IT Accessibility Committee April 2007 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

Thursday, April 12
Forum Office, 411 State Street
2:30pm - 4:00pm

At this Thursday's IT Accessibility Committee meeting, we'll talk about the evolution of requirements for Executive Order #3, we'll update you on the status of the Validation Tool project, and we'll discuss options for our Committee's presentation at the May Webmasters' Guild meeting.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Webmasters' Guild meeting

Friday, May 4, Empire State Plaza, Museum Theater, 9:00am - 11:30am

The IT Accessibility Committee will be co-sponsoring this session offering information on the technical aspects of Governor Spitzer's Executive Order 3, requiring State agencies to offer video webcasts of public meetings by July. The first half of the session will be a talk on what's required for a successful video webcast implementation, and the second half of the sesion will be a panel presentation representing all aspects of webcasting, including a panelist with captioning experience.

FEATURE ARTICLE

NYS Mandatory Technology Standard 2: Use of Color for the Conveyance of Information

Standard 2 covers two topics: using color coding or in any other way using color as a way to convey information, and providing sufficient foreground/background contrast.

Using Color to Convey Information

A couple of years ago -- back in the age of monochrome-only fax machines -- I received a fax from a now-defunct training vendor, containing a substantial list of available courses, with pricing. At the top of the page was this statement:

"All courses listed in red are half-price!"

A great deal, obviously, but how would I know which courses were discounted, since all courses were printed in black and white?

The training vendor was using color to convey information, and customers receiving the notice via fax were unable to discern that information. The vendor could easily have solved their problem by substituting (or adding) an asterisk or other symbol to mark the bargains.

Color coding probably works well for the 80-90% of your audience with no vision impairment or color-blindness. Just keep in mind that you will need to provide an alternative for those with vision impairments, including those who are color-blind.

Providing Sufficient Foreground/Background Contrast

Most people read via a very complicated process. The eye must recognize a symbol as discernable from its background, make a judgement on the meaning of the pattern, and use that same process over and over again to acquire the letters needed to make up words, sentences, and paragraphs. One key condition for this process to succeed is to recognize a symbol against its background.

In order for that recognition to take place, the color used for the symbol must be different enough from its background for the symbol to be easily perceivable. The color difference described here is referred to as contrast, and insufficient contrast can cause problems for users with visual impairments, as well as those with colorblindness. You can find a handy algorithm-based tool for calculating the difference between colors on the Juicy Studios web site at http://juicystudio.com/services/colourcontrast.php (External Link).

RESOURCES

HTML VALIDATOR (based on Tidy and OpenSP)

A new version of the popular HTML Validator for Firefox is available on the author's web site http://users.skynet.be/mgueury/mozilla/ (External Link). This is a very handy tool, as it also integrates with the View Source option in Firefox.

HTML Validator is a Mozilla extension that adds HTML validation inside Firefox and Mozilla. The number of errors of a HTML page is seen on the form of an icon in the status bar when browsing. The details of the errors are seen when looking the HTML source of the page.

The extension is based on Tidy and OpenSP. Both algorithms were originally developed by the Web Consortium W3C. And now extended and improved by a lot of persons. Both algorithms are embedded inside Mozilla/Firefox and makes the validation locally on your machine, without sending HTML to a third party server.

RECENT NEWS

UN Global Audit of Web Accessibility Results Released

The United Nations contracted the British firm Nomensa to perform web accessibility audits on 100 web sites world wide, testing those sites against the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), Version 1.0. Of that 100, only THREE met the minimum "Single-A," level of accessibility. Among the other findings:

  • 93% did not provide adequate text descriptions for graphical content;
  • 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality;
  • 78% used foreground/background color combinations with poor contrast;
  • 98% did not follow industry web standards for programming code;
  • 97% used fixed units of measurement;
  • 89% failed to use the correct technique for conveying document structure;
  • 87% caused pop-up windows to appear without warning the user;
  • 97% used link text that did not clearly indicate the destination of the link; and
  • 92% did not provide a keyboard shortcut allowing people to bypass large blocks of content.

To read an executive summary or to read the full report, follow the links at http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/gawanomensa.htm (External Link).

Program Aims to Make Technology More Accessible
By Deborah Perelman
From eweek.com, March 27, 2007

According to the World Health Organization, between 750 million and 1 billion of the world's 6 billion people have a speech, vision, mobility, hearing or cognitive disability which can preclude them from using one or many aspects of a traditional computer setup.

Yet it's not only the disabled who have difficulty navigating software and technology; the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that one-quarter of the U.S. population will reach 55 by 2008, and about half will experience a disability after age 65, all of which is expected to create a surge in the modified, accessible-technology market.

Despite these statistics, accessibility concepts are not often taught in the majority of computer science programs, which in turn fail to graduate developers who are ready to accommodate specific needs. A recent survey commissioned by IBM of more than 200, two- and four-year U.S. universities found that the majority of faculty respondents do not teach accessibility in the classroom due to a lack of familiarity with the topic and a shortage of learning materials to incorporate into existing classes.

In an effort to address this, six universities*University of Illinois, California State University at Long Beach, Georgia Tech, University of Toronto and the Rochester Institute of Technology*announced March 23 that they are partnering with IBM to influence college students to learn accessibility concepts early.

"To create a truly inclusive society, all forms of information technology need to be more accessible," said Bonnie Jones of the U.S. Department of Education.

"If we can't do this, people with disabilities land on the wrong side of the digital divide. We have to capture the intelligence and imagination of our next generation of IT developers now."

Professors at these universities plan to develop and share coursework intended to give students the skills to design software to accommodate special needs. The goal is to create a repository of repeatable learning materials that can be incorporated in everyday, computer-programming classes.

"This repository will be an invaluable aid to professors in any institution of higher education teaching technology accessibility. And success of this worldwide repository is dependent on collaboration and participation of professors around the world," said Jon Gunderson, director of Information Technology Accessibility at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.

As a precursor to this initiative, IBM posted material for computer science classes this past fall and launched a contest where students competed to provide software code that would make documents more accessible. Nearly 400 students from 111 universities in Canada, China, Japan and the United States participated.

Amazon.com and National Federation of the Blind Join Forces to Develop and Promote Web Accessibility
Wednesday March 28, 6:00 am ET

BALTIMORE, March 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and Amazon.com announced today that they have agreed to work together to promote and improve technology that enables blind people to access and use the World Wide Web. In a cooperation agreement, Amazon.com pledged its commitment to continue improving the accessibility of its Web site platform, while the NFB committed to contribute its expertise in Web accessibility technologies to help further Amazon.com's efforts.

"Amazon has always looked for ways to provide the most convenient and easy-to-use shopping experience for all our customers, including those who use screen access software," said Patty Smith, director of corporate communications for Amazon.com. "By working directly with the NFB, which has a wealth of accessible technology experience, we'll be able to make more improvements for both our sighted customers and those customers who use screen access software to browse and shop the Internet."

Blind persons access Web sites by using keyboards in conjunction with screen access software, which vocalizes or translates into Braille the visual information displayed on a computer screen by Web browsers and other computer applications. If not designed properly, however, Web sites can present barriers that do not allow the information contained on them to be translated properly for blind users, and emerging Internet technologies are presenting new accessibility challenges.

"The National Federation of the Blind has long been a center of expertise in both developing and implementing access technology to provide the blind with the information and tools we need to integrate successfully into society," said Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind.

"We have developed technologies like the Kurzweil-National Federation of the Blind Reader and NFB-NEWSLINE* that provide the blind with unparalleled access to information, and the staff of our International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind has experience in making Web sites and other technologies more accessible to blind computer users. We look forward to working with the developers at Amazon.com, the leader in innovation in online retail, to perfect techniques and technologies that will make the Internet more accessible for users of assistive technology. We are pleased that an industry leader like Amazon.com is committed to full and equal access for the blind on its Web sites and throughout the e-commerce industry. This cooperation agreement demonstrates to the world that the blind are eager to work with leading Internet companies to improve the online experience for everyone, and also that access for the blind goes hand in hand with continued innovation in Internet technology."

###