Accessibility Research Informing Policy and Law

Successful access to digital technologies and content for people with disabilities requires multiple fronts to be successful. Users need to have the right tools and the right training on these tools, and digital content must be designed flexibly so that they interact successfully with these tools such as assistive technologies. One aspect of this that is often overlooked is the need for effective, research-based policies and laws. Scientists and engineers can create technical solutions for improving access to technologies and content for people with disabilities, but often, laws and policies are the driving force behind implementation and real-world improvements in the lives of people with disabilities.

Even with existing technical solutions and clear market and financial opportunities, often companies and other for-profit and non-profit organizations fail to provide digital accessibility, blocking people with disabilities out of opportunities in the educational, employment, commerce, and socialization realms. Effective policies and laws can bridge this gap, prioritizing and requiring digital accessibility so that people with disabilities can become full and effective members of society. We believe that we can increase the impact of our MIDA work, by engaging directly with policymakers and legal advocates to help ensure that the best research and education work is informing policy and law. Our policy and law-related work is two-fold: we do research which is aimed at understanding the policy and law realm, and we also respond directly to regulatory rulemaking and requests for legislative testimony at the state and federal level.

Project Team

Rachael L. Bradley-Montgomery, Stephanie Cork, Ursula Gorham-Oscilowski, Paul Jaeger, J Bern Jordan, Jonathan Lazar, Emily Singer Lucio, Ron Padrón, Victoria Van Hyning

Testimony and Regulatory Rulemaking

• MIDA comments (2023) in the matter of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Discrimination on the Basis of Disability in Health and Human Service Programs or Activities. (Docket: HHS-OCR-2023-0013): US Department of Health and Human Services. 
• MIDA comments (2023) in the matter of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Disability: Accessibility of Web Information and Services of State and Local Government Entities. (Docket: DOJ-CRT-2023-0007): US Department of Justice. 
• Lazar, J. (2023). Testimony on Unlocking the Front Door: Ensuring Accessible Government Technology for People with Disabilities, Older Americans, and Veterans: Hearing before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, 118th Cong. (Sept 21, 2023), p. 123-128. 
• Lazar, J. (2022). Testimony on Accessible Federal Technology for People with Disabilities, Older Americans, and Veterans: Hearing before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, 117th Cong. (July 28, 2022), p. 95-101.  
• Jordan, J. B., Vanderheiden, G., Lazar, J. (2022). Comments in the matter of the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Americans With Disabilities Act Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities; Architectural Barriers Act Accessibility Guidelines; Self-Service Transaction Machines and Self-Service Kiosks. (Docket: ATBCB-2022-0004): Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board. 
• Lazar, J. (2022, Feb. 16). Testimony on SB 617, The Equivalent and Nonvisual Access Accountability Act for K-12 Education (Maryland State Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee): Maryland General Assembly.
• Lazar, J. (2021, Feb. 18). Testimony to the Senate Education Health and Environment Committee in support of SB 271, Election Law – Voting Systems – Accessibility for Voters With Disabilities.

Research Publications

• Wentz, B., Gorham, U., & Jaeger, P. T. (2023). Academic libraries and their legal obligation for content accessibility. First Monday, 28(1/2). 
• Lazar, J., & Ferleger, D. (2022). A reconceptualization of website accessibility under the ADA: Resolving the intercircuit conflict post-pandemic. Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal 39, 1 (Article 2).
• Lazar, J., Jordan, J. B., & Wentz, B. (2022). Incorporating Tools and Technical Guidelines into the Web Accessibility Legal Framework for ADA Title III Public Accommodations. Loyola Law Review, 68, 305–341.
• Lazar, J. (2022). Managing digital accessibility at universities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Universal Access in the Information Society, 21, 3(pp. 749-765).
• Wentz, B., Lazar, J., Jaeger, P. T., & Gorham, U. (2021). A socio-legal framework for improving the accessibility of research articles for people with disabilities. Journal of Business & Technology Law, 16 (pp. 223-257, No. 3). Baltimore, MD: University of Maryland Carey School of Law. 
• Olsen, S. H., Cork, S. J., Anders, P., Padrón, R., Peterson, A., Strausser, A., & Jaeger, P. T. (2021). The disability tax and the accessibility tax: The extra intellectual, emotional, and technological labor and financial expenditures required of disabled people in a world gone wrong and mostly online. Including Disability, 1. 
• Lazar, J. (2019). Segregated ballots for voters with disabilities? An analysis of policies and use of the ExpressVote Ballot Marking Device. Election Law Journal, 18 (pp. 309-322).
• Lazar, J. (2019). Web accessibility policy and law. In Y. Yesilada and S. Harper (Ed.), Web Accessibility: A Foundation for Research (2nd ed.) (pp. 247-261). London: Springer-Verlag.
• Lazar, J. (2019). The potential role of US consumer protection laws in improving digital accessibility for people with disabilities. The University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social Change, 223 (pp. 185-204).
• Lazar, J. (2019). The use of screen reader accommodations by blind students in standardized testing: A legal and socio-technical framework. The Journal of Law & Education, 48 (2, pp. 185-213).
• Auxier, B. E., Buntain, C. L., Jaeger, P. T., Golbeck, J., & Kacorri, H. (2019). #HandsOffMyADA: A Twitter response to the ADA Education and Reform Act. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings (CHI 2019), May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland UK. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 12 pages. 
• Jaeger, P. T. (2018). Designing for diversity and designing for disability: New opportunities for libraries to expand their support and advocacy for people with disabilities. International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion, 2(1/2). 
• Cork, S. J., Jaeger, P. T., Jette, S., & Ebrahimoff, S. (2016). The politics of (dis)information: “Crippled America,” the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the 2016 United States presidential campaign. International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion. 
• Bertot, J. C., & Jaeger, P. T. (2015). The ADA and inclusion in libraries: Libraries have been and continue to be champions for access. American Libraries. 
• Jaeger, P. T. (2015). Disability, human rights, and social justice: The ongoing struggle for online accessibility and equality. First Monday, 20(9).