Accessibility in the News
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Target lawsuit settled
http://www.webaim.org/blog/target-lawsuit-settled/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: Target and the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) have settled the lawsuit regarding accessibility of the Target.com web site. While this is a great victory for the NFB and the claimants, I think the majority of the accessibility community was hoping for some long-awaited case law that might better define the relationship of the Internet and the Americans with Disabilities Act. While there have been many lawsuits claiming discrimination under the ADA because of inaccessible web sites, there is virtually no case law that clarifies that the ADA applies to web sites. This settlement clearly provides no additional insight into this matter. Instead of corporations receiving clarification that they are ALL legally obligated to make their web sites accessible, they can now take comfort in the fact that if they aren't big/rich enough for NFB or others to engage in a complicated and expensive lawsuit, that they can maintain the status quo of, at best, marginal accessibility.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:53:33 GMT.
Download podcasts and transcripts from Accessibility 2.0
http://laura.popokatea.co.uk/2008/08/22/download-podcasts-and-transcripts-from-a...
Accessibility 2.0 was a practical conference focusing on web accessibility in a Web 2.0 world, organised by Abilitynet held back in April. Podcasts, transcripts and presentations from the event are now available for download at Podcasts and transcripts : Accessibility 2.0.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:52:18 GMT.
Is Blizzard Committed to Disabled Gamers?
http://dwarfpriest.com/2008/09/03/is-blizzard-committed-to-disabled-gamers/
"Game accessibility" is one of those buzz word phrases that has been thrown around a lot in gaming communities, but the term "accessibility" as it applies to gaming has multiple meanings. We often hear about how large scale MMOs (like World of Warcraft) are increasing the accessibility of their games by catering to a larger and larger casual player base. That is not the kind of game accessibility that I want to talk about here today. I want to talk about "accessibility" in the more common, real world sense of the word: removing the barriers preventing gamers with disabilities from taking part in games. How many video game players with disabilities are out there? This is a field of research has been largely passed by. Even finding basic statistics about gamers with disabilities proves disheartening. How many World of Warcraft players have a disability? How many MMO players? How many serious gamers? How many PC gamers? No one really knows. Estimates I've seen about gamers with disabilities range from 5% to 20%; they vary greatly due to differences in definitions of what makes a gamer with a disability and what makes a person a gamer. Does playing simple flash games make you a gamer? Internet Scrabble? Are you a disabled player if you have a learning disorder? Corrective lenses? Carpal tunnel? The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) estimates 9% of the gaming population has a disability (1 in every 11 people).
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:51:52 GMT.
Target Sued $6M Over Web Site Developed By Amazon
http://www.webguild.org/2008/09/target-sued-over-website-developed-by-amazon.php
As part of an estimated $6M settlement of a lawsuit against Target by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), Amazon will be required to make the Web more accessible. According to the Financial Times, Amazon Enterprise Solutions which provides Web technology to the sites of Target, Marks and Spencer, Mothercare, Lacoste, and Timex, will be required "to ensure 'full and equal' access for people who are blind both to its own site, and to those of the merchants it supports". The Target suit claims that alternate text and accessible image maps are missing which screen readers depend on to read through the page content and vocalize it to the user; and, the website requires the use of a mouse to complete certain functions. The NFB who, in part, filed the suit has also filed and won similar cases against America Online, Priceline.com, and Ramada.com. Cynthia Waddell, of the International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, noted that the court had also ruled in the case that the state's Ralph Civil Rights Act requires all websites, not just those of groups with a physical presence such as a retailer, to provide equal access to disabled people. "I don't think this is on the radar of most businesses yet."
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:50:00 GMT.
Target's $6m web accessibility payout is a warning to all US sites, says lawyer
http://www.out-law.com/page-9389
Target will pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the retail giant's website of breaking US anti-discrimination laws. Individuals who are blind in California can claim up to $7,000 each if they tried to use Target.com and encountered barriers. The class action, which was led by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), ended on Wednesday without any admission of wrongdoing by Target. According to the settlement agreement filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, "there is no admission or concession by Target . . . that Target.com is in any way inaccessible". The NFB and a student who is blind, Bruce Sexton, Jr, sued Target in 2006, arguing that Target.com was designed in a way that was not compatible with the assistive technology used by people who are blind. For example, alt-text was missing from images, preventing screen-reading software from describing the images to visually-impaired users; and purchases could not be completed without a mouse because keyboard controls did not work. The application of US anti-discrimination laws to website accessibility has been a subject of controversy and confusion for many years. The litigation over Target.com became the highest-profile test of those laws.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:48:14 GMT.
Target will make Web site accessible to blind
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/BAG212JF6N.DTL
The Target retail chain will make its Web site accessible to those who are blind and pay $6 million to Californians who are visually impaired who have tried unsuccessfully to use the site, under a settlement announced Wednesday. The nationwide settlement, filed with a federal judge in San Francisco, is intended as a model for the retail industry, said a lawyer for the National Federation of the Blind, which sued Target in 2006. "We hope that what Target does can be used as an example for other retailers," said attorney Julia Pinover of Disability Rights Advocates. "It can demystify how to become accessible." The company must now equip its Web site with an embedded code that can be read by software to provide a vocal description of the page, and links that allow a person who is blind to navigate the screen with a keyboard instead of a mouse. The improvements are supposed to be completed early next year and will be monitored by the National Federation of the Blind for three years.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:47:21 GMT.
Finding, Researching and Downloading Books, Dictionaries and Encyclopedias on the Net
http://www.fredshead.info/2006/12/finding-researching-and-downloading.html
The Fred's Head Database contains tips, techniques, tutorials, in-depth articles, and resources for and by blind or visually impaired people. Fred's Head is offered by the American Printing House for the Blind. As technology advances, we're seeing more and more libraries offering digital downloads of their catalogs. Online libraries of material have become more popular as sighted folks discover iPods and electronic book readers and search engines now offer the ability to search printed texts and even download electronic versions of the texts. Online dictionaries and encyclopedias are making it possible for people who are blind or visually impaired to independently search for reference material. As a result, I am going to combine several Fred's Head records into one large resource document that will help you find and download books from a variety of search engines and websites. I encourage you to visit the Fred's Head Database or the Fred's Head Companion blog and search for the word "book" to see other resources. I will also reference many online dictionaries and encyclopedias that are free and accessible.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:46:38 GMT.
Time to name and shame websites
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/time-to-name-and-shame-w...
Government publishers who did not provide material in accessible formats on websites would be named and shamed, Discrimination Commissioner Graeme Innes said yesterday. He called for government departments and agencies to improve their adherence to government standards and legislation which required them to provide equal access to public information for people with disabilities. 'Of all organisations, government departments and agencies know they should be making documents and information accessible to everyone.' He had been disturbed by repeated instances of important information published by government with little consideration of accessibility for people with disabilities. Important reports and papers, all initially inaccessible to many people, had been published recently. He cited the green paper on carbon emissions trading and the GroceryWatch website.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:44:06 GMT.
Digital Discrimination: Ten years after Section 508, libraries still fall short of addressing disabilities online
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6585927.html
In recent years, the Internet has become a digital commons of commerce and education. However, accessibility standards have often been overlooked online, and the digital equivalents to curb-cuts and other physical accommodations have only rarely been implemented to serve those with print disabilities. (A print disability can be a learning disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability. Individuals diagnosed with a print disability cannot access print in the standard way). Most librarians are aware of disability legislation such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). But while this piece of legislation, a civil rights law, has gone far to prohibit discrimination against people with disabilities, the extent of web use today had not yet been considered when the ADA was enacted nearly 20 years ago. As such, the ADA does not specifically address the increasingly important sphere of information technology. The ADA requires that places of public accommodation and the services they provide be accessible, but there's no specific reference to the Internet as a place of public accommodation and service for individuals with disabilities. This is where Section 508 of the U.S. Code comes in, and a recent study of how well libraries adhere to the standards it sets shows that they are not yet fully in compliance.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:43:30 GMT.
130. Air
http://boagworld.com/podcast/130/
On this week's show; Paul talks about better understanding users with disabilities. We have a tip from Jeremy about problem solving and Jonathan Snook introduces us to Adobe Air.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:42:43 GMT.
Web Accessibility is a Global Concern
http://anikto.com/wordpress/?p=35
It's sometimes easy to fall into a myopic vision, limiting one's understanding of the Web to a particular home country. What should be noted is that web accessibility is a global concern for all users. Take the Australian website GROCERYchoice, which claims to easily provide the cheapest supermarket chain in a given area. According to a story at PropellerGlobal, an official complaint has been lodged against the Australian Federal Government. Les Kerr of Brisbane, who suffers from vision and mobility impairments, feels that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has violated the Disability Discrimination Act by providing an inaccessible service to consumers: "As most disabled people are on pensions and money is always an issue, this website had the potential to be of great assistance to us if it had been designed correctly... It appears that the site was put together in a hurry with little thought of allowing disabled people access and most certainly was not tested by disabled people before it came online as any good website should be." Mr. Kerr identified 18 checkpoints of the WCAG 1.0 priority guidelines that failed assessment. John Allsop of Web Directions South discovered many other problems with the site, including failure to use ALT textual equivalents, table-based layouts, poorly formed HTML, and failure to use explicitly labeled form controls.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:42:21 GMT.
disABILITY: The Internet not accessible to all
http://www.thedailystar.com/lifestyles/local_story_222041508.html
Why not take some time to consider how you can help contribute to making the World Wide Web more accessible for everyone. Whether you host your own website, or you simply understand the value of the Internet, you may be able to help improve its universal usability. There are many websites that are designed and edited incorrectly, thus becoming inaccessible for people with disabilities. It's not necessarily something every Web developer wants to take time for, but that doesn't stop it from being a very critical issue. Blindness, color blindness, motor impairments, deafness, epilepsy, dyslexia and learning disabilities are just some of the most common handicapping situations, in terms of surfing the 'Net. Imagine pointing and clicking your mouse on a very small point on the screen while your hands were shaking. Would you be able to successfully do that? What would you do when you got to youtube.com and were deaf or hard of hearing? Would you feel comfortable, if you were prone to seizures, visiting a site with flashing elements on the screen, especially if you couldn't turn them off?
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:40:52 GMT.
Serious Games As A Vehicle For Accessibility Advocacy
http://elianealhadeff.blogspot.com/2008/08/serious-games-as-vehicle-for.html
A Confession: Reviewing my almost 600 posts, published over the last two years, I have now realized they share an unforgivable flaw: none of them was dedicated to accessibility. Therefore, FUTURE-MAKING SERIOUS GAMES Blog has not delivered on its promise of exploring how games can be used for building a better future. The ATARI generation has witnessed the "evolution" of consoles, games, and controls -- infinite options that have made electronic games increasingly attractive and complex since their inception. This evolution may have attracted a larger audience but has also become an excluding factor, chasing away players with special needs. Accessible game interfaces often result in reaching many more gamers which is a key issue for both mainstream and serious games. With Serious Games gaining notoriety year after year and extending videogames reach to all population segments as an important cultural and quality of life resource, they have also the potential to become a vehicle for inclusion and accessibility advocacy. One example would be Educational Serious Games: to be used in public schools, they would have to be accessible.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:40:05 GMT.
Quick Tips for Accessible Web Design
http://pacificdesigners.com/blog/?p=31
Web users with disabilities of all ages are becoming increasingly savvy and adept at using the Internet. It is a moral responsibility to make an effort to ensure the web is accessible to everyone and it does not discriminate against visitors who are disabled. Accessibility is simply web design that allows everyone to access your website.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:39:15 GMT.
Poor accessibility equals poor SEO
http://www.nmk.co.uk/articles/1000
The same characteristics and applications which make sites easier to use, also appeal to search engine spiders. This means that optimised sites are more likely to be ranked higher on search engine results pages. In the UK alone, there are currently around eight-and-a-half million Internet users with disabilities, three and a half million of which are unable to use a keyboard. This is a huge online market and companies failing to make their sites easily accessible and simple to interact with will be missing out.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:38:24 GMT.
Grocery website 'discriminates'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24141227-12377,00.html
A Brisbane man with disabilities has lodged an official complaint against the Federal Government's new grocery price watch website, claiming the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act. Les Kerr, 53, of the suburb of Wooloowin, has vision and mobility impairments and says the GROCERYchoice website is inaccessible. His complaint is about the difficulty in using the website. "I have lodged a formal Disability Discrimination complaint against the Federal Government's new GROCERYchoice website, www.grocerychoice.gov.au," he said. "This website has been poorly designed for disabled accessibility and is in direct breach of the Federal Government's own Disability Discrimination Act." "That website should be a great benefit to people like me," he told AAP.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:37:28 GMT.
Ignoring website accessibility is not just wrong - it is bad for business
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/ignoring-website-accessibility-is-...
If someone told you that your shop or business property was so badly designed that 10pc of your customers had great difficulty finding your products or services, would you consider a better layout or just watch them leave in frustration? Nowadays, your website is just as much a port of call for the average customer as your physical premises. If you have not considered accessibility as part of its design, then you are excluding the 8.3pc of the Irish population with a disability of some kind, be it physical, visual or cognitive. Simply put, this amounts to an estimated 3.3bn euros in spending power that is out of your reach. The spending power of the 10 million-plus disabled community in the UK was estimated to have been worth 50bn pounds sterling in 2005. Having a website that is accessibility compliant is not only about opening up your business to those with disabilities, it can also add value to your business, says Paul Walsh, founder and CEO of Segala.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:36:30 GMT.
An accessible "Starkers" Wordpress theme
http://www.alstevens.co.uk/starkers-accessibility-wordpress-idea/
When I came to putting together this blog I was really happy to find the Starkers Wordpress Theme. What the Starkers theme does is strip out all css, and implement a universal reset like this one. It also cleans up the code generated with the result being clean, semantic markup which makes the website more accessible, and more visible by multiple devices. This is a great starting point from any Web Designer/Developer point of view since it gives us the clean starting point we need to style up the website. After all it never is easy modifying other peoples css. Yesterday we went to the Shaw Trust in Wales to get our company website audited from an accessibility point of view. The Shaw Trust is a national charity that provides training and work opportunities for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market due to disability, ill health or other social circumstances. They offer a Web Accessibility Accreditation service to businesses which is designed to be the most comprehensive service available and endorsed by GAWDS (The Guild of Accessible Web Designers), it combines a full technical audit with rigorous disability user testing. Every member of the testing team is an experienced assistive technology user and understands the frustrations of not being able to access websites that don't consider the needs of those with disabilities.
Contributed on Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:35:27 GMT.
Website disabled access offers ' increased website traffic'
http://www.businessfeet.com/web-performance-news/items/website-disabled-access-o...
Businesses can increase website traffic by making web pages accessible to users with disabilities, according to an industry expert. Graham Charlton, e-consultancy researcher, suggests that search engine optimisation (SEO) is also likely to suffer as a result of not having a disability-friendly web design. He said: "If your website is not accessible to these people, you are missing out on a vast potential market. "There are about eight-and-a-half million disabled people in the UK and obviously they all have different levels of difficulties with reading etcetera, but three-and-a-half million people are unable to use a normal keyboard."
Contributed on Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:58:47 GMT.
ALERT: Individual Comments Needed on Proposed ADA Regulations-Action Needed Now
Below is a summary of revised ADA regulations which are in the NPRM public comment stage. There are directions for submitting public comments which are due 08/18/2008. The piece is well written, and these regulations basically have not been revised in 16 years. visit the article to read about some of the items to comment on
Contributed on Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:57:37 GMT.
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