Exploring the Current State of Accessible Infrastructure

When I was doing my internship at the University of Zambia in the summer of 2022, I was introduced to the world of disability inclusion. One of my supervisors, Dr Mtonga, had a lot of experience with the current state of affairs of people living with disabilities in Zambia being visually impaired himself. He was more than happy to share with me.

Through interaction with other people with disabilities, I quickly realized that infrastructure was a huge factor in accessibility. Most people complained of not being able to access learning institutions due to a lack of accessible infrastructure. 

One of the people who was interviewed at the "Voices to be heard" workshop held in Lusaka on the 6th of June 2022, narrated how he had to move a long distance back to his residence just to access the washroom during class. This was because there were no accessible washrooms within the school premise. He uses a wheelchair to get around. This is not an isolated experience and it seems to be a pandemic, a structured one at that.

I got to thinking, how did we get here? Was it that there were no people with disabilities when the structures were being constructed? Certainly not. People with disabilities have been around since time immemorial.

The answer I found was in the attitude of people towards people with disabilities. The ability of people with disabilities to contribute positively to society has always been questioned. Remembering a conversation I had with an employee of the Leonard Cheshire foundation, he explained how some parents hide their children with disabilities because they associate them with shame or see them as a burden.

If this kind of attitude is still alive today, I can only imagine how it was in the past when these structures were being constructed.

So, this explains part of the reason, how would anyone build infrastructure for someone they do not consider an active member of society?

This image is changing, people with disabilities have shown us that disability does not mean inability. It is important to have an inclusive society, and most specifically we need engineers who are disability-inclusive savvy to accelerate this change towards accessible infrastructure.

Update from previous blog

I did talk with 2 ladies Katrina and Sarika who had just graduated from their master’s program which involved research on how to make pictures on websites more accessible.

They gave me an overview of how I should go about doing that.

They explained that the alt (alternative text) option is the part where you insert the description of the image in order for it to be picked up by screen reading software’s.

How to go about writing the description

Make the description relevant to the message you are trying to put across from the image.

For example, for the picture below, you can put an alt saying, “A picture of Mary holding a book while leaning on a statue.” Or you can just write the alt as “A picture of Mary.”

From what I noticed, no 2 people can write the description the same and it all depends on the message one is trying to put across.

From the picture above, you can tell that I did not mention the surrounding areas like “the bright flowers behind and the shrub besides me in the picture, or how the statue is oriented i.e., it’s sitting on a bench”

I asked whether it is unfair that when writing the alt, we might leave out some information and we get to decide what information someone who is visually impaired should know about a picture.

I was told it all goes down to the information you are trying to put across and ensuring that it does not make a lot of noise and override the purpose.

I guess that makes sense, we wouldn’t want to end up annoying the person using the screen reader with too much unnecessary information about a picture.

We are learning, we are getting there, one step at a time but there is absolutely every need to rush (pun intended) 😅😅.

I would like to find out.

If you are someone using a screen reader, please share your experience in the comments below on alternative text and how would you like it to improve.

 

 

Below are some resources that Katrina and Sarika shared with me that you might find useful when writing alternative text and also a tool that checks if a website is accessible. 

1. WebAIM: Alternative Text

2. WAVE Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools (webaim.org)

3. How to Meet WCAG (Quickref Reference) (w3.org)

What Is Accessibility When It Comes to Disability Inclusion

Today I had a meeting with my supervisor from my work study and she tasked me to work on adding pictures on to the work website. She asked me to reach out to someone who had done some work on how to make pictures accessible, to ensure that the pictures I put up were accessible to everyone. 

It had me thinking🤔🤔 

When you think about accessibility, what comes to your mind? 

We see signs and posters such as the one below to indicate if the space is accessible. But what truly is accessibility?

Have you ever left your home worrying about how you were going to navigate your way to your destination, or how you would be able to communicate with the people you are going to meet? 

Of course, these scenarios can be true for people in a foreign place but imagine feeling foreign in your place?

 Accessibility is making sure that every activity that we do can accommodate people with disabilities. It can be making a brail copy or an audio version of a book for someone who is visually impaired or making an accessibility ramp for someone who is wheelchair bound.

In this era of technology, we must make sure that people with disabilities are not left out in tech. It can be as simple as putting picture descriptions on websites or even your work or school documents that contain picture so that someone who is visually impaired can also know what the picture entails.

Accessibility should not be an action that is foreign to us but instead each one of us has a responsibility to society to make our spaces more accessible. 

Midnight thoughts

Did you know?

When you think about disability, what comes to your mind?

Through my interaction with people and from my previous lack of knowledge, disability is acknowledged only when it can be seen. But did you know that visible disabilities such as people who are visually impaired or wheelchair users, are only a small part of people with disabilities?

Invisible disabilities exist and maybe you might even suffer from one. These disabilities range from having chronic illnesses such as HIV or Diabetes to having a mental health condition. But one thing that is common among all these disabilities is the need for accommodation in order to help the people affected to live healthier or be able to access everyday needs with ease.

Picture of a wheelchair