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TechDis Staff Packs Published To Support Accessibility
http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/2856
Engaging staff with e-Learning can be difficult, particularly where their personal IT skills are modest. This difficulty can be compounded by misguided accessibility training that attempts to give highly technical advice to people who lack the skills to make use of it. The resulting confusion can lead to tutors and lecturers - the staff with biggest potential impact on accessibility - retreating to traditional, less accessible teaching approaches. The JISC-funded service TechDis has produced a series of self-supporting staff development packs aimed at highlighting the important issues surrounding technology and disability. Each pack is self-standing and can either be delivered as a session independently or adapted into a wider staff development programme.
Contributed on Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:58:38 GMT.
Web Essentials 05 Podcasts
http://www.accessify.com/2005/09/web-essentials-05-podcasts.asp
From the Accessify Weblog: Can't make it to Sydney on 29 & 30 September for Web Essentials 05? Fret not ... you will still be able to listen to all the presentations at this year's premier Australian "by developers, for developers" web standards and accessibility conference as podcasts (downloadable audio files to you and me). See the WE05 podcast section for further details. Thanks to Derek Featherstone for the heads-up.
Contributed on Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:57:54 GMT.
Access by Design- A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/access_by_design/
Sarah Horton's new book Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Web Designers is organized around a principle that she calls "universal usability." As the Web has matured, designers have had to learn many new skills like graphic design, information design, usability testing, how to address accessibility issues and supporting standards. Horton's term encompasses all of these things in a philosophy that considers access for all users as the bedrock of effective Web design.
Contributed on Mon, 03 Oct 2005 22:57:29 GMT.
Validation, meet Unit Testing. Unit Testing, meet Validation.
http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_09.html#a000577
From the Web Standards Project (WaSP): Are you "test infected"? Do you work on dynamic sites and wish there was an automated way to run the output through the W3C validator? Do you wish it was integrated nicely with your unit testing framework? Scott Raymond has come up with a nice bit of code to add automated validation to the unit tests for a Ruby on Rails application.
Contributed on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:53:08 GMT.
IE Developer Toolbar (beta)
http://www.accessify.com/2005/09/ie-developer-toolbar-beta.asp
From the Accessify Weblog: The beta version of the IE Developer Toolbar - Microsoft's answer (or should I say "hommage") to Chris Pederick's Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox - is now available for testing. At first glance, it's not as fully featured as the Firefox extension that inspired it, but it's still early days. Read the Web Standards Project (WaSP) take on it as well: Developer Toolbar for IE.
Contributed on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:52:03 GMT.
Quiz 4.1.5: JavaScript - Part 2: Navigating Forms
http://www.access-matters.com/2005/09/19/quiz-415-javascript-part-2/
From Access Matters: Our first tests in this area explored navigating links which have JavaScript actions. Now, we turn to navigating forms which have actions attached to the various form elements. Our goal is to understand how browsers and screen readers react to script actions. The test case asks you to simply navigate straight through one form and then interact as much as possible with a second form. The test case is self-documenting, recording results in a textarea which gets sent off for our analysis. After we collect a good spread of results, we'll publish them.
Contributed on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:51:25 GMT.
Digital Web Interviews Sarah Horton
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/sarah_horton/
Sarah Horton is an instructional technology specialist working in the Department of Academic Computing at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. Digital Web Magazine talked to Sarah about her new book Access by Design: A Guide to Universal Usability for Designers, which was published in July.
Contributed on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:50:47 GMT.
Black Stallion - Gran Culom's site is re-designed to be more user friendly
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Consumer/Black_Stallion_-_Gran_Culom_s_site_i...
Since the Disability Discrimination Act has come into force in 2005, usability and accessibility has driven the new design for www.black-stallion.co.uk, home of Gran Culom, a Spanish Horse available for stud in the UK. The Disability Discrimination Act details how UK businesses should provide equal service to the disabled, including the legibility of their website(s). The Black Stallion site uses guidelines set out by the UK Government and the W3C to ensure consistent legibility in any browser by anyone. Since the re-design, a reviewer on Amazon in fact said "The layout and design of the pages seems to work in most browsers." An added benefit of having an accessible website, incorporating well structured code and layout, is that sites are likely to do better in the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and MSN. Using Black Stallion as an example, on MSN Search the keyword phrase "stallion for stud UK" gives a placing of 3rd, despite competition from much larger sites.
Contributed on Tue, 27 Sep 2005 22:49:59 GMT.
Summary of Results for JavaScript - Part 1: Navigating links
http://www.access-matters.com/2005/09/15/summary-of-results-for-javascript-part-...
From Access Matters: Four of us got together several weeks ago to try to determine how JavaScript affects screen readers and other assistive technology. Our first test was in Quiz 4.1.4: JavaScript - part 1. This joint (ad)venture included James Edwards, Mike Stenhouse, Derek Featherstone and myself. James created the core of the first test case by launching actions from links and then cleverly recording results in a form at the bottom of the test case page. It took a couple of weeks to amass a credible set of test runs and about that much more time to assemble the results. James wins the prize for persistence and determination by plowing through the results and putting them in displayable form. I'm still scratching my head about what they mean. They don't yet translate directly into best practices.
Contributed on Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:48:43 GMT.
IT Accessibility Must Improve, Says European Commission
http://www.out-law.com/page-6124
The accessibility of websites, software, digital TV and 3G phones could become a legal requirement across the EU if plans announced today by the European Commission fail to improve accessibility for people who are elderly or disabled within two years. By the end of 2005, public procurement rules may also change, to demand that authorities award contracts only to bidders providing accessible services. These messages are part of a Commission Communication on what it calls eAccessibility. Published today, it calls upon Member States to do more to promote EU eAccessibility initiatives and to encourage uptake by industry.
Contributed on Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:47:55 GMT.
"Skip Navigation" Links
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/skipnav/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: One of the problems with many template designs is that the main content is not usually the first thing on the page. People using screen readers are often forced to listen to a long list of navigation links, sub-lists of links, corporate icons, site searches, and other elements before ever arriving at the main content. In fact, all keyboard users are forced to tab through all of the top links in order to reach the main content. Consider the example below of an online grocery site. Due to the layout, with the navigation on the top and the long list of links on the left, users must tab through 118 links in order to reach the main content. Without some sort of system for bypassing the long list of links, users are at a huge disadvantage. Consider users with no arm movement, who use computers by tapping their heads on a switch. Requiring users to tap their head 118 times before reaching the main content is simply unacceptable.
Contributed on Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:47:18 GMT.
Links and Hypertext
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/hypertext/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: Hypertext links are one of the most basic elements of HTML, as its name implies (HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language). As such, making hypertext links accessible is one of the most basic and most important aspects of Web accessibility. For the most part, this is an easy task. Standard hypertext links work with all technologies and platforms and users of all abilities can access them, whether directly or through the use of some sort of assistive technology. As might be expected though, there is more to hypertext link accessibility than simply creating a link. Some types of links are more accessible than others, and some types of links are completely inaccessible to people with certain types of disabilities. Because links are so basic to the functionality of Web content, inaccessible links are one of the most severe barriers to overall accessibility.
Contributed on Wed, 21 Sep 2005 22:46:46 GMT.
Standards and Accessibility Discussions
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/09/15/standards-and-accessibility-discussions/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog: Watching the forums is a good way to catch news before it happens. The forums can be a great leaning experience, once you learn how to sift through what is good and what is bad information. I thought I would bring attention to a few threads that I've been involved in the past few days. The first is Threadwatch, where the discussion is surrounding the article of "Why clients don't want to pay for Accessiblity" The discussion surrounds comments of the article, where there are no solutions provided for the problems that are outlined. The second discussion at the High Rankings Forum surrounds more of a standards-based discussion, but starts with question of what put in the attribute for jpg bullet points.
Contributed on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:47:01 GMT.
The Web Accessibility Tools Consortium [WAT-C]
The Web Accessibility Tools Consortium [WAT-C] provides a collection of free tools to assist both developers and designers in the development and testing of accessible web content. The consortium is a collaboration of some of the world's leading accessibility practitioners, founded by Accessible Information Solutions (Australia), Infoaxia (Japan), The Paciello Group (USA), Wrong HTML (Japan), and Juicy Studio (UK). Our goals are to develop new tools, improve current tools and expand the range of browsers, operating systems and languages in which our tools are available. Read more about WAT-C at: the Web Standards Project (WaSP), Access Matters, The Accessify Weblog, and Juicy Studio:
Contributed on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:46:26 GMT.
Drexel University Launches Podcast Series to Help Students Succeed in Earning an Online Degree
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/9/emw284286.htm
Drexel University, Philadelphia's leading technological university, introduces Drexel's eLearning Minute, a series of brief podcasts designed to address the unique issues and circumstances that new online students encounter and to offer advice on successfully earning a degree online. "Drexel's eLearning Minute series was created to educate new online students on how to prepare personally and technically for online courses," says Dr. Kenneth Hartman, Academic Director of Drexel eLearning and the host of the eLearning Minute. "Online courses require the same amount of time and effort as traditional on campus courses so it's important to a student's success to know how to manage time for studying and set the expectation to family and friends that they are in school, just not in the literal sense," added Dr. Hartman. The first two podcasts of the four-part eLearning Minute series are now available online. Podcasting can be of great value to students with visual and cognitive disabilities, allowing them an alternate method for accessing information. However, student who are deaf or have auditory disabilities may be left out in the cold. Are these podcasts available in an alternate format for these students?
Contributed on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:44:37 GMT.
Web Site Launched For Disabled
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2005/09/14/2003271570
Taipei: The nation's first ever "obstacle-free Web site," an online learning program especially designed for those with mental and physical impairments, was launched yesterday. In a move to improve job and educational prospects for those with physical and mental disabilities, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) employment training division, with assistance from the Taiwan Assistive Technology and Vocational Rehabilitation Association and Sunnet Technology Corporation, started building a Web site six months ago to teach them computer skills, such as how to use word-processing software, surf the Internet and use e-mail. The project hopes to train 350 members who do not have basic computer literacy skills by the end of this year.
Contributed on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:42:22 GMT.
IBM Systems Journal - Accessibility
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/sj44-3.html
Making information technology accessible to the largest possible population of users has become a significant aspect of application and system development. Providing accessibility involves designing and modifying technology to make it accessible to users who would otherwise be unable to use it. This has become a growing element of the design process, due to government mandates as well as business considerations. Hardware and software assistive technologies have opened the Web to users with disabilities, though considerable work still needs to be done in order to achieve the goal of end-to-end accessibility for all users. This issue contains 13 papers on architectures, tools, applications, and assistive technologies designed to increase accessibility for diverse user groups.
Contributed on Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:41:40 GMT.
BBC Enhances Radio On Freeview With Text Services
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/09_september/15/free...
Listeners tuning into national BBC digital radio through Freeview will be able to browse genre and programme-related content later this month, when BBCi launches enhanced radio content on Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT). Listeners will be able to view and browse interactive content while they listen to BBC digital radio networks, integrating the news, sport and weather headlines already available on BBCi but also introducing programme listings, features and competitions - previously available only via the internet or DAB Digital Radio. For example, viewers could read news headlines while listening to the Today programme or listen to Five Live commentary whilst checking the latest sports news. This could be of great benefit for people with audio and cognitive disabilities.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:32:54 GMT.
Young People With Old Ears
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,68844,00.html
Researchers fear the growing popularity of portable music players and other items that attach directly to the ears - including cell phones - is contributing to hearing loss in younger people. "It's a different level of use than we've seen in the past," says Robert Novak, director of clinical education in audiology at Purdue University. "It's becoming more of a full-day listening experience, as opposed to just when you're jogging." Increasingly, Novak says he's seeing too many young people with "older ears on younger bodies" - a trend that's been building since the portable Walkman made its debut a few decades back. Everywhere she turns, Angella Day sees people carrying portable music players, often with the ear buds stuffed firmly in place. "They're very widespread," says Day, a senior at DePaul University who regularly listens to music on her own iPod while studying or working out. "So addicting."
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:31:37 GMT.
Using the AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/aistoolbar
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: The Web Accessibility Toolbar is a free extension for Internet Explorer (version 5 and above, Windows), it contains many features that can help in the assessment of the accessibility of web pages. The toolbar functions can be roughly divided into 3 types: Functions that submit the URL of the page, currently viewed in the browser, to 3rd party online tools; Functions that perform transformations on the content of the page currently viewed in the browser; or Functions that modify browser settings.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:30:55 GMT.
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