Accessibility in the News
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Lecturers Get In Tune With Latest Tool For Learning
http://www.ngfl.gov.uk/news.jsp?sec=5&cat=99&res=87994
The latest phenomenon in broadcasting and the most recent technological fashion accessory are being used by two science lecturers at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth (UWA) to help students with their studies. Dr Andy Breen and Dr Sian Jones, physics lecturers at the institute of mathematical and physical sciences at UWA, are using MP3 technology to make voice recordings of their lectures available to their students via the internet in the form of podcasts. Once recorded, each 50-minute lecture is transformed into a 30 megabyte file which registered students can then download on to an i-Pod or other similar MP3 players from the University's Blackboard web pages. Blackboard is a web-based virtual learning environment, which allows access to materials for online learning. Dr Andy Breen has been "podcasting" lectures since 2004 and is believed to be one of the first to use the technology in this way. The initial reason was to provide support for students who were having difficulty taking notes and was driven partly by the Disability Discrimination Act. Other universities are also taking advantage of the popularity of podcasting: Purdue Offers Podcasting Service For Students.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:13:31 GMT.
E-Learning: A Progress Report
http://www.fcw.com/article90465-08-29-05
The federal government is in a financial jam, and it's banking on e-learning to reduce the costs of technology training. Although e-learning is making a difference, the government won't maximize its investment until managers and employees take advantage of more e-learning programs. The USALearning Web portal is a good example of an underused tool. The Bush administration expects the program to encourage governmentwide adoption of e-learning. Although nearly 1 million federal workers have taken e-learning training courses in the past five years, USALearning's enrollment accounts for only 15 percent of the federal workforce. In Hendersonville, N.C., Jackie Burke, a union representative for the American Federation of Government Employees Local 3509, which represents Social Security Administration workers, said most federal employees don't know about the portal. Critics also question how well agencies integrate e-learning into broader training programs. Many employees who know about USALearning may not realize they can create a plan with their supervisors to take online courses during work hours to help them earn a promotion, Burke said. Despite its shortcomings, e-learning could still meet federal agencies' expectations. Its success relies on understanding its pitfalls and evolution. More on the government and e-learning: Even The U.S. Government Likes E-Learning. e-learning has become an accepted method for education and training, often permitting those who otherwise would be unable to obtain training and education to do so. However, care should be taken to include all potential learners, especially those with disabilities, by ensuring that the courses are developed to be accessible.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:11:56 GMT.
Teachers' Tech Use On The Rise
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryRSS.cfm?ArticleID=5835
Roughly 86 percent of U.S. teachers say computer technology has changed the way they teach at least some, and more than half (55 percent) say it has impacted their instruction "a great deal," according to a new survey commissioned by CDW-G. The survey, conducted in February and March of this year, questioned 1,000 K-12 public school teachers. CDW-G employed market research firm Quality Education Data (QED) to conduct the study, which has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. Another article: Study: Teachers coming to terms with computers. While teachers are recognizing the importance of technology in teaching and administration of classes, there does not seem to be much training or knowledge on how to use technology to encourage or enhance accessibility for students with disabilities.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:11:08 GMT.
Sesame Street Video Accessibility
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/08/03/sesame-street-video-accessibility/
From Matt Bailey 's Accessibility Outlook Blog: Sesame Street has just released a new video, "Sesame Street - Friends to the Rescue." The Children's Television Workshop has created a show to help children understand what happens during storms, as Elmo, Zoe, Big Bird and the rest of cast of Sesame Street prepare for a big storm coming their way. This is to coincide with the upcoming hurricane season and hopes to answer some of the children's fears from seeing last year's hurricanes. The wonderful thing about this video release is that there will also be accessibility features built-in to allow blind and visually-impaired children to "see" what is happening through descriptions of the visual elements. The program will include detailed and vivid explanations of facial expressions, colors, costumes, gestures and actions.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:10:05 GMT.
Design Not Important?
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/08/08/design-not-important/
From Matt Bailey's Accessibility Outlook Blog: This article on CreativeMatch.com caught my eye, as it is a standards-accessibility supporting article, citing the need for interoperability. Multiple user-agents, such as users with screen readers, Braille keyboards, PDA's, mobile devices and an increasing number of automated agents are accessing web sites. As such, the author advocates a central focus on content, as he makes the statement, "The essence of accessibility is to put the content of a web page first and the design second." Now, while I am an accessibility advocate, I am also a marketing advocate. I have been known to agree with the mantra that "Content is King", but I would be hard-pressed to say that design should be sacrificed to the sole expense of design. This seems like a somewhat logical statement; however it lacks the marketing focus of a website.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:08:25 GMT.
Large-Print Keyboard
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2005/08/16/large-print-keyboard/
From Matt Bailey's Accessibility Outlook Blog: Now here's an item of interest, a large print keyboard. You have to wonder how much more productive people can be with this type of interface. The company also sells Braille labels to paste on the keys as well. The keyboard is not only large print, but also offers different levels of contrasting keyboards for low-vision users.
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:06:22 GMT.
Expanding On Usability
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49-20050825Expandingo...
Two weeks ago, I used this space to write about the importance of usability in website design. The article was supposed to act as a lead-in to a short series of articles on the basics of search engine optimization and as a gentle suggestion for webmasters concerned with converting visitors into buyers. As it turned out, the article was long on style but short on substance, a fact that was quickly pointed out by Kim Krause Berg in a blog entry entitled, "Don't Tell Me I Need Usability Without Explaining How ". Kim Krause Berg, for those unfamiliar with her, is one of the leading usability experts in the United States. Usability is often confused accessibility (making a site fully accessible to people with physical disabilities) however Kim sees accessibility as a critical element in site usability. "The more I learn on this topic, the more I understand how many people aren't being serviced properly on the Internet." she writes. "At Cre8asiteforums, we've been lucky enough to have several people kindly teach us and provide resources. One example is provided by "Webnauts" in this amazing post . Adrian, one of our Site Administrators is passionate about the topic as well as CSS, as is our forums blog editor, Elizabeth (aka "ablereach")."
Contributed on Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:05:31 GMT.
Naked City - Bringing E-Democracy to Those With Disabilities
http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-08-26/pols_naked5.html
Imagine a veritable NASCAR of breakneck Web design, where the city's top site constructors join with local nonprofits to bring Internet users who are blind and disabled into the winner's circle. Well imagine no more, as AIR Austin, the city's Accessibility Internet Rally, is hurtling around the track once again, pairing this tech-metropolis' top designers with nonprofits in need of accessible Web sites. "We believe that everyone, regardless of disability, should have access to the information technology that has changed our lives," said Sharron Rush, executive director of Knowbility, at a press conference last week. Knowbility, the nonprofit coordinating AIR, operates along the "mode of high tech companies," said Rush, with the democratization of information to those with disablities as its guiding principal. The group grew out of the first AIR rally in 1998. "When we started," said Rush, "accessibility was completely unheard of."
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:35:28 GMT.
The Top 20 Things You Can Do To Make Your Website Accessible
http://devwebpro.com/devwebpro-39-20050825TheTop20ThingsYouCanDotoMakeYourWebsit...
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed by Congress. The law was designed to protect people with disabilities from being discriminated against, because of a physical or mental disability. The act was put into place to help guarantee equal opportunity for people with disabilities in any public area - and it covers regulations for employment, transportation, state and local government services, telecommunications, etc. But what about your Website? Have you done all you can, to assure that your Website is accessible? Here is a checklist you can use, to determine if your Website is as accessible as it could be. (Note: These actions vary from fairly simple to complex, and this list is not meant to be considered the only options or actions you can take to make your site more accessible).
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:34:35 GMT.
Support Standards, Not Multiple Browsers
http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/other/0,39020682,39215181,00.htm
From ZD Net UK: There is a mindset that believes that building support for the Firefox browser in company Web sites means extra development work, and running several versions of the Web site. In fact organisations, such as the Department of Work and Pensions, that want to make their sites compatible with as many browsers as possible need do only one thing: build them according to formal Web standards. That support for Firefox or Opera - or any other minority browser - should mean extra work is flawed thinking. In the long term, writing to the standards will save work, as those who build to what they see as the de facto 'standards' of Internet Explorer will find that they end up having to support different versions of IE in very different ways. Given Microsoft's stated intentions about IE, this remains a very real possibility. Too many people have become too conditioned to the notion that IE sets the standards. In fact, there is no need for de facto Web standards as everything we need - including accessibility and cross-browser compatibility - is provided by the W3C. And the terms of the argument should not be about which browser organisations support, but whether they will build their sites according to Web standards or not.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:33:47 GMT.
Once a Booming Market, Educational Software for the PC Takes a Nose Dive
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/technology/22soft.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1125335817
Edward Vazquez Jr., 6, has numerous educational tools at his disposal. He learns math from flashcards and the alphabet from a popular electronic gadget called the LeapPad. But when it comes to instruction, the family's personal computer sits dormant. "He has a lot of toys for learning - not the computer," said his father, Edward Vazquez, 28, a waiter in San Francisco. One reason, Mr. Vazquez said, is "you don't see a lot of that software." That statement would have been unthinkable a few years ago. In 2000, sales of educational software for home computers reached $498 million, and it was conventional wisdom among investors and educators that learning programs for PC's would be a booming growth market. Yet in less than five years, that entire market has come undone. By 2004, sales of educational software - a category that includes programs teaching math, reading and other subjects as well as reference works like encyclopedias - had plummeted to $152 million, according to the NPD Group, a market research concern. How accessible are these educational products? With the proliferation of online and portable learning tools, are children with disabilities able to participate in the learning activities?
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:33:06 GMT.
Open New Windows for PDF and other Non-Web Documents
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/open_new_windows.html
When using PC-native file formats such as PDF or spreadsheets, users feel like they're interacting with a PC application. Because users are no longer browsing a website, they shouldn't be given a browser UI. Often these documents are opened in a new window, which can defeat users who are blind or have low vision, as, for example, when a new window opens outside the part of the screen that's magnified for a low-vision user.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:30:55 GMT.
Libraries Offering Audiobook Downloads
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050825/ap_en_ot/libraries_book_dow...
A new way to borrow audiobooks from the library involves no CDs, no car trips, no fines and no risk of being shushed. Rather, public libraries from New York City to Alameda, Calif., are letting patrons download Tom Clancy techno-thrillers, Arabic tutorials and other titles to which they can listen on their computers or portable music players - all without leaving home. Librarians say such offerings help libraries stay relevant in the digital age. Barbara Nichols Randall, director of the Guilderland Public Library in suburban Albany, said the library considered the needs of younger readers and those too busy to visit. "This is a way for us to have library access 24/7," she said. Digital books can add an extra dimension of accessibility for users with disabilities.
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:29:25 GMT.
WFU To Pilot Pocket PC Phone Edition in Campus
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=5088
Pocket PC Phone Edition devices will be in the hands of about 120 Wake Forest University students as the university begins a pilot program to explore potential campus uses for converged mobile technology. The pilot program, called MobileU, will explore the ways students are already communicating and find out if one mobile device can meet their needs and enhance academic and student life. "What we've seen over the past two or three years is students moving away from more traditional messaging like e-mail to newer technologies such as instant messaging and text messaging," said Jay Dominick, chief information officer at Wake Forest. "Student communication patterns are diverging. We want to find out if we can use mobile technology to close that gap, to deliver new things in ways students want to get them."
Contributed on Tue, 30 Aug 2005 21:28:14 GMT.
Problems With Automated Accessibility Testing Tools
http://www.out-law.com/page-6042
An automated accessibility tool is a piece of software which can test a web page, or even an entire website, for accessibility. Some companies use these tools to gauge compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act. This is a mistake. Automated tests have some uses; but legal compliance demands more: it requires that your site can be accessed and used by internet users with disabilities - and this cannot be proved by an automated tool. In the following article, by Trenton Moss of usability and accessibility specialists Webcredible, explains the risks and limitations of automated tools.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 18:00:49 GMT.
Education is Key for Web Accessibility Legislation, at WSI
http://www.pr.com/press-release/2632
Toronto, Canada: World leader in Internet consulting and education, WSI (We Simplify the Internet) today announced the launch of its new, web accessible corporate website, www.wsiconsultants.com. The company's objective was to design and deploy a fully functional website, easily accessible and user friendly for people with physical disabilities. The new web site meets Web Accessibility guidelines as set forth by W3C - the international consortium for creation of web standards. WSIconsultants.com goes further in exceeding the minimum standards required by Web Accessibility regulations in the UK, US and Australia. It carries a Level 2 (AA) Web Accessibility rating throughout, with several elements also meeting Level 3 (AAA) requirements.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 18:00:04 GMT.
Validity, Accessibility, Flash: Choose Two
http://www.accessify.com/2005/08/validity-accessibility-flash-choose.asp
From the Accessify Weblog: If you're a Flash developer, and are using the accessibility features of the authoring tool to make your Flash objects directly accessible, you'd probably like to be sure that users of the supported browsers and screen readers can use those features. But common techniques for embedding Flash while still using valid HTML, which is not as easy as it seems, appear to cause trouble when it comes to reaching those users. This all stems from the use of the embed element in the default Flash output HTML, and various tricks exist to quash that renegade element. Andrew Kirkpatrick of Macromedia has put out an evaluation of Flash embedding tricks, testing them for direct accessibility to the Flash object. A popular method for presenting Flash objects in a valid form is Drew McLellan's Flash Satay, which strips the object code down to its bare minimum, and removes the embed. This is functional in most cases, and having been demonstrated on A List Apart, has quite a following. But it has some side effects, the worst of which is incompatibility with the screen reader Jaws. Andrew discovered that Satay prevents Jaws from accessing Flash's accessibility-related internals.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:59:20 GMT.
Academic Libraries Empty Stacks For Online Centers
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0823/p01s05-legn.html
AUSTIN, TEXAS: When students wander into the former University of Texas undergraduate library this fall, gone will be the "Quiet Please" signs, the ban on cheeseburgers or sodas, the sight of solemn librarians restocking books. The fact is, there will be no more books to restock. The UT library is undergoing a radical change, becoming more of a social gathering place more akin to a coffeehouse than a dusty, whisper-filled hall of records. And to make that happen, the undergraduate collection of books had to go. This summer, 90,000 volumes were transferred to other collections in the campus's massive library system - leaving some to wonder how a library can really be a library if it has no tomes. But a growing number of colleges and universities are rethinking and retooling their libraries to better serve students reared in a digital age. Digital books can offer students with disabilities better accessibility options as the material may be formatted to best suit the requirements of the student. However, in order to be of use, the materials must be designed with accessibility in mind.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:58:43 GMT.
Inaccessibility of Visually-Oriented Anti-Robot Tests
http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/
A common method of limiting access to services made available over the Web is visual verification of a bitmapped image. This presents a major problem to users who are blind, have low vision, or have a learning disability such as dyslexia. This document examines a number of potential solutions that allow systems to test for human users while preserving access by users with disabilities. The article is from 2003 but, with the recent issues with captcha, is still highly relevant.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:57:55 GMT.
Tips for Improved Accessibility in ASP.NET 1.1
http://standards-schmandards.com/index.php?2005/08/16/17-accessibility-in-aspnet
From the Standards Schmandards Blog: Searching for information on how you can increase accessibility in ASP.NET will give you a lot of information on ASP.NET 2.0 (Whidbey) features. It is like Microsoft is trying to hide the fact that the first generation of ASP.NET has issues with accessibility and standards compliance. Anyway, all is not lost. Here are some tips on what you can do right now to increase accessibility in your existing ASP.NET 1.1 applications. If you are an experienced ASP.NET developer, but new to the field of accessibility make sure you check out some of the other articles here.
Contributed on Mon, 29 Aug 2005 17:56:41 GMT.
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