Notes from 53rd International STC Conference
Las Vegas, Nevada, May 7-10, 2006

Ethical Tenets of Legality, Respect, and Fairness in Accessibility
Round-Table Presentation within Progression, "Making the World – and Information Products – More Accessible"

Dan Voss
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control

Voss is an STC Fellow and Co-Manager of the STC AccessAbility SIG. He co-authored STC's Ethical Guidelines, published in 1995, and applied those guidelines to accessibility and disabilities both as they pertain to technical communication and in general.

Session Description: The presenter explored the ethical and legal aspects of accessibility, including such issues as what governs "reasonable accommodation" and how to balance cost and accessibility on an equitable basis.

Note: Since I was the presenter, I did not record notes at this session. However, you may explore the subject by accessing the paper published in the Proceedings, the tabletop presentation from the progression, and other resource materials at the links listed below.

• Paper in Proceedings, "IEEE and STC Ethical Guidelines Call for Fairness on Disabilities and Accessibility" a reprinting of an article in the April edition of the IEEE PCS newsletter.
• Tabletop presentation, "The Ethics of Disabilities: It's a Matter of Fairness".
• STC Ethical Guidelines.
• For further resources on accessibility, see the AccessAbility SIG's web site.