Fwd: [Moderator Action] Re: thesis up on the web (fwd)

Forwarding message from Audrey Gorman:

>From: "AUDREY GORMAN" <agorman@wowway.com>
>To: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>,
>         WAI EO <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>
>Cc: w3c-wai-eo-request@w3.org, Kathryn Ann Clancy <kac@deakin.edu.au>
>Old-Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 11:25:42 -0600
>Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 12:24:37 -0500 (EST)
>
>
>Thanks, Chaals! A brief skimming showed me that the issues were closely
>parallel to those at the American Library Association and other organizations
>I've worked with on this issue. Thanks to Kat for tackling the topic.
>
>For me, this underlines the importance of emphsizing broad accessibility and
>usability and not limiting people's attention to people with disabilities. My
>approach has morphed in the following ways:
>(1) do mini-audits of web sites and talk about both WCAG compliance and
>business factors, especially simple things like good alt tags and search
>engines, as well as a few usability examples;
>(2) use short, compelling handouts that outline the percentage of people with
>disabilities (over 20% in the US) and the relative percentage of hidden
>disabilties, then mention how the same solutions can help people with
>literacy issues, people who's native language is not the dominant one, and
>many others;
>(3) mix examples of inaccessibility, using a lot relevant to people with
>disabilities, since a lot of the solutions came about as a result of paying
>attention to them, but adding examples from other groups as well, including
>people who don't have up-to-the-minute hardware and software.
>
>I miss the weekly teleconferences, and hope to participate again in the
>future.
>
>Regards!
>Audrey
>
>--
>WOW! Homepage (http://www.wowway.com)
>
>
>---------- Original Message -----------
>From: Charles McCathieNevile <charles@w3.org>
>To: WAI EO <w3c-wai-eo@w3.org>
>Cc: Kathryn Ann Clancy <kac@deakin.edu.au>
>Sent: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:06:57 -0500 (EST)
>Subject: thesis up on the web (fwd)
>
> > This might be of interest to the education and outreach group.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> > Chaals
> >
> > Charles McCathieNevile  http://www.w3.org/People/Charles  tel: +61
> > 409 134 136 SWAD-E http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe
> >  fax(france): +33 4 92 38 78 22 Post:   21 Mitchell street,
> >  FOOTSCRAY Vic 3011, Australia    or W3C, 2004 Route des Lucioles,
> > 06902 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 11:16:27 +1100
> > From: Kathryn Ann Clancy <kac@deakin.edu.au>
> > To: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
> > Subject: thesis up on the web
> > Resent-Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 19:16:35 -0500 (EST)
> > Resent-From: w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
> >
> > I have recently undertaken and completed an honours thesis in the
> > area of Web accessibility and thought that it might be of interest
> > to the people on this mailing list.
> >
> > The Abstract is as follows:
> > The World Wide Web has opened up many doors for people with disabilities.
> > However advances in technology, such as multimedia and graphic intensive
> > Web sites, are now starting to erode these benefits of the World
> > Wide Web for people with disabilities. Primarily this is due to
> > designers creating their Web sites in such a fashion which does not
> > make them accessible to people with disabilities.
> >
> > Research to date has not specifically examined the factors that
> > impede and propel an organisation to adopt Web accessibility.
> > Therefore, the primary objective of this research study is to
> > identify these factors. A single case study of Web accessibility was
> > adopted. The case study involves focusing on a Government
> > organisation that develops Web sites aimed at an educational audience.
> >
> > An analysis of the case was accomplished and a series of recommendations
> > were generated as the findings. The results of the research
> > demonstrated that the case study organisation has many issues that
> > impede and propel the adoption of Web accessibility within the
> > organisation. Many of these issues were not mentioned in the
> > existing literature and as a result a set of recommendations to
> > overcome the factors impeding the adoption of Web accessibility were
> > identified and discussed.
> >
> > In summary, this thesis investigates the reasons behind the failure
> > to adopt Web accessibility and a series of recommendations
> > specifically intended for the case study organisation were developed.
> >
> > The whole article can be found at
> > http://www.flatface.net/~browncouch/bit/upload/thesiskat.pdf
> >
> > I know this is in pdf at the moment, I intend to change this to HTML
> > asap, but I'm currently working, unfortunately in an area where my
> > web accessibility knowledge is not being used!
> >
> > --Kat
> >
> > Kathryn Clancy
> > BIT Honours
> > 0425796383
> > http://www.deakin.edu.au/~kac
>------- End of Original Message -------

-- 
Judy Brewer    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/CSAIL Room NE43-355, 200 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Thursday, 22 January 2004 16:49:08 UTC