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Sigmer Technologies' New Website Showcases Priority Level 3 Accessibility, Usability, Optimisation and Quality Web Design
http://i-newswire.com/pr45333.html
London; Sigmer Technologies, providers of bespoke software solutions and extensive website expertise, today announced the launch of their new website which has already achieved ROI, largely due to incorporating a usability study during the redevelopment of the site. Sigmer's new website showcases the business benefits of usability and information architecture as an integral part of the web development process. The new site supports W3C Accessibility Priority Level 3, the highest level. Sigmer developed the site utilising its experience in designing highly accessible websites for clients such as The International Save the Children Alliance. "Due to the high level of accessibility (which also makes it far easier for the search engines to find and digest each site page)and the optimisation of content, its pages have already been indexed and ranked by Google and other major search engines." said Rosie Freshwater, Director of Leapfrogg Internet Marketing, search engine marketing specialists. "Sigmer's new site has gained immediate high rankings for relevant terms which have already driven increased amounts of qualified traffic to the site. The successful search engine optimisation ( SEO ) of the site, attributable to Sigmer's expertise in usability, design and accessibility, demonstrates an obvious core business benefit for any customer outsourcing to Sigmer for website design and development and content management."
Contributed on Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:09:56 GMT.
RNIB Media Briefing on Accessible PDFs
http://www.isolani.co.uk/blog/access/RnibAccessiblePdfMediaBriefing
From the Isolani Weblog: These are my notes and recollections to the RNIB media briefing into accessible PDFs. The Royal National Institute for the Blind hosted a media briefing on the evening of the 20th October 2005. The topic was the accessibility of PDFs. This event was organised in conjunction with Adobe, and specifically because Adobe's US-based Accessibility Manager, Greg Pisocky was in the UK for a conference.
Contributed on Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:06:24 GMT.
Jargon Busting with the Definition Element
http://juicystudio.com/article/jargon-busting-with-the-definition-element.php
From Juicy Studio: Guideline 3.1 of the draft version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 recommends that authors make text content readable and understandable. Under this guideline, there is tentatively a level 3 success criterion that a mechanism is available for identifying specific definitions of words used in an unusual or restricted way, including idioms and jargon. This article suggests a bookmarklet to reveal definitions marked up with the definition element for people that require them, and also ensure that they're available when the document is printed.
Contributed on Thu, 27 Oct 2005 21:05:49 GMT.
Quiz 1.1.9: TITLES everywhere?
http://www.access-matters.com/2005/10/23/quiz-119-titles-everywhere/
From Access Matters: The previous quiz question asked about supplementing ALT text with TITLE text, and how it might affect assistive technology. As always, we find variations in how assistive technology handles the various combinations. I'll leave the recap for later. Now, we'll turn to a more comprehensive question and test case about TITLE text. As Joe Clark rightly pointed out, the previous test case was too simple. OK, Let's try a more complete test. TITLE text can be applied to almost any HTML element, so that's what I've done. The Titles Everywhere test case has TITLE text applied to every element. I've used almost all the elements, even those which are containers for others. A TITLE on an UL? What good is that? I don't know, but the specs allow it. It's interesting to see what appears on hover for each of these, and it might be interesting to see what assistive technology does with them. Try the test case and report any interesting findings.
Contributed on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 21:00:01 GMT.
Opera 9, Acid2 and Web Forms 2.0
http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_10.html#a000583
From the Web Standards Project (WaSP): It seems the latest preview release of Opera comes pretty close to passing the Acid2 test. Apparently there is only one bug left to fix. After the initial announcement of the second acid test, a race began to become the first browser to pass it. Safari won by a streak and was followed by iCab and Konqueror. However, these were internal builds only and since then there has been no officially released browser that passes the test. Also included in this release of Opera is support for some of the Web Forms 2.0 extensions. I'm sorry to report that this is one ugly implementation. Worse than that, the new controls (date pickers etc) are completely inaccessible by keyboard. I assume that this will be sorted out by the time this release is final.
Contributed on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:56:30 GMT.
DisabilityInfo.gov
http://www.disabilityinfo.gov/digov-public/public/DisplayPage.do?parentFolderId=500
This user-friendly Web site contains links to information of interest to people with disabilities, their families, employers, service providers and other community members. President George W. Bush's New Freedom Initiative directed federal agencies to create DisabilityInfo.gov. This interagency Web site connects people with disabilities to the information and resources they need to pursue their personal and professional ambitions - delivering on America's promise of equal access to opportunity for all citizens.
Contributed on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:55:36 GMT.
Robo-Mule Gets Wheel, Leg Blend
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001876.html
Gadgets are getting smaller. Materials are getting lighter. But the modern foot soldier is lugging a bigger load than ever. The U.S. Army is hoping to take some of this weight off with a new-fangled beast of burden. The Future Force Warrior program's Robotic Mule will be able to go wherever the infantry go, carrying supplies and ammunition and giving them somewhere to plug in their rechargers. One approach to the Mule is to build a four-legged robot very much like the biological version -- or some sort of wheeled equivalent. But there is another way, and this is where Danny Hillis of Applied Minds comes in. Hillis is best known for developing the parallel processing that underlies most modern supercomputers, but has been active in many different fields. His idea is to develop something that is part wheel, part leg, combining the strengths of both. It's not a matter of reinventing the wheel so much as repackaging it. "Nature doesn't generally use wheels," Hillis explains, "because although they are good for smooth surfaces, there are few smooth surfaces in nature. In fact we spent a great deal of effort building flat surfaces for wheels to roll on. It would be better to have a wheel which could go on any surface." Robot legs are complex and inefficient - typically they rely on dynamic stability, which means that a legged robot falls over when power turned off. Hillis built a large robot dinosaur for the Disney organisation, and says that the amazing thing is that it walks at all. Could this technology be of use to persons with mobility impairments?
Contributed on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:54:54 GMT.
How To: Anchor Text (Don't Click Here!)
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/10/17/how-to-anchor-text-dont-click-here/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog: It never fails to amaze me when I browse sites. One of the most critical factors on the page that affect everything from rankings, accessibility and usability is overlooked. Many times it is abused to the point of ridiculousness. What I am talking about is the small, but powerful concept of anchor text; the contextual text that hyperlinks to another page or another site. The problem is the amount of sites that employ the following use of anchor text: Click here: More info: Skip intro. To me, this is a ghastly oversight, especially when "click here's" are littered throughout the page. These are links that are supposed to describe what you will find when you click the link. There are three reasons for eliminating this harmful practice from your site; Usability, Accessibility and Search Engine Rankings. When you over look this simple potential for greater success, I am sure that you will spend a few hours working on removing these unusable road signs in your site.
Contributed on Wed, 26 Oct 2005 20:54:10 GMT.
Two Sites Aren't More Accessible Than One
http://blueflavor.com/ed/two_sites_arent_more_accessibl.php
From the Blue Flavor blog: "Text-only" sites are hard to find, prejudicial and generally poorly implemented. It's no wonder that they're hardly ever actually used. A comment to a recent post highlights a common question asked of accessibility experts: why bother making your main site accessible when you can just do a site on the side for users with disabilities?
Contributed on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:22:52 GMT.
Don't Touch That Dial: Japan's TV-based University of the Air, once the only choice for working and older students, faces new competition
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v52/i09/09a04701.htm
Mitsue Matsuzaki, a homemaker, listens to English lessons on her car radio. Tatsuo Kawanishi, a 75-year-old retired businessman, watches educational videotapes at a local study center. Takeyoshi Matsumoto, an airline mechanic, tapes physics lectures off of his television and watches them over the weekend. They and tens of thousands of others are pursuing degrees at the University of the Air, which brings the classroom into homes and cars throughout Japan. This unusual university is one of the largest in the country, with nearly 100,000 students. For a higher-education institution that began in a television studio 22 years ago, the University of the Air has proved remarkably successful. But the rapid expansion of the Internet and fierce competition for students has some critics wondering if the university has outlived its usefulness. In the late 1960s when the idea for a university that taught through television and radio first popped up, Japan was a very different place. At that time, the country had fewer than 200 universities, compared with more than 730 today. Yet the number of high-school graduates was 30 percent larger. As a result, too many students were chasing after too few seats. University entrance requirements and examinations were also far more rigid. Nontraditional students - older people, college dropouts, people with disabilities, and junior-college graduates - were essentially shut out of the system. Using Britain's Open University as a model, proponents of the University of the Air began a 14-year odyssey through government bureaucracy to reach their goal. The first students enrolled in 1983.
Contributed on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:22:08 GMT.
Form Help without Popups
http://juicystudio.com/article/form-help-without-popups.html
From Juicy Studio: Thrusting new windows upon visitors of your site is frowned upon, as it goes against device independence by assuming a windowed environment. One situation where developers feel that a new window is appropriate is with web forms. If the visitor requires help on a form field, a new window saves the visitor the trouble of having to leave the form, and possibly losing the data they have entered. This article illustrates a scripting technique to get around the problem without having to open a new window.
Contributed on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:21:06 GMT.
Job Programs for Blind
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/10/12/job-programs-for-blind/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog:The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) announced an expanded CareerConnect program to assist people with vision loss in their employment. The additional features are intended to help those with vision loss gain employment, learn of assistive technologies and interviewing skills. The site showcases the types of employment and diversity of jobs help by people with vision loss. The site focuses on employers and rehabilitation counselors in educating them about how businesses can accommodate low vision employees with assistive technology, ADA requirements and interviewing tips.
Contributed on Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:19:27 GMT.
Dundee Uses Theatre To Improve Accessibility
http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article2736.asp
A creative writer and theatre director has been appointed as artist-in-residence with the Department of Applied Computing at the University of Dundee as part of making new communication and information technology more easily accessible for older people. Maggie Morgan's appointment has been funded by a 12,000 pound grant from the Leverhulme Trust, with the post to last for ten months. She joins a department with a purpose-built theatre space, newly completed to further person-centred design work. 'I have already done some work with the department on addressing the issues that face older people as they try to adapt to new technology, and this grant gives us a wonderful opportunity to build further on that,' said Morgan. Working in collaboration with the Foxtrot Theatre in Education Company and the department at Dundee, Morgan has previously produced two series of videos that illustrated some of the problems that occur (see UN story: Tools of Inspiration). She will help develop theatrical performances to be used in research into the needs and wants of older people.
Contributed on Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:32:48 GMT.
IBM's Accessibility, Part 2
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/10/11/ibm%e2%80%99s-accessibility-part-2/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog: This must be IBM's week. Starting on October 3, 2005, IBM is giving away accessibility software on its website. While some are 90-day trials, and the license cost is certainly affordable. The offerings include: Keyboard Optimizer: An application that monitors a user's typing patterns and optimizes for mistakes. This is geared for those situations where users may not be able to lift fingers quickly from the keys. Mouse Smoothing Software: for users with hand tremors or difficulty moving a mouse. In addition to these user technologies, IBM is also offering applications ands software for programmers, These are designed to allow development companies increase their accessibility reach by using some very unique products.
Contributed on Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:30:42 GMT.
Students with Disabilities Discovering Key to Academic Success is an Online Degree
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ne...
Vida Sanchez grew up in a tropical paradise - but it did not seem that way to her. She remembers squinting a lot as a child. Her mother had to shoo her outside to play. The glorious, sun-drenched days of her island home were something Vida did her best to avoid. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, Vida had no idea she had a degenerative eye condition called progressive cone dystrophy. She just knew her eyes hurt in the sunlight. And unfortunately, after she came to the United States at the age of 14, her situation did not improve. But Vida persevered. She wanted to become a teacher, and that is just what she did, earning a teaching degree from Georgetown University with a specialization in languages and linguistics. Over the years, she did her best to manage her condition in the classroom, but by the time she was in her early 40s, her condition had worsened to the point where she was forced to make a difficult decision. "It just became more and more of an issue and so, by 2001, it was clear I could not function in the classroom anymore. I mean, kids do need light to see what they're doing," she says with a laugh. "And I couldn't work with light." Not one to let life's adversities dictate her fate, Vida decided to go back to school. She had earned a master's degree in cultural studies from American University in Washington DC, and now she wanted a PhD. "I always wanted to continue with my education, because I've always seen a natural progression from my preparation as a teacher to going into social services," she says. But Vida knew her blindness would make attending a traditional university extremely difficult, and she knew she would require some accommodations in order to attend any university. For her disability is as unique as she is, just as every person's situation is distinctly their own.
Contributed on Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:29:33 GMT.
Accessibility's New Face
http://blueflavor.com/ed/accessibility/accessibilitys_new_face.php
Designers: Here's a reason to look forward to your next accessibility review: Nearly every designer I've talked with about accessibility gets this look on their face like they're waiting in line for the dentist. A little history will show that accessibility advocates have always been working to enable them to do their best, to the benefit of everyone. Here's a reason to look forward to your next accessibility review.
Contributed on Tue, 18 Oct 2005 22:28:29 GMT.
IBM's Accessibility Agenda
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/10/09/ibm%e2%80%99s-accessibility-agenda/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog: IBM is making significant news in the accessibility world. A few weeks ago they gave FireFox code for additional accessibility features. In reading some background information in a recent article in TechWeb, IBM hired their first employee with disabilities in 1914. IBM has also been in advance of the times by offering programs for veterans with disabilities - long before the US Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In TechWeb, IBM is working on a number of assistive technology products. One of the most anticipated product targets Graphical User Interfaces (GUI's) as a means of pushing the envelope of assistive technology. The most recent offerings, Home Page Reader, WebAdapt2Me and ViaScribe are all serving aging-related conditions and elderly workers in addition to the typical assistive technology audience.
Contributed on Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:48:20 GMT.
Chalk One Up To The Whiteboard
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,16376,1585290,00.html
In the 1960s it was science labs, in the 1980s microcomputers. Today, when government ministers want to talk up their efforts to modernise education, the symbol is the whiteboard. Tony Blair last week repeated the government's ambition to put whiteboards in every school. In his budget speech this year, Gordon Brown boasted of a 1.67 pound investment enabling schools to be "no longer blackboard and chalk". Interactive whiteboards are large touch-sensitive panels connected to a digital projector and a computer. In schools, their big attraction is that they can display video and graphic material directly from the web - and that everyone can join in. "The whiteboard creates a big space for collaboration around ideas, which transcends what small screens can offer," says Martin Owen of Nesta Futurelab, the lottery-funded endowment organisation. "It makes the blackboard much more lively and effective." How accessible is this technology? Does it have the potential to assist students with disabilities in participating and learning in the classroom or will it create greater challenges?
Contributed on Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:47:06 GMT.
When Life Depends on Clear Instructions
http://www-306.ibm.com/ibm/easy/eou_ext.nsf/publish/2093
You are in a 25th floor hotel room and the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night. You study the "you are here" diagram on the back of the door to find out where the nearest exit is. If it is like most of these diagrams, it looks more like a maze than an escape map. Just as your panic rises, the all-clear signal rings and disaster is averted, but no thanks to the information card. Still anxious on your trip home, you examine the escape procedures card in the seatback of the airplane and realize that it too is useless. And how about your last doctor's visit? Unless you are quite young or remarkably healthy, you probably can't accurately recall the medications you take regularly pronounce them, recite the dosage, describe what they are treating, remember their contra-indications. Certainly not if you are among the half of the US population who is either functionally illiterate or marginally illiterate. Don't feel too smug if you are better educated; education alone won't insulate you from the arcane language of certain fields. Did you really understand that medical consent form you signed for your recent surgery? One study showed that patients with average reading levels were unable to understand most of the consent forms used for research studies of cancer drugs. Don't think old age will bring relief. When you turn age 65, you have the Medicare Handbook to read. "Today's Medicare is about choice" according to the official, 90-page "Medicare & You,", but they might as well say today's Medicare is about confusion. Critical information also needs to be accessible to everyone. Statistics indicate that 1 in 5 Americans will experience a disability at some point - if emergency information is not made accessible, it puts a large chunk of the population at unnecessary risk.
Contributed on Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:45:56 GMT.
Interview with Matt May
http://www.accessify.com/2005/10/interview-with-matt-may.asp
From the Accessify Weblog: An interview with Matt May known for his work with the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative. The interview covers his achievements, triumphs and frustrations with the W3C project as well as his work with WaSP:and his new venture Blue Flavor
Contributed on Tue, 11 Oct 2005 23:24:56 GMT.
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