Re: FYI - Newsbytes

Actually a much better written article (but with no URIs of any sort) is
available at http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/128454.html

Charles McCN

On Thu, 25 Mar 1999 Lovey@aol.com wrote:

  Group Pushes Improved Web Access for Disabled                 
                           (Newsbytes; 03/25/99)                         
  
   TRENTON, NEW JERSEY, 1999 MAR 25 (Newsbytes) -- By Laura Randall, Newsbytes. 
  Web sites should make themselves accessible to visually impaired people
  before 
  anti-discrimination challenges arise in conjunction with the Americans with 
  Disabilities Act, warns a group that promotes access for people with 
  disabilities.
  
    Trenton, N.J.-based Disabilities Information Resources (DINF) has stepped
  up 
  its campaign to encourage Web sites to use software designed to translate 
  written content and graphics into speech for people who are blind or have 
  dyslexia or other vision problems.
  
    "We like to think this is not intentional discrimination, but it would make 
  more sense to address this before any problems arise," DINF spokesman Phil
  Hall 
  told Newsbytes.
  
    Web sites still appear to be cautious when it comes to implementing the 
  accessibility tools that are available.
  
    "It s on our radar screen. It seems like something we would ethically
  want to 
  do," Jeff  Thomas, director of marketing at iSyndicate, a San Francisco-based 
  content syndication service provider, told Newsbytes. "The short-term
  answer is 
  we aren t doing anything now. The long-term answer is it s definitely
  something 
  we d want to consider."
  
    The software is designed specifically to interact with the information on
  the 
  Web pages and translate the information into speech. The user may navigate 
  through the structure of a document based on its contents, paragraphs and 
  sentences, rather than having to deal with scrolling and interpreting a 
  structured screen display.
  
    More information on accessibility can be found on http://www.prodworks.com, 
  http://www.ibm.com and http://www.lynx.browser.org.
  
    The cost of pwWebSpeak Plus, a Web browser that translates content into 
  speech, is $150.
  
    Other sites offering information on improving Web accessibility to the 
  disabled are: the W3C HTML Validation Service at http://validator.w3.org, the 
  Bobby accessibility rating tool at http://www.cast.org/bobby , and the W3C
  Web 
  Authoring Guidelines for Accessibility at http:/www.w3.org/TR-WD-WA1-PAGEAUTH.
  
    Reported by Newsbytes News Network, http://www.newsbytes.com
  

--Charles McCathieNevile            mailto:charles@w3.org
phone: +1 617 258 0992   http://www.w3.org/People/Charles
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative    http://www.w3.org/WAI
MIT/LCS  -  545 Technology sq., Cambridge MA, 02139,  USA

Received on Thursday, 25 March 1999 17:55:59 UTC