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July 2008/August 2008 Newsletter
### Edited by Joel Obuchowski
Articles and ideas for future newsletters? Please e-mail them to Debi Orton dorton@goer.state.ny.us and Joel Obuchowski jobuchow@ins.state.ny.us
NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING
It's VACATION TIME! Meetings for this committee will resume September 11, 2008.
The next newsletter will be released in early September providing more details.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Keep your eyes open the announcement of the NYS Forum's Annual Meeting.
FEATURE ARTICLE
We've changed our Committee site NYS Policy and Standard section http://www.nysforum.org/accessibility/resources/nyspolicy/index.html with a link to the new Policy and Standard, as well as a link to our commentary http://www.nysforum.org/accessibility/resources/nyspolicy/2008-update-bulletin.html on the changes.
RECENT NEWS
Revised OFT IT Accessibility Policy and Standard Published
OFT has issued an updated Policy and Standard on Accessibility for NYS agency web sites, effective August 1. We will be highlighting the modifications to the standard and policy in an upcoming article for our newsletter, but in the meantime, you can review the new policy and standard at http://www.oft.state.ny.us/Policy/indexa.htm 
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We are also working with OFT to update the best practice guidelines, and will provide an informational seminar on the changes in the near future.
Web-based program gives the blind Internet access
- By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP, Associated Press Writer
- Wed Jul 16, 4:19 PM ET
Blind people generally use computers with the help of screen-reader software, but those products can cost more than $1,000, so they're not exactly common on public PCs at libraries or Internet cafes. Now a free new Web-based program for the blind aims to improve the situation.
It's called WebAnywhere, and it was developed by a computer science graduate student at the University of Washington. Unlike software that has to be installed on PCs, WebAnywhere is an Internet application that can make Web surfing accessible to the blind on most any computer.
The developer, Jeffrey Bigham, hopes it lets blind people check a flight time on a public computer at the airport, plan a bus route at the library or type up a quick e-mail at an Internet cafe.
To get WebAnywhere running, a blind person has to manage to get online, which can be complicated on a computer not already set up to give verbal feedback. But Bigham's research found that Web-savvy blind people often know plenty of keyboard tricks and when to ask for help.
Once online, a blind Web surfer can use the WebAnywhere browser, which can link to and then read out loud any page - as long as the computer has speakers or a headphone jack. The program can skip around the section titles, tab through charts or read the page from top to bottom.
WebAnywhere could benefit from some tweaking but it's a big improvement over a total lack of public access, says Lindsay Yazzolino, a blind Brown University student who has a summer job at the University of Washington.
Yazzolino, 19, would like to see a better search function and fewer keystrokes required for navigation around Web pages, but she loves the fact that the program is free.
Bigham says he hopes others will make improvements to his program, which is open-source to invite tinkering. He doesn't have a personal connection to the issue of computer accessibility - except through his fellow students who are blind - but recognizes the area as wide open for programmers.
His faculty adviser, professor Richard Ladner, hopes a commercial search engine will adopt WebAnywhere as a module. Ladner's next dream is for Web developers to keep blind people in mind when they design their pages - a change that could make information easier for everyone to find.
On the Net: http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu
Legislation Would Require Accessibility for New Internet-Enabled Telephone and Television Services
(From Government Technology (http://www.govtech.com ))
- June 23, 2008, News Report
- Found in: Health and Community Services
Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA) and Heather Wilson (R-NM) have introduced "The 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008" (H.R. 6320). According to The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT), the bill would amend the Communications Act to ensure that new Internet-enabled telephone and television services are accessible to and usable by people with disabilities and closes existing gaps in telecommunications laws.
The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA), Hilda Solis (D-CA) and Barney Frank (D-MA). The bill includes the following specific measures:
- Communications Access:
- Requires access to phone-type equipment and services used over the Internet.
- Adds improved accountability and enforcement measures for accessibility, including a clearinghouse and reporting obligations by providers and manufacturers.
- Requires telephone products used with the Internet to be hearing-aid compatible.
- Allows use of Lifeline and Link-up universal service funds (USF) for broadband services.
- Allocates up to $10 million/year from USF for equipment used by people who are deaf-blind.
- Clarifies the scope of relay services to include calls between and among people with disabilities and require Internet-based service providers to contribute to the Interstate Relay Fund.
- Video Programming Access
- Requires decoder circuitry in all video programming devices.
- Extends the closed captioning obligations to television-type video programming distributed over the Internet: covers programming that would otherwise be covered by the FCC's captioning rules, not user-generated content.
- Requires easy access to closed captions via remote control, on-screen menus.
- Requires easy access by blind people to television controls and program selection menus.
- Restores video description rules and requires access to televised emergency programming for people who are blind or have low vision.
The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, or COAT, which was launched in March 2007, is a coalition of over 200 national and local organizations that advocates for full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and Internet protocol (IP) technologies.
RESOURCES
Accessibility Testing - CIO/OFT
CIO/OFT offers accessibility/usability testing of state agency web content by a screen reader user.
If you are developing or redesigning a public-facing web site or web application, you can make sure that your content will be usable by people with visual impairments. This testing is free of charge.
To request content testing, send requests to Shelley.Teahan@oft.state.ny.us and Darlene.Wood@oft.state.ny.us.
Aaron Cannon's Web Accessibility Checklist
http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2008/06/web_accessibility_checklist/
The Accessibility Checklist I Vowed I'd Never Write
Center for Democracy and Technology - IT Policy Posts
http://www.cdt.org/publications/policyposts/
The Disability Divide in Internet Access and Use
http://www.webuse.org/file?id=disability-divide
Easy-to-use Flickr and YouTube
http://www.webstandards.org/2008/06/19/easy-to-use-flickr-and-youtube/
hAccessibility redux?
http://www.webstandards.org/2008/06/23/haccessibility-redux/
RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) Surf Right Toolbar - beta version available
http://www.rnib.org.uk/wacblog/news/rnib-surf-right-toolbar-beta-version-available/
Universally Designed - "Knowbility blogs about technology that everyone can use"
http://universallydesigned.net/