- From: Jamal Mazrui <empower@smart.net>
- Date: Wed, 09 Sep 1998 11:45:02 -0600
- To: <webwatch-l@teleport.com>, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>, <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>, <basr-l@trace.wisc.edu>, <easi@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>, <vicug-l@maelstrom.stjohns.edu>, <blindtlk@nfbnet.org>
From the web page (available by subscription)
http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB90528991921645500.htm
Blind Web Users Campaign
To 'See' More of Cyberspace
By NICK WINGFIELD
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE EDITION
A blind teacher from Portland, Ore., Kelly Ford navigates
the Web using
special "screen reader" software that dictates text from
Web sites, word
processors and other applications. But graphics and
elaborate Web-page
layouts routinely gum up the dictation.
"You're looking at a Web site through what I like to call a
soda straw,"
says Mr. Ford, adding: "If you're blind, man, the interface
ain't meant for
you."
For many people with disabilities, the race to put
newspapers, references,
catalogs and chat lines on the Web stirred the promise of
access to a wave
of new information. But as the Web's design gets more
complex, disabled
Web surfers are growing worried that too many sites are
shutting them out.
Jay Leventhal, a resource specialist at the American
Foundation for the
Blind in New York who is blind himself, tried going on-line
for his account
information but says most of the home-banking sites don't
work with his
screen reader. "They're some of the worst," he says.
Geoff Freed, project manager of the Web-access project at
WGBH, a
Boston public-television station, estimates from his
peregrinations around
the Web that less than 1% of sites have acted to make their
pages
accessible to the disabled.
Simple Changes
Activists for the disabled say the design changes required
to make a Web
site accessible are simple: Alternative text versions of
the site, with written
descriptions of photographs, informational graphics and
image maps, are
helpful for the blind. Allowing control of a page's font
size aids other
visually impaired users.
Captions for Internet audio files are crucial for the deaf
and the dyslexic,
while subtle modifications can make it easier for users
with other physical
disabilities to navigate a Web page using voice-control
software or a
keyboard instead of a mouse.
"It's not hard to do," says Phil Santoro, a spokesman for
Big Yellow, an
Internet directory service operated by Bell Atlantic Corp.
Revamping the
site to make it accessible for the disabled was simple
enough, he adds, that
Big Yellow didn't bother researching how many of its users
were actually
disabled.
Frustrated blind users are also getting relief from on-line
companies that
don't use the Web: One company in Vancouver, British
Columbia, General
Store International Corp., plans to give disabled customers
a free
television set-top computer with screen-reader software so
they can shop
for groceries from a CD-ROM catalog.
When the sites work well, they can be
invaluable boons for people with
disabilities.
Mr. Ford says that digital versions of
print
publications enable him to indulge a
passion
for sports news without relying on
someone to
read the paper to him.
'Awe and Wonder'
"I cannot explain to you the awe and wonder the first time
I could read a
paper on-line," says Mr. Ford, who runs an e-mail list
focusing on
blindness issues and the Internet. "All my life I could
never read the
newspaper."
Web accessibility has some big-name backers. Microsoft
Corp. has
devoted a full-time staff to incorporating
disability-friendly features into its
software. The Redmond, Wash., software giant's
accessibility program
dates back to 1988, when the company was contacted by the
Trace
Center, a research and development group at the University
of Wisconsin,
Madison, about making its Windows 2.0 operating system
easier for
disabled people to use.
Accessible Sites
How do you make a Web site accessible to the disabled? Some
tips from the
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative:
Provide alternative text for images
Provide text equivalents for audio information
Ensure that text and graphics are perceivable when
viewed without
color
Format tables so they can be understood by
text-to-speech or
Braille software
Source: W3C www.w3.org/WAI
But Microsoft's track record on accessibility has been
mixed. Last year,
the company touted a host of new accessibility features in
the new version
of its Web browser, Internet Explorer 4.0. But the
redesigned browser
didn't work with an older set of programming hooks in
Windows, known
as Active Accessibility, that had improved the way screen
readers worked
with other applications.
The Explorer problems annoyed many blind users, who were
further irked
when Microsoft released an upgrade to the browser that
contained other
glitches. "It was really a major problem, and Microsoft
didn't do a good
job on that," admits Greg Lowney, Microsoft's director of
accessibility.
"That was a real disappointment, especially for people in
the blind
community. They really let us know that."
Top Priority
Microsoft took notice. In February, the company hosted an
accessibility
day at its headquarters, where Chairman Bill Gates
reassured an audience
of disability experts and others that accessibility was a
top priority. The
company also expanded its disability design team and
appointed Mr.
Lowney director of the program.
Microsoft's struggles with Internet Explorer highlight a
chronic problem for
disabilities activists: the unforeseen glitches caused by
constant software
upgrades. But another problem is making site operators
aware that they
are shutting out the disabled.
Mr. Lowney says part of his mission at Microsoft is to
convince
programmers that not everyone is like them. "One of the
greatest sources
of problems is that designers of Web sites and applications
are often young
people whose eyesight is 20-20 and who have dexterous
fingers," he says.
"If they like the mouse, they think everyone else does."
(The Wall Street
Journal Interactive Edition provides textual descriptions
of graphics and a
text-only table of contents that simplifies navigation for
blind users.)
In 1996, the U.S. Justice Department stated that the
Americans with
Disabilities Act, a groundbreaking law requiring government
and other
public facilities to make themselves accessible to the
disabled, may apply
to the Internet. To some, that has raised the possibility
that disabled users
could sue Web site operators who fail to make that site
accessible.
Scott Marshall, vice president for governmental relations
at the American
Foundation for the Blind, says there is still so much
ambiguity surrounding
the relevance of the ADA and other laws to cyberspace that
he doubts
whether they would provide much aid in court.
---------------------------------------
Nick Wingfield
Reporter
Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition
Direct: 415-765-6102
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End of Document
Received on Wednesday, 9 September 1998 11:45:51 UTC