Asymmetric Access Theory

I have not yet added the experience that led to this idea.

Being in the same environment does not guarantee access to the same information.

What could each person receive, and what was unavailable to them?

I use Asymmetric Access Theory to ask about those differences.

The idea concerns unequal access to information, communication, opportunity, or a system. Access can differ before anyone begins to interpret what is there.

Consider two people in the same room. A change is announced through one channel. One person receives it; the other does not. The difference might involve communication, timing, interface, language, sensory access, technology, institutional process, physical design, or social assumptions. This is an illustrative situation, not an account of a particular event.

Asymmetric Access Theory does not claim that people with different access always interpret information differently. It is not limited to disability.

Access and interpretation are different questions. Unequal outcomes alone do not tell us what information was available to each person.

The cause of an access difference needs to be examined in its own setting.