A Word From the Director

Alternate Formats and Accessibility

The 1990s have been marked with increasing emphasis on the right of a person with a disability to control and select the services and resources that he or she will use. Today, consumers are provided more opportunities from which to choose than has been the case in the past.

It seems clear, however, that the power of consumer choice rests on the degree to which the consumer is allowed to make an informed choice. Such a choice requires that the consumer has accessible information that is relevant to the choice to be made. While it is true that the information needs to address issues of interest to the consumer and his or her family, it is even more important that the information be made accessible to the consumer. In discussions of information accessibility, there often is a focus on alternate formats, usually for written materials that have been developed.

The production of alternate formats, however, should not be confused with the accessibility of information. Producing an alternate format - a large print version, for example - does not mean that you have made your information accessible to people with disabilities. Indeed, if none of your potential readers required this format, you would have wasted the time, energy, and money it took to produce the large-print version. In this case, you would have produced an alternate format, but it would be a format that is developed without a specific target audience in mind and cannot be said to provide accessibility.

Accessibility of information can only be determined by the user. In other words, consumers must be able to choose the format or formats with which they can interact or communicate. Once this is determined, the production of a responding format becomes an informed format. The provision of your information with a consumer through an informed format enhances informed decision-making and accessibility. All too often, the issue of accessibility is discussed without knowledge of specific accommodations that individuals in your target audience may need to access information. Arbitrarily selecting one or two alternate formats for your information primarily benefits the information provider.

Usually, once the determination of alternate formats has been made, no further concern about accessibility is displayed by the typical information provider. Seldom, if ever, is a follow-up survey conducted to see if people with various types of disabilities were able to access the information and use it to make decisions. Those who attempt to disseminate their information for the purpose of utilization must be sensitive to the difference between producing an alternate format and providing accessible information. Ensuring accessibility requires the production of informed formats.

John D. Westbrook, Ph.D.
Director, NCDDR

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