Access for EVERYONE

I’ve been thinking about accessibility in little different terms lately. More and more I’m embracing a wider concept of accessibility and access that extends far beyond the disability community. It is the idea that wherever content can easily be made freely accessibly to be used by the masses, it should be. Too often, the free exchange of information is being stifled by copyrights, password-protected directories and content distributors. However, there is a lot going on to create more open content, with projects such as Creative Commons and MIT OpenCourseWare and thinkers such as Lawrence Lessig, Stephen Downes and David Wiley .

It seems that battle lines are being drawn, one side being those who want more control over how their content is distributed and used vs. those advocating for granting more access and usage rights for users. While the free content movement has been somewhat on the fringes, it is showing up more and more in mainstream media. Over the next few years there will be more and more discussion around this topic as both sides seek to defend their position and convince (or constrain) the general public to adopt one way of thinking or the other.

Some learners are faced with a double barrier. They may 1) be unable to access and use content because of cost or copyright and 2) there may still be accessibility issuess once those barriers are overcome . Hopefully in the continuing dialogue on these issues society and our lawmakers can forge and accept new ideas about the way we think about content in the 21st century.