Accessibility resource meta data and preferences

On the WAI-PF call, today, we discussed the need for standardized
accessibility meta data regarding web resources and corresponding
accessibility preferences that defined what the resources needed to do to
support accessibility. For example, I might be a mashup site where I am
aggregating resources (flash movies, HTML web pages, RSS feeds, etc.) from
a variety of resources. AOL, Google, and news sites do this today. In these
scenarios  a user may want to specifiy that all movies have closed
captioning in English as I am a deaf English speaking person. A Flash movie
resource I am pulling into my site could describe whether it meets the
needs and, if not, where there is an alternative that meets those needs to
be used instead.

These issues are being addressed in the IMS Global Learning Consortium
Accessibility Special Interests Group, for which I am a member, and have
synergy with some of the efforts going on in the device indepencence
working group. In the learning community it has been generally agreed that
not everyone is an accessibility expert in enabling an application and
perhaps the right thing to do is provide an alternative resource or ensure
that the one provided can be adapted in some way such as the resource
supports styling for high contrast for low vision users.

I would like to point people to this URL:
http://imsglobal.org/accessibility/

Going forward, I believe there is synergy in the work we are doing here and
what IMS is doing and we should consider working together in defining a
strategy that can address individuals needs across situational contexts.

Cheers,

Rich


Rich Schwerdtfeger
Distinguished Engineer, SWG Accessibility Architect/Strategist
Chair, IBM Accessibility Architecture Review  Board
blog: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/schwer