There is no doubt that the ADA has made historical strides for the United States. But the Oklahoma Electronic Information Technology Accessibility (EITA) Act is taking those strides a step further. While ADA is the foundation EITA stands on, EITA has created an even more progressive and level playing field for people with disabilities, in the workplace and out.
“In a nutshell, the EITA law is in place to make sure digital services for state agencies are built and developed for people with disabilities,” said Brenda Dawes, the project manager at ABLE Tech.
Until the EITA, there was still much to be done for those with disabilities who weren’t able to take advantage of evolving technology.
The EITA law went into effect in 2005 and made Oklahoma one of the few states at the time to have its own law and standards. It's aimed at improving the accessibility of electronic information technology that state agencies, post-secondary institutions, and the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education system use.
Virtual curb cuts
“A lot of people would assume people who are blind can’t use the Internet,” Dawes said. “But EITA opens up a world of independence.”
Dawes describes EITA as curb cuts for the virtual world. It expanded the world of technology for people with disabilities by making the Internet readily accessible.
For example, people who are blind could use a screen reader to navigate the website of their choice. A user sends commands by pressing different combinations of keys on the computer keyboard or braille display to instruct the speech synthesizer what to say and to speak automatically when changes occur on the computer screen. A command can instruct the synthesizer to read or spell a word, read a line or full screen of text, announce the location of the computer's cursor or focused item, and more.
But not all websites cater to a screen reader. Sometimes the reader can have problems accepting the commands given by the user.
That’s where a company like ABLE Tech comes in.
ABLE Tech works as a middleman for people interested in assistive technology and the companies that sell them. ABLE Tech helps people decide which product works best for them, giving the public access to their loan library full of equipment and products.
Business breaking barriers
As businesses rely more on web-based technology to share information and opportunities, advocates for the disabled say it’s important to make sure companies do not put barriers up that keep anyone from using websites.
Desire2Learn, a company that schools like Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma use for their online classroom, has spent several years improving its website’s accessibility.
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