Re: Accessibility and Web Standards

From: "John Colby" <john.colby@btinternet.com>

| I asked round at work (a software house) and found that the
| term was not understood as I had hoped, so opted for a small straw
| poll. I mailed an archaeological mailing list of which I'm a member,
| because I thought that here was a fairly interested net savvy bunch
| of people, with the following:


I am not surprised, my first short term independent contract agreement
was with a professor working with digital media. He used Jaws and could
not see at all, yet has been working on the Internet and with the
Internet as well as teaching specialized topics in business for years.
He was not fully aware of what accessibility is or how to make things
work.

Accessibility includes access of information or content to a wider
variety of users with various means of accessing the information,
including but not limited to: motor, cognition, hearing, and vision.
Care needs to be taken when focussing on access issues that we are aware
of the other cases or situations. Why? Because some focus either leaves
out other groups, or even makes it harder for other groups, unless we
are careful when we use these items or when we may decide to take some
items out. [multimedia and graphics may be paramount to understanding
content for those with cognitive or even motor challenges.]. I do
believe average populations and more benefit from charts, graphs,
diagrams, table structures, and visual examples.

Increasing awareness is also part of the design/development specialists
job.


| QUOTE
|
| I'm writing about accessibility. I need some opinions - you will not
| be quoted, I just need to clarify my understanding. Would you be kind
| enough to give me (off list to avoid clutter to
| mailto:john.colby@btinternet.com) your FIRST reaction to the
| following:
|
| 1) If a website is accessible, what does it mean?
|
| 2) If a museum display is accessible, what does that mean?

[*] The Dayton Art Institute and Access Art [one of the first I am aware
of]
an accessibly enhanced online art museum [nice examples of how it can be
done - multimedia to textual content and alternatives]
http://tours.daytonartinstitute.org/accessart/
http://tours.daytonartinstitute.org/accessart/access.cfm [overview of
how it is done]


| I received 27 responses in an eight hour period. (that's about 7% of
the
| list) This is an analysis:
|
| Question 1 (Website accessibility)
|
| 7 people gave an answer that in some way or another reasonably well
| defined accessibility as it is defined by WAI, 2 of these saying that
| Bobby compliance was a necessity. Only one person mentioned WAI by
| name.
|
| 2 people gave partial answers to the above question.
|
| 1 person gave examples of web standards compliant code without
| mentioning visual or other handicap.
|
| Question 2 (Museum accessibility)
|
| 13 mentions of physical or visual disability
|
| 11 mentions (some the same people above) that to be accessible the
| display should be intellectually accessible.
|
| My first conclusion (and these are only from this limited straw poll)
| is that although accessibility is in some way understood, its not
| applied in the same way to electronic access as it is to physical
| access among this group.
|
| My second thoughts concern the use of the term accessible - and the
| task we have in promoting improved accessibility as a natural
| consequence of adopting web standards. How should it be explained?
| I'm using examples such as braille readers, speech devices, internet
TV
| and mobile devices in my teaching and hoping that people will
understand.

It helps to try these items out while visiting web sites, especially
sites with many pages containing information about products or services.
It is helpful also to visit web sites with detailed forms.

I think the active demonstration imprints a message and highlights the
challenges of how our content works for others.
Try this in various ways:
With the monitor off and listening, navigating with a screen
reader.[visual]
Without a mouse, navigate and use a web site[some that are familiar with
keyboard shortcuts will have less trouble][motor/some cognitive groups]
But also try this using one hand or one finger only[motor]
Some people access the web with specialized keys because they cannot
press two keys a the same time[ctrl + shift + key is nearly impossible
otherwise or key combinations across the keyboard is difficult, too]
Some use a stick or mouth stick to access a web site.

I think active demonstration is a good way. Also remember that the
Internet opens up access for those that may be homebound or unable to
access information in other ways. From their own computers they have the
opportunity to access a variety of content and are students, users, and
consumers, too.

http://www.webaim.org  A nice collection of simulations, examples,
articles, and demonstrations regarding a variety of access topics. There
are how-to pieces, links to resources, explanations of the WAI
priorities, law, etc. A good web site to recommend to those interested
in accessibility and delivery of content.

holly

Received on Wednesday, 10 July 2002 07:28:11 UTC