The tremendous issues of technology - disabled persons and technology

Training & Development, Nov, 2001 by Eva Kaplan-Leiserson

A recent Gartner study found that nearly half of U.S. businesspeople check their email on vacation. Yet, the same study found that more than a third of business email is "occupational spam"--unnecessary email sent by co-workers.

As our working mobility increases, we end up doing more. The expectation is that we're always "on"--always reachable by phone or email, always ready to take care of business no matter what the hour. Is it any wonder that we're feeling burned out?

Then there's the running-on-a-treadmill feeling we get from trying to keep up with technology: researching it, buying it, learning how to use it, upgrading it, and fixing it when it breaks.

Technology does let us do things we've never been able to do before, but new devices, applications, concepts, and paradigms have also made us realize how unprepared we are to deal with the issues such innovations raise. Legal, ethical, and moral questions bubble to the surface and are hashed out in courtrooms, chambers of Congress, and private homes. The issues include intellectual property, accessibility, usability, security, and privacy. Let's look at each one.

Intellectual property. The high profile Napster case has made intellectual property almost a household phrase. The online music-sharing service has been pitted against record companies and musicians who shouted, "Copyright violation!" U.S. federal courts have ruled that the service must shut down until 100 percent of copyrighted material is filtered out of its offerings. In the meantime, Napster is developing a membership-based service. As of this writing, record companies are exploring whether they can collect damages.

Another electronic copyright case, The New York Times v. Tasini, went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Jonathan Tasini and other freelance writers sued the newspaper after it reused their articles in digital databases without obtaining permission or offering additional compensation. The court ruled that digital publication constitutes a separate use from print publication. The freelancers won the case, but the outcome is pending at press time. The New York Times has threatened to remove all of the articles from the databases instead of paying the writers.

The implication of the Napster and Tasini cases is that copyright issues are not to be taken lightly. The 1990s preponderance of free goods and services on the Internet may have led people to believe, falsely, that what's online is public property.

What does intellectual property mean for you? First, don't take what's not yours. That's a pretty simple concept, but it gets tricky around online education. Current U.S. copyright laws don't make provisions for electronic transmission of information for education. So the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1998, includes a charge to the U.S. Copyright Office * http://Icweb.loc.gov/capyright to investigate provisions to the act that should be made for distance education. The office compiled reports and submitted them to Congress.

At press time, legislation was pending that will allow distance learning courses managed by accredited or certified organizations and nonprofit libraries to use and transmit copyrighted works under certain conditions. (For more information and the current status of the bill, look for the Twenty-First Century Distance Learning Enhancement Act on the Copyright Office Website. It's currently listed under "new and pending legislation.")

The second thing you should know about intellectual property is that there are ways to protect what's yours. Technology exists and is being developed to guard electronic content. For instance, encryption software such as Clever Content * www.clevercantent.com can now lock down parts of a Webpage on the Internet, an intranet, or an extranet so that information can't be printed, copied, or forwarded.

Another option is the computer language XrML (eXtensible rights markup language) that lets users tag text, images, video, and so forth with copyright information; restrict access to content; and track who is accessing it. The language was developed by a Xerox spin-off company, Content Guard * www.contentguard.com. New solutions to protect electronic content are being developed every day.

What's the future for intellectual property? Perhaps this: education on reading, writing, and 'right--copyright, that is. In the United Kingdom, the Creative Industries Task Force, which includes representatives from the music, broadcasting, and publishing industries, has published a report recommending that intellectual property issues be included in the citizenship curriculum, which will become mandatory in U.K. secondary schools beginning in fall 2002. But some people say that the subject is in too much flux to be taught yet. Will we see copyright issues taught in schools worldwide? Only time will tell.

Accessibility. We all know the frustration of a Webpage that won't load, a document that won't download, or an email that won't open. For millions of people with disabilities, those simple tasks that most of us do daily, usually without thought, can be sources of great frustration each time they attempt to complete them. Visual, hearing, motor, and cognitive impairments make it difficult to access and use standard technology.