Accessibility: Ottawa Charter's Priority Number One
Abstract: Accessibility is the ability to access, the state of being achievable, obtainable
(Pickett, et al., 2000, p. 10). By definition, accessibility is a universal need that all living things share
(U.S. National Aeronautical and Space Administration [NASA], 2007;
World Health Organization [WHO], 2001).
Accessibility concerns also are literally universal: globally translatable, crossing all demographic ethnic,
geographic, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, age, religion, and gender classifications.
An estimated 600,000 million people or ten percent of the world's population has formally reported accessibility
needs (WHO, 2006).
Due to population growth, global ageing, HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases, poverty, war/terrorism, and
natural disasters exacerbated by the effects of global warming (Atchley, 2000, p. 3; Gore, 2006; WHO, 2006),
these statistics should not be surprising. Parallel to these events, advances in science, technology, and medicine
have reduced infant and maternal mortality and parasitic diseases (Pan American Health Organization, 2002), and
have increased survival rates on wars' battlefields, despite acquisition of often complex access needs
(Bilmes & Stiglitz, 2006, p. 8). People with accessibility needs also are a class that anyone can and virtually
all do join throughout the lifespan (Shapiro, 1994, p. 7).
On 13 December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly (2006) adopted the
International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
re-affirming the basic human rights shared by this often marginalized class. Indeed, accessibility is
the prerequisite to the determinants of health prominently set forth in the Ottawa Charter
(International Conference on Health Promotion, 1986). In alignment with the principles of the
International Convention and Ottawa Charter, and the human rights principle of self-autonomy,
class members also to need to be actively included in the health research and promotion process.
This poster session will present methods to incorporate accessibility into health promotion and
education and to include people with accessibility needs as active participants in health promotion research.
Among the approaches discussed will be the initial design of health care services according to
internationally-applicable accessibility standards that follow principles of universal design and that are
compatible with and facilitate the use of assistive technology, the highest tech with the highest human touch.
Presentation website: http://www.a4access.org/iuhpe2007.html
Alternative formats for this presentation are available upon request.
References
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(2nd ed., pp. 3-29). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
Bilmes, L., & Stiglitz, J. E. (2006, January). The economic costs of the Iraq War: an appraisal three years after
the beginning of the conflict. Harvard University. John F. Kennedy School of Government
(Faculty Research Working Paper, RWP06-002). Retrieved March 27, 2007, from
http://ksgnotes1.harvard.edu/Research/wpaper.nsf/rwp/RWP06-002/$File/rwp_06_002_Bilmes_SSRN.pdf
Gore, A. (2006). An inconvenient truth: the planetary emergency of global warming and what we can do about it.
Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press.
International Conference on Health Promotion, 1st, Ottawa, Canada, November 1986 (1986). Ottawa Charter.
Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://www.ldb.org/iuhpe/ottawa.htm
Pan American Health Organization. (2002, November 21). Healthy children, goal 2002: save 100,000 lives.
Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://www.paho.org/English/DPI/100/100feature46.htm
Pickett, J. P., et al. (Eds.). (2000). American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.).
Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin Company.
Shapiro, J.P. (1994). No pity: people with disabilities forging a new civil rights movement.
New York: Times Books.
United Nations. General Assembly (2006, December 13). UN General Assembly adopts International Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Retrieved March 27, 2007, from
http://www.who.int/disabilities/media/news/13_12_2006/en/index.html
U.S. National Aeronautical and Space Administration [NASA]. Earth Observatory. (2007).
The carbon cycle: biological/physical carbon cycle: photosynthesis and respiration.
Retrieved March 27, 2007, from http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/CarbonCycle/carbon_cycle2.html
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(World Health Organization Fact Sheet no. 90). Retrieved March 27, 2007, from
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from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2002/WHO_NMH_NPH_02.8.pdf
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Ellen Perlow, Ph.D. CHES, a career academic librarian and certified health educator,
has degrees in elementary education, library and information science, educational technology, law, and a Ph.D. in health studies with a focus on accessibility.
Dr. Perlow also is a graduate of the California State University at Northridge [CSUN] Assistive Technology Applications Certificate Program (September 2000)
and CSUN Symposium Series advanced accessibility training (2001-2003), and a regular AT conference participant and presenter on accessibility and
assistive technology at conferences and to university classes.
Her dissertation, A for Accessibility: Descriptor Preferences of People with Accessibility Needs (2006), was a participatory research study
by and for self-identifying adults with accessibility needs.
The research examined the impact of accessibility-related terminology on accessibility advocacy success and class self-empowerment.
Provision of alternative formats and accessible venues were a fundamental given for the dissertation research,
keeping with the study’s theme of accessibility to the research process. Dr. Perlow currently is pursuing
a doctoral degree in special education at Texas Woman's University.
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