    Human interface technologies that accommodate a
     wide range of user needs will become recognized
     as a critical technology in the missions of the
     Federal High Performance Computing and
     Communications Program, the National
     Telecommunications and Information
     Administration, the Federal Laboratory
     Consortium, and the Technology Reinvestment
     Project of the Advanced Research Projects Agency.

    Increased educational opportunities for human
     interface designers to learn how to meet customer
     requirements for accessibility through
     university/industry/disabled community
     partnerships that improve industry foresight to
     this changing global need.

Incorporating the Needs of Americans with Disabilities
in New National Legislation

    How should the Communications Act of 1994
     (S.1822) protect and advance universal service in
     a manner that more explicitly includes people
     with disabilities?

    How should the Antitrust Reform Act of 1993
     (H.R.3626) and the National Communications
     Competition and Information Infrastructure Act of
     1993 (H.R. 3636) fully reflect public interest in
     universal design, universal access, and customer
     choice?

    How should intelligent interfaces that
     accommodate disabilities and abilities be
     acknowledged as a competitiveness factor in the
     National Competitiveness Act of 1993 (S.4)?

Performance Benchmarks for Accessibility

    How should the design needs of people with
     disabilities become operationalized as an
     integral aspect of all NII development
     initiatives?

    What performance benchmarking mechanisms are
     needed to ensure that innovations such as
     information kiosks, electronic town meetings,
     electronic voting and other interactive services
     can be fully utilized by people with
     disabilities?

    How can the design needs of people with
     disabilities be an integral principle of ongoing
     federal programs advancing the NII such as the
     High-Performance Computing and Communications
     Program?

    What mechanisms are needed to coordinate and
     accelerate the technology transfer benefits
     between federal programs serving people with
     disabilities and High-Performance Computing and
     related advanced technology and technology
     reinvestment programs?

    How should application guidelines for universal
     access be integrated into the National
     Telecommunications and Information Administration
     grants program designed to support demonstrations
     of new telecommunication technology applications?

    What mechanisms exist for regulatory agencies
     such as the Federal Communications Commission to
     communicate with disabled citizens on
     telecommunications issues?

Conclusion

Full participation by citizens with disabilities in
the design, pilot demonstrations, and implementation
of NII applications is a national priority.
Collaborative support mechanisms within the Federal
and State Governments and private sector need to be
strengthened to serve as communication conduits
between citizens and NII developers.  NII investments
need to include performance benchmarks to ensure that
applications can be fully utilized by people with
disabilities.

The NII must accommodate choice in order to deliver on
its promise of universal access.  The unprecedented
convergence of information technologies only amplifies
the possibilities - accommodating choice provides a
focal point for early and far reaching benefits.

Endnotes

[1] E.H. Sibley, Communication of the ACM, May 1990

[2] EIA Seal of Accessibility Development Plan Version
1.0  09/17/93

[3] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, National Adult Literacy Survey,
funded by Federal and State Governments

[4] Smithsonian, June 1994

References

Committee on Physical, Mathematical, and Engineering
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World Institute on Disability (1994)
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U.S. General Services Administration, Clearinghouse on
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Future Communications Services Working Group of the
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1994

Huston, Jonathan. General Services Administration,
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Ostroff, Jeff. 1989. Successful Marketing to the 50+
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