Factors Influencing Adoption of Wireless Technologies: Key Policy Issues, Barriers and Opportunities for People with Disabilities

While wireless communication and other information linked technologies have rapidly achieved widespread levels of adoption, a significant array of stakeholder groups have been effectively excluded, not as much by active intent as by inadvertent oversight and lack of awareness. Many of these technologies routinely used by the general population are frequently inaccessible to persons with disabilities. Barriers to the use of these technologies by people with varying disabilities may be subtle, but never the less very real. Public policy plays an important if frequently overlooked role for people with disabilities, in part because "people with disabilities...interface with so many different components of public policy systems, many of which are conflicting or inconsistent, such as employment goals and requirements for income assistance programs. The larger public policy context for disability and rehabilitation research reflects interlinking service delivery systems in which changes in one system often have a substantial impact on others." (NIDRR, 1999). This paper presents preliminary results of policy research designed to develop a framework for assessing the status quo, developing inclusive policy initiatives, and evaluating the efficacy of the research approach.

Baker, P.M.A., & Bellordre, C. (2003). "Factors Influencing Adoption of Wireless Technologies - Key Policy Issues, Barriers and Opportunities for People with Disabilities" Information Technology and Disabilities. Vol. IX No. 2, December 2003.

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