Ubiquitous Accessibility: Building Access Features Directly into the Network to Allow Anyone, Anywhere Access to Ubiquitous Computing Environments

Traditionally access to computers and electronic devices has relied extensively on the strategy of adapting the devices that the person with a disability needs to access or using a special version of the product. This was especially true for people with more severe or multiple disabilities. As we move to an environment where computers and information services are incorporated into our environments, and where people must he able to access the technologies they encounter throughout their day, we need to move to a different model that might be called "ubiquitous accessibility". Ubiquitous accessibility would involve building access features for all people directly into the ICT systems in the environment so that access could be invoked directly by the user when they needed it. This approach would need to involve a combination of access features that were built in and features that could be invoked on demand from the network.