Accessibility is linked to the degree to which a person, regardless of their cognitive or physical condition, can make use of something.
Accessibility is the quality of what is accessible . The adjective accessible, for its part, refers to what is easy to understand or understand.
The concept of accessibility, therefore, is used to name the degree or level to which any human being, beyond their physical condition or cognitive faculties, can use a thing, enjoy a service or make use of a infrastructure.
Accessibility and technical aids
There are various technical aids to promote accessibility and equalize the possibilities of all people . This means that a space that has good accessibility conditions can receive all kinds of people without harm or complication for anyone .
Handicapped ramps , wheelchairs, Braille alphabet and auditory cues are some of these technical aids .
Accessibility implies a right that grants an individual the concrete and real possibility of entering, staying and exploring a place with safety, comfort and the greatest possible autonomy.
A ramp can improve accessibility to a location.
The concept in computing
Since the first versions of Windows , which remains the most popular operating system worldwide, Microsoft has introduced tools to assist users with various disabilities . One of the first examples is the option to magnify a portion of the desktop to make it easier to read. This virtual magnifying glass , which appeared almost two decades ago, was one of the first attempts to help people with vision problems read texts with small fonts. Nowadays, the flexibility of programs is such that resizing their content is as essential as the rest of the functions .
Voice command is also very popular . Basically, it consists of talking to the computer to ask it to perform a wide variety of tasks: opening programs, selecting words and clicking on a link, among many others. Another very useful purpose of this tool is the dictation of text for writing documents without having to use your hands.
Finally, we have assistance for people who are color blind and have hearing problems. Those who have trouble distinguishing certain colors often find options to cope with them, which may consist, for example, of giving each color a particular pattern or design. Regarding hearing, for some years now, YouTube has been working on its automatic subtitle generator ; Although the result is not perfect, this component is very useful, since in most videos the authors do not take that trouble.
The danger of unnecessary accessibility
A movement that began with the altruistic purpose of helping people with certain disabilities, soon became the most popular trend when developing devices and digital content. It cannot be said that all products that have managed to transcend the barriers that contained them are empty or that they have lost their essence; But the last decade has seen a worrying change in the relationship between people and technology .
Just twenty years ago, those who did not have motor problems typed their own texts; Nowadays, any device takes on this task in our place, although not without errors. It was also common to use a faculty called memory, which allowed us to remember telephone numbers, birthdays, and even email addresses. This is no longer necessary, nor normal.
This list of services provides us with great convenience, and is often very positive, especially in an emergency. Likewise, if we could calculate the magnitude of mental processing that this level of assistance saves us, we would surely obtain a considerable result. What is expected, therefore, would be that human beings would take advantage of this capacity, now unnecessary , to progress, to resolve certain issues that afflicted them in the era of Windows 3.1 and tube televisions. What is expected, unfortunately, is light years from reality.