Motor
Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease is primarily caused by the destruction of certain dopaminergic neurons in a region of the brain essential for movement control (dopamine is a molecule that regulates communication between neurons and is vital for controlling movements).
- Nature of disability : Acquired
- Age group concerned : Contrary to popular belief, Parkinson’s disease is not a disease of the elderly, since almost one in two sufferers is diagnosed at an average age of 58, i.e. still of working age. 17% of sufferers are under 50.
- Number of people affected : There are 272,500 sufferers in France, and there are 25,000 new cases every year.
Symptoms
- Tremor
- Akinesia (slowness of movement)
- Rigidity
Examples of obstacles encountered during navigation
- Websites, web browsers and authoring tools that do not provide full keyboard support.
- Insufficient time to respond or complete tasks, such as filling in online forms.
- Controls, including links with text images, that do not have equivalent text alternatives.
- Missing visual and non-visual orientation cues, page structure and other navigational aids.
- Inconsistent, unpredictable and overly complicated navigation mechanisms and page functions.
- Clickable areas too small.
Solutions for accessibility
To use the Web, people with physical disabilities often use specialised hardware and software such as :
- Ergonomic or specially designed keyboard or mouse.
- Head pointer, mouth stick and other aids to help with typing.
- On-screen keyboard with trackball, joysticks or other pointing devices.
- Switches operated by foot, shoulder, sip and puff or other movements.
- Voice recognition, eye tracking and other approaches to hands-free interaction.
- They may need more time to type, click or perform other interactions, and they may type single keystrokes in sequence rather than typing simultaneous keystrokes (‘chords’) to activate commands.
- People with physical disabilities may find it difficult to click on small areas and are more likely to make mistakes when typing and clicking. Providing large clickable areas, sufficient time to complete tasks and error correction options for forms are important design aspects.
- Another important aspect is the display of the current focus and the ability to switch from one block to another easily.
- The content is compatible with current and future user tools.
- Operating system functions or software tools that recognise and compensate for involuntary movements such as tremors and spasms.