FodnessMemo01Revised

In what ways are the disabled capable of interacting with their environment based on physical and social constraints established by policy and norms? Are improvements to physical infrastructure which are designed to help the disabled integrated into initial planning and designs, or are they bolted on later? Are the laws and norms of society structured so that individuals with disabilities do not incur additional personal expenditure as a result of their disability? To what extent are the difficulties faced by the disabled addressed by federal and state policies? Is assistive functionality provided actively or passively in different technologies, and why? Is designing for disability held as a cultural value, or does it need to be actively enforced through policy and regulation? How does IT redefine what it means to be disabled? How do assistive technologies construct cyberspace for the disabled? || Because there has been increasing scrutiny in past years wrt individuals with disabilities being an underserved community in the area of IT. For example, the recent lawsuit against Target by the National Federation for the Blind due to target.com being inaccessible to individuals using screen readers due to partial or total blindness. As IT has become more pervasive in everyday life, and is all but required in order to perform certain tasks, my hypothesis is that IT has enabled traditionally abled individuals and further disabled the disabled individuals, even though IT has the capability to reduce or remove barriers created by disability. || I worked with implementing disability-ready (Section 508 compliant) websites and IT devices at the Department of Labor for three years and designing accessible websites both professionally and personally. During my IT education at RPI I was never instructed in how to design accessible websites or how to build IT applications so that they were accessible. || I think that individuals with disabilities are underserved, and that they should be granted the same level of access to content through IT devices as the traditionally abled, even if it means greater cost in time, effort, and money to corporations designing IT devices. I also believe that individuals with disabilities should not have to pay any more for the IT devices than the traditionally abled. My research may prove that individuals with disabilities are more enabled through IT than they were otherwise, even with the limitations in place. || Disabilities studies in an STS department, technology and IT studies in an IT or computer science or STS department, software design in an IT or computer science department, website and user interface design in an IT or computer science or STS department, IT policy in an IT or computer science or STS or political science department. || NSF, USFG, Educational Institutions, NIST, Disability Advocacy Groups, W3C. || Do organizations that implement and follow standards fare better than those that do not? Where do standards originate, and under what conditions are they successfully implemented? Are there disadvantages to standardization? Does adherence to standards need to be actively enforced, or can it be culturally codified? What mechanisms exist to passively enforce standards compliance, and are they effective? || Because the number of different devices, operating systems, and browsers accessing the Internet has increased substantially over the past few years, which has inflamed existing problems with a lack of standards compliance in browser creation, rendering of web pages, and development of standards-compliant HTML and CSS code at the web development end. || I have been involved with designing standards-compliant websites for over a decade, and have seen firsthand the problems that arise from browser non-compliance and cross-platform web development. || I believe that standards compliance for browsers and Internet software should be established by a regulatory agency with enforcement powers, and that software that writes code should be required to generate standards-compliant code. I also believe that corporations should be required to have standards-compliant websites, and that standards compliance for freelance developers and hobbyists should be painless and enforced at the software level. || Software design in an IT or computer science department, website design in an IT or computer science department, standards compliance in an STS or IT or computer science department, IT policy in an STS or political science department. || NSF, NIST, Education Institutions, W3C. || How has the Internet made certain modes of communication more or less accessible to different groups of people? Is the Internet an example of egalitarian technology with respect to broadening access and communicative ability? What are the impacts on political and social awareness and real-life interaction of Internet-assisted or Internet-enabled communications? What possibilities does the Internet enable and constrain with respect to access and influence over politics and policy-making? || With the rise of blogs and forums for discussion and debate, primarily since 2004, and the rise of the Internet as a tool of politics, not enough research has been done into the capabilities and limitations of the Internet as a political discursive medium. || I was involved heavily with formal debates in high school, of which most of the research was done on the Internet, and I am involved in the blog scene and with politics. I have followed many campaigns that have used the Internet heavily, and I have participated in many online and offline debates. || I believe in the value of debate and that there is inherent value in requiring individuals to think on their feet as opposed to always having time to craft answers and do additional research. However, I believe that there is some value in producing written responses organized around evidence in a semi-timely fashion. But I do not believe that this should take the place of traditional debate activities. I also believe that the Internet has been an incredible asset to traditional debate as a research tool. || Internet studies at an STS or political science department, Political Science, Anthropology, Education Studies. || NSF, Education Research Groups, Education Institutions, Think Tanks, USFG. ||
 * **Topical Area** || **Data Sets** || **Social / Theoretical Questions** || **Why Now?** || **How Prepared?** || **Bias** || **Fields of Work** || **Funders** ||
 * Individuals with Disabilities Using IT || Interviews with blind, deaf, and other disabled individuals to determine how they use IT devices, interviews with educators at colleges and trade schools regarding what is in the curriculum about designing accessible IT, interviews with software developers and managers about what corporate policies and practices exist for integrating accessibility into the design of IT systems, review of the Americans with Disabilities Act - specifically Section 508, which deals with disability and IT, research into other federal and state policies regarding accessibility and IT, court cases and news stories regarding clashes between the disabled and owners of inaccessible IT devices and/or software. || How are individuals with disabilities able to interact with their environment?
 * Internet Software Design, Policy, & Self-Regulation || Interviews with software developers and managers to see what policies and practices are in place regarding designing standars-compliant websites and browser software, research into whether there are any federal and state-level policies regarding standards compliance for websites and browser software, research into the negative effects in money and time caused by non-compliance, interviews with members of standards compliance advocacy groups, interviews with the W3C, which designs web standards. || What are the unintended consequences caused by a lack of industry adherence to published standards?
 * Debate and Forum Discussion Enabled, Constrained, and Mediated by Internet Technologies || Interviews with bloggers, forum administrators, and commenters on political and/or debate-oriented websites, interviews with traditional debaters (primarily CX, LD, and Congress debaters at the high school and college level) regarding how the Internet has changed classic debating, interviews with individuals that would be unable to participate in traditional debate that are enabled by the Internet, such as the blind, the deaf, and those with speech impediments. || How have modes of communication changed as a result of the Internet?