As the digital domain becomes ever more prevalent in our everyday lives through applications that facilitate our daily routine of social networking, online shopping and web access to information, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where the virtual/digital world stops and the real/physical world begins. Unless, that is, you are a person with a disability, in which case you may have experienced the same type of limited access to digital destinations as historically the disabled had with physical destinations. Unfortunately, most Internet destinations have been constructed without regard for the disabled, providing no cues or accessibility aids to guide visually or cognitively disabled individuals and resulting in thousands of Americans being effectively denied access to these digital destinations.
However, recent legal and technical efforts are pending that could change the digital landscape for the disabled, creating a digital world that people with disabilities can more easily navigate and opening up a new demographic of disabled users to online retailers, Internet entrepreneurs and digital educators.
