Petrick, Elizabeth, 1978- author.
Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, [2015];©2015
Added to CLICnet on 02/25/2016

Check CLICnet for availability
Part of the series History of technology
Notes:

• In ‘Making computers accessible,’ Elizabeth R. Petrick tells the compelling story of how computer engineers and corporations gradually became aware of the need to make computers accessible for all people. Motivated by user feedback and prompted by legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, which offered the promise of equal rights via technological accommodation, companies developed sophisticated computerized devices and software to bridge the accessibility gap. People with disabilities, Petrick argues, are paradigmatic computer users, demonstrating the personal computer’s potential to augment human abilities and provide for new forms of social, professional, and political participation. Bridging the history of technology, science and technology studies, and disability studies, this book traces the psychological, cultural, and economic evolution of a consumer culture aimed at individuals with disabilities, who increasingly rely on personal computers to make their lives richer and more interconnected. — Publisher’s web site.
• Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Introduction: the development of accessible personal computer technologies — Disability rights and technology before the personal computer — Early personal computer accessibility, 1980-1987 — Building the network: corporate philanthropy and the National Special Education Alliance — The growth of disability rights and accessible computer technologies — Accessibility and software applications in the 1990s — Conclusion: the promises of personal computers.

Subjects:

• Computers and people with disabilities — United States.
• Assistive computer technology — United States.
• Microcomputers — Social aspects — United States.
• United States. fast (OCoLC)fst01204155

Requested by Bloomberg, M.