Types of Disabilities
Web users experience many different disabilities and combinations of disabilities.
- Visual Disabilities: blindness, low vision, color blindness
- Hearing Impairments: deafness, hard of hearing
- Physical Disabilities: motor disabilities
- Speech Disabilities
- Cognitive and Neurological Disabilities: dyslexia and dyscalculia, ADD, intellectual disabilities, memory impairments, mental health disabilities, seizure disorders.
- Multiple Disabilities
- Aging Related Conditions
Form more in depth information on types of disabilities visit:
http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/#diff.
Interacting with People with Disabilities
Many people feel uncomfortable around people with disabilities. Some people feel sorry for people with disabilities, and assume they are bitter about their disabilities, which is untrue in many cases. Many people feel their lives are enriched by their experiences with disability.
Don’t worry about “saying the wrong thing” around people with disabilities. That’s not a big deal to most people with disabilities. What’s important is that you respect the person and see them beyond their disability.
- Don’t make assumptions about people or their disabilities about what they want, feel or what is best for them.
- Ask before you help. People with disabilities may appear to be struggling, but would prefer to complete a task.
- Talk directly to the person, not to the interpreter, attendant, or friend. Sit down so that you are eye level with a person in a wheel chair.
- Speak normally. Don’t speak louder and slower to people with disabilities. Use normal language including “see” and “look”, even for blind people.
- Use “people-first” language. For example, say “a man who is blind” rather than “a blind man, and “a woman who uses a wheelchair” instead of “a wheelchair-bound woman”.
- Avoid potentially offensive terms or euphemisms. Commonly accepted terminology includes “people with disabilities” and “a person with a visual/hearing/physical/speech/cognitive impairment”. Many people find annoying or offensive: restricted to wheelchair, victim of, suffers from, retarded, deformed, crippled, and euphemisms such as physically challenged. If you are unsure ask the person with a disability what terminology he prefers.
- Be aware of personal space. Don’t touch, move, lean on mobility aids like a wheelchair, walker, or cane.
References
- Chisholm, W, ed, Vanderheiden, G, ed, Jacobs, I, ed, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. World Wide Web Consortium. May 1999.