Inclusion by Accessible Social Media

The challenges of Web accessibility: The technical and social aspects of a truly universal Web

“…While accessibility barriers in terms of online government services may be a significant issue in its own right, people with disabilities face even greater challenges in their endeavours to achieve online participation. Research into social media and accessibility (Borrino, et al, 2009;Dale, et al, 2012;Fuglerud, et al, 2012;Hollier, 2012;Holone, 2012) found that people with disabilities often struggled to access popular social media Web sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn due to Web accessibility issues, preventing their opportunity for participation, despite social media offering some disability-specific benefits such as assisting a hearing impaired person explain the nature of the disability via Facebook prior to attending a social event, a legally blind person seeking employment via LinkedIn and the ability to overcome transportation issues in getting food by finding local pizza delivery vouchers on Facebook. As social media has become the norm for many people in terms of their social and professional communication, so have corporate and government entities around the world embraced tools such as Facebook and Twitter as tertiary communication channels with their clients and citizens (Hilts and Yu, 2011;Mousavi and Pimenidis, 2014;Kim, et al, 2008;Harris and Dennis, 2011;Lassen and Brown, 2011;Waters and Williams, 2011;Bertot, et al, 2012;Joseph, 2012;Illia and Balmer, 2012;Magro, 2012;Piotrowski, 2012;Unsworth and Townes, 2012;Bonsón and Ratkai, 2013;Haigh, et al, 2013;Pérez Dasilva, et al, 2013;Kwok and Yu, 2013;Lieberman, et al, 2013;Linke and Zerfass, 2013;Thomas and Akdere, 2013;Nwagbara and Reid, 2013;Khan, Yoon, Kim and Park, 2014;Lillqvist and Louhiala-Salminen, 2014;Mendez, et al, 2014;Soon and Soh, 2014).…”