You Are Here: NYS Forum IT Accessibility Committee
September 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
Note: The 'FEATURE ARTICLE' section will return in a future newsletter.
NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING
The next meeting is scheduled for: 9/11, 2:30pm - 4:00pm at the Forum, 411 State Street, Albany, New York
Among the items to be discussed:
- The phenomenal response to the CSS sessions, and what that might mean going forward
- The Webmasters' Guild plans for the coming program year
- Plans for a downstate Introduction to Accessibility session
- Updating the web site
- Validation tool update
UPCOMING EVENTS
White Plains Accessibility session planned
Stay tuned for more information about a session on accessibility downstate. It will be held at 440 Hamilton Avenue in White Plains, probably in October, with the date yet to be determined. Topics will include:
- Introduction to Accessibility: Laws, Policies and Practices
- Experiencing the web as a person with disabilities
- Using the NY State Validation tool
RECENT NEWS
Target, NFB Settlement Announced
On August 27, a settlement was announced in the class action law suit brought against Target by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). The lawsuit claimed that products and pricing available on Target's web site were not available in the bricks-and-mortar Target stores. Because the Target web site was functionally inaccessible to people using screen reading software, web-only offers disadvantaged people with visual impairments using assistive technology.
From the press release: "As part of the settlement, Target will establish a $6 million fund from which members of the California settlement class can make claims. In addition, the National Federation of the Blind will certify the Target Web site through its Nonvisual Accessibility Web Certification program once agreed upon improvements are completed in early 2009. Target and NFB have agreed to a three-year relationship during which NFB will perform accessibility testing of the Target Web site."
For more about this settlement, please refer to http://www.nfbtargetlawsuit.com/ 
.
Two Cheers for the Target/NFB accessibility settlement
http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/2008/two-cheers-for-the-targetnfb-accessibility-settlement/
Presidential Campaign Websites Fail Accessibility & Usability Tests
[SOURCE: International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet]
The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI) is disappointed that Presidential candidates Bob Barr, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ralph Nader, and Barack Obama, have not made their web sites accessible to and usable by all Americans with disabilities.
Examples of accessibility issues from each campaign web site: 1) Obama Web Site -- Form Fields are missing labels. This can confuse users of Assistive Technology and prevent persons from disabilities from knowing what to type into the input fields. 2) McCain Web Site -- Alt Attribute Tags are missing. This means that users of Assistive Technology will not be able to tell what message the image or object is trying to convey. 3) Barr Web Site -- Multimedia presentations are missing captions or transcripts. This means that persons with hearing loss do not know what is being said. 4) Keyes Web Site -- Linked Images are missing Alt Tags or have inappropriate Alt Tags. This means that users of Assistive Technology will not be able to determine the destination of the linked image. 5) Nader Web Site -- Image Map Areas Missing Alt Text. This means that users of Assistive Technology will not be able to determine the destination of the linked image.
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Updated Working Draft Published
The Protocols and Formats Working Group published an updated Working Draft of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). WAI-ARIA defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. WAI-ARIA is introduced in the WAI-ARIA Overview and the WAI-ARIA FAQ. Read the updated WAI-ARIA Specification announcement that requests feedback on host language embedding, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. See http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080806/ for the latest draft.
Research aims to put tongues in control of devices
- By GREG BLUESTEIN
- Associated Press Writer
ATLANTA (AP) -- The tireless tongue already controls taste and speech, helps kiss and swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to add one more ability to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer control pad.
Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard - and tongue into the key that manipulates it all.
"You could have full control over your environment by just being able to move your tongue," said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor who leads the team's research.
The group's Tongue Drive System turns the tongue into a joystick of sorts, allowing the disabled to manipulate wheelchairs, manage home appliances and control computers. The work still has a ways to go - one potential user called the design "grotesque" - but early tests are encouraging.
The system is far from the first that seeks a new way to control electronics through facial movements. But disabled advocates have particularly high hopes that the tongue could prove the most effective.
"This could give you an almost infinite number of switches and options for communication," said Mike Jones, a vice president of research and technology at the Shepherd Center, an Atlanta rehabilitation hospital.
"It's easy, and somebody could learn an entirely different language."
That's quite a contrast to the handful of methods already available to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are disabled from the neck down.
The "sip and puff" technique, which lets people issue commands by inhaling and exhaling into a tube, is among the most popular. But it offers users only four different commands, limiting their options.
Control systems that use sophisticated pads to measure neck and head movements are also widespread, but using the hardware can be tiring, and frustrating on smaller electronics like computers.
And while newer innovations that track eye movement are promising, they can be costly, slow and susceptible to mixed signals.
The tongue, though, is a more flexible, sensitive and tireless option. And like other facial muscles, its functions tend to be spared in accidents that can paralyze most of the rest of the body, because the tongue is attached to the brain, not the spinal cord.
The tongue's promise has long enticed scientists. In the 1960s, research work focused on turning the tongue into a primitive lens by attaching electrodes to the tissue. More recent studies have connected a camera that activates tongue electrodes in the shape of an object, helping blind people sense images.
A Palo Alto, Calif.-based company, newAbilities Systems Inc., has already designed a nine-button keypad placed on the roof of the mouth to control electronics.
Ghovanloo's work, however, centers on creating a virtual keyboard instead of a physical one. He does that through a magnet about 3 millimeters wide that's placed under the tip of the tongue.
The magnet's movement is tracked by sensors on the side of each cheek, which sends data to a receiver atop a rather bulky set of headgear. It is then processed by software that converts the movement into commands for a wheelchair or other electronics.
After turning the system on, users are asked to establish six commands: Left, right, forward, backward, single-click and double-click. A graduate student who tested the technology was cruising the lab at will in a wheelchair, tongue firmly in cheek.
It's an impressive display, and Ghovanloo said he hopes he could one day add dozens more commands that turn teeth into keyboards and cheeks into computer consoles. For example, "Left-up could be turning lights on, right-down could be turning off the TV," Ghovanloo said.
Early tests involving Georgia Tech students are encouraging, and the team's work has already attracted a $120,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and $150,000 from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation.
But plenty of challenges await. Researchers must pare down the bulky headgear, which looks like a prop from a 1980s movie, into a dental retainer. The team also must improve the software, tinker with the size of the magnet and boost the wireless battery's charge.
Above all, they must find a way to keep costs in between the "sip and puff" systems, which can cost hundreds of dollars, to more sophisticated eye-tracking systems, which cost thousands.
Still, the research encourages Justin Cochran, a 26-year-old college student who watched a recent test.
The design certainly needs improvements. "It's in its infancy and quite grotesque," he said. But Cochran said its potential for almost limitless control options makes him want to shelve his "sip and puff" wheelchair.
"You could control not just your chair, your TV, your computer, but your entire life," he said. "And it's all one system."
The Latest on the ADA Amendment Act:
The ADA Amendment Act (formerly known as the ADA Restoration Act) has been passed overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives and is now being considered by the Senate. For up to the date information visit either www.adabill.com OR http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3195
- Here are some excerpts on what the bill does, taken from a summary written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress. The ADA Amendment Act:
- Amends the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 to remove from the definition of "disability" a reference to substantially limiting one or more major life activities.
- Prohibits the consideration of the impact of mitigating measures when determining whether impairment exists
- Defines "record of physical or mental impairment" as having a history of, or having been misclassified as having, a physical or mental impairment.
- Defines "regarded as having a physical or mental impairment" as being perceived or treated as having a physical or mental impairment whether or not the individual has an impairment.
- Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of disability.
- Allows, as a defense to a charge of discrimination, that the individual alleging discrimination is not a qualified individual with a disability.
- Requires that the Act's provisions be broadly construed.
Read more about the bill that is now in the Senate at: http://washlaborwire.com/2008/08/07/sen-harkin-introduces-ada-amendments-act-of-2008-s-3406-in-the-senate/
RESOURCES
Google Chrome Browser
http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=92
State of the eNation Reports - Beijing Olympics Special
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/enation99
Tabular Forms ? Existing Peacefully Together
http://www.onderhond.com/blog/onderhond/tabular-forms