Accessibility in the News
XML Feed
What is RSS and how do I subscribe?
Displaying 1 to 20 of 2206 News Items
Page:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
>
...
Comment on Project GOALS Materials
Project GOALS (Gaining Online Accessible Learning through Self-study) is developing an Action Paper created to help university administrators to understand the importance of, and to promote web accessibility across their institutions and a set of Institutional Indicators which provide an outline of best practices for enterprise-wide web accessibility. These materials are in the final stages of development and ready for review. We are seeking comment on the Action Paper and the Institutional Indicators. We welcome any thoughts or comments you may have. If you are interested in evaluating these documents, please contact Heather Mariger or Cyndi Rowland .
Contributed on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:27:37 GMT.
Accessibility and You - my brownbag presentation at ebay/gumtree/paypal
http://www.wait-till-i.com/2009/06/05/accessibility-and-you-my-brownbag-presenta...
From the Wait Till I Come! Website: Today I am going to Richmond in South London to talk to the teams of Gumtree, Paypal, shopping.com and Skype (I think) about accessibility, open web development and a long QandA session in the afternoon. Here are my slides of the talk which will be recorded by them as a video.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:54:34 GMT.
Creation of Accessible Documents
http://www.bloorresearch.com/research/Market-Update/1041/Creation-of-Accessible-...
This is the first in a series of Market Updates on the creation of accessible documents. It concentrates on the creation of accessible PDF files from word processing and desktop publishing systems. Document creation is one of the major parts of personal productivity. An accessible electronic document is one that can be read easily by a person with a disability. The possible disabilities include various degrees of vision impairment, muscular-skeletal disorders (that limit the ability to use traditional controls such as a mouse), dyslexia, and learning difficulties. Documents in a language other than the native language of the speaker can be difficult to access, and with the internationalisation of the web this is becoming a more common problem. Some of the issues and solution to this problem are shared with access for the disabled so it will be considered in this report.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:53:41 GMT.
Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility
http://webaim.org/articles/nvda/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: This article is designed to help users who are new to NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) - external link learn the basic controls for testing web content, and to serve as a reference for the occasional NVDA user. NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free and open source screen reader for the Microsoft Windows operating system. It supports over 20 languages and can run on any computer entirely from a USB drive with no installation. It is important to evaluate the accessibility of web content with a screen reader, but screen readers can be very complicated programs for the occasional user, so many people avoid them. This doesn't need to be the case. While screen readers are complicated, it is possible to test web content for accessibility without being a "power user."
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:52:44 GMT.
WAVE in Spanish
http://wave.webaim.org/blog/wave-in-spanish/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: WebAIM is excited to announce the release of the Spanish version (first announced last year) of the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool. This version also includes several updates, bug fixes, and a couple of new rules. The Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University funded the translation of the WAVE web tool and Firefox toolbar into Spanish. Jon Whiting and Diogenes Hernandez, members of the WebAIM team, coordinated this project. We would like to give special thanks to Nestor Rojas who gave significant feedback and to all others who contributed to the beta version of the Spanish translation. This is a great success for WebAIM, and we would appreciate your help to expand WAVE even more. To do this, you can spread the word and translate into other languages. If you are able, please circulate this announcement to Spanish-language accessibility forums and discussion lists and to Spanish-speaking individuals. Also, if you would like to help us translate WAVE into another language, let us know.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:51:55 GMT.
50 government websites to be made disabled friendly
http://emagazineindia.com/archives/7464
Disabled rights groups have approached the IT ministry with a list of 50 government websites like that of the Indian Railways, Central Information Commission and Income Tax Department which they want to be made friendly for those with disabilities. "We have identified 50 organisations and departments in the government. We have sent a proposal to the IT ministry to make sites of these WCAG (web content accessibility guidelines) 2.0 compliant, thereby making them disabled friendly. The ministry has shown a very positive outlook on this," Javed Abidi, convener of the Disabled Rights Group, told IANS. According to Abidi, such a move would simplify the Internet interface for people with disabilities by making the websites compatible with the special software they use to access websites.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:50:52 GMT.
BBC Accessible Newsreader
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2009/05/cbbc_accessible_newsreader.html
CBBC has just launched its Accessible Newsreader service - an alternative interface to the Newsround website. It's been created to help fill the gap in good quality content available on the web for older disabled children or teenager who use computers operated by switches. The CBBC team behind the Newsreader worked closely with industry experts and special needs schools to produce a greatly simplified interface, which is capable of being controlled by a single switch. Being able to do this kind of thing on a standard website using only a regular internet browser, rather than by downloading a dedicated piece of software, is an exciting development, according to Ian Hamilton, a senior designer in the CBBC Online team. Hopefully, it's something that'll be carried across to other sites, too.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:49:30 GMT.
California considers open digital textbooks
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=58861
In what could be a first-of-its-kind statewide initiative, California education leaders are working together to compile a list of free, open digital textbooks that meet state-approved standards and will be available to high school math and science classes this fall. At the request of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Secretary of Education Glen Thomas will work with State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell to develop the list of standards-aligned, open educational resources. The advisory report is scheduled to be released by Aug. 10. Digital textbooks could be useful for students with disabilities, allowing them to access them in a manner that best suits their needs - but only if the materials are designed accessibly.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:48:30 GMT.
AOL/TopCoder Accessibility Developer Competition to Culminate at 2009 TopCoder Open
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090...
AOL today announced that the AOL/TopCoder Sensations Developer Challenge will culminate at the 2009 TopCoder Open (TCO) on Monday, June 1, Thursday, June 4, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV where the winning accessibility application developed by competition participants will be announced. AOL teamed with TopCoder, Inc., leader in online programming competitions, skills assessment and competitive software development, to encourage third party development of targeted value-add features for the disability community. Features developed will leverage core functionality surfaced through AOL application programming interfaces (APIs). "he Internet and our computer applications should be friendly, convenient and easy-to-use for all, including those with disabilities," commented Mike Paciello, Sensations Advisory Board panel member and founder of The Paciello Group, a software accessibility consultancy. "The partnership between AOL and TopCoder and the Sensations Developer Challenge bring exciting accessibility awareness to the developer community, where the issue has not been reached until now. We hope this initiative will educate developers to produce tools that improve the lives of all users." In January, AOL, in coordination with TopCoder, launched the Sensations challenge with the goal of having technological solutions developed by participants to enhance the accessibility of AOL products and services. In March, two submitted application concepts were selected as challenge finalists by the Sensations Advisory Board, Accessible Walking Directions for the blind and My Parents' Email Client for users with cognitive disabilities or little computer experience.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:01:23 GMT.
Opinion: The Right to Game
http://www.ablegamers.com/disabled-gamers---general-news/549-the-right-to-game.html
My name is Aaron Baker. I would like to express my concerns to you regarding game accessibility as well as to offer some solutions. I am 29 and I was born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. My condition is greatly weakened by having had pneumonia and a seizure about two years ago. My only way to operate a computer is with a trackball. I use an On-Screen Keyboard to type with the point and click method. While I am greatly thankful to be able to operate my computer at all, a coat of extreme frustration over lays this thankfulness. Video games need to be made more accessible to physically disabled gamers for several reasons. Am I bias? Yes! Nevertheless, there are hundreds of thousands of other disabled gamers who feel this way. Obviously, games offer us an escape from our disability. Yet, when our disability interferes with our enjoyment, this enjoyment is dampened or worse, extinguished altogether! It is hard to enjoy a game when one is frustrated by their disability. Sure, sometimes work-a-rounds exist, but even when one exists; it is often too pricey and/or too complicated to be worthwhile to implement! Even when an idea for a solution exists, the solution needs to be thoroughly tested before it can be determined if the idea would be viable as well as effective. This is obviously frustrating. At the same time, rudimentary solutions have to survive in at least prototype form for a solution to be tested as well as fine-tuned and finalized.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:00:18 GMT.
Social-networking sites "locking users out"
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/news/2242294/social-networking-si...
Social-networking websites and those based on user-generated content are "effectively locking out" disabled users, charities have said. In the UK there are estimated to be 1.6 million registered people who are blind, 1.5 million with cognitive difficulties and six million that have dyslexia. Accessibility charity Abilitynet and the British Council of Organisations of Disabled People (BCODP), said by not providing accessibility options, it is often too challenging for people with disabilities to use sites such as Facebook and Twitter. And they warned as these sites become more popular the situation could get "more challenging". There are often no alternatives to features such as Captcha, which involves the user having to read a distorted image of a word and enter that text to be able to continue. And many sites with user-generated content do not offer different fonts, colours or text sizes. Robin Christopherson, head of accessibility services at Abilitynet, said that sites were "effectively locking out users" at registration. This is because they used features such as Captcha, which involves the user having to read a distorted image of a word and enter that text into a box to be able to register. He said there was no alternative text provided for these images to assist those who are partially sighted. "If anything it's more of a challenge to make one of the new sites accessible than it was before, so things may actually get worse," he said.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:59:26 GMT.
Web Accessibility Tips by Left Thumb Blogger
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2009/05/web-accessibility-tips-by-left-t...
I recently learnt about amazing Glenda Watson Hyatt, popularly known as the left thumb blogger, who shares her inspiring experiences living with cerebral palsy and preaches web accessibility, all the while typing with only her left thumb! Glenda blogs on her blog I'll Do It Myself (has authored a book with the same name) and I have been hooked to her articles on Accessibility 100 - which talks of easy-to-implement, free and inexpensive ways for improving accessibility for people with disabilities, dispelling the myth that accessibility needs to be expensive and difficult to achieve.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:58:02 GMT.
Web Accessibility - our responsibility as Web Industry Professionals
http://www.conetrees.com/2009/05/blog/web-accessibility-our-responsibility-as-in...
It's our responsibility as web technologists to deploy websites that are accessible by all internet users. If not us, who will? If we, those who understand the various aspects of the web far greater than others, choose to coyly overlook this important factor of web design and development that offers benefits far greater than that of just making websites accessible by those who are disabled, then we are, in a way, failing to do our job with sincerity. After all, access by everyone is one of the essential goals of the web. As Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and W3C Director rightly put it, "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect". About 10% of the world's population suffers from disability of some sort ranging from minor to extreme. While some are unfortunately born with them, some acquire them later on in life, be it accidentally or be it something that we can't avoid - like the disabilities that come with age. While laws are getting stricter and accessibility law suits are being fought, though rarely are they won, the essence of the above is not to make us build accessible websites and applications as effective measure against them, but rather to take pride in understanding that we have the power to consciously create websites that can be accessed equally by all, regardless of disability.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:57:02 GMT.
Making the Kindle Accessible to the Print Disabled
http://www.authorsguild.org/advocacy/articles/kindle-accessibility.html
We issued the following statement in response to the protest led by the National Federation of the Blind this afternoon: Authors want everyone to read their books. That's why the Authors Guild, and authors generally, are strong advocates for making all books, including e-books, accessible to everyone. This is not a new position for us. For decades, we've informed new authors that the expected and proper thing to do is to donate rights so that their works can be accessible to the blind and others. In October, we were praised by the National Federation of the Blind for the settlement of our lawsuit against Google, which promises "to revolutionize blind people's access to books," according to the Federation's press release. E-books do not come bundled with audio rights. So we proposed to the Federation several weeks ago the only lawful and speedy path to make e-books accessible to the print disabled on Amazon's Kindle:
Contributed on Thu, 21 May 2009 21:13:54 GMT.
Why You Should Make Your Web Site Accessible NOW
http://blog.gelfanddesign.com/2009/05/why-you-should-make-your-web-site-accessib...
With Access U right around the corner, I feel inspired to revisit one of the most important, yet most often overlooked, considerations of Web site design, accessibility. The federal government acknowledged through the 1998 amending of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 508) that access to information is a civil right. I would like for this to be the cornerstone of any argument for accessible design. However, in my experience, C-level executives don't jump at the chance to spend money or alter existing practices for the sake of Doing the Right Thing. For better or worse, a company's accessibility champion has to make these decision-makers see dollar signs to inspire them to take meaningful action. So, how do you do that?
Contributed on Thu, 21 May 2009 21:13:08 GMT.
Bookshare Deal Lets More Disabled Students Access Books
http://www.508portal.com/?q=node/622
Bookshare, the online library for people with print disabilities, today announced a new program that will significantly increase college students' access to digital books and textbooks. The Bookshare University Partnership program is a collaboration between 11 U.S. colleges and universities and publishers that will pool resources to build a more robust collection of books. The program will boost access to reading materials for individuals, including K-12 and post-secondary students, who have a qualified print disability such low vision, dyslexia or a physical disability that makes it difficult or impossible to read standard print. Up to now, students would wait months after the start of a semester before getting their textbooks in a format they can read. The process entails the university having to either physically scan the books or obtain digital files for each book from the publisher. Under the new program, colleges, universities and publishers will pool resources to make more books available on Bookshare. Additionally, three major publishers, HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group and Scholastic, have agreed to donate digital files of their books to Bookshare.
Contributed on Thu, 21 May 2009 21:11:56 GMT.
Finest worksong
http://58sound.com/2009/04/27/finest-worksong/
I'd been asked to give a perspective from the UK on developments in web accessibility over the years, and in putting together my talk, I ended up with a 10 year biography of web accessibility. I thought this was a nice, round figure, given that it's almost 10 years to the day since version 1 of WCAG was published by the W3C on 5th May 1999; and nearly 10 years since I started working in this area as a researcher/consultant in the newly formed Digital Media Access Group. Of course, a lot of very valuable research and development had been carried out in the field of web accessibility before then. But WCAG brought together existing knowledge and expertise in a way that allows us to define its publication as a catalyst for the popularisation of accessibility as a major topic of web development.
Contributed on Thu, 21 May 2009 21:10:59 GMT.
Petition: Allow Everyone Access to E-books
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/We-Want-To-Read
When Amazon released the Kindle 2 electronic book reader on February 9, 2009, the company announced that the device would read e-books aloud using text-to-speech technology. Under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that it will give authors and publishers the ability to disable the text-to-speech function on any or all of their e-books available for the Kindle 2. The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read print, protested the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. The coalition includes the organizations that represent the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 245,000 books.
Contributed on Thu, 21 May 2009 21:10:00 GMT.
Survey of Preferences of Screen Readers Users
http://webaim.org/projects/screenreadersurvey/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: In December 2008 through January 2009, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen reader users. We received 1121 valid responses to the screen reader survey, which was conducted Dec. 2008 - Jan. 2009. The response was amazing. Below are the initial quantitative results and a few observations on the survey results. More in-depth analysis and documentation on the free-form responses will be available in the future.
Contributed on Thu, 07 May 2009 21:39:43 GMT.
Why web accessibility is important
http://www.onlinecontentguide.co.uk/?p=245
There are many reasons to make your website accessible and they can largely be lumped under three headings that show why web accessibility so important. This page explains these three points to tell you why making websites accessible is good practice and how it helps your content to be accessed by the largest number of people possible.
Contributed on Thu, 07 May 2009 21:38:49 GMT.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 > ...
