Access to electronic information by people with disabilities

Information access for people with disabilities is creating numerous opportunities and challenges within the information highway community. Additionally, as a result of the increasing paradigm shift by the publishing industry toward Internet and WWW-based document delivery systems, the importance of producing accessible information using electronic document mechanisms has increased immeasurably. The primary focus of this paper involves the production of electronic documents for people with disabilities. However, the key principals involved in the design, production, and delivery of information apply regardless of the document medium. The paper attempts to: identify major problems in information and software design that deny access; cite successful products that can be used by people with disabilities to access publications; and point to resources that assist developers in creating accessible products in the future.