Re: Accessible chat software

The Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD)
is working on development of accessible IRC chat software to invite
deaf-blind users to "the real time caption service of TV broadcasting on the
net".

"The real time caption service of TV broadcasting on the net" is an
achievement of the disabilities community in Japan as a result of the
revision of the Copyright Law in 2000.  Information Centers for the Deaf and
JSRPD are officially entitled to distribute the real time caption of the TV
program through IRC chat.

If we could develop accessible IRC chat system for deaf-blind people, they
may extend their currently most limited real-time information sources.
I strongly suggest to include "accessible chat software development" as one
of the target issues of WAI.

Hiroshi
-----
Hiroshi Kawamura (JSRPD)
Director
Information Center/JSRPD
hkawa@attglobal.net
Tel: +81(0)3-5909-8280
Fax:+81(0)3-5909-8284

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kynn Bartlett" <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
To: "Charles McCathieNevile" <charles@w3.org>
Cc: "David Clark" <david@davidsaccess.com>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Monday, February 05, 2001 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: Accessible chat software


> At 02:03 AM 2/4/2001 , Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
> >Hi Dave,
> >have you thought about using IRC? There are a lot of clients available on
> >different systems. Do other people have experience with trying to use
IRC?
>
> I'd second this; I looked into the issue several years ago and
> the benefit of using IRC is that it's been around a long time and
> it's relatively non-proprietary.  This means that there have been
> people with disabilities successfully (to varying degrees) using
> IRC for quite some time, and it also avoids the problem with most
> chat systems of having to relearn the entire system for each site
> you visit.
>
> I'm not saying it's a perfect solution, but since there are few if
> any standards for interactive chat, and no known accessible standards,
> it may be the best we can do today.
>
> Hey, there's a question -- why hasn't the W3C specifically addressed
> the issue of chat services over the web/Internet and the accessibility
> and interoperability thereof?
>
> Politics, maybe?
>
> --Kynn
> Kynn Bartlett
> Sr. Engineering Product Leader
> Team Edapta
> Reef North America
> Tel +1 909-674-5225
> ___________________________________
> BUSINESS IS DYNAMIC. TAKE CONTROL.
> ___________________________________
> http://www.reef.com
>

Received on Sunday, 4 February 2001 13:55:02 UTC