Re: FYI - Newsbytes

Right--the final article is at
http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/128454.html. The version of the article
posted previously on this list was not the reporter's finished copy. It
should not have been posted here.

Please send URL's of articles wherever possible.

Judy

At 05:55 PM 3/25/99 -0500, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>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
>
----------
Judy Brewer    jbrewer@w3.org    +1.617.258.9741    http://www.w3.org/WAI
Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) International Program Office
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
MIT/LCS Room NE43-355, 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA,  02139,  USA

Received on Thursday, 25 March 1999 18:30:20 UTC