WCAG

Improved standards of accessibility for Government websites are being developed by the Department of Finance’s Australian Government Information Management
Office.   Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner and Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities, Bill Shorten said the Government had endorsed
the new website accessibility standards, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
   Mr Tanner said the standards would improve the accessibility of Government websites for people with a range of disabilities.

A Section 508 validator is a software application that can help you determine if your web pages meet the Section 508 standards. These are tools useful in ensuring that your website is accessible to persons with disabilities.

It is important to note that although these validators are readily available via the Internet, they may not be what you specifically need. It is a good idea to try them out first before including them in your accessibility procedures.

Also, remember that Section 508 validators do not entirely solve your accessibility problems. They can nonetheless let you find the issues much faster. Manual testing is still required to ensure your site’s accessibility.

Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) is
going to launch a dedicated job portal that will facilitate recruitment for persons with disability by creating a repository of applicants, available skill-sets and potential recruiters.

This is one of the first initiatives that Nasscom has taken after the formation of Nasscom’s disability advisory group (DAG). In a bid to facilitate the
empowerment of individuals with disabilities, Nasscom Foundation is trying to leverage the Information and Technology applications. Their aim is to use
technology to serve the under served communities and reduce the gaps in the IT marketplace which hinder their chances.

As we embark on another decade most of us take surfing the web for granted. But for the nearly eight million people* in the UK who have health conditions
such as blindness or visual impairment, colour blindness, hearing impairment, dyslexia or mobility impairment, this simple everyday task can be an extremely
frustrating experience.

The reason behind this exasperation is almost certainly the fact that many websites have not been built to make them easily accessible to disabled people,
many of whom are increasingly using assistive technology to help them glean information from the internet. This software can provide users with a speech
or Braille output via a screen reader, text magnification to make reading online content easier and allow them to move around websites using their voices
instead of a keyboard or mouse.

While the exact date is not decided, based on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), it is expected that in the near future web sites will have to be made accessible.

In this article, we will take a look at the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, and the significance of web standards such as the WCAG 2.0 to this legislation.

The new version of Microsoft SharePoint Server, due for release in November, will feature a significant accessibility update.

The update will ensure that websites and Intranet portals created with the product have the opportunity to comply with the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

When posting documents on web sites, they have to follow the same accessibility requirements that the site does. For example, when the web site needs to comply with Section 508, PDF documents do too. There are a few things which I find are often overlooked when creating accessible PDF documents, in the following you can read about those and ensure that you address those issues as well.

Congratulations to New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo’s office for its announcement this week of a comprehensive accessibility settlement with HSBC Card Services.

The settlement, negotiated by attorney Jeffrey Powell in the Bureau of Consumer Frauds and Protection, addresses web accessibility, alternative formats for visually impaired customers, relay service for deaf and hearing impaired customers, and other important accessibility issues. Under the Agreement, the HSBC web site will satisfy Conformance Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, promulgated by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (w3c) no later than May 31, 2010.

It was a year ago that I taught an accessibility course in South East Asia. Nine blind and visually impaired computer experts and teachers participated. We based the course on WCAG 2.0, which was not yet official at the time. Students who graduated the course has made a great progress towards promoting accessibility in the region. Here I will outline what happened in the last year after the course. If you are not familiar with the project, read the paper I have presented at the CSUN conference in March, 2009.

In many cases we can see web sites linking to a text-only version. Both Section 508 and WCAG allow the use of text-only alternatives, as opposed to making a site accessible by default. While it seems to be very appealing in certain cases in order to take a shortcut to full accessibility, it appears to cause much more trouble than good. Besides, it is also not elective to use a text-only version, it is an option in certain circumstances.