Hi all
Just passing on some information about Internet design that may be useful,
when considering developing a website. Unfortunately these days, the web is
becoming heavily graphics based, which is a real problem for people with
disabilities, and people who dont have all the latest technology -there are
many people out there still using old computers with basic web browsers and
slow modems. The web is in fact becoming more inaccessible, rather than more
accessible which is sad because it has such potential.
Hope the information below is useful.
Cheers
Carolyn Frohmader
Executive Director
Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
W3C (Developed by the World Wide Web Consortium)
http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
These guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people with
disabilities. The guidelines are intended for all Web content developers
(page authors and site designers) and for developers of authoring tools. The
primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. However,
following them will also make Web content more available to all users,
whatever user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser,
mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer, etc.) or constraints they
may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated
rooms, in a hands-free environment, etc.). Following these guidelines will
also help people find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines
do not discourage content developers from using images, video, etc., but
rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide
audience.
Bobby
http://www.cast.org/bobby/
Bobby is a tool for Web page authors. It will help them identify changes to
their pages needed so users with disabilities can more easily use their Web
pages. For example, a blind user will be aided by adding a sound track to a
movie, and a hard-of-hearing user will be aided by a written transcript of a
sound file on a Web page. Bobby will recommend that these be added if they
do not already exist. Many people with disabilities will use special Web
browsers, such as one which reads text out loud using a speech synthesizer
for blind users. The suggestions made by Bobby will help authors to add
information to a Web page which will help the special browsers work more
effectively. To learn more about accessibility issues, please start with our
Resources page and follow the links. For example, the "rationale" items on
the IBM Web site give explanations of how specific items can help.
Working Paper for e-commerce reference: web accessibility
Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission
http://www.hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/inquiries/ecom/Webworking_paperhtm
Inaccessible web page design either hides the text within images, frames,
applets or animated gifs or renders the text unintelligently in table,
columnar, or portable document format (pdf). Even on-line forms are
inaccessible especially when designed to prevent keyboard navigation and
input. Whether the form is posted for school or event registration or
on-line banking or shopping transactions, people with visual and/or mobility
disabilities are faced with a significant barrier to participation. But the
impact is not limited to people with visual and mobility disabilities.
People with specific learning disabilities are also finding that they can no
longer access web pages audibly with screen readers. Even people with
cognitive disabilities are becoming lost due to the absence of navigation
elements at web sites. Moreover, people with hearing disabilities cannot
access the content of audiostreaming and videoclips posted on the Internet
due to the absence of captioning.
(Excerpt from the Paper which is very comprehensive).
Carolyn Frohmader
Executive Director
Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA)
PO Box 229, Dickson ACT 2602 Australia
ABN: 23 627 650 121
Ph: +61 2 62421310 Fax: +61 2 62421314
Mobile: 0407 301 746
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.wwda.org.au
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