Accessibility Encoded: A Survey of Scripts for Disability Inclusion in the Unicode Standard

Kyra Ann Dawkins, Helena Kansa

The Script Encoding Initiative’s mission is rooted in accessibility. SEI was created to support the inclusion of scripts in the Unicode Standard, establishing a foundation for digital spaces to become more accessible to minority script communities. However, there is an unofficial category of “accessibility scripts” that are often used by communities with disabilities and in turn require additional layers of nuance to effectively propose, encode, and integrate into digital spaces. In this talk, we will survey accessibility scripts of varying encoding statuses to consider how to best advocate for their full stack support. Script examples may include Sutton SignWriting (encoded), Braille Patterns (encoded), Initial Teaching Alphabet (approved for publication in Unicode 18.0), Hamburg Notation System (unencoded), Stokoe (unencoded), Visible Speech (unencoded), and Blissymbolics (unencoded). As technology expands to huge scales at rapid rates and full stack support becomes increasingly complex to achieve, we must ensure accessibility scripts do not fall through the cracks in creating a digitally inclusive future.

 Overview  Program