accessibility

Once or twice while surfing the Net, you may have felt your eyesight become blurred or find it hard to focus on the screen. This is normally not a problem as you can always rest for a while to regain your perfect vision. But try to imagine yourself having limited vision all the time. What do you think are the challenges you may face as you browse web pages? How can they be solved?

The answers to these questions as well as additional related information are what we’ll focus on in this post. As you may know, we’re running a series about the challenges of Internet users with disabilities. This is the third installment in that series of posts.

Our friend Marvin will help us in identifying the common problems faced by low vision individuals. You may remember Marvin as that guy who shared with us A Day of a Low Vision Person. Let’s see what he’s been up to lately.

A new report suggests the videogame industry is at risk of losing $3 billion in potential revenue if it fails to accommodate the infirmities and decrepitude
of an increasingly-aging American gamer demographic.

A new paper called "Gaming on a Collision Course: Averting significant revenue loss by making games accessible to older Americans" speculates that as the
average age of videogamers continues to advance, the industry faces a "significant loss of both sales and customers" unless it takes steps to ensure that
games remain accessible to everyone.

Recently I have received several comments about the fact that I use the word "accessibility" on this site and it seems to be very technical. Some people expressed that they are really not sure what it is. So, in this post, I would like to shed some light on this concept.

Elderly people were a resource that should be tapped into further by providing an infrastructure allowing them to continue contributing towards society,
Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said.

"There seems to be an assumption that when people reach retirement age they should be pigeonholed as individuals who can no longer contribute to society.
This is a misconception," Dr Gonzi said.

THERE was a glimmer of hope for the disabled at the National Conference for Universal Design and Accessibility last month.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil announced that Malaysia would ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in New York, the United States, sometime this month.

The minister promised that Malaysia would move forward to provide accessibility to the disabled.

In one of my previous posts, I told you about the reasons why you should hire an accessibility consultant. Now let’s delve a bit deeper on the specific tasks your accessibility consultant can do.

I’ll discuss the standard output your consultant should provide, and other productive tasks this expert can work on. More importantly, I’ll help you decide on whether or not you should ask your consultant to do the additional tasks for you. This post is in response to one of our reader’s comment.

Patrick Palmer, who is blind, wonders why only 11 of Kansas City’s 580 traffic signals are equipped with audible pedestrian warnings.

Sheila Styron, who is also blind, recalls crawling over mounds of snow last winter to get to Kansas City bus stops.

Susie Haake, who uses a wheelchair, questions why a Brookside curb ramp was removed when a new curb was installed, and why light poles block the middle
of sidewalks at 43rd Street and Wornall Road.

Kansas Citians with disabilities say they are increasingly frustrated with what they see as city government’s noncompliance with the Americans with Disabilities
Act in this, the 20th year since the landmark law’s passage.

Theater owners have to make special devices available to ensure those with
hearing and vision disabilities can enjoy the movies, a federal appeals
court ruled Friday.

In a unanimous decision, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments
by attorneys for the Arizona-based Harkins theater chain that nothing in
federal law requires them to purchase and install the necessary equipment.
The judges said the kinds of devices at issue here clearly fall within the
requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It’s so easy for us to rely on colors to enjoy our activities and do our tasks, that we often take this ability for granted. But without this basic ability, you would find that the simplest of tasks can become very difficult.

There are, however, techniques and devices that can help you if you can’t recognize colors. Below we look at the most common ones and discuss their strong points and issues.

When you have decided to make an accessible site or application, getting the services of an accessibility consultant can save you time and money. Read on to find out just a few of the simple reasons why.