Accessibility News

Google has launched a new experiment aimed at improving the accessibility of its search results for blind and partially-sighted web users.

The opt-in experiment, Accessible View, allows users to navigate through Google listings by only using the keyboard and is based on World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications, as well as the Google-AxsJAX HTML DOM properties for AJAX-style applications.

In a joint statement, Royal National Institute of the Blind (UK) and BarrierBreak Technologies today announced to bring to Mumbai Techshare - Europe’s biggest
technology event to promote accessibility and assistive technology for people with disabilities. Techshare India 2008, will be held in Mumbai on Tuesday,
4th November, 2008 on the premises of Ali Yavar Jung National Institute For The Hearing Handicapped, Bandra (West), Mumbai.

In a first of it’s kind activity in Mumbai, Techshare India 2008 will highlight the importance of implementing accessibility standards and complying to
different accessibilities laws. Techshare India 2008 will also showcase IT products and services that will allow visitors to browse through the latest in assistive technologies available. It will showcase the role of technology in the lives of people with disabilities, looking not just at web accessibility but also software accessibility and accessibility on the move for mobiles and PDAs.

-- 21 October 2008 -- The World Wide Web Consortium, the leading organization that develops Web standards, is holding its annual
Technical Plenary week near its European host site in France.

More than 350 software engineers, developers, and other experts in a wide range of technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, Mobile Web, Semantic Web, and Video in the Web, come together to address a variety of challenges in the development of Web standards. Through joint meetings, panels, and "hallway discussions," participants build shared understanding of these challenges, an important step in the design of standards that ensure that the Web remains open, interoperable,
and accessible for all people. W3C thanks Nokia, whose generous support as a Platinum Sponsor
has helped make this meeting possible.

Governments still have far to go in improving levels of accessibility and making government Web sites easier to find if they want to increase the efficiency of e-government, according to a new draft report from independent research and policy institute Brookings.

And Web designers should consider making available, or improving, foreign language versions of their Web sites to ensure government is accessible to all citizens and to interested foreigners.

The Australian Human Rights Commission has, this week, added a publicly available WebWatch list on its website where government websites that post material that is inaccessible to people with disabilities will be named as they come to the Commission’s attention.

The issue of website accessibility could be thrown into the spotlight in the UK following the settlement of a case in the US, it has been claimed.

Retailer Target was sued by a group of disabled web users who could not use the company's website with their usual screen-reading software.

Target will pay $6 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the retail giant's website of breaking US anti-discrimination laws. Blind individuals in California
can claim up to $7,000 each if they tried to use Target.com and encountered barriers.

The class action, which was led by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), ended on Wednesday without any admission of wrongdoing by Target.

In recent years, the Internet has become a digital commons of commerce and education. However, accessibility standards have often been overlooked online,
and the digital equivalents to curb-cuts and other physical accommodations have only rarely been implemented to serve those with print disabilities. (A
print disability can be a learning disability, a visual impairment, or a physical disability. Individuals diagnosed with a print disability cannot access
print in the standard way).

TORONTO — A Toronto businesswoman who has been blind since birth is girding for battle with Ottawa over what she alleges is the federal government's failure
to make its systems for filing job applications online accessible to the visually impaired.

Donna Jodhan, president of Toronto-based Sterling Creations - a company that works with institutions to ensure that their software can be accessed by those with special needs - has been applying for positions with federal government departments since 2001.

The blossoming of multimedia content on the Internet in recent years has revolutionised personal interactions, business communications, and other online services. But for millions of Internet users with sensory disabilities, many of the communication tools remain frustratingly out of their reach.

Businesses could be missing out on a significant market if they do not ensure their websites are accessible for disabled users, an expert has said.

Graham Charlton, a researcher for
E-consultancy, noted that there are about 8.5 million disabled people living in the UK, with 3.5 million unable to make use of a traditional keyboard.

IBM has launched a new initiative that it hopes will vastly improve the web browsing experience for visually impaired users. The Social Accessibility Project is a service that aims to make web pages more accessible for screen readers without altering the code of the page, the software for which is available in beta form today through IBM's AlphaWorks. If enough people participate in the project, then IBM's software could become integral to blind users' everyday surfing.

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group and the WAI Education and Outreach Working Group invite you to comment on the following updated draft technical report published 3 July 2008:
* Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Draft

There have been some confusing messages coming out recently regarding changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). WebAIM readers may want additional information so they can provide comments and feedback on an issue that continues to be conspicuously absent from the ADA, namely the Internet.

On June 17, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued proposals to adopt new design standards for facilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) based on revised
guidelines previously issued by the Access Board. Under the ADA, DOJ is responsible for maintaining standards for new construction and alterations that are consistent with the Board's guidelines. DOJ's standards apply to the construction and alteration of all facilities covered by the ADA except transportation facilities, which are subject to standards maintained by the Department of Transportation (DOT).

An umbrella specification for website standards, including references to usability and accessibility standards, has been published by the British Standards
Institution. The Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 124, entitled ‘Defining, implementing and managing website standards,’ covers 11 separate categories of website
quality, of which accessibility and usability are two. It was commissioned from the BSi by website content management software provider Magus.

Ecuador today became the twentieth country to ratify the landmark Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is now set to enter into force on 3 May. The Convention needed 20 ratifications to take effect.

An increasing amount of research showing that large numbers of staff with dyslexia and other disabilities can benefit from assistive technology mean that
public sector bodies face the likelihood of legal action this year or next under the Disability Discrimination Act, a leading analyst said this month.