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NYS Forum IT Accessibility Committee

May 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

Meeting Date: May 8, 2008 (Thursday)
When: 2:30pm - 4:00pm
Where: Forum Offices, 411 State Street, Albany NY

Among the items for discussion:

Forum changes
Validation Tool - continuation plans beyond January 2009 Training issues suggested by the results May 15th training outlines
Other training requests

NOTE: If you'd like to use the conference call option, please let Debi know as soon as possible so that arrangements can be made.

Map and Directions? Location link (via Mapquest.com):
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?searchtype=address&country=US&addtohistory=&searchtab=home&formtype=address&popflag=0&latitude=&longitude=&name=&phone=&level=&cat=&address=411+State+Street&city=Albany&state=ny&zipcode= (External Link)

UPCOMING EVENTS

SAVE THE DATE!

Governor's Assistive Technology Expo - 10th Anniversary!

Governor David A. Patterson, a nationally-recognized advocate for persons with visual and physical impairments, will be welcoming attendees at TECHNOLOGY OPENS DOORS, The New York State Governor's Expo on Assistive Technology, to be held on Thursday, May 15, 2008 at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany, New York.

At the Expo, hundreds of exhibits and workshops on assistive devices and services will be showcased.

To register for the AT Expo, visit http://atexpo2008.com/ (External Link).

In addition, the NYS Forum's award-winning IT Accessibility Committee will present a series of tutorials on of accessible website development.

A.M. Session: NYS Accessibility Policy and Standards and the NYS Forum Validation Tool
P.M. Session: Accessible Web 2.0

To register for either event, see http://www.nysforum.org/events/webaccessibility-5-15-08/

Proactive Web Compliance Within Your Content Management System; Presentation example Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS2007).

Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Time: 2:00 PM (ET) / 11:00 AM (PT)
Duration: 45 minutes
Audience: New York State Agencies

Description: Learn how you can proactively address your Web compliance, policies and standards to your content management system (CMS). We will discuss HiSoftware's end-to-end Web governance solutions for Content Management Systems. This includes the introduction to new testing solutions that will assist administrators, developers, content authors, content testers, workflow managers, and the audit and review process for you internet and intranet. To provide an example of HiSoftware's end to end Web governance, the presentation will include a demonstration of HiSofware's Compliance Sheriff Server integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS2007).

To register for this event: http://www.hisoftware.com/events/cmswebinar.html (External Link)

RECENT NEWS

"W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 is now a Recommendation"

On April 30, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) issued a long-debated set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 2.0, as a formal Recommendation, which in W3C terms means that this is now the W3C's accessibility standard. For those of you who follow standards, the WCAG 2.0 has been a "final draft" since 2004, and its lack of practical implementation device was part of the reason New York State adopted its own hybrid standard.

http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/CR-WCAG20-20080430/ (External Link)

For highlighted excerpts of the specification, please select from these two links:
"Understanding WCAG 2.0" http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20080430/ (External Link)
"Techniques for WCAG 2.0" http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20080430/ (External Link)

"A browser for all seasons?"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cmp/20080425/tc_cmp/207401960;_ylt=ApqF8JQyFgsfQvmITLyQ5AQE1vAI (External Link)

"Blind users still struggle with 'maddening' computing obstacles"
From Computerworld

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/3141804/345182/108714/2/ (External Link)

FEATURE ARTICLE

Standard 11

11.1 Audio
State agencies will provide synchronized text captions for multimedia content containing speech, or other audio necessary to understand the content, in accordance with the following schedule:
NOTE: a. and b. refer to deadlines that have already passed.
c. By January 1, 2009, 50 percent of all multimedia content containing speech, or other audio, will be captioned.
d. For all multimedia content containing speech a transcript will be provided until a synchronized text caption is made available according to the schedule.
11.2 Video/Visual
State agencies will provide a video description for multimedia content that contains video, or other visual information necessary for the understanding of the content, in accordance with the following schedule:
NOTE: a. and b. refer to deadlines that have already passed.
c. By January 1, 2009, 50 percent of all multimedia content containing video, or other visual information necessary for the understanding of the content, will include a video description.
11.3 Web Cast
All state agency web casts will have synchronized captioning of the speech, or other audio content contained in the web cast, in accordance with the following schedule:
NOTE: a. and b. refer to deadlines that have already passed.
c. By January 1, 2009, 50 percent of all live web cast hours residing on the web site will include captioning.

Discussion: The ultimate goal of this standard is to provide multi-media content with more than one means to access the information being presented.

For audio content, provide a text transcript so that those with hearing impairments will be able to access the information.

For video content, provide text captions that are synchronized with the audio track so that those with hearing impairments can access the information. If the video is being used to provide information via a visual demonstration, you should also provide a descriptive audio track for those with visual impairments.

Please note also that the webcasts governed by 11.3 DO NOT include webcasts of open meetings, which are governed by Executive Order 3 and must be captioned within 7 days of the event.

RESOURCES

Thanks to Mike Hritcko of NYSIF for these submissions.

Stop using Ajax!

http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/stop-using-ajax/ (External Link)

Open Data and Accessibility ("Live Blogging" notes written by Jeremy Keith at the "Accessibility 2.0: A Million Flowers Bloom" conference.)

http://adactio.com/journal/1458 (External Link)

SharePoint & Accessibility

http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2008/sharepoint-and-web-accessibility/ (External Link)