Accessibility in the News
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Spry turns two
http://www.webstandards.org/2008/06/02/adobe-spry-turns-two/
From the Web Standards Project (WaSP): Two years ago, Adobe introduced their JavaScript framework: Spry. As Drew pointed out a few days later, that preview was somewhat lackluster in the standards department, using custom attributes and obtrusive JavaScript techniques. Two years on, the framework is at version 1.6.1 and has made some solid movement towards being more unobtrusive, even going so far as to offer a "make JavaScript unobtrusive" option in the Dreamweaver CS4 beta, and, for that, I applaud them. As frameworks go, Spry has some nice features, such as turning arbitrary HTML into a dataset to name one, and is maturing rapidly. This version of Spry still seems directed at the novice programmer or people who feel more comfortable working in a tool like Dreamweaver, but I easily recognize the influence of other frameworks on this toolset, showing that they have an eye on the hardcore programmer audience as well. They've also made it easy to work around the custom attribute issues that earned them so many lashings when Spry first hit the scene. It isn't all wine and roses though; I have two major criticisms of the framework as it stands today, and they're directly linked.
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:10:31 GMT.
Congressman Ed Markey Fights to Help persons with Sensory Disabilities Keep up With Video and Telecommunications Technologies
http://blog.carrolltech.org/archives/139
From the All About Access Blog: On May 1, Congress's Subcommittee On Telecommunications and the Internet held a hearing on the Twenty-first Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act. This bill is currently in discussion draft form and is being sponsored by Representative Ed Markey (D. MA) who chairs the Subcommittee. The hearing consisted of powerful testimony from blind and deaf advocates. Of particular note was some very moving testimony from Jesse Acosta, a Sergeant Major who was recently wounded in Iraq. His wounds resulted in blindness and brain injuries. He made note of things that he used to be able to do easily that are now very difficult due to inaccessibility of cell phones and video equipment. The hearing demonstrated that Markey will do all that he can to see that current and emerging technologies will be required to be made accessible to persons with disabilities. To listen to the hearing, go to hearing on twenty-first century telecommunications and video accessibility act and click on the "connect to hearing" link. (Note that there is a period of silence before you hear Mr. Markey Gavel the beginning of the hearing. He states right up front that he believes this is one of the most important hearings to take place in this Congressional session.)
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:07:44 GMT.
Umbrella Specification For Web Standards Published
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=190
From the E-Access Bulletin: An umbrella specification for website standards, including references to usability and accessibility standards, has been published by the British Standards Institution. The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 124, entitled 'Defining, implementing and managing website standards,' covers 11 separate categories of website quality, of which accessibility and usability are two. It was commissioned from the BSi by website content management software provider Magus. The BSi had already produced a more focused specification on website accessibility, PAS 78, which is now being developed into a full British Standard number BS8878. Julie Howell, Director of Accessibility at Fortune Cookie which commissioned PAS 78, has been appointed to chair the technical committee tasked with developing the standard (see story 01, E-Access Bulletin Issue 98, February 2008).
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:05:59 GMT.
Opinion - Regulating Accessibility: Time for a New Beginning
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=189
From the E-Access Bulletin: There is an elegant correspondence between the amount of information in circulation and its accessibility which can be expressed in two formulae. First, that the greater the quantity of information, the lower its cost of production; and second, that the lower the cost of production, the greater is the additional percentage cost of making it accessible. Take television. When spectrum was limited, the medium was analogue and the labour was unionised, the cost of producing television was high; so was the cost of producing accessibility services such as captioning, audio description and signing; but the percentage cost of these special services was relatively low. Now think about the explosion of television since 1990 when satellite was introduced and project this forward to internet television: there will be no spectrum and therefore no scarcity, and digital production is cheap. Smaller and smaller players will find a toe-hold with niche products, but the smaller the player, the higher the relative percentage cost of accessibility services will become. This scenario can be extended to multi media channels and on-demand services. So the question is, do we expect multi media providers to provide a full range of accessibility services, regardless of their economic capacity?
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:03:46 GMT.
Making YouTube easier and more accessible
http://www.wait-till-i.com/tag/youtube/
At this year's Accessibility 2.0 conference in London Antonia Hyde from United Response asked the audience for technological solutions to make the social web easier accessible for people with learning disabilities. Her presentation Rich Media and web apps for people with learning disabilities is available on slideshare. Whilst not being able to tackle all the issues mentioned (probably the biggest one being captioning) I took some time to play with the YouTube API to create a much easier interface to watch videos.
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:03:04 GMT.
U.S. Labor Department's 'Transforming the American Workplace: A 21st Century Vision' Summit Sets Stage for Disability Employment
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-03-200...
The U.S. Department of Labor today kicked off its "Transforming the American Workplace: A 21st Century Vision" summit, which focuses on including people with disabilities in the American workforce and reduced barriers to employment. The invitation-only summit continues through tomorrow at Gallaudet University's Kellogg Conference Center in Washington, D.C. "Our mission is to continue to promote a culture of inclusiveness in the best tradition of our nation," said U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao in her keynote speech today to summit attendees. "Hiring Americans with disabilities is not only the right thing to do - it is the smart thing to do. And the technological revolution of the last fifteen years has given us unprecedented ways to incorporate the talents of all members of our society into the workforce." The inaugural summit has attracted representatives of corporations, universities, interest groups and government. Some of the workshops they attended today included "Transforming the Workplace with New Technologies," "Universal Design/Accessibility" and "Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship."
Contributed on Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:01:17 GMT.
Accessibility for Older Users: Part 1 of 3 - Introduction
http://www.thepickards.co.uk/index.php/200805/accessibility-for-older-users-part...
From The Pickards Blog: On the 14th May 2008, the W3C produced a document called Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review. Well, what can I say to that but Fogey-tastic! So obviously I have a bee in my personal bonnet about accessibility. Not so much whether or not a particular site or page complies with guideline X (I don't care too much about that) but whether or not that site or page can be used by whoever is trying to use it, whether or not they have a disability or even (shudder) a Mac. As we get older we'll find that certain things we can't do as well, we'll need glasses, possibly larger text, might find find mouse control more difficult and eventually aging might lead us to something which would be formally classed as a disability. But that's the thing: disability is a continuum. You don't suddenly find that your hearing has deteriorated past a certain point and suddenly you can't hear. The only sudden thing about it is when you get officially classed as disabled. Your experience is a series of shades of grey, and not just hair.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:50:57 GMT.
PDF Accessibility
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/
WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: has updated its article on the accessibility of PDF. When people talk about "accessible" PDF files, they usually mean "tagged" PDF files, even though there is more to an accessible PDF than tags. PDF tags provide a structured, textual representation of the PDF that is presented to screen readers. They exist for accessibility purposes only and have no visible effect on the PDF file.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:42:17 GMT.
Ease of Access
http://blogs.gnome.org/mccann/2008/05/19/ease-of-access/
One of our primary design objectives for the rewrite of GDM was to have accessibility features be well integrated with the login screen (known as the greeter) and available by default. The previous GDM supported accessibility, but not by default. A user with disabilities needed someone to pre-configure the system to support accessibility at all. We wanted to do better than that and, ideally, to make the experience and controls on the login screen consistent with those in the user's GNOME desktop session. The first question we needed to answer was: how does the user enable accessibility features? So, first, we took a look at how this works in the user's desktop session.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:41:15 GMT.
Web Accessibility for Older Users: A Literature Review
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-age-literature-20080514/
This document provides a review and analysis of guidelines and articles relating to the needs of older people with Web accessibility needs due to ageing, and compares these with the needs of people with disabilities as already addressed in WAI guidelines. The focus is particularly on Europe but applies internationally as well. This review is being undertaken in order to inform the development of educational materials which can better promote the needs of people who have accessibility needs due to ageing, and potential development of profiles and/or extensions on WAI guidelines.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:39:56 GMT.
Promise of technology is for everybody
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/commentary/commentaryother.asp?file=maycommenta...
On May 17, in 1865, the first International Telegraph Convention was signed. People across continents marvelled at the technology that connected them, allowing them to "write in distance," as they called telegraphy. Imagine what they would think if they could see us today, writing not a few words, but unlimited pages of text, "in distance." Connected as never before to colleagues, family, and friends, Information and Communication Technology improves how we live and work in countless ways. Technology has become so integral to nearly everything we do that it is simply everywhere, making our lives easier, more efficient, and more meaningful. All of us working to harness the power of ICT have a responsibility to ensure that its promise is for everybody, not just a select few. That is why the theme of today's World Telecommunication and Information Society Day is Connecting Persons with Disabilities: ICT Opportunities for All. Today the United Nations reminds people in every country that the need to write in distance, to communicate across communities and national borders and to access information is universal. Yet, the technology that makes that communication possible is too often not accessible to those with disabilities. That means the benefits of ICT are not equally shared.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:38:12 GMT.
Project GOALS
NCDAE in association with WebAIM is pleased to announce our Poject: Project GOALS. The GOALS project (Gaining Online Accessible Learning through Self-Study) centers on the development, evaluation, and dissemination of materials and processes in web accessibility that institutions of education and accrediting bodies can use in their efforts to ensure that online content is accessible to all users.
Contributed on Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:30:43 GMT.
Oregon Pioneers Alternative Format Ballot for Disabled
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/05/prweb936874.htm
OakTree Digital has announced the delivery of an Alternative Format Ballot product and process to the Oregon Secretary of State's office (SOS). The Alternative Format Ballot (AFB) is designed to work alongside Oregon's vote by mail process to enable individuals with disabilities, including non-visual accessibility for the blind and visually impaired to vote in much the same manner as all Oregon Voters: independently and privately from home, or another place of the voters' choosing. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 included provisions to ensure that voters with disabilities are provided the opportunity to vote privately and independently and have equal access to the process. The SOS office contracted with OakTree Digital to deliver a conversion application to convert election data from the Oregon Centralized Voter Registration (OCVR) system to W3C compliant HTML coding. OakTree's AFB leverages W3C Accessibility Guidelines for HTML coding, a computer (with any required assistive technology, necessary for accessibility), a web browser and a printer to allow a person with a disability to access and mark a ballot, print a ballot and verify the ballot. A voter who is blind will be able to verify the printed ballot is marked correctly by using a scanner and screen reader. The AFB can, upon request, be sent directly to the voter who has the necessary technology at home to be able to complete the ballot.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:52:49 GMT.
Councils Urged To Mix Technical Web Tests With User Tests
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=184
From the E-Access Bulletin: Local councils should carry out both technical accessibility testing and user testing of their websites to minimise exclusion of people with disabilities, and not just take one or other approach, a new report from the local government Society of IT Management (Socitm) finds. The report, a special supplement to Socitm's annual 'Better connected' review of all UK council websites, examines the reasons behind an alarming downward trend in accessibility in 2008. The accessibility of UK local council websites fell by almost 50 per cent since last year, with just 37 out of the UK's 468 council websites achieved the most basic technical standard of accessibility in 2008 - level 'A' of the World Wide Web consortium's web content accessibility guidelines (see E-Access Bulletin issue 99, March 2008 for further reporting on the Socitm findings). The society's new supplement says that to avoid future problems councils should combine technical accessibility testing with user testing. The former is defined as measurable points that allow access; the latter as evaluation of actual attempts to perform tasks on a website.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:49:56 GMT.
Microsoft, DAISY Make Reading Easier for People With Print Disabilities
http://newsblaze.com/story/2008050700030900001.pnw/newsblaze/HIGHTECH/High-Tech.html
Microsoft Corp. today joined with industry and advocacy group leaders worldwide to launch new software that will make it easier for anyone to create documents and content that will be accessible for blind and print-disabled individuals. The new "Save as DAISY XML" add-in, designed for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP, will allow users to save Open XML-based text files into DAISY XML, the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY Standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content. The "Save as DAISY XML" add-in was created through an open source project with Microsoft, Sonata Software Ltd. and the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium and can be downloaded by Microsoft Office Word users for free.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:47:42 GMT.
Successful House Hearing on Telephone and Television Accessibility
http://jfactivist.typepad.com/jfactivist/2008/05/successful-hous.html
On May 1, 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet held a lively hearing on "Enhancing Access to Broadband Technology and Services for Persons with Disabilities." Consumer witnesses' statements offered support for the legislative agenda of the Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), now numbering nearly 200 national, regional and local members. COAT's witnesses discussed the importance of requiring accessibility of communications that involve the Internet, addressing the need for legislation to ensure no one is left behind in the analog dust as 21st century communications expand digitally. One witness, Jamaal Anderson -- defensive end and 2007 first round draft pick of the NFL Atlanta Falcons and whose father is a leading deaf educator and former board member of Gallaudet University - testified from the point of view of family members. He emphasized how communicating with a person who is deaf via "real time text phone calls," previously through TTYs (text telephones), should be a required "voice equivalent" now that so much text moves through the Internet. Mr. Anderson also spoke of the pressing need for Universal Service Funds to be set aside for deaf-blind people to have phone equipment. These specialized Braille phones are a costly barrier to making a phone call for the 70,000 Americans who are deaf-blind.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:46:01 GMT.
iPhone Accessibility: But Not For Me
I spent last weekend with friends who use their matching iPhones to great effect. Though new in town, they were able to zoom in on (well, close) to my house with Google street view, and find a store we wanted to visit before I could complete my call to directory assistance. They also kept up with emails from home, and conducted searches just because they could, all while holding up their end of the conversation. Tap, tap, tap. I'm past the angry part. No iPhone for me. OK. I don't really feel the need for a Google IV on a constant basis, but every once in awhile, it would be nice, as would a quick look at my email account while bouncing along on the #7 bus, or a recipe onscreen as I work in the kitchen. OK, I want one. So sue me. But I have to say that this post from Disability Nation about ATT's plan to make iPhone accessible to users who are deaf, really did get my goat. AT&T (and other cell carriers, I assume) offers a data-only plan for users who are deaf or hearing impaired of its other phones. You get unlimited text-based features, and aren't charged for a voice plan you can't use. Right on! It should also be pointed out that cell carriers often subsidize the cost of Mobile Speak, an audio interface for compatible phone. That subsidy is needed by many, because Mobile Speak, low-volume product that it is, costs $300, otherwise.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:43:19 GMT.
The World Is Changing Part 03- E-Learning and Web Accessibility: A Primer
http://edtechguy.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/the-world-is-changing-part-03-e-learni...
With the mainstreaming of the Internet within curriculum there is a growing interest in Web Accessibility. Web accessibility means that people with various disabilities can use the web. (Education and Outreach Working Group, 2005) Back when the Internet was new there were no web browsers, everything was text, and only geeks could access information. Mosaic began a revolution; it was the first web browser that could support graphics. With that one invention the world saw the Internet explode in popularity in the 90's. No longer did individuals need to read boring black and white text files. Early pioneers in online education did not have to worry about web accessibility; it simply was not an option. As the Internet becomes more and more ubiquitous in our society and education, we must start to look at not just how to make it work, but how to make it work more efficiently and for all learners. While this is still relatively new, curriculum designers and educational institutions must start to look at how to make e-learning more accessibly to all. It has been my experience that most of the general discussion and exposure to web accessibility focus on individuals with visual impairments. This assumption was incorrect. Web Accessibility is for anyone who has a learning disability.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:41:25 GMT.
Blackboard (in)accessibility
Please take a moment to read Blackboard Inc.'s page on Accessibility. It ends on this note: "Our commitment to accessibility is reflected in our regular engagement in an accessibility discussion group with a consortium of universities and our mandate that all new development ensure accessibility and standards compliance." A document named the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), published in 1999 by the World Wide Web Consortium (or W3C, the body that defines html and related languages) details the industry best practices for the creation of web pages accessible to users with disabilities. Following the WCAG results in web sites that are more usable by users with disabilities and non-disabled users alike. With those brief definitions out of the way, lets critically examine Blackboard Inc.'s self professed commitment. To start with, the HTML of their accessibility page is invalid. At the time of writing, the W3C's validator showed 65 errors.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:39:40 GMT.
Blindness and Responsibility
http://epg29.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/blindness-responsibility/
I was reading the healthcare supplement in today's Guardian which was about looking after one's eyes when I came across some articles about the impact of blindness/visual impairment on employment prospects. Apparently two thirds of people with severe visual impairments are unemployed and the same number again have no formal qualifications, and this is in a country (the UK) with quite robust disability legislation. I must admit I was a little shocked at those figures. Why should I be shocked? Well, I work as Assistive Technology Advisor in NUI Maynooth, one of seven Irish universities and one that is rapidly establishing a reputation for excellence in accommodating learners with disabilities. On Tuesday, I was in UCC, my alma mater, to attend a meeting of people in the sector involved in the production and distribution of material in alternative formats. Alternative format (AF), as you may know, involves ensuring that text is easily available and accessible to those who have difficulty with printed material. AF may include Braille, audio or PDF, but the consensus is that material in simple text or HTML gives users the most flexibility.
Contributed on Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:38:04 GMT.
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