Crowdsourcing Accessibility: Human-Powered Access Technologies

Abstract

People with disabilities have always engaged the people around them inorder to circumvent inaccessible situations, allowing them to live moreindependently and get things done in their everyday lives. Increasingconnectivity is allowing this approach to be extended to wherever andwhenever it is needed. Technology can leverage this human work forceto accomplish tasks beyond the capabilities of computers, increasinghow accessible the world is for people with disabilities. This articleoutlines the growth of online human support, outlines a number ofprojects in this space, and presents a set of challenges and opportunitiesfor this work going forward.