+++E-ACCESS BULLETIN.
- ISSUE 51, MARCH 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
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++ISSUE 51 CONTENTS.

01: Accessible cinema set to treble
- UK film council helps fund audio-description and subtitling.

02: Technology starter courses simplified
- British Computer Association of the Blind revamps one-day training.

03: Museums urged to consult on technology
- no substitute for advance user testing, conference hears.

04: National library launches free online guides
- 'access technology primer' aimed at support workers.

News in brief: 05: Life enrichment - UN conference on older people;
06: Online salute - St Dunstan's commemorates D-Day; 07: Techshare
dates - for 2004.

Section two: 'The Inbox' - Readers' forum.
08: Double header - Java compiler and Braille font; 09: Fonts
continued - readability debate; 10: Standard Braille - UK development
query; 11: Goods mart - synthesiser sought.

Section three: Snapshot - local government.
12: A mountain to climb: council web sites are supposed to meet high
standards for accessibility, but a new survey shows they fall far
short.
Dan Jellinek and Derek Parkinson report.

Section four: Focus - broadcasting.
13: A solid start: the new broadcast super-regulator Ofcom is
consulting on how to ensure digital television is accessible for all.
Mel Poluck attends a meeting which hears that much progress has been
made, but further work is needed.

[Contents ends].


++SECTION ONE: NEWS.

+01: ACCESSIBLE CINEMA SET TO TREBLE.

Audio description and subtitling equipment is set to be installed in
78 cinemas across England, more than trebling the number of accessible
cinemas in the country, the UK Film Council
(http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk) has announced.

The project, which is part of the council's 500,000 pound National
Lottery-funded Cinema Access Programme, will enable thousands of
people with sight and hearing impairments to enjoy movies, from the
latest blockbusters to independent releases.

The majority of popular film releases are now distributed with an
audio description narrative and subtitles embedded in digital files.
However,
until now only around 30 cinemas in the UK and Ireland have been
equipped to read these files so that audio description can be
broadcast
through personal, wireless headphones, and subtitles can be projected
on to the screen.

Some 350,000 pounds has been allocated to buy and install the
equipment, covering 50 per cent of its costs; cinemas will have to
provide the other 50 per cent themselves. The equipment costs between
5,000 and 8,000 pounds per screen, although a cinema would typically
only need to install it on one screen.

"When 'silent' movies were replaced by 'talkies' over 70 years ago,
people with visual impairments began to enjoy the cinema experience,"
says Derek Brandon, editor of yourlocalcinema.com
(http://www.yourlocalcinema.com), a web site which informs people
with sight and hearing problems about local cinema screenings. "But
for those with hearing impairments, the loss of captions on the
screen
to explain the plot was the end of their cinema enjoyment," he said.
"This year, over 100 cinemas nationwide will become fully accessible
again for people with sight and hearing problems." Brandon's site has
now received 50,000 pounds of funding over three years to help
publicise the new services.

The new equipment will only be installed in cinemas in England,
although the UK Film Council is working with the Northern Ireland
Film and Television Commission (http://www.niftc.co.uk), Scottish
Screen (http://www.scottishscreen.com) and Sgren Cymru Wales
(http://www.sgrin.co.uk) to ensure that similar services can be
provided across the UK.


+02: TECHNOLOGY STARTER COURSES SIMPLIFIED.

The British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB -
http://www.bcab.org.uk) is to simplify its foundation training course
for the use of assistive technology, making the intensive one-day
course cheaper and providing more places for students.

The 'Access technology foundation certificate'
(http://www.bcab.org.uk/btcs/atfc-handout.htm) will from next month
cost 350 pounds, a drop of 150 pounds. The course is designed for all
professionals who work with vision impaired people and who need to
understand access technology, such as teaching assistants and
rehabilitation workers.

According to course manager Stephen Plumpton, students do not need
to have a training background. "The course encompasses some very
basic coaching skills and an introduction to access technology for
the
visually impaired, such as CCTV; screen readers and screen
enlargement," he says. "It is intended to ensure access training in
the UK is of a consistently high standard."

Plumpton is also working on a training video designed to lead people
into the foundation course, which has run in its current format since
last August. BCAB has also been in meetings this week with
international charity Sightsavers International
(http://www.sightsavers.org.uk) to discuss working with them to help
develop similar programmes for development work in Africa.

Beyond the foundation course, BCAB offers a five-day Trainer
Certification Scheme (http://www.bcab.org.uk/btcs) for those new to
training and a two-day course for those with some experience.
Trainers
have a written assessment on their assistive technology product of
choice, followed by a face-to-face assessment. Students are
re-assessed
after three years and the product knowledge course can be re-taken as
new versions of products emerge.

"We aim to take to the fear out of taking access products out of the
box," says Plumpton.


+03: MUSEUMS URGED TO CONSULT ON TECHNOLOGY.

Museums must consult people with disabilities before implementing
new technologies, Peter Berridge, head of Colchester Museums
(http://www.colchestermuseums.org.uk) told a conference on the
accessibility of cultural institutions last month.

'Is your museum fully accessible?' was organised by the Museums
Association (http://www.museumsassociation.org) with the Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council (MLA - http://www.mla.gov.uk). It
aimed to provide practical advice for museums working towards the
Disability Discrimination Act, which comes into full force in October
2004.

Berridge said Colchester Museums' own experience of introducing
induction loops for people with hearing difficulties had taught it
valuable lessons about introducing new technology. The museums only
realised that deaf users received conflicting commentaries for audio-
visual presentations when people complained, as the technology hadn't
been sufficiently tested on users prior to implementation.

"This was a key turning point for us," he said. "Never again would we
spend scarce resources on technology without consulting users first."
Colchester Museums has since established an access advisory group
called Portal, with a membership of nine people with visual, hearing,
physical and other impairments. The group, whose members are paid
for their services, ensures that accessibility is now built into all
new projects at the museum from the outset.

Colchester Museums is currently exploring the use of different
technologies to make visiting its exhibitions more rewarding for
people
with impaired vision. These include audio guides delivered through
handsets; Braille labelling; a greater emphasis on touch in its
displays;
and an accessible web site, due to be launched in a few weeks' time.

The MLA has produced a guide offering museums advice on how they
can use technology to provide better services to disabled people
(http://www.resource.gov.uk/documents/dis_guide07.pdf).


+04:  NATIONAL LIBRARY LAUNCHES FREE ONLINE GUIDES.

The National Library for the Blind (NLB), the library service for
vision-impaired people, has developed a series of free online
training
courses for support workers and others on the basics of access
technology (http://atp.nlb-online.org/Lessons/p_00.php).

The 'Access technology primer' is aimed at rehabilitation workers,
library staff and educational support staff. Its initial sections
are:
Introduction to access technology; Training visually impaired people
to use computers; Changes you can make to your computer without
access technology; Windows keyboard commands; JAWS; Supernova;
and Zoomtext (these last three are types of screen reader and screen
magnification software).

The courses are funded by international independent charity the
Health
Foundation (http://www.health.org.uk), and a spokesperson for the
NLB told E-Access Bulletin the courses have already attracted a lot
of interest.

The library is also developing a visual impairment directory, an
online
introduction to working with people with impaired vision, and a guide
to working with people with mobility issues. It is also gearing up
for its annual 'Make a noise in libraries week' (MANIL
http://www.nlb-online.org/campaigns), a campaign 19 to 25 July to
encourage libraries
to improve access to libraries for vision impaired people.


++NEWS IN BRIEF:

+05: LIFE ENRICHMENT: Former US congressman Benjamin
Gilman has recommended that communities worldwide form advisory
councils and liaise with business and marketing experts to develop
new policies to use technology to enrich the lives of older people.
Gilman
was a keynote speaker last month's UN-hosted meeting, 'Age of
connectivity: harnessing the generations':
http://www.un.org/events/agingcf.htm .


+06: ONLINE SALUTE: St Dunstan's, the independent charity for
vision-impaired ex-service men and women, will shortly be posting
members' eyewitness accounts of the D-Day landings in the Second
World War on their web site to mark the 60th anniversary of D-Day. In
the past two weeks, secondary school pupils have begun using bulletin
boards with similar stories as part of a GCSE module on citizenship
which includes the use of new technologies to help people with
disabilities:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/dunstans1 .


+07: TECHSHARE DATES: Techshare, the annual international
conference on technologies for vision-impaired people, is to be held
this year on 18 and 19 November 2004 at the Jury's Inn hotel,
Birmingham, with pre-conference workshops to be held on 17
November. The RNIB event is aimed at professionals supporting
people with vision impairment and costs 195 pounds, with an 'early
bird' rate of 130 pounds for those enrolling by 1 October:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/techshare .

[Section one ends].


++SPECIAL NOTICE: ACCESSIBLE E-GOVERNMENT
- Planning for Accessibility Seminar
- 30 March, Globe Theatre, London.

On 30 March, E-Access Bulletin's sister publication E-Government
Bulletin presents a one-day seminar on strategies for ensuring your
e-services are accessible to all regardless of ability. Government
guidance for public sector web sites is clear that accessibility
needs to
be radically improved, and the passing of the Disability
Discrimination
Act means that this is now a legal as well as a moral imperative for
all e-service channels.

'E-government for all: planning for accessibility' takes place at
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, central London. Speakers include Helen
Petrie, Professor of Human Computer Interaction Design at City
University; Guido Gybels, Head of Technology, Royal National
Institute for Deaf People; and Kevin Carey, vice chairman of the RNIB
and Director of HumanITy.

The event is aimed largely at our public sector readers and their
private
sector partners, and there is a fee payable. Places cost 295 pounds
plus VAT for public sector and 395 for private  sector delegates.
Additional
delegates booking at the same time receive a 100 pound discount. For
more information and to register see:
http://www.electronic-government.com/access.htm .

[Sponsored notice ends].


++SECTION TWO: 'THE INBOX'
- READERS' FORUM.

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

+08: DOUBLE HEADER: Karina Gregory writes in with two queries.
First, she asks: "Does anyone know of an accessible compiler that I
can
use to write and compile Java? I am currently using jGrasp but am not
finding it very easy to use. Any recommendations gratefully
received."

And secondly, she asks: "Does anyone know where I can get 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? I am
aware that the RNIB offered one that could be downloaded from their
website a couple of years ago, but this has been removed and I was
wondering where else I could get one from?"
[Responses please to inbox@headstar.com].


+09: FONTS CONTINUED: Meanwhile the discussion about readable
fonts continues. Karina Gregory (see previous item) says: "I use
Arial
or Tahoma as my standard fonts as I find these the easiest to read
and
most people who I have met, both visually impaired and fully sighted,
also recommend the use of these two fonts."

And Terry Kenaghan of Optek Systems in Australia
(http://www.mpx.com.au/~terryk) says: "I became involved with this
issue of fonts when I was requested to create software for a typing
program for vision-impaired children.

"Initially I used large Arial fonts in the program, which seemed OK,
until the software was used with very young children, and we ran into
the problem of recognition where the letters differed from the shapes
that the child had been introduced to by their parents. I found that
by using the Century Gothic font it solved these problems and seems
acceptable to all - a better solution than the Comic Sans font [Last
issue Peter Thomson of Wolverhampton City Council said Comic Sans
was the only font he knew of where the letters 'a' and 'g' looked
like their handwritten counterparts.]


+10: STANDARD BRAILLE: Rebecka Boman, who works for a
manufacturer of assistive technology in the US, has a question about
Braille: "I have heard that there will be a Braille standard
implemented
in the UK in May, 2004. I would like to know what this means "Braille
standard" and also how will the making of Braille be affected?"
[Responses please to inbox@headstar.com].


+11: GOODS MART: Peter Taylor suggests we should start a section
of the bulletin where second hand access equipment can be bought and
sold. For the moment, we propose to do this at the end of the 'Inbox'
section if there is demand, starting with his own requirement: "I
personally would like to find a Dolphin JUNO speech synthesiser,
which many will have ceased to use long ago but I still find
extremely
useful for using dbase3 in DOS."
[Responses please to inbox@headstar.com].

[Section two ends].


++SPECIAL NOTICE: WEB ACCESSIBILITY FORUM.

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 THREE: SNAPSHOT
- LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

+12: A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB.
by Dan Jellinek and Derek Parkinson.

The annual 'Better Connected' survey provides a useful snapshot of
local e-government across the UK. Conducted on behalf of the Society
of IT managers (Socitm - http://www.socitm.gov.uk), the survey looks
at each of the 467 council web sites in England, Wales, Scotland and
Northern Ireland and assesses the range, design and sophistication of
online services.

This year, Better Connected has tested all the sites for
accessibility
against standards set out by the international World Wide Web
Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3.org/WAI),
which rates sites as 'A' for basic accessibility; 'AA' for higher
level accessibility and 'AAA' for near-perfection.

These standards form the cornerstone of UK policy on web
accessibility. In the government's guidance for the third round of
council 'implementing electronic government' (IEG) statements
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/ieg3), councils are urged to work
towards
'AA' standards.

All web sites were initially tested using automated software tools,
and
those that passed were then subjected to thorough manual tests by a
team that included specialist consultants from RNIB. The Socitm
report finds that just 18 councils achieve level 'A' conformance, and
of the 23 sites assessed as transactional, only three achieve level 'A':
Surrey, Tameside and Wrexham. Only one site - Tameside - achieves
'AAA' standard.

Around half of council sites fail to attain very basic accessibility
levels
due a lack of meaningful text tags for images on their sites; and
many
sites failed latter stages because when accessed by a browser that
does
not support JavaScript, the functionality did not work and there was
no
alternative provided. 'Text-only' alternative sites are not much help
either; of the 143 council web sites with a text-only alternative,
just seven reached 'A' standard overall.

While awareness of accessibility has improved greatly among UK
councils, the survey shows that many are failing to translate this
into
effective results. According to Helen Williams of the Socitm Insight
team, this could be because councils are under more pressure to
launch
transactional services and publish a wider range of content on their
sites. "For example, more councils are publishing data like council
tax
bandings on their sites in the form of tables. But they often forget
to include table header codes for screen readers," she said.

The general trend is a widening gap between those councils getting to
grips with accessibility, and those that are failing to act,
according to
RNIB consultant Donna Smillie. "The sites that were doing well were
doing very well. Even some that failed are paying a great deal of
attention to accessibility," she says. "But some that get it wrong
get it
very wrong." According to Smillie, this may be because some councils
can't meet staff training requirements, or because a completely
redesigned site is in the pipeline, soaking up all available
resources.

"With accessibility, there is clearly a mountain to climb," says
Martin
Greenwood, who leads the Better Connected project for Socitm. "I
don't think there's any chance of councils achieving 'AA' within two
years." Councils that had made efforts to meet accessibility
standards
were "very concerned" about the amount of effort involved,
Greenwood says, with particular problems arising where councils were
trying to make sites accessible that had not had accessibility in
mind when first created.

"But in a sense, they don't have a choice," he says. "The fact is
that
there is a law about accessibility - the Disability Discrimination
Act - so it would seem single 'A' accessibility is a minimum."

Note: A version of this feature appeared first in our sister
publication,
E-Government Bulletin (http://www.headstar.com/egb).

[Section three ends].


++SECTION FOUR: FOCUS
- BROADCASTING.

+13: A SOLID START
by Mel Poluck.

Audio description of television programmes and the accessibility of
electronic programme guides to digital TV were chief among topics
raised at an open meeting last month at the RNIB's headquarters in
London.

The meeting was called to feed into a consultation on access to TV
services being run by Ofcom, the UK's new broadcasting and
telecommunications 'super-regulator'
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/ofcom2).

Ofcom is seeking the views of people with disabilities to ensure it
fully
understands their needs. It is looking to bodies like the RNIB to
help it
decide how to regulate television, and has drafted two codes of
practice: 'Provision of television access services'
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/ofcom3), and a code for electronic
programme guides (EPGs - http://fastlink.headstar.com/ofcom4), the
on-screen programme menus that will eventually appear on all TVs.

This month, Ofcom will be appointing the first chair of its advisory
committee for older and disabled people.

Currently 10 per cent of programmes per channel are obliged under the
Communications Act 2003 to carry audio-description within 10 years
of the date the channel starts broadcasting. This follows a victory
achieved by a group of activists including RNIB who lobbied
parliament last year, when targets were raised from 5 per cent (see
E-Access Bulletin, issues 37 and 38, January and February 2003).
However the majority at the consultation felt that the new 10 per
cent
target remains disappointing, particularly when compared with an 80
per cent target for subtitling.

Although the audio-description targets are now hard-wired into the
Communications Act, changes could still be made, particularly as
technical restraints lift, according to Ofcom policy executive Peter
Bourton. "We have pretty low levels of audio description and I'm sure
that's going to increase," he told the meeting.

Caroline Ellis, Parliamentary Affairs Manager at the Disability
Rights
Commission, said that while government said last year they couldn't
raise audio description targets, later in the year the TV channel
Five
became the first UK public service broadcaster to broadcast audio
described programmes using the Sky satellite service (see E-Access
Bulletin, issue 48, December 2003). It emerged that, while the BBC
quoted 640 pounds an hour to provide description, Sky undercut this
price. "The BBC was a blockage on progress," Ellis said.

One topic on which Bourton was seeking feedback was Ofcom's aim
to introduce a requirement that 1 per cent of service providers'
budget
should be spent on TV access services. One idea fed back from the
workgroups was raise this to the RNID's suggestion of 2 per cent.

Bourton told attendees that according to the law, the requirement for
whether audio description provision would be provided at all will
depend on a channel having an audience share of at least 0.05 per
cent.
However, feedback from attendees' workgroups suggested that the
decision to use audio description should not be dictated in this way.

Also under discussion was the way in which audio description is
transmitted. The usual way is to have a separate audio-described
soundtrack which gets transmitted to headphones during a programme.
"There's a working assumption that people would still prefer to have
audio description on separate soundtracks," Bourton said. But this
may
not be so among users. "Why should blind people have to sit in the
corner with headphones on?" said one attendee, arguing that the need
to always wear headphones isolates vision-impaired users and prevents
interaction with co-viewers.

RNIB members argued strongly that repeat programmes should not be
counted as part of reaching targets. "It's outrageous to count
repeats to
up the target figure," said one RNIB employee. Also, "frontloading"
targets for audio description should be avoided, they said, and Ofcom
should instead ensure there are incremental increases year-on-year.

The need for variety among programmes chosen for accessible
broadcasting - not just "soaps, soaps, soaps" - was also stressed.
Some
programmes which are already highly verbal, such as University
Challenge, were thought by some to be "a waste of audio description,"
although another said it was dangerous to "say no to anything."

With the draft code on electronic programme guides also under
consultation, Bourton said Ofcom has informed EPG providers that
they are expected to make 'reasonable adjustments' to ensure
accessibility in line with the Disability Discrimination Act and to
consult with disability groups about what they should be doing.
"We've asked for statements to be ready by September and annual
statements to be produced thereafter," he said.

While 'talking EPGs' are in development, Bourton said technology
currently limits what accessible services can be introduced.

"Set top boxes lack the processing power - they simply can't handle
talking EPGs," Bourton said. However he was promptly contradicted
on this point by RNIB's demonstration to attendees of the Netgem box
(http://www.netgem.com). This provides full audio description as well
as internet and radio access and went on the market last January.

All present agreed, however, that where technical restraints do
exist,
service providers should use other methods such as web sites, radio
announcements and publications from disability organisations to
disseminate their programme guides.

And Ellis concluded on an optimistic note: "At least the government
can't lower the audio description targets," she said. "We have
parliamentarians working very hard for us. The only way is up."

NOTE: The deadline for comments on the access services consultation
was Friday 12 March, and the EPG consultation closes on 25 March.

[Section four ends].


++END NOTES.

+HOW TO RECEIVE THIS BULLETIN.

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Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at:
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Copyright 2004 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including this
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+PERSONNEL:
Editor - Dan Jellinek
Deputy editor - Derek Parkinson
Senior reporter - Mel Poluck
News reporter - Julie Hill
Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey.

ISSN 1476-6337 .

[Issue ends.]