Main Conent

Technology

Access to resources often comes through technology.

color teletouch photograph disability history america

Finding information, purchasing goods, requesting services, getting from place to place—all entail devices, tools, and technology. Technologies differ in their consequences from population to population. Historically, technology has played a distinctive role in the lives of people with disabilities.

New forms of technology that benefited mainstream society often initially excluded people with disabilities because of inadequate design or planning. The lag time between the introduction of a technology, whether movies, telephones, trains, planes, automobiles, or ATMs, and its accessibility created discrimination, exclusion, and new barriers.