Accessibility in the News
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Visually-Challenged Computer Users Can Now Explore Technical Drawings
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Feat...
A well-received innovative, accessible system offers computer users who are blind and visually-challenged the chance to work on a range of digitised technical drawings and soon other drawings will be added. Digitised technical drawings are typically presented and edited on standard PCs with appropriate software installed. However, persons who are blind and visually-challenged must access a user interface and presentation tool specially tailored for them.
Contributed on Tue, 16 Aug 2005 01:34:49 GMT.
PDF Webinars To Offer Section 508 Clinic
http://www.planetpdf.com/enterprise/article.asp?ContentID=7103
PDF Webinars has announced that it will be running a Section 508 clinic on August 9 and 11, 2005 at 2 p.m. US EDT. The two-part clinic targets U.S. Federal Government agencies who need to produce Section 508-compiant PDFs and private sector companies and contractors who work with U.S. Federal agencies. Attendees will learn how to best use new tools in Acrobat 7 to make legacy PDFs accessible, and will cover strategies for making accessible forms from scratch. Another point of focus will be on how to go about preparing good source documents that convert to accessible PDFs quickly and easily.
Contributed on Tue, 16 Aug 2005 01:33:56 GMT.
New Interactive Demo Lounge Will Put the Power of Speech in Consumer's Hands
http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2005/jul/13/news6.html
Lexington, KY - Attendees at this year's annual SpeechTEK Conference and Exhibition, will have the opportunity to put the power of speech technologies in the palm of their hand - quite literally. SpeechTEK 2005's first, "Hot, Cool and Retooled," interactive demonstration area will highlight how speech technologies are retooling many of today's popular consumer electronic devices to introduce some of the hottest, coolest advancements for PDAs, games, mobile phones and other handheld devices. The "Hot, Cool and Retooled" demo lounge is the only venue where consumers, device manufacturers and developers can learn about and interact with innovative, speech-enabled consumer devices. Among the applications showcases will be the SpeechWorks division of ScanSoft will demonstrate its market-leading screen reader application. The SpeechPAK TALKS Premium Edition converts the display text of a cellular handset into highly intelligible speech, providing extensive feature accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals as well as greater convenience for all users.
Contributed on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:54:13 GMT.
Can You Hear Me Now?
http://www.fcw.com/article89508-07-11-05
The computer on the original "Star Trek" TV series set the bar awfully high for voice recognition. It not only understood human speech - even slang - but also replied clearly and with personality. Although earthbound voice-recognition technology is rapidly improving and is now useful for many office tasks, it has not yet attained the standard the starship Enterprise set. Indeed, the technology needs a combination of vastly improved artificial intelligence technology and a more sophisticated speech-recognition engine before matching the performance of the USS Enterprise's system. The good news is that the latest versions of Dragon NaturallySpeaking and IBM's ViaVoice do a pretty good job of figuring out what you're saying. As those products improve, they have a broader range of uses. Transcription for the medical and legal fields continues to be one of the most frequent applications of voice-recognition technology. Enabling accessibility for users with disabilities runs a close second. Although most organizations that use a computer-assisted transcription process won't totally replace manual labor, they often use employees in quality assurance and editing roles rather than as professional transcribers.
Contributed on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:52:49 GMT.
Standards Activists Target Scripts
http://news.com.com/Standards+activists+target+scripts/2100-1032_3-5793767.html
Web standards gadflies are launching an initiative to make sure Web authors are sticking to their scripts. The Web Standards Project, or WaSP, on Monday launched the DOM Scripting Task Force, whose goal will be to promote adherence to Web standards like the World Wide Web Consortium's Document Object Model and to establish guidelines in the comparatively unstandardized world of scripting. "At the moment, JavaScript suffers from outdated, uninformed and inaccessible development methods which preclude it, and therefore Web development in general, from attaining its full potential," reads the task force's JavaScript manifesto. "The WaSP DOM Scripting Task Force proposes to solve this problem by the adoption of unobtrusive DOM scripting, a way of thinking based on modern, standards-compliant, accessible Web development best practices."
Contributed on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:52:04 GMT.
Seven Screen Reader Usability Tips
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/screen-reader-usability-tips
Simply ensuring that your Website is accessible to screen reader users is, unfortunately, not enough to guarantee that these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so poor that they needn't have bothered stooping by in the first place. Fortunately, there are plenty of simple-to-implement guidelines that you can follow. The seven easy tips below will drastically improve a site's usability for screen reader users, as well as all other visitors.
Contributed on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:51:23 GMT.
Usability Testing for E-Learning
http://www.clomedia.com/content/templates/clo_article.asp?articleid=1049&zoneid=71
Culturally diverse and geographically far-flung, the new global workforce is leading businesses to search for better, more effective ways to manage growing requirements for employee learning solutions. Clearly, e-learning has become one of the most popular solutions to meet this need. While e-learning enthusiasts extol its lower costs, broader accessibility and personalization potential, e-learning also has experienced slow user adoption and high dropout rates in many organizations. In some cases, users become easily frustrated or unenthusiastic about the material, and if they don't complete the course, the company might not realize a return on its investment. Usability testing can address some of these shortfalls in the learner experience, as well as provide designers with a set of principles and methods that can be used to design courses that will capture and hold users' interest from start to finish. Usability testing has long been a part of the software and product design world. Jakob Nielsen brought the concept of usability to the Web, making Web pages simple to navigate and intuitively organized so that users can easily find the information they're looking for. While this definition may be considered sufficient in the world of software, the definition of usability in the e-learning world should encompass a few more components than simply good user interface design. In addition to usability testing, you should also consider including tests for accessibility.
Contributed on Sat, 13 Aug 2005 00:50:45 GMT.
Disability Convention Committee Forges Ahead On Articles Affecting Daily Life Of People With Disabilities
http://i-newswire.com/pr41091.html
The leaders of the global disability movement, themselves persons with disabilities, are attending the sixth session of the General Assembly's Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities. Many countries are represented by persons with disabilities. Negotiations are moving forward at a sustained pace, and see wider participation by developing countries, women with disabilities and advocates for persons with different kinds of disability. Leading disability organizations -- such as Inclusion International, Disabled People International, the International Disability Coalition and the World Federation of the Deaf -- continue to provide their expertise and insight.
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:13:12 GMT.
Onetel Top of the League in Website Accessibility
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=151420
LONDON, Onetel is leading the field in the e-commerce accessibility stakes according to computing and disability charity, AbilityNet, in a report on the top telecoms sites released today. The charity's eighth quarterly e-Nation assessment of websites in selected sectors has awarded www.onetel.co.uk a four-star rating - only the second time that any site featured in the on-going survey series has gained such a high score (the Labour Party achieved a similar ranking in the last report on the main political parties). Kingston Communication's information-only site - www.kcom.com - also gained four-stars - slightly less significant as this site has no e-commerce functionality but nonetheless a considerable achievement. The survey evaluated the top ten sites for both usability and accessibility with a programme of both automated tools and a wide range of manual checks. Only sites which meet the basic needs of visitors with a vision impairment, dyslexia or physical problem making mouse use difficult, attain three stars and above. Another article - Onetel rated as best UK telco for web accessibility
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:11:57 GMT.
Hi-Tech Grocery Shopping
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=earlyshow&clip=...
Early Show Correspondent Susan McGinnis reports with a roundup of the latest and greatest in-store technology that supermarkets are implementing to facilitate the shopping experience. The report includes mention of a Robot Guide Dog being developed at Utah State University to assist shoppers who are blind or visually impaired.
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:11:17 GMT.
Accessibility Discussions: Article and Commentary Roundup
http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_07.html#a000534
From the Web Standards Project (WaSP): Ever since we announced the WaSP Accessibility Task Force, quickly given the sticky nicky "ATF" the recommendations, requests and even a few ragings have been storm-trooping 'cross the Web. Here's a round-up of reading associated with ATF activities.
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:10:07 GMT.
Frommelt: Pioneering Web Standards in Higher Ed
http://webstandards.org/buzz/archive/2005_08.html#a000542
From the Web Standards Project (WaSP): One of the common hurdles in converting university and college sites to Web standards is due to a decentralized system of Web development within the organization. Daniel Frommelt is the World Wide Web Coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and has been instrumental in converting their Web site to XHTML. However, he is probably better known for having led a team of students to re-tool Slashdot with Web standards. "I suppose you could say that UW-Platteville was one of the early adopters of Web Standards. At the time we did not know about Web Standards, rather we were trying to solve simple accessibility issues. We began by adopting XHTML over HTML in 2001. The goal for the Web Development Office was to make code that was light, portable, and easy to maintain."
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:08:49 GMT.
Hearing Aids for the Unimpaired
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68419,00.html?
LONDON -- Hearing aids are not just for people who are deaf. The much-maligned ear implants also hold the key to a new era in personal audio technology, designers say -- if only they can make them as fashionable as spectacles. HearWear - The Future of Hearing, a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, shows off trendy deaf-tech prototypes like gadgets that can filter out annoying noises and memory glasses that replay the last few seconds of conversation -- handy for wearers who might have missed someone's name. It's not just the hard-of-hearing who can benefit from applications inspired by traditional hearing aids. Hearing is the next sense ripe for a technological revolution, according to the exhibition's organizer, Royal National Institute for the Deaf, or RNID. The exhibit features personal hearing devices, such as aids that enhance conversational speech or filter out ambient noise in a crowded bar. The gadgets illustrate how an effort to redesign conventional deaf assistants might lead to a range of new products for unimpaired consumers increasingly accustomed to wearing iPod earbuds and Bluetooth headsets.
Contributed on Wed, 10 Aug 2005 19:07:20 GMT.
'Thoughts Read' Via Brain Scans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4715327.stm
Scientists say they have been able to monitor people's thoughts via scans of their brains. Teams at University College London and University of California in LA could tell what images people were looking at or what sounds they were listening to. The US team say their study proves brain scans do relate to brain cell electrical activity. The UK team say such research might help people who are paralysed communicate, using a "thought-reading" computer.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:11:14 GMT.
Testing Invalid Content with Accessibility Validators
http://juicystudio.com/article/invalid-content-accessibility-validators.php
From Juicy Studio: I've created a document with over 33 obvious priority 1 and priority 2 errors according to WCAG 1.0, and ran them through the leading accessibility validators, and the W3C's markup validation service. None of them successfully found any of the errors, with one of them reporting an error that didn't exist.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:10:32 GMT.
Online Bid To Help Get Persons With Disabilities Back To Work
http://news.scotsman.com/education.cfm?id=1714102005&20050801222312
A new education project led by Edinburgh University Settlement has been set to help people with disabilities in Scotland return to work. The project called "A1 for Jobs", is funded by the European Commission's Leonardo Da Vinci Program. Educational organizations in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, and Finland as well as Scotland are working in partnership with EUS to develop an online distance learning programme which will provide support for people with disabilities who are looking for work.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:09:54 GMT.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)
http://www.cae.org.uk/dda.html
Access issues have become increasingly relevant with the advent of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) and increasing public awareness of the relevance of accessibility. The DDA is a major piece of legislation aimed at addressing the discrimination that many people with disabilities face. Two of the main areas covered by the Act concern discrimination in employment and access to goods, services and facilities. The article also includes links to: A History of the DDA by Peter JG Williams; DDA: A Legal Case Study; and The DDA and Part M: Minimum Standards or Maximum Accessibility.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:08:53 GMT.
Brain Workouts May Tone Memory
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,68409,00.html
It's common knowledge that a proper exercise regimen can do wonders for the body. Only recently, however, have psychologists and gerontologists aggressively applied the same principle to the mind. Among people who work with older adults, the concept of "cognitive fitness" has become a buzzword to describe activities that stimulate underutilized areas of the brain and improve memory. Proponents of brain-fitness exercises say such mental conditioning can help prevent or delay memory loss and the onset of other age-related cognitive disorders.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:08:15 GMT.
Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility with Firefox
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue44/lauke/
In a previous issue of Ariadne, I gave a brief overview of Mozilla Firefox and introduced a few of its most useful extensions. In this article, we will use one of these extensions, Chris Pederick's Web Developer toolbar, to aid us in a preliminary assessment of a web site's accessibility. Although awareness of web accessibility has steadily increased in recent years, many web developers are still uncertain about how to evaluate their sites. The relative complexity of documents such as the W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 and the wealth of - sometimes contradictory - advice found on sites dedicated to the subject can leave developers wondering about the practical aspects of testing. Often developers lack time or training and simply rely on one of the many automated testing tools such as WebXACT, Cynthia or Wave. But even those mechanical checks need to be supplemented (and, to avoid false positives, counter-checked) by manual checks. Based on some of the WCAG 1.0 checkpoints, this article aims to provide a quick outline of how Mozilla Firefox and the Web Developer toolbar can help with these manual checks.
Contributed on Tue, 09 Aug 2005 23:07:04 GMT.
Addressing On-line Accessibility Issues at East Carolina University
http://www.campus-technology.com/news_article.asp?id=11623&typeid=155
Like many universities, East Carolina University (ECU) has seen an overwhelming increase in demand for online courses. As the university that prepares the most teachers in North Carolina, we have always faced distance learning issues, but the more than 250 percent increase in online course offerings during the past five years in the College of Education has had more impact on our programs than any other factor. Although up-to-date training continues to be a challenge, our major issues have had to do with three types of accessibility. First, there was the accessibility of current technology to our faculty and students. The next issue we faced, was accessibility to individuals with disabilities. The issue that this study examined, was accessibility of online courses using universal design for learning (UDL) to address differing learning styles and preferences.
Contributed on Mon, 08 Aug 2005 22:34:02 GMT.
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