Book Talk: Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology, Wed., Oct. 18, at noon

The Harvard Law School Library staff invite you to attend a book talk and discussion in celebration of Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017) edited by Jonathan Lazar and Michael Ashley Stein.  Copies of Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology will be available for sale and Professors Lazar and Stein will be available for signing books at the end of the talk.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017 at noon, with lunch
Harvard Law School Room WCC 2019 Milstein West A (Map & Directions)
1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA

About Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

“Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology addresses the global issue of equal access to information and communications technology (ICT) by persons with disabilities. The right to access the same digital content at the same time and at the same cost as people without disabilities is implicit in several human rights instruments and is featured prominently in Articles 9 and 21 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The right to access ICT, moreover, invokes complementary civil and human rights issues: freedom of expression; freedom to information; political participation; civic engagement; inclusive education; the right to access the highest level of scientific and technological information; and participation in social and cultural opportunities.

Despite the ready availability and minimal cost of technology to enable people with disabilities to access ICT on an equal footing as consumers without disabilities, prevailing practice around the globe continues to result in their exclusion. Questions and complexities may also arise where technologies advance ahead of existing laws and policies, where legal norms are established but not yet implemented, or where legal rights are defined but clear technical implementations are not yet established.

At the intersection of human-computer interaction, disability rights, civil rights, human rights, international development, and public policy, the volume’s contributors examine crucial yet underexplored areas, including technology access for people with cognitive impairments, public financing of information technology, accessibility and e-learning, and human rights and social inclusion.” — University of Pennsylvania Press

Panelists

Jonathan Lazar is a Professor of Computer and Information Sciences at Towson University, where he has been on the faculty since 1999, and has served as director of the Undergraduate Program in Information Systems since 2003. Dr. Lazar also founded the Universal Usability Laboratory at Towson University and served as director from 2003-2014. Within the area of human-computer interaction, Dr. Lazar is involved in teaching and research on Web accessibility for people with disabilities, user-centered design methods, assistive technology, and public policy. He has authored or edited 10 books, including Ensuring Digital Accessibility Through Process and Policy (2015, co-authored with Dan Goldstein and Anne Taylor, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers), Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction (2010, co-authored with Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheser, John Wiley and Sons), Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations (2007, John Wiley and Sons), and Web Usability: A User-Centered Design Approach (2006, Addison-Wesley). His newest two books will both be published in mid-2017. The Second Edition of Research Methods in Human-Computer Interaction, co-authored with Heidi Feng and Harry Hochheiser, will be published by Morgan Kaufmann Publishers in May 2017.

Dr. Lazar has been honored with the 2017 University System of Maryland Board of Regents Award for Excellence in Research, the 2016 SIGCHI Social Impact Award, the 2015 AccessComputing Capacity Building Award (sponsored by the University of Washington and NSF), for advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities in computing fields, the 2011 University System of Maryland Regents Award for Public Service, and the 2010 Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award from the National Federation of the Blind. During the 2012-2013 academic year, Dr. Lazar was selected as the Shutzer Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, to investigate the relationship between human-computer interaction for people with disabilities, and US Disability Rights Law. Dr. Lazar remains affilated with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and is a member of the Senior Common Room at Leverett House at Harvard University.

Michael Ashley Stein holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a Ph.D. from Cambridge University. Co-founder and Executive Director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, as well as Extraordinary Professor, University of Pretoria Faculty of Law, Centre for Human Rights, and formerly Professor at William & Mary Law School, he has also taught at NYU and Stanford Law School. An internationally acclaimed expert on disability law and policy, Stein participated in the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, works with disabled persons organizations around the world, actively consults with international governments on their disability laws and policies, and advises a number of United Nations bodies.

More About Disability, Human Rights, and Information Technology

“This is an exciting and much-needed project. The right to accessibility has received relatively little academic attention and this book performs a field-defining role.” —- Anna Lawson, University of Leeds

“As information technology continues to transform human endeavor, it poses new challenges to law and regulation in many sectors. Disability is such a sector. There is no other book that provides so many insights into the rapidly evolving international scene.” —- Clayton H. Lewis, University of Colorado, Boulder