By Michael G. Paciello with his permission

At first glance, it's hard to believe that more than 500 million people make up what has always been viewed by mainstream industry as a small niche market. This is in fact a 1980 estimate maintained by the United Nations and contained in their report on the World Programme of Action Concerning People with Disabilities. No doubt this number has increased in 20 years. Of course, not all of those people are impacted by accessibility issues on the Web. It's important to remember, however, that people with disabilities are found in all socio-economic levels. Therefore it's likely that the number of disabled users with access to the Internet will be proportionally similar.

Even among Internet users who have disabilities, not all of them present accessibility issues. For example, someone who is paraplegic will likely not have trouble typing, operating a mouse, seeing, or hearing, unless they have an additional unrelated disability. Someone who must refrain from strenuous aerobic activity due to a heart condition won't necessarily have trouble surfing the Web.

This doesn't mean, however, that the community of people with disabilities that do impact Internet use isn't statistically meaningful. Indeed, this community numbers in the tens of millions.

As more and more people gain access to the Internet, the wired disability community continues to grow at incredible rates.

Note the following statistics:

a.. In the European Community, approximately 37 million people (or 1 in every 10 citizens) have a disability.

b.. There are more than 4 million Canadians (or 1 in every 7 individuals) with a disability.

c.. Approximately 3.7 million Australians live with a disability.

d.. In the United States, according to statistics available in the 1997 U.S. census, approximately 54 million people live with at least one disability.

There's no hiding the fact that the population of able-bodied people outnumbers the population of those with disabilities. This remains true on the Internet. On the other hand, tens of millions is an enormous number, regardless of what the population is for the rest of the world. Can you think of any business that wouldn't jump at the opportunity to position and sell a product or service to as little as 1 percent of that number? With the growth of electronic commerce making it easier for businesses to reach the consumer, who could afford to miss the opportunity? A report posted in Internet World based on data compiled by Jupiter Communications forecasts that online consumer spending will reach $29.4 billion by the year 2002.

Perhaps best of all, the Web enables you to market and sell your products to the disabilities community market with minimal effort and cost. In most cases, it's no more work than simply ensuring that your Web site includes a text description of the products and services you are selling. E-commerce is the new wave for businesses. In one fell swoop, you can go online, reach bigger markets, and establish a new clientele.

The purchasing power of people with disabilities is also at an all-time high. According to a 1998 report released by the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, "Consumers with disabilities control more than $175 billion in discretionary income. They, like all consumers, are more likely to patronize businesses where they feel welcome. Accessible stores, products and services, along with employees with disabilities, will help customers with disabilities feel that their business is appreciated."

Clearly, the effect of the population of consumers with disabilities on electronic commerce has influenced world governments and international standards-based industry organizations to launch creative initiatives to address the needs of the disabled consumer. Exactly how large is the market?

National Statistics

In December 1997, based on a census taken during the four-month period of October 1994 to January 1995, the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Census reported that 1 in 5 Americans or (54 million people), have some kind of disability. This is about 20 percent of all U.S. citizens, which comprises a larger minority population than African Americans (approximately 30 million).

Additionally, the same report highlighted the following breakdown of those same statistics:

a.. 1 in 10 Americans has a severe disability.

b.. Among American children aged 6-14, 1 in 8 have some type of disability.

c.. 1 in 2 Americans 65 years and older has a disability.

d.. 1 in 5 Americans between the ages of 15 and 64 years has a disability

To further emphasize that nearly 20 percent of all Americans have some kind of disability, InfoUse's 1996 edition of the Chartbook on Disability in the United States estimated that 19.4 percent of noninstitutionalized U.S. citizens had a disability at that time.

Of those, an estimated 24.1 million people had a severe disability. The report estimated that 13.1 million people use assistive technology for anatomical, mobility, hearing, vision, and speech disabilities.

Another interesting series of data related to people with disabilities involves the workforce. The Chartbook on Disability in the United States (1996 edition) noted that in 1994, 52 percent of the disabilities population were part of the workforce. Continuing advances in assistive technology are enabling more people with disabilities to enter the workforce in greater numbers than ever before. The Internet and Web have played important roles in this advancement, simply by providing greater access to information and services to all people.

While the statistics regarding the population of people with disabilities may come as a surprise to some, almost 30 percent of all families in the United States are affected by a member who has some type of disability. The report titled Families with Disabilities in the United States , released in 1996, noted the following:

a.. An estimated 20.3 million families, or 29 percent of all 69.6 million families in the United States, have at least one member with a disability (as measured by having an activity limitation).

b.. When a family has a member with a disability, that member is most likely to be a householder. For example, in 88 percent of partnered families with disabilities, one or both partners have a disability.

c.. An estimated 2.3 million partnered families contain one or more children with a disability.

d.. Some 3.8 million families, or 6 percent of all families, contain one or more children with disabilities. Most of these (3.4 million, or 89 percent) have one child with a disability.

e.. The rate of disability is 29 percent for white families, 32 percent for black families, and 22 percent for other races. Among Hispanic families, 23 percent have members with disabilities.

Almost without a doubt, very few families in the United States are left untouched or unattached to an individual with a disability.

International Statistics

On the international front, the statistics are not as easy to come by, but those that are available are consistent with the United Nation's report that approximately 1 in 10 people in the world has a disability.

In Europe, 1 in every 10 people, or approximately 37 million people, have a disability. The European Community (EC) is committed to the mainstreaming of their citizens with disabilities. In a report distributed by the European Commission on the Equality of Opportunity for People with Disabilities, the Commission reported that 5.5 billion ECU would be allocated during the five-year period of 1994-1999 to combat exclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce.

This report also noted that the Employment-HORIZON initiative, a part of the EC's Employment Community Initiative, was allocated 513 million ECU to advance employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Again, to further emphasize the high level of awareness involving issues of accessibility to information, the Commission on Equality of Opportunity stated the following in Part VI of "Mainstreaming: Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs)" (emphasis is mine):

49. The Commission is actively interested in exploring the possibilities for harnessing all aspects of the Information Society in the achievement of equal opportunities for people with disabilities and in improving their living and working conditions. These questions are discussed in general in the Commission's Green Paper on Living and Working in the Information Society: "People First". An internal ad hoc group will be set up by the Commission to take this forward with the mandate to examine the scope for a special initiative at European level, building on relevant experience to date, for example in the TIDE Initiative. This will be based on a review of good applications of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in favour of people with disabilities, and the further potential for developing economies of scale in making ICTs more widely accessible and useful to people with disabilities.

A 1996 report published by the Canadian Premier's Council on the Status of Disabled Persons in Canada indicated that of the 27.3 million Canadians, about 1 in 7 (or approximately 4.2 million) have a disability. In Australia, according to a 1997 publication by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported in 1993 that there were 3,176,700 people in Australia with a disability. This constituted approximately 18 percent of the Australian population at that time.