+++E-Access Bulletin.- Issue 52, April 2004.

Technology news for people with vision impairment (http://www.headstar.com/eab ). Sponsored by RNIB (http://www.rnib.org.uk ).

NOTE: Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details at the end). We conform to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard: http://www.headstar.com/ten .

++Section One: News.

Contents.

+01: Wai Director Defends Validity Of Guidelines.

The director of the international Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI - http://www.w3c.org/WAI ), Judy Brewer, has defended her organisation's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG - http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10 ) - the accepted international standard in the field - following the appearance of research appearing to show gaps in their coverage.

Results of the world's most extensive programme of web accessibility research are being published today by the Disability Rights Commission of Great Britain (http://www.drc-gb.org ). The research was commissioned last year from the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at City University, which examined 1,000 web sites using a combination of automated software testing and task-based testing using groups of testers with disabilities.

The WAI guidelines - which are divided into 'checkpoints' of levels 'A', 'AA' and 'AAA' in order of increasing accessibility - were used as the main external benchmarks for the assessments. The team found that just 19 per cent of home pages passed on level 'A' checks, and when it came to level 'AA', just two sites out of the 1,000 (0.2 per cent) passed a series of automated and manual checks. No sites were found to reach 'AAA' compliance.

Researchers also found that only 55 per cent of specific usability problems reported by the testers were covered by any of the WCAG checkpoints, an apparent disjuncture between the WAI guidelines and real-life problems encountered. And many of the WAI checks seemed redundant, as they were almost always passed - some of the manual checks, for example, are passed up to 95 per cent of the time.

"This data could be used to refine WAI and make it more usable for people, because clearly web developers are struggling with WAI," according to Professor Helen Petrie who led the research at City University. "But it also shows that WAI is not the be-all and end-all: people need to test their sites with real users."

WAI Director Judy Brewer told E-Access Bulletin this week that many of the general accessibility problems found which are not covered by WCAG are covered by WAI's User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/TR/UAAG10 ), which describe accessibility of browsers and media players and their interoperability with assistive technologies and complement the content guidelines.

On the point that some checks seem barely worth including as they are passed by the great majority of sites, Brewer said: "WCAG includes checkpoints based on their priority for ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, not on how frequently those checkpoints are already met on the average web site. [The guidelines are] already organised in three priority levels, so web developers can initially address a relatively small set of issues that have the greatest impact on barrier-reduction."

Brewer said the new findings are not incompatible with WCAG, which "specifically address accessibility problems that create the most severe barriers for people with disabilities, not the broad spectrum of usability issues which affect all users. At the same time, WAI has always recognised the importance of incorporating user testing of accessibility features into a comprehensive evaluation of the accessibility of web sites." WAI is currently working on version 2.0 of WCAG, Brewer said, which may also address any remaining concerns about version 1.0. "WAI . . . welcomes contributions such as the results of this research".

NOTE: For a full report on the new research see Section Three, this issue.

+02: Apples To Speak.

Speech technology is to be integrated into new versions of the Apple Macintosh operating system, providing blind and vision-impaired users with access to its computers for the first time, technology giant Apple has announced.

The technology, known as Spoken Interface (http://www.apple.com/accessibility/spokeninterface ), includes voice output, sound cues, and enhanced keyboard functions to help users navigate through desktop items, menus, toolbars, palettes and other on-screen objects that were previously unavailable to them, and to help them use applications more easily. According to Apple, Spoken Interface will be integrated into the next major release of the operating system OSX.

For many blind computer users this will be their first chance to access Mac applications, since most developers of text-to-speech screen-readers have focused their efforts on desktop computers running Windows. The situation was made still worse last year when the specialist US access technology firm ALVA, creator of what has been until now the most widely available screen-reader for Macs 'OutSPOKEN', announced it was to discontinue the product from the beginning of 2004, while honouring all warranties and service agreements which still apply.

"Until now, Apple's record on accessibility has been dreadful," assistive technology consultant Peter Bosher told E-Access Bulletin this month. "There is some ability to change the size and type of screen fonts and on-screen switches, but that's about it. Blind people have had to avoid Apple Macs like the plague."

In particular, the new Macs will open up possibilities for blind people to use sound recording and editing equipment which is generally perceived as the music industry standard, Bosher said. "In recording studios Macs rather than PCs are the computers of choice. They are everywhere," he said.

+03: Stockton Pioneers Talking Timetables.

A ground-breaking service providing travel information to people with impaired vision through handheld devices is being tested by residents of Stockton-on-Tees, paving the way for similar services to be introduced across the UK. Volunteers are using mobile phones to access real-time information about Stockton bus services, and fully searchable timetables stored on compact discs in the international DAISY talking book format (see http://fastlink.headstar.com/stockton1 ).

Last month Transport Secretary Alistair Darling visited Stockton-on- Tees Borough Council - one of the project's partners - to meet volunteers and council staff, and to see the technology at work. "He was very interested in how DAISY timetables would be produced and the potential to make them available elsewhere in the UK if the Stockton scheme is successful," said a spokesperson for the council.

Other participants include Stockton Blind People's Voice (http://www.blindvoice.co.uk ), mobile phone operator Vodafone, the RNIB, and the Department for Transport, which has provided 153,000 pounds to help fund the project.

According to borough council transport engineer John Kavanagh, using CDs to store timetables and digitised voice outputs to access the information is the most practical option for vision-impaired people. "Tapes are difficult to provide because they need replacing every time a service schedule changes, and users need to search to find the section they need. Braille is only used by some blind people and does not lend itself to production of timetables," he said.

"The solution is to provide travellers with fully searchable CDs and the readers to enable them to access the data. No other authority in the UK has tried this."

+04: Free Internet Safety Resource For Children.

The RNIB is to create a free resource on safe use of the internet by children and young people with impaired vision, E-Access Bulletin has learned. The resource is to be made available on the web and in several other formats.

The move comes as part of an ongoing strategic review by the institute of its technology services to children. A meeting last month held as part of the review process examined responses to questionnaire and focus-group research carried out into the use of assistive technologies by children of school age and their support by teachers.

Other issues covered at the meeting included the availability and consistency of training for education professionals and students on the use of assistive technologies.

The RNIB's ICT development officer for children Will Pearson, who is leading the review, said the gap between young people obtaining assistive equipment and receiving training for its use has been too wide. There were problems to solve surrounding accreditation of trainers and availability of funds, he said.

Pearson said teachers of visually-impaired students are often unaware of what support is available to their pupils, and are also failing to pursue accessibility concerns with computer network administrators at their schools.

The review is set to conclude with a final presentation of its findings in July. A separate RNIB report is due out in May on the findings of a joint project with the Department for Education and Skills looking at the experiences of vision-impaired students with the DAISY (http://www.daisy.org ) talking book system, and how the greatest benefits can be derived from DAISY materials.

++News In Brief:

Contents.

+05: POOR NUMBERS:

Some 60 per cent of disability organisations' websites fail to achieve basic standards of accessibility, according to a new report from communications agency Ethical Media. 'Disability 50' reviewed the web sites of 50 organisations, and found that the web sites of technology access charity AbilityNet and the British Council for Disabled People were exemplary: http://www.ethicalmedia.com/stories/disability50 .

+06: CSUN SHINES:

Key presentations from the 19th annual 'Technology and persons with disabilities' conference hosted by the Center on Disabilities at California State University Northridge (CSUN) are now available online, courtesy of internet TV specialists TVWorldwide. The presentations, demonstrations and interviews can be accessed using Windows media player or Real player: http://fastlink.headstar.com/csun9 .

+07: HINDI READER:

Visually-impaired computer programmer Dinesh Kaushal has helped develop the first Hindi screen reader in India with a Lucknow-based software development company and the National Association for the Blind in Delhi. The team is planning to equip vision-impaired government staff across India with the screen reader which will cost 2,000 to 3,000 rupees (between 25 and 38 UK pounds): http://fastlink.headstar.com/hindi1 .

[Section one ends].

++Special Notice: Web Accessibility Forum.

Contents.

Accessify Forum is a discussion forum devoted to all topics relating to web accessibility. Topics cover everything from 'Beginners' and 'Site building and testing' through to projects such as the new accessibility testing tool WaiZilla and the accessibility of the open source forum software itself.

All you need to register is a working email address, so come along and join in the fun at: http://www.accessifyforum.com .

[Special notice ends].

++Section Two: 'The Inbox'- Readers' Forum.

Contents.

- Please email all contributions or responses to inbox@headstar.com .

+08: AUDIO-DESCRIPTION CHALLENGE:

Clive Lever of Maidstone in Kent, a long-time correspondent to our bulletin, was surprised to hear the BBC quiz programme University Challenge cited as a programme which is perceived by some as verbal and so not in need of audio-description (see story 13, section four, issue 51, March 2004).

"Even largely verbal quiz shows often have purely visual portions," he said. "University Challenge has the pictorial round. The Channel Four programme Countdown has the conundrum at the end, whose letters are put up on screen. Viewers join in by trying to solve it, but listeners wait for the result. When they had a blind contestant on the programme it became fully accessible - for a week. When she left, it went back to its old ways.

"Perhaps there is a case for some programme makers to think about what information is being conveyed verbally. Take the news reporter who says: "The police have taken this and this, and turned them into this," using pictures to clarify the pronouns. Then take the reporter who says instead: "The police have taken this helmet and this camera and turned them into helmetcam". Suddenly there's less need for extra dialogue.

Referring to another part of the article which described the common practice of putting the audio-description track for programmes on a special channel which could only be picked up using wireless headphones, Clive said: "I also think it an insult and a frustration that the technology may assume that blind viewers would be isolated in the corner with their headphones, and that no sighted people would ever find audio description anything but an irritation.

"Surely there are times when sighted people follow their favourite TV programmes in 'eyes busy' situations. I'd have liked to have seen an audio-description that comes over the main speakers, but which can be switched on and off at will, but with the option of headphones if required." [Further responses please to inbox@headstar.com].

+09: CIVIL PRECEDENT:

Harish Kotian writes in from India to ask if any of our readers have information about blind people working in the UK civil service. He says: "A friend of mine is denied appointment in the Indian civil services on reasons of his visual disability, so a precedent would be highly desirable, as we still adopt the British model." [Responses please to inbox@headstar.com].

+10: HIT COMPILATION:

In our last issue, Karina Gregory asked if anyone knew of an accessible Java compiler. Tim Culhane of communications solutions provider Critical Path Ireland says: "I've heard that Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org ) [an open source solution] is the most accessible." He adds that there is an email list dedicated to the discussion of java accessibility. "People on that list will be able to tell you which versions of what compilers work with different screen readers." To subscribe to the list readers should send a mail to LISTSERV@java.sun.com with 'subscribe java-access' in the message body.

Karina also asked if anyone knew where to obtain a Braille font to translate on-screen text into Braille so that it can be printed out and transferred onto 'swell paper' to create readable Braille. She had been aware that the RNIB used to offer one but could no longer find it.

Stephen Bennett of the Visual Impairment Team at Leicester City Council's education department wrote in to say: "The RNIB Braille font is still available from the RNIB home page (http://www.rnib.org.uk )." Type Braille in the search box at the site, Bennett says, and from the list of links that is produced choose the one about six links down that is simply headed 'Braille' (not the one a little way above it headed 'Downloadable Braille Truetype Font'). You will then be offered the download as a zip file.

And web designer Tedd Sperling (http://www.sperling.com ) sends in another useful link to Braille and sign language fonts from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired web site: http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/fonts.html .

+11: MORE FONTS:

Contributions continue to arrive on the topic of readable fonts. John Taylor writes: "There is a font called Tiresias LP Font which is recommended by the RNIB [and] has been designed for people with eyesight problems. I personally have the eyesight condition Nystagmus and since finding this font I have changed my settings so it is my standard. I would highly recommend it for people who do want to make use of a clearly readable font.

"I believe this font is available from the RNIB or simply contact me and I will happily email you a copy." [Please contact John through inbox@headstar.com].

And Vernon Webb of the Physical and Sensory Support Service at Herefordshire Council Education Directorate writes: "In the discussions about fonts in the last two issues of E-Access Bulletin I was surprised to see no mention of Verdana. I use it for my pupils (poor victims of my experiments!) because it distinguishes between numeric digit 1, lower case letter L and upper case letter i better than Arial. Also the characters are wider and more rounded. Finally, it is readily available in most Windows systems. Does anyone else use it, or have particular reasons for disliking it?" [Responses please to inbox@headstar.com].

+12: RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE:

Duncan Glendinning, a final year computer science student at Bath University, writes in to ask for some help with a research project on internet accessibility. "As part of my project, I have posted a questionnaire online for vision-impaired internet users. I would be hugely grateful if some of your readers could visit it and take a little time to respond: http://www.dunkweb.co.uk/emailform/forms.html .

[Section two ends].

SECTION THREE: FOCUS - WEB RESEARCH.

+13: Global Standards In The Spotlightby Dan Jellinek.

Results of the biggest ever programme of research into web accessibility are being unveiled today in the UK, revealing a range of important lessons for web developers worldwide.

Back in March 2003 the Disability Rights Commission for England, Scotland and Wales (http://www.drc-gb.org ) announced that its first formal investigation was to be into web site accessibility. It subsequently commissioned the Centre for Human Computer Interaction Design at City University, led by Professor Helen Petrie, to undertake research which was eventually to span some 39,000 web pages across 1,000 sites.

Professor Petrie's team selected around 200 sites to test in each of five main categories: government and information; business to business; e- commerce; leisure; and web services, such as internet service providers and search engines. They then oversaw a process which began with automated checks using the WebXM software tool from Watchfire (http://www.watchfire.com ) and, where these checks were passed, proceeded to task-based testing using groups of testers with disabilities using a range of assistive technologies.

The main external benchmarks used for the assessments were, unsurprisingly, the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) developed by the world wide web consortium's web accessibility initiative (www.w3c.org/WAI).

The guidelines are divided into 'checkpoints' of levels 'A', 'AA' and 'AAA' in order of increasing accessibility. It is generally considered that UK disability law now makes level 'A' conformance compulsory to avoid the risk of legal action, and UK government guidelines (http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk/webguidelines.htm ) go further, stipulating that public sector web sites should attain at least partial 'AA' conformance.

The new research finds these targets are optimistic, to say the least. The team found that just 19 per cent of home pages passed on level 'A' checks, and when it came to level 'AA', just two sites out of the 1,000 (0.2 per cent) passed a series of automated and manual checks. No sites were found to reach 'AAA' compliance.

The research also threw up some anomalies with the WAI guidelines themselves. According to Petrie, only 55 per cent of usability problems reported by the testers were covered by any of the WCAG checkpoints, on the face of it an astonishing gap between real problems faced and those included in the main accepted international testing system.

And many of the WAI checks seemed redundant, as they were almost always passed - some of the manual checks, for example, are passed up to 95 per cent of the time.

"This data could be used to refine WAI and make it more usable for people, because clearly web developers are struggling with WAI," Petrie says. "But it also shows that WAI is not the be-all and end-all: people need to test their sites with real users."

The Director of the WAI, Judy Brewer, told E-Access Bulletin that many of the key accessibility problem types listed by the testers that are not covered by WCAG are covered by WAI's User Agent Accessibility Guidelines, which describe accessibility of browsers and media players and their interoperability with assistive technologies and are meant to be complementary to the content guidelines.

And on the point that some checks seem barely worth including as they are passed by the great majority of sites, Brewer said: "WCAG includes checkpoints based on their priority for ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities, not on how frequently those checkpoints are already met on the average web site. [The guidelines are] already organised in three priority levels, so web developers can initially address a relatively small set of issues that have the greatest impact on barrier-reduction."

Although the DRC has decided not to name and shame any of the sites which were included in the tests and failed to reach basic accessibility standards, it has decided to name several of the sites which the panel of testers felt were the easiest to use.

These sites include the national online library catalogue Copac (http://www.copac.ac.uk ); online financial services group Egg (http://www.egg.com); the charity Oxfam (http://www.oxfam.org.uk ); the voluntary organisation Spinal Injuries Scotland (http://www.sisonline.org ); and the 'British dialect translator' comedy site Whoohoo (http://www.whoohoo.co.uk ).

Petrie says this diverse grouping of sites demonstrates that all kinds of sites can be usable and accessible. The Spinal Injuries Scotland site, for example, shows you can create an accessible site on a small budget which is still lively and colourful; while at the other end of the budget scale, the Egg site shows that even the largest firms can embrace accessibility without compromising their corporate image or losing any elegance or sophistication from their e-services.

On average, testers found they could complete a set task successfully 90 per cent of the time across the most usable sites. However, this exercise also contributed its own warning messages about over- reliance on WAI guidelines. For while these sites did tend to display fewer WAI checkpoint errors than most of the other sites tested, they were not the sites that returned the highest 10 scores against the WAI guidelines, and others with higher WAI ratings did not feature in the top 10 list.

However, Brewer said these findings too are not incompatible with WCAG, which "specifically address accessibility problems that create the most severe barriers for people with disabilities, not the broad spectrum of usability issues which affect all users.

"At the same time, WAI has always recognised the importance of incorporating user testing of accessibility features into a comprehensive evaluation of the accessibility of web sites; see for instance the WAI resource suite 'Evaluating web sites for accessibility' (http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval )."

WAI is currently working on version 2.0 of WCAG, Brewer said, which may also address any remaining concerns about version 1.0. "In WCAG 2.0 we are maintaining some division of priority levels, since this has proved so helpful to web designers. In addition, we expect that reorganisation and re-prioritisation will result in guidelines that are shorter, more easily implemented, and more easily tested, while addressing more advanced web technologies.

"In updating the WAI guidelines, WAI is taking into account feedback from the broad implementation experience of WCAG 1.0 around the world, as well as implementation of WAI guidelines for browsers and authoring tools. WAI . . . welcomes contributions such as the results of this research".

The new research clearly shows there is a long way to go before even low-level accessibility standards become the norm on the web. Developers everywhere will be hoping that the eventual emergence of WCAG 2.0 will meet their urgent need for a set of simpler, clearer guidelines to follow than is currently available.

[Section three ends].

++Section Four: Seminar Report- Accessible E-Government

Contents.

+14: Democratising The Information Society.By Julie Hill.

Government departments and local authorities should take a holistic approach to accessibility when planning the provision of online and other digital services. This was the message from a recent seminar hosted by E-Access Bulletin's sister publication E-Government Bulletin, 'E-Government for all: planning for accessibility' (http://www.electronic-government.com/access.htm ).

Instead of viewing accessibility as being simply about meeting the needs of disabled user groups, said experts, public bodies should broaden their thinking to include other groups whose access to online services might be impaired for a variety of reasons.

"Accessibility is usually promoted in terms of helping disabled users to use the web," said Tom Adams, senior digital media consultant at the UK government's technology policy agency the Office of the e-Envoy (http://www.e-envoy.gov.uk ).

"But this is only part of the picture. Accessibility should be considered as enabling web use for anyone with a web limiting condition, which could arise as much from a disability as from technical or environmental limitations." For example, Adams said that accessible services also benefit those using older computer equipment, unusual browsers or those with slow internet connections.

Such a wide view of accessibility is particularly crucial when it comes to providing public services, because government has an obligation to cater for all of its citizens. "While commercial service providers can target particular sectors, local authorities, for example, have a duty to meet the needs of all their residents," said Guido Gybels, director of new technologies at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (http://www.rnid.org.uk ).

But government bodies need to factor accessibility into their service design from the outset, said Adams. Accessibility need not be only difficult and expensive to achieve, he said, but it will be if it is not planned into projects from the beginning and organisations find themselves having to 'retrofit' their web sites. It is therefore important to ensure not only that accessibility requirements are well understood but that they are seen as an ongoing priority and are an integral part of a service's evaluation, he said.

There was consensus about the lack of skills not only among government commissioning bodies to make judgments about accessibility, but also among the web developer community. Many public sector web developers "don't know how to do accessibility and they have never met a disabled user," said Adams. This lack of knowledge is not being addressed by the IT education sector, he said, which appears to be failing to build in accessibility techniques into its training programmes. Adam cited the example of his son who is currently doing a degree in multimedia at a London university. He said that the focus of the course is on creating animated graphics and accessible web design does not figure at all in the curriculum. When he offered to go along and talk to the students about accessibility, they turned him down.

So what factors need to be addressed in order to ensure truly inclusive e-government services? The RNID's Gybels outlined three things: raising awareness of the need for accessibility among public service providers and web developers; creating a dialogue with user representatives to feed this awareness; and bringing inclusive design into the mainstream, so that just as security and interoperability are considered when developing e-government services, so accessibility is also a key prerequisite.

The potential prize is huge, said Gybels. "The biggest challenge facing e-government - but also the biggest benefit it can bring - is to transform the information society into a truly inclusive society, one in which everyone can participate fully as citizens and realise their potential," he said.

[Section four ends].

++End Notes.

Contents.

+How To Receive This Bulletin

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Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at: dan@headstar.com .

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ISSN 1476-6337 .

[Issue ends].