Legislation, Standardization and Technological Solutions for Enhancing e-Accessibility in e-Health

Abstract

“It is usual to consider human dignity as the basis for human rights. In this sense, this term is used to refer to a number of features that characterize humans and that serve to express their uniqueness. [...] Thus, the idea of human dignity rests on a human being characterized by his or her capacity and performance in carrying out a particular social role. This has been translated into the conception of rights. Indeed, human rights theory has been founded on a model of the individual, characterized mainly by his or her “capacity” to reason, “capacity” to feel and “capacity” to communicate. It is this model that is (and which has traditionally been) the prototype of the moral agent, that is the prototype of a subject able to participate in moral discourse. [...] This is what we often refer to as moral “capacity”, being also a trait of individuals as moral agents” [1]. In recent decades advances in Assistive Technology (AT) and in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have influenced the lives of people with disabilities or special needs. Developments in the knowledge and understanding of disability, and changes in the social and legal framework —as a result of the "Rights of People with functional diversity " and the "Right to an Independent and Dignified Life"— have led to Electronic Accessibility (e-Accessibility) and Universal Design (design for all). For years, the terminology used in the field of functional diversity resulted, more often than not, in undesirable results both at the legal level and in the sphere of political action. For this reason, since the mid 1970's people with functional diversity have voiced their objections to words such as "disability" and "handicap", words which were too closely confined to a medical and diagnostic approach and which barely reflected the shortcomings and imperfections of society itself in its response to the phenomenon of disability. In 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) [2] created the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH) to provide a unifying framework for classifying human functioning and disability as health components. After international revision efforts coordinated by the WHO, the World Health Assembly on May 22, 2001, approved the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Functioning and disability are viewed as a complex interaction between the health condition of the individual and the contextual factors of the environment as well as personal factors.