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eAccessibility

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Database Systems

  • 34 Accesses

Definition

eAccessibility refers to the access of information and communications technologies (ICT) by people with disabilities, with particular emphasis on the World Wide Web. It is the extent to which the use of an application or service is affected by the user’s particular functional limitations or abilities (permanent or temporary). eAccessibility can be considered as a fundamental prerequisite of usability.

Historical Background

The percentage of disabled citizens has increased dramatically in the last century due to life condition improvements, higher life expectancy, and population aging. This trend is anticipated to further increase in the next decades.

Traditional efforts to provide eAccessibility for users with disabilities were based on the adaptation of applications and services originally developed for able-bodied users. In the context of the information society, this raises the fundamental issue of granting to disabled citizens access to a variety of technologies that...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas (FORTH), Heraklion, Greece

    Constantine Stephanidis

  2. University of Crete, Heraklion, Greece

    Constantine Stephanidis

Authors
  1. Constantine Stephanidis
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Correspondence to Constantine Stephanidis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Ling Liu

  2. University of Waterloo School of Computer Science, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    M. Tamer Özsu

Section Editor information

  1. Dept. di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale, Universita di Roma, Roma, Italy

    Tiziana Catarci

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Stephanidis, C. (2018). eAccessibility. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_7

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