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Articles on web accessibility, usability and compliance:

New guidelines boost Web Access
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced a new standard to make sites more accessible to people who are older or disabled. Version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) will apply to text, images, audio and video. It also covers web applications and is said to give developers more flexibility than the old guidelines. According to the consortium, WCAG 2.0 should also be easier to understand and use. The guidance is designed to address barriers encountered by people with visual, hearing, physical, cognitive and neurological disabilities and older people with access needs.
Post Visually impaired gamer sues Sony Online
It's not uncommon for gamers who are blind to feel invisible in addition to visually impaired. For instance, when gamer Brandon Cole wrote THQ a letter suggesting changes to make its Smackdown series of WWE wrestling games more accessible to those who are blind, he received a form letter back thanking him for his appreciation of the game's graphics. But now, one gamer who is visually impaired has gone beyond simply requesting accessibility features and is demanding them by way of a lawsuit. Last month, disabled gamer Alexander Stern filed suit against Sony, Sony Online Entertainment, and Sony Computer Entertainment America in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The suit alleges that Sony is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to implement features to make its games accessible to gamers who are visually impaired.
Blind Bargains: A preview of accessibility for the iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch
Yes, it is true, the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch both have a unique voice. If you've been on the fense on whether or not to check out these devices as potential gifts for friends or self, wait no longer... Please navigate to the provided link for an excellent video demonstrating the features of VoiceOver, the screenreader built in to the iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch.
Making the Web more accessible
What if you could not use a traditional keyboard or mouse interface? Have you ever been frustrated by the distorted letters a webpage uses to prove you are human, as if you could be a chicken typing the keys. Well movement is underway to help make the Web available to people with severe disabilities. Websites of today are like the entry way to a business, and there is a big market in making the business open to as many people as possible. Studies tell us that there are about sixty million of us with some kind of disability. The World Wide Web Consortium, which develops standards for the Web, has issued guidelines for designers to help them create more accessible sites. They include providing text labels for images, captions on audio and video and making keyboard shortcuts for people who can't use a mouse. "When the Web is designed well, it is so enabling. It allows people to contribute on an equal plane," said Shawn Lawton Henry, outreach coordinator at the consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative. While most federal government Web sites are required by law to be accessible, companies have no legal obligation to incorporate the features. But Jim Thatcher, who developed the IBM screen reader, which blind who are people use to read the Internet, said the threat of civil rights lawsuits has motivated some companies.
Suzanne Robitaille Launches New Book
Congrats to Suzanne Robitaille, of ablebody.com, for the launch of The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices. The book has five chapters: Vision, hearing, physical, cognitive and communications. It offers insight and illustrations on gadgets -- from screen readers to iPhone apps -- for people with physical or mental disabilities, as well as advice on how to find and pay for these technologies. Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, graciously provided the foreword. There will be a book signing and press event on February 9, 2010 at the New York Public Library in NYC. Stay tuned for details.
IBM Says Disability No Barrier To Career In Tech
IBM is pushing its equal opportunities policy but has been hit by anti-discrimination rules in the past. IBM has held an open day at its UK research lab to show young people that having disabilities shouldn't be a barrier to a future in the tech industry. Earlier this month, the tech giant hosted an event at its Hursley Lab, in Hampshire, for fourteen 16 to 22 year olds with a wide range of disabilities. The young people met with a group of IBM employees, also with disabilities, in an attempt to show that a career in technology is open to everyone. "Recruiting the next generation of talent is top of mind for many UK companies" said Jan Gower, executive sponsor, People with Disabilities Council, IBM UK. "At IBM, being inclusive is part of our DNA and we are passionate about ensuring our workforce reflects the market we serve. We are committed to being an employer of choice and to recruiting based on the best people, regardless of age, gender, ethnic background, sexual orientation, gender expression or disability". But despite its apparent commitment to being inclusive, IBM has run foul of anti-disability discrimination rules in the past. In 2000, IBM and a technology partner faced a damages claim for failing to make a website they developed for the Sydney Olympic and Paralympic games accessible to users who are disabled. In 2006, a US federal appeals court ruled in favor of IBM in an age discrimination suit over a change to pension plans.
Copyright: Towards a recognition of users' rights at WIPO?
Last month (December 14th-18th), the World Intellectual Property Organization's standing committee on copyright and related rights (SCCR) was considering, among other things, a proposal by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay for an international treaty aimed at increasing the accessibility of books for people who are blind. The SCCR eventually decided to initiate "focused, open-ended consultations" regarding exceptions and limitations for persons who are print-disabled, and will then consider whether it is ready to move forward with a treaty. Because the public interest objective of granting persons with reading disabilities access to books is so compelling, over 50 countries already have included specific limited exceptions in their legislation. In the European Union, the EU Copyright Directive (EUCD) allow Member States to implement limited exceptions "for the benefit of people with a disability, which are directly related to the disability and of a non-commercial nature, to the extent required by the specific disability" (article 5.3.b). At the moment, WIPO treaties only provide a general framework for exceptions to copyright - the so-called Three-Step test. For the first time, the proposed treaty would impose a specific exception to all signatories in order to favor the rights of the public. This issue needs to be addressed: millions of people who are visually impaired in Latin America, Asia and Africa suffer a chronic shortage of accessible reading material. In developing countries, less than 0.5% of published works are available in formats that reading persons with disabilities can read. Even in richer countries, 3% to 5% of published works are available in the main languages (English, Spanish, German, French) but the legal uncertainty of copyright laws severely restricts the import and export of these works across borders. As expert studies have shown, current international law limits the access to knowledge and forces very costly, unnecessary duplication of accessible formats.
Open Content Textbooks Available to All Without Proof of Disability
U. S. Department of Education Grants Funding to Bookshare to Convert OpenContent Textbooks to Accessible Formats I have been doing a lot of training this past fall on Accessible Instructional Materials and copyright issues. When I share about the content via NIMAS files being available to those who qualify, I see enthusiasm fade. Why? Many special education teachers think at first that the students they have who have reading and processing disabilities or are LD will qualify for NIMAS files under AIM initiatives. When they realize that you can only freely access these files if you are: 1.) Blind/visually impaired 2.) orthopedically impaired to where you can't hold a book or turn pages, or 3.) diagnosed by a medical doctor with an organic brain dysfunction, they are disappointed. Now, there has been a new wrinkle to this issue. An open content math/science textbook has been designed and adopted in California that meets their content standards. This new open content textbook is available to any student for free, regardless of disability identification or eligibility status. The files can be downloaded at Bookshare. This means that for the first time, there is a textbook that anyone can download for free to access content in alternate print formats.
Mandatory vs. Permissive Copyright Exceptions and Limitations
In a recent post I pointed to the statement of the United States at the WIPO meeting considering an proposed international treaty governing copyright in works for persons who are blind, visually impaired or have other disabilities. Earlier in the Fall, the US Copyright Office issued a Notice of Inquiry and Request for Comments on the Topic of Facilitating Access to Copyrighted Works for the Blind or Other Persons With Disabilities, 74 Fed. Reg. 52507 (Oct. 13, 2009), that is, regarding the proposed treaty. The comment submitted by the MPAA, RIAA, NMPA, AAP, and IFTA is worth noting in some detail, both for how it anticipates that treaty discussions regarding works for those who are visually-impaired mark the territory for future discussions regarding any and all "exceptions and limitations" to the copyright owner's exclusive rights, and for how it expresses an excruciatingly modest role for "exceptions and limitations" of any kind. All in all, the document expresses a kind of "all is well" sensibility that reminds me of nothing so much as the attitude expressed by the American steel industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And how are those integrated steel mills doing today? And those high wage jobs secured by powerful unions? For more on steel itself, take a look at the work of Clayton Christensen (writing about capital) and John Hoerr (writing about labor).
Peoples Disability rights
How long it will be before web designers fully commit themselves to designing their websites for use by those who are disabled? In a report carried out by the Center for Human Computer Interaction Design, at City University, London, for the Disability Rights Commission of the UK. It found that over 81% of websites fail to satisfy the basic Web Accessibility Initiative category. Only a mere 19% of websites complied with even the lowest priority checkpoints for accessibility.
President's Group Breakfast briefing on accessible ICT
Accessible ICT was brought to life by presentations from people with disabilities including John Spence OBE, who outlined the impact of inaccessible IT, particularly on productivity and customer choice. The events included demonstrations of the latest assistive technology provided by EFD gold member Microlink. Barclays are one of the latest organisations to proactively support BTAT while learning more about the barriers to technology in the workplace through consultation with employees who are disabled. A framework will be launched in 2010 to help EFD members to reposition accessible ICT as a business driver, together with EFD's ICT Accessibility Maturity Model, the world's first tool for measuring and improving accessibility performance in business. In 2010 Barclays, along with other BTAT members including BBC, GlaxoSmithKline and PricewaterhouseCoopers, will be developing global guidelines for the procurement of accessible ICT. This work will be developed with expert guidance from influential members in the ICT sector, led by BT, Microsoft and Oracle.
How Do Blind People Surf the Net?
If you've never seen (and heard!) a person who is blind using a talking computer, it must be hard to imagine how we manage a Web site without seeing the screen. Or without using a mouse. How do we find the buttons we need? What does a voice synthesizer say when it comes across a link? A picture? Thanks to the wonderful geeks at the Trace Research and Development Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison, now you have an easy way to find out! They've put together a short video demonstrating how screen readers help those of us who are blind. The narrator of the video has been blind since birth and works at Trace, a center known as a pioneer in technology and disability. I've seen (okay, heard) other screen-reader demonstration videos before, but this is my favorite. It's so well-organized that you learn a lot in a very short time, and narrator Neal Ewers has such a pleasant voice that he makes the demonstration downright entertaining!
Web accessibility and the law in the UK
There has been widespread speculation about the new legislation that is being introduced, which will ensure that websites are accessible to users with disabilities. Trenton Moss, Managing Director of Webcredible, a web accessibility and usability consultant, says, 'No seems to know what these new law require you to do. Try to find specific information about the requirements on the Internet and chances are you'll come up empty handed.' He has a point. The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission), two of the most renowned advocates for creating accessible websites, have no specific information about the laws and what websites specifically need to do in order to meet the legal requirements.
Web Accessibility WCAG 2.0
Most web accessibility guidelines already go hand-in-hand with website development practices. In this article, we'll explore 10 quick and easy ways to improve your site's accessibility.
Administration sides with disability community on rights treaty
The Obama administration has announced its support for a proposed international treaty that would loosen copyright restrictions to make accessible reading material available across borders. The administration's position, announced at a subcommittee of the World Intellectual Properties Organization in Geneva, places it squarely in opposition to American business interests, including software makers, book publishers, and motion picture and music companies. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has argued that the plan could promote internet book piracy. Advocates for people who are blind or have other reading disabilities have promoted the proposed treaty, which would allow the cross-border sharing of digitized books without payment to the publisher. Many nations have copyright exemptions that allow nonprofit companies to market copyrighted works in accessible formats without permission, but not across international borders. The formats make it possible for tens of thousands of people with print disabilities to access books with the help of devices that convert text to speech or Braille.
Efforts under way to make Web more Accessible
Imagine not being able to use a mouse to open a Web browser or a keyboard to type an e-mail. What if you couldn't distinguish colors on a computer screen or type the distorted letters in order to buy concert tickets or enroll in a class? Despite technological advances aimed at making the Internet easy to use, the World Wide Web is not wide open for many people. But as the number of people with disabilities grows and more of everything is done online, companies are finding it makes good business sense to make their sites more accessible and are hiring consultants and training programmers to make it happen. "Web sites are nowadays the virtual front door of a business. If you can't get in, you can't get your business done and they just lost a customer," said Dmitri Belser, the executive director of the Center for Accessible Technology in Berkeley, which has worked with Intel Corp., Gap Inc. and others.
Flat World Knowledge Partners with Bookshare to Make Free College Textbooks Accessible to People with Print Disabilities
This open content digital textbook publishing agreement provides college textbooks in DAISY and BRF accessible formats for free to students who are blind, have low vision, a physical disability or a severe learning disability that affects reading. This first-of-its kind partnership will reduce costs and resources for postsecondary institutions and significantly improve timely access for all students who need accessible text to do well in their college courses.
Web accessibility no longer an afterthought
Yahoo's Victor Tsaran knows how much time Web designers spend agonizing over color and font-width choices when laying out an application. So when he started Yahoo's accessibility push two years ago, he had a tough time arousing sympathy for engineers grousing about how much extra time was needed to create accessibility features. Fortunately for Tsaran, Yahoo's accessibility manager, he's running into that problem less and less. Web designers are starting to take accessibility as seriously as button placement or heading layout when they develop their products, improving the Web experience not only for people like Tsaran--who lost his sight at the age of five--but for Web users in general. "We're seeing a lot more awareness and involvement in Web accessibility than we did a few years ago, particularly among big companies," said Judy Brewer, director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium. "It's becoming a solid business expectation that Web sites need to meet the needs of all users." At the two biggest Internet companies in the world, accessibility is seen as an increasingly important part of what they do. Yahoo requires every new hire to receive accessibility training from Tsaran and Alan Brightman, senior policy director of special communities. And it books engineering teams for tours of their Accessibility Lab.
Accessibility: How Many Disabled Web Users Are There?
Ecommerce merchants spend a lot of time thinking about statistics. They try to gauge who is visiting their website, what products consumers are most interested in, and how consumers are finding those products. Without knowing about their audience, merchants have a difficult time marketing their site and products. The physical disabilities of a merchant's visitors are a factor that he or she should consider. I often hear business owners claim that their sites aren't used by people with disabilities, so they don't need to pay attention to web accessibility. But there's no basis for such claims because the merchant can't possibly know this information. The tracked profile of a user with a disability, via a typical analytics package, is identical to anybody else using that browser. General statistics about disabilities, however, are extensive. Ecommerce merchants would be well-served to consider these statistics as they work to better understand their audience of potential customers.
HTML5: Techniques for the provision of text alternatives
The aim of this draft is to provide best practice guidance on providing text alternatives for authors of HTML documents. Conformance requirements will be based on: WCAG 2.0, Guideline 1.1. Text Alternatives and WAI CG Consensus Resolutions on Text alternatives in HTML 5. Status: This document is for review by the HTML and Protocols and Formats working groups and is subject to change without notice. This document has no formal standing within W3C. The basis of the current content is from sections 4.8.2.1.1 to 4.8.2.1.11 of the HTML5 specification and the text produced for Action 54 in the HTML issue tracker.
IBM Accessibility Internet Browser for Multimedia (aiBrowser)
The IBM Accessibility Internet Browser for Multimedia (aiBrowser) is an Internet browser for users who are visually impaired that provides multimedia control features and alternative user interfaces with external metadata.
US Veterans Helped in Virtual World
As we remember the sacrifices of veterans today, the virtual world of Second Life is making strides to assist military amputees. One of the groups spearheading the effort is Virtual Ability Inc; a group in Second Life that helps enable people with a wide range of disabilities by providing a supporting environment for them to enter and thrive in online virtual worlds. The organization is a non-profit corporation based in Colorado, USA. Virtual Ability's President Alice Krueger (known in Second Life as Gentle Heron) was able to take some time out of her schedule to discuss the program with me in her virtual office. The project is named the Amputee Virtual Environment Support Space (AVESS). It has the overarching goal to provide peer support and enhance the overall quality of life for military amputees. Through online peer support activities, the hope is for individuals to improve their physical and mental wellness and increase recovery timeframes. The effort is being funded by the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) of the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC).
RIAA, MPAA and US Chamber of Commerce declare war on blind and disabled people
Earlier this week, I told you about an open letter for writers in support of a treaty that would ensure that people who are blind or disabled all over the world would have legal protection when they converted books and other written matter to accessible format. You'd think this would be a slam-dunk at the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization. Who could oppose non-profit groups helping people who are disabled get access to written work? Well, The US Chamber of Commerce, the MPAA and the RIAA, that's who. All three organizations have urged the US trade delegation to oppose the treaty, because they fear it might set a precedent that users have rights to copyrighted works.
Activision shuns disabled users
It might come as a surprise to many of you that the proportion of people in our lovely country who have some form of disability stands at 20 percent. Disabilities may be many and varied, but that's still a huge chunk of the population. I've been disabled for about 12 years and through my membership of certain disabled groups, I have made quite a few friends with disabilities. I'm also a qualified Disabled Access Auditor, administering the Disability Discrimination Act, but that's another story. Anyway, the vast majority of people with disabilities cherish some form of entertainment with a certain passion. From personal experience, I'd say the two most common are music and video gaming. The reason most are passionate, is simply due to the pure escapism of both mediums. I can personally attest to this: when I've got back pain which keeps me awake into the wee hours, World of Warcraft is a great medicine for taking your mind off things. If you look hard enough, you can even find one or two disabled gaming groups about. But I wonder, why the need for our own groups? Many disabilities only have a physical element and one common thread in groups is sharing ideas on custom controllers and interfacing them, etc. In a nutshell, I want to know how to be able to play THAT game, the one I really, really want to, but can't in it's standard trim.
AbilityNet Using Eye Tracking Technology to Aid the Disabled
New progress often brings new limitations, and when it comes to those who are disabled, web technology is no exception. When cutting edge devices and software are introduced into consumer markets, they're often released without much forethought in the way of universal accessibility, even if their goal might be to enable more people to access the world wide web for example. Computers and the Internet have created new freedoms for people, helping them to work more efficiently and to better communicate. But for many individuals with varying degrees of disability, the internet and computers in general can offer an entirely new slew of obstacles, physical and otherwise.
Windows 7 Is Designed For Accessibility
Accessibility. If you don't know what the word means, then consider yourself one lucky person. But if you or someone you love has a disability that makes using a computer difficult, finding software that enables you to be productive on a PC is a rare gift. Microsoft has been helping organizations for years adapt technology to help the disabled public. And with Windows 7, they have truly integrated accessibility features into the new OS so you can personalize and use your PC the way it was meant to be. Today and tomorrow, we'll give you an overview of those features.
'My Football Game' Helps Disabled Gamers Go Deep
It was a roller-coaster ride that sparked Chuck Bergen's interest in helping kids with disabilities. Many years ago Bergen and his family attended a theme park in Pennsylvania and stood on line for a roller coaster. The ride was accessible, in the sense that people who used wheelchairs could transfer from their chair to the coaster car on a separate platform, which seemed like a reasonable arrangement to Bergen until the ride operator cried out: "Will ANYONE give up their seat so the disabled kid can ride?" Besides the shear embarrassment Bergen says he felt for the young girl in a wheelchair, he was even more shocked at how many people refused to give up their seat so the girl could ride with her companion, who happened to be her mother. "It pretty much hit me that a virtual reality roller coaster ride for special-needs individuals would be a nice alternative to the awkward situations some theme parks put people through," Bergen says. A software developer by trade, Bergen knew he had a unique opportunity in front of him. He founded VTree in 1999 and began creating virtual reality education software such as I-CE-ME, which packages entertainment with education, from soccer and volleyball games to memory and word-matching challenges, to help kids with special needs both learn and play.
Amazon announces plans to modify Kindle
Amazon.com Inc. has announced that it will add two features to the Kindle that are intended to make the e-book reader more accessible to users who are blind or have limited vision. The company has come under fire from disability advocacy groups for allowing publishers to opt out of a read-aloud feature on the device that converts text to robotic speech. They say the decision will unfairly limit access for the estimated 15 million Americans who have difficulty reading printed material, including people with limited vision; dyslexia; learning or processing issues; seniors; people with spinal cord injuries, and people who have had strokes.
Amazon Kindle Should be Fully Accessible to the Blind by Summer 2010
If you were wondering what the most tweeted thing amongst the blind community was yesterday, it would have to be that Amazon plans to be releasing a kindle that is accessible to those who are blind by summer of next year. According to the press release, Amazon is working on adding TTS to their menu systems so that those of us who can't read print can use the Kindle. It looks like with a little prodding, a mainstream company can see that the disabled community is worth marketing to. When I read about this, I had mixed feelings. On the one hand I was ecstatic because the Kindle would be another product that I could purchase that would be accessible to me without me adding any software to it. I was also excited because Amazon heard the message from the blind community and they listened. On the other hand, I then remembered the issue with the Author's Guild. As it stands right now publishers can turn off the TTS feature on any book they want to. The whole Random House collection still has TTS turned off as far as I know, and who knows how many other publishers will decide to take this action. This means that even if I were to buy a Kindle, that there may be a lot of books that still would be out of my reach thanks to greedy publishers.
Call For Compliance With UN Convention Covering ICT Rights
Disability rights groups, organisations working with people with disabilities and all other interested parties must carefully monitor their home nations' compliance with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities to ensure moves towards more accessible information and communications technologies (ICT) do not fall by the wayside, one of the world's leading accessibility analysts writes in this month's E-Access Bulletin. Cynthia Waddell, Executive Director of The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI), says the Convention entered into legal force in May 2008 and starting next year, 2010, all states that have ratified it will be required to report to the UN Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities on measures taken to meet its accessible ICT obligations. The Convention has helped to create a paradigm shift in the exercise of the rights of people with disabilities in the use of ICT, Waddell says, with many provisions relating to ICT availability, affordability and accessibility through principles of 'universal design'. "But it is one thing to have a law or policy, and another to implement it... if the UN Convention is to succeed, then its monitoring provisions need to be followed. The Convention requires the signatory states to designate focal points within each country to assist in implementation and monitoring. I encourage you to find out who the designated focal points are in your country and to contribute your voice to the Convention implementation effort and the country Monitoring Report." The ongoing controversy over the Kindle 2, an electronic book reader with a text-to-speech feature which has been embroiled in a row over royalties from what some see as a new 'audio book' format, "reminds us that the accessible ICT paradigm shift is fragile and can be broken," Waddell says.

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