Helping Our Children with Disabilities Succeed: What's Broadband Got to Do with It?

From Digital Opportunity for Youth Issue Brief No. 2, this 12-page report examines how children with disabilities use broadband and other technologies. According to the introduction to this issue, the use of broadband, particularly when combined with other types of technology, can remove barriers that keep children with disabilities from fully participating in everyday activities alongside their peers and becoming independent members of their communities. Broadband, in these circumstances, means an internet connection that functions at speeds high enough to allow voice, data, and video transfer.


"Accessible technology", a term describing certain programmatic functions, is technology that includes functions which facilitate its use; for example, the zoom function on a word processing programme is a support for people with low vision. Broadband computer technology can be made accessible in multiple ways, for example:

• Websites with video streaming can include closed captioning for those with limited hearing.
• A child who needs reading support may use a screen reader - a software programme that reads text and describes other visual contents of a computer screen aloud in a synthetic voice output or by controlling a Braille display - to search the internet for a newspaper article and to read its contents.
• Computer hardware and software communication functions combined with broadband can enable users to access a variety of ways to communicate and exchange information through text chat, sound, video, closed captioning, and speech recognition. In an educational setting, for example, a student who has limited speech and mobility can use a special wireless keyboard device with text-to-speech functionality to offer opinions to the class, to access web-based resources, and to communicate with project partners.
• Distance learning and interaction with tutors can benefit both students' abilities and disabilities. This can include job training, for example an entry-level certification in information technology that is available for the blind through distance education.
• Communication among students and families can be facilitated through online opportunities; for example, a video relay service allowing a deaf student to send a sign language message that is given a voice by an online interpreter. Disability activists, support groups, and teens can engage others through chat rooms, social networking sites, e-groups, blogs, and bulletin boards.
• Computer game sites, including virtual reality sites like Second Life, can give youth with disabilities opportunities to socialise, conduct business, and explore.
• Telemedicine allows for distance medical support of those with medical needs that compound their disabilities.

According to the report, Federal laws require equitable access, but they are often not put into practice and are difficult to enforce, due to costs, lack of knowledge of compliance options, and possible lack of concern or training of teachers and parents/caregivers. The brief gives an overview of disability laws pertaining to technology, as well as ways in which broadband can help children with disabilities.


The brief cites specific resources by age group: pre-birth to six years old and school age (6-22 years old). It supplies advocacy information on the financial returns for investments in publicly-funded job training for individuals with disabilities, including technology training, and concludes with recommendations that policy makers and advocates work to insure affordable access to and training in accessible and assistive technologies.