By Kevin Coughlin
STAFF WRITER
Norman Coombs, professor emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a pretty bright guy. Yet he recently found himself stymied by the opening screen of a popular computer program.
"I couldn't click the 'I Accept' button for the licensing agreement," he said.
Coombs is blind.
Such stories abound within the disabled community. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a measure that opened many buildings to those who have disabilities.
That landmark law, however, did not foresee the explosive rise of the Web, which opens a world of possibilities for the able-bodied -- and a maze of frustrations for those who cannot easily view its snappy graphics, hear its colorful sounds or, as in Coombs' case, manipulate a mouse.
For them, technology can be a mixed blessing. Case in point: Only last week did America Online, the world's largest Internet service, agree to make its proprietary chat rooms and other features accessible to screen-reading technologies used by the blind.
It took AOL 15 years and a lawsuit by the National Federation of the Blind to come around.
"Technology advances. We get left behind," says Curtis Chong, president of the federation's computer science chapter.
To be sure, the last decade has brought many quality-of-life advances people with disabilities, from cochlear implants and high-tech wheelchairs to hands-free computers controlled by the blink of an eye.
As the Internet transforms commerce and communications for the able-bodied, however, studies suggest this revolutionary technology has not made a dent in unemployment rates for the disabled.
Only 32 percent of working-age disabled persons in the United States have full- or part-time jobs, according to a new Harris survey. That figure has remained fairly constant over the last decade, says the National Organization on Disability.
One reason may be a Catch-22 situation. Many people with disabilities can't afford the high-tech equipment they need to hone employment skills, says Doris Fleischer, New Jersey Institute of Technology lecturer and co-author of an upcoming book, "The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation."
Just one-fourth of America's disabled population owns a computer, Fleischer says, and only one-tenth uses the Internet. She defines disability according to the Americans with Disabilities Act: A condition affecting a basic life function. Government rehabilitation programs can be stingy about providing computer gear that might even the score.
For some, the Web has been a godsend. Matawan's Yvonne Singer, whose speech is hindered by cerebral palsy, pecks words and commands on a keyboard with a pointer strapped to her forehead. She has edited Web pages for a pharmaceutical company and posted poetry on her own Web site while searching for full-time work and pursuing a master's degree online.
"I have a lot to say, and people have trouble understanding me," says Singer, 31. "On the Web, I don't have that trouble."
Likewise, the Web enables William Skawinski, a New Jersey Institute of Technology professor who is blind, to download scholarly articles onto his PC, where software converts the text to speech. Years ago, he had to rely on others to read to him.
Every new technology poses new barriers for the blind. ATMs once had lots of buttons that blind users could feel; newer "improved" cash machines have touch-screens that require eyesight. Motorola's wireless family phones initially sported an audio feature to identify channels; a new version replaced this with a graphics display.
The PC arena has proven especially vexing for the blind, largely because of Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system. As the name implies, it is a visual environment, dependent on a point-and-click "graphical user interface."
Chong works closely with Microsoft, and says it's possible to navigate Microsoft Word with keyboard commands instead of a mouse. Intuit's QuickBooks, on the other hand, is useless to the blind, he says.
The Web has plenty of barriers, too.
John Kemp, of halftheplanet.com, a Web site devoted to disability issues, estimates 95 percent of sites are inaccessible to 10 million visually impaired Americans.
Other estimates vary widely. Whatever the number, many agree the Web could be far friendlier to the disabled with minimal effort, says Judy Brewer of the World Wide Web Consortium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Web designers can embed descriptive tags in images and links, enabling screen-reading software to audibly inform a blind person what is depicted on a Web page. Audio files can be captioned for those with hearing impairments. "Text-only" options, and bigger buttons and icons, can be helpful, too.
Whether any of these things is legally required is another story.
The AOL settlement averted a trial that might have determined if digital enterprises are subject to the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 1990 law bans discrimination by most private employers, all state and local government agencies, and such "places of public accommodation" as museums, banks, restaurants and theaters. The Clinton administration contends the act extends to the Internet.
Seeking to bridge gaps in the ADA, Congress included a mandate within the Telecommunications Act of 1996 for telecom services and equipment to be accessible "where readily achievable."
Greater promise comes with another pending measure that would bar federal agencies from buying computers and information technology -- or contracting for Web site designs -- that cannot be adapted for the disabled.
Coombs, the Rochester professor, hopes the threat of lost government contracts spurs technology companies to embed accessibility features in all their new products. Many software companies leave such details to third-party vendors, whose updates often lag months behind a product's release, he says.
Coombs leads Equal Access to Software Information, an organization supported by the National Science Foundation that advises colleges on the accessibility of technology.
Others, like Kemp of halftheplanet.com, are counting on the marketplace more than regulations. Born without hands or feet, Kemp formerly led the United Cerebral Palsy Association and is a presidential appointment to the National Council on Disability. He says the disabled are the nation's biggest minority group, a vast market that the Web ignores at its peril.
"I would like the marketplace to say: What is it worth for us to find new customers for our business?" says Kemp.