Accessing the academy : scrutinizing accessibility problems of disabled students

![CDATA[In Australia and many other countries, it is an ethical and legal requirement that all public sector organizations make their online information and processes available to all disabled citizens. Given the aging population and the 8-10% percent of the world who are perceptually disabled, such requirements should be a mandatory feature set of all universities. This is not the case, with the large majority of institutions only paying lip service to accessibility. Visually, auditorily and cognitively impaired citizens constantly struggle to navigate both the offline and the online world. The situation is particularly challenging for disabled students whose educational requirements not only necessitate locating information, but also submitting assignments to constantly changing learning management systems and interacting online with instructors and fellow students. Various reasons for this situation are explored including ignorance, expense, difficulty, and imprudence of website authors and university administrators.]]