++E-ACCESS BULLETIN Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability - ISSUE 136, April 2011. A Headstar Publication. http://www.headstar.com/eab/ . 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/ . ++Issue 136 Contents. 01: UK Fails To Support Accessible Copyright Treaty - Future of WIPO accessibility proposals still uncertain. 02: Canadian Broadcasting Regulator Backs Access Fund - Creation of independent body is ‘making history’. 03: Open Marketplace Launched For Assistive Technology Ideas - ‘REALISE’ takes concepts through to funded projects. News In Brief: 04: Accessible Transport - call for audio information on buses; 05: India Complaint - e-government bill criticism; 06: Android Guide - accessible apps advice. Section Two: Inbox. 07: Open Views - juggling software costs and options; 08: Version Grumble - Keeping up with updates; 09: Procurement Problems - accessibility is moving target. Section Three: Section Three: Research – E-government for older people. 10: Not So Easy To Help Yourself? More and more local government services are moving online, but are they always easy to use by older people? Tristan Parker reports on some new research from Hertfordshire University [Contents ends]. ++Section One: News. +01: UK Fails To Support Accessible Copyright Treaty. The UK government has declined to offer full support to a draft international treaty to allow accessible versions of copyrighted works to be shared across international boundaries, giving those with print disabilities wider access to books, E-Access Bulletin has learned. The news comes in a response to a written Parliamentary question from Lord Low, President of the European Blind Union (EBU), in which he asked for the government’s assessment of the treaty. The draft was first put forward by the World Blind Union (WBU) in 2009 at a standing committee of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) ( see E- Access Bulletin issue 131: http://bit.ly/eNgEDt ). In a response from Baroness Wilcox seen by E-Access Bulletin ahead of publication, the government says: “Whilst we support the purpose behind [the treaty] we believe that it contains elements that go beyond existing international agreements on copyright… There is a need to strike the right balance between improving access and protecting the rights of authors and publishers.” Dan Pescod, Vice-Chair of the WBU (http://bit.ly/gs9o55 ), told E-Access Bulletin this response was “very disappointing, though not surprising.” The WBU treaty is one of four draft texts submitted by different national committees to address the issue of sharing accessible copyrighted material, all of which were discussed at a recent event co-hosted by the EBU in the European Parliament, Brussels. The event aimed to highlight a lack of support for the WBU treaty from the European Union (EU), which is proposing alternative guidelines based around ‘joint recommendations’, rather than binding laws – a proposal that is “frankly too weak and complicated,” Pescod told E-Access Bulletin. The EU is not taking seriously the rights set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, he said. “The EU can come up with reasons why the ‘soft law’ they propose is more effective, but those reasons don’t seem to apply when they’re dealing with other issues. So there is definitely something of a double standard there, which we urge the EU to rethink.” Publishing groups have previously lobbied the EU regarding the WBU treaty, claiming that the exception to copyright law it proposes would encourage widespread illegal sharing of copyrighted materials. However, while the European Commission and European Council – two of the EU’s three main institutions – do not support the WBU treaty, the European Parliament has been supportive of the proposals, with 101 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) signing a supportive letter from the EBU in November 2010. The WBU treaty, and other proposed options surrounding the issue, will be discussed further when the WIPO meets again in June. And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=581 +02: Canadian Broadcasting Regulator Backs Access Fund. A coalition of Canadian disability organisations is claiming a historic victory this month after the country’s broadcasting regulator backed their call for an independent trust fund working to ensure 100% accessibility of all digital broadcasting platforms by 2020. Its work programme will be designed to focus on “innovation that provides platform-neutral solutions to ensure accessibility of all broadcasting content.” The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has included establishment of the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund among conditions attached to its approval of the takeover of Canada’s largest TV network, CTV, by BCE ( http://www.bce.ca/en/ ), owner of communications company Bell. The proposal had initially been put forward by the Access 2020 Coalition ( http://www.mediac.ca/proj-Access2020.asp ), an umbrella group led by the non-profit body Media Access Canada (see February issue: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=544 ). The sum of money BCE will be required to put forward to establish the fund, at 5.7 million Canadian Dollars, is less than half the 13 million Dollars originally requested by Access 2020. However the commission accepted the disability organisations’ call for the fund to be largely independent of the broadcasting industry and overseen by the access community. In its ruling ( http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2011/2011-163.htm ) the commission said that at least two-thirds of board members of the fund must be “persons with disabilities, representatives of disability organizations and/or other parties with relevant expertise in developing or implementing accessibility solutions.” The fund will also be empowered to raise further funding from other sources, such as annual contributions by other broadcasters or broadcasting distributors. “We are really making history here,” Beverley Milligan, CEO of Media Access Canada, told E-Access Bulletin. “At last those who depend on accessibility are being entrusted with the means of making it happen. The CRTC ruling is clear, the broadcasters are to play a part but this fund is to be run by the accessibility community. We have always had the will but now we also have the means. “This latest ruling by the CRTC makes them the first regulator in the world to take an alternative approach to ensuring 100% accessible content by 2020. They have empowered us to bring it about and now it is time for us to get down to work.” BCE now has until 6 May to submit detailed plans for the fund back to the commission. And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=572 +03: Open Marketplace Launched For Assistive Technology Ideas. An ‘ideas marketplace’ for new open source assistive technology projects has been launched by a group of academics and developers with funding from JISC, the technology agency for UK colleges and universities. The REALISE project ( http://www.realisepotential.org ) is an open, three-stage tool for creating new software technologies to make it easier for people with disabilities to use the internet, computers and mobile devices. The first stage is an ‘ideas’ area, where anyone can ask for help with a problem or offer a theoretical solution. If there is enough interest in an idea and someone wants to take the lead, it can be moved to the second stage: the ‘incubator’, where a team of developers is assembled. Finally, the best ideas will move to full ‘project’ status, the third stage which will involve funding by non-profits or private companies. According to the project’s brief, “At any stage commercial companies or researchers can become involved and may lead at the incubator or project stages. In the end companies may make money out of a project but will need to keep to any agreements during the development stages.” Realise team member E.A. Draffan, of the Learning Societies Lab at the University of Southampton, told E-Access Bulletin: “We want to encourage people to come and take part in the project as ideas folk, users of assistive technology, developers and even those who may be willing to fund or take ideas and turn them into projects. “Anyone can add an idea for an app or program and you never know, a developer may take it up and we might have some new assistive technology projects developing.” And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=574 ++News in Brief: +04: Accessible Transport: The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is calling for buses and coaches to be forced to offer passengers the same audio-visual information already required in trains. The ‘Talking Buses’ campaign is urging the government to expand the Public Service Vehicle Accessibility Regulations to require buses and coaches to offer both audible and visual journey information, including next stop and final destination, making them more accessible to blind and visually impaired users: http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/helpus/campaigns/talking-buses/ Short link: http://bit.ly/eUbOTL +05: India Complaint: The draft of a bill to provide delivery of e-government services in India has been criticised by a research organisation in the country, The Centre for Internet and Society, over its lack of a requirement for e-government services to be accessible for disabled citizens. The centre says the Draft Electronic Delivery of Services Bill 2011 – which aims to gradually phase out manual delivery of government services – should make it mandatory for the Indian Government to comply with the widely used international Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG): Short link: http://bit.ly/dYzQN3 +06: Android Guide: A website dedicated to exploring apps, programs and advice for blind and visually impaired users of Android– Google’s operating system for mobile devices – has been launched by the online assistive technology store AT Guys. Android Access features a list of accessibility apps by topic; a ‘getting started’ section, with information on choosing an accessible Android phone; and links to accessible Android news, blogs and forums: http://androidaccess.net/ Short link: http://bit.ly/fWuKSY [Section One ends]. ++Section Two: 'The Inbox' - Readers' Forum. Please email all contributions or responses to: inbox@headstar.com . +07: Open Views: Last issue’s opinion piece by David Bates on the need for the open source community to fill a gap in the market for free or cheap accessibility solutions has generated a surge of correspondence. Reader Stuart Young writes in to mention the free open source distribution of Linux called Vinux which has been specifically designed for the blind and visually impaired, available at: http://www.vinux.org.uk . And our regular correspondent Roger Wilson-Hinds, creator of the free screen reader Thunder ( http://www.screenreader.net ), said he read the March piece on the high expense of many access software packages with “a good deal of empathy and agreement”. He writes: “A great friend of ours who is totally blind has recently been made redundant, losing the benefits of government ‘Access To Work’ funding which has provided him with expensive assistive technology over the past 20 years. It is indeed a huge shock when you have to pay for these things out of your own pocket. “We have worked for the past ten years at Screenreader.net to provide no cost or low cost for such people. We [also] promote [the open source screen reader] NVDA when it is appropriate but that solution, good as it is, will not get you around Microsoft Office. Open source solutions are no magic pill and depend totally on voluntary good will in keeping up with changes to applications and the web.” Roger asks: “Is it not time we heard something from our larger blindness charities on this subject? For years they have promoted the costly stuff, sold it, trained in its use and assessed it as being the business for users. So is it not time they gave a little more thought to the needs of low income blind people? “Better than mere thought or talk would be a firm commitment to produce or support the production of free or low cost assistive software alternatives. After all, David Bates now is speaking for the vast majority of blind people who don’t work, don’t get government Access To Work hand-outs and don’t have a cat in hell’s chance of keeping up with the digital society unless, like him, they happen to be techy savvy already. “What I am talking about here is the free software simply as another option. There should never be a monopoly, whether it is free or commercial.” Finally, Kelvin Falconer, a reader from New Zealand who is blind and depends on a screen-reader to access his computer, speaks up for the accessibility of Apple Macs. He says: “Two years ago I needed to upgrade my computer. I was still using Windows 98 first edition which was not broadband- compatible, and the Dolphin SupaNova screen reader, so looked at my options. I chose an iMac for its convenience and [for the fact that] that the operating system comes standard with an excellent screen reader called VoiceOver, which is offered when first started up. “This option may not suit people who are also using software that does not have a Mac version, and currently not all software is compatible with this screen reader, such as Microsoft Word for Mac and Firefox. But I have not had any significant problems accessing web sites with VoiceOver.” [Further responses please to inbox@headstar.com]. +08: Version Grumble: David Steward, a reader from London, writes in to say that he has recently installed the new release of Internet Explorer 9 web browser software from Microsoft, and for the most part is happy with it. The access issue I’m annoyed with, is that I use Dolphin Systems Supernova screen-reader v12.2. So I installed IE9, [only] to find out, when accessing sites that use drop-down menus, my supernova screen reader doesn’t have the ability to read [them].” He says that Dolphin does plan to fix this issue in an upcoming version release, 12.3, but says users need more warning of potential problems before they happen. “I think that accessibility providers should put out email newsletters to their users when a large company like Microsoft releases updated versions. So we know whether we should update our programs straight away, or wait until the third party company has released updated scripts or maps for speech programs. “Lucky enough, I still have IE7 on my laptop, running Windows Vista, so I can access my online banking, but I prefer my PC which runs Windows 7 as [it] is faster than my laptop.” [Responses please to inbox@headstar.com]. +09: Procurement Problems: Mick Phythian – blogger at greatemancipator.com, electronic government researcher at De Montfort University and ICT Manager at Ryedale District Council – has posted a comment onto our E-Access Bulletin Live blog responding to our March story ‘Council web accessibility ‘should be built into procurement’ ( http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=566 ). Referring to his own experience at Ryedale, Mick writes: “When I wrote the tender documents for our current site in 2005-06 I did of course specify accessibility (to ‘AA’ standard minimum) as one would expect, as the report proposes. Without naming names, getting a CMS supplier to actually deliver that is a nightmare, since one doesn’t find out until the content is loaded and the site is up and running whether it actually is or not - and what do you do then? “There is also the additional complexity of web services, which are frequently procured and delivered from a range of suppliers, and can also impact upon a site’s accessibility. “To quote an expert on this field, “accessibility is not a binary state”, and is therefore not easy to contractually specify. So, yet again, from a practitioner’s view, easier said than done!” [Responses please to inbox@headstar.com]. [Section Two ends]. ++Sponsored Notice: Adept Transcription - Alternative Formats At Affordable Prices. When you want alternative formats for disabled colleagues, customers and staff, call Adept. Formats we produce include audio, audio description, Braille, BSL, Easy Read, e-docs for websites, large print, Makaton, Moon and sub-titles, at prices from a penny a word. Whether handling a newsletter, training DVD, equality scheme, public service leaflet, contract or consultation, we provide: - One-stop shop for all formats - Products quality-checked by users - Corporate presentation including your house style - Fast turnaround of one document or thousands - Multi-format discounts - Accessible packaging Contact us at: Tel: 0208 133 5418 (precede with 18001 for typetalk) Email transcription@adept-uk.org [Sponsored Notice ends] ++Section Three: Research – E-government for older people. +10: Not So Easy To Help Yourself? by Tristan Parker. Some council websites present elderly users with a range of problems which prevent them taking full advantage of the opportunities to access their local services online, according to new research from the University of Hertfordshire. This is a problem for older people, and a problem for councils too, since citizen ‘self-service’ over council websites is seen as a key way of helping local authorities save money on face to face services, crucial in these times of heavy public sector budget cuts. ‘An e-government case study of London’s older citizens’ was led by Dr Jyoti Choudrie, head of the university’s Systems Management Research Unit (SyMRU) ( http://bit.ly/e9utoc ), and Vivian Songonuga, a research student and staff member at the Royal National Institute of Blind People. It examined 30 local government sites across London, plus 179 questionnaire responses and a further series of focus group interviews. “When we look at local authorities we don’t always think about their websites”, Choudrie told E-Access Bulletin. “So, we decided to look at a particular group of citizens – elderly people – to see how local government sites are helping these people with their daily requirements.” The initial part of the study involved finding out the main uses of the internet for elderly people, and then examining how well local authority sites served these needs. The most popular use for council websites was to find out information about council services in the area, with 79% of respondents using local authority sites for this purpose. It was also found that many elderly people were keen to get as much detail as possible about these services, such as location, the name of a council member to contact, etc. However, a number of issues were identified that hindered elderly people from using the sites. These included lengthy load times for web pages, and broken links that direct users to ‘dead’ pages (particularly in the FAQs section). When broken down into more detailed focus group interviews, further barriers began to appear. A focus group of 14 people revealed that only four found the internet to be a useful social tool, and only five of the 14 found it to be a time-saving device. Examining physical problems or disabilities which may hamper internet use among elderly people, the research found that 73% (121 respondents) had no disabilities, while the most commonly highlighted issues were those related to the hands (such as arthritis or motor disabilities), which affected 14% of respondents (23), and visual impairments, which affected 6% of respondents (10 people). An additional interesting finding from this area of the research was that due to a large number of the elderly respondents living in extended family groups or residing in the same home as offspring and grandchildren, some of the internet use reported was actually based largely around these younger generations using the internet ‘for’ the elderly residents, rather than the elderly engaging in direct and extended use. “This is something that previous research has also identified” says Choudrie. “We may be promoting use of the internet among older people, but we need to consider very carefully – is this use being sustained, and how are [elderly people] sustaining it?” The study also makes a number of recommendations to encourage use of council websites among the elderly. As well as championing an overall simplification of website functionality, “More computer training centres for the elderly and silver surfer clubs should be set up”, says Choudrie. “We found that secondary schools and computer labs could be used as extra venues for evening and weekend computer training courses. “Also, we thought that councils could look at financial discounts for elderly people who use council services online. Even if it is only a nominal amount, it could be an incentive for elderly people.” Following on from that, the study points out that many of its elderly respondents considered computers to be expensive, and that offering free second-hand or reconditioned computers may again be an incentive for these users. NOTE: ‘An e-government case study of London’s older citizens’ is currently awaiting publication. Dr Choudrie will be chairing a roundtable discussion on its findings at E-Access ’11, hosted by E-Access Bulletin publisher Headstar, in London on June 28: http://bit.ly/f3tZbH And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live: http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=576 [Section Three ends]. ++Sponsored Notice: Accessify Forum - Six Years of Accessibility Discussion. Accessify Forum has been the number one destination for accessibility discussion on the web for nearly six years. Celebrating our sixth birthday next month, you’ll find discussion of accessibility at all levels, from beginner to guru. The site has recently been redesigned and the forum system improved. This is still ongoing and you can join in the discussions. So whether you’re looking to learn more about accessibility, want to help others and improve on your own knowledge, or just to browse the archives, come and join us at: http://www.accessifyforum.com/ [Special notice ends]. ++End Notes. +How to Receive the Bulletin. To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, email eab-subs@headstar.com with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header. You can list other email addresses to subscribe in the body of the message. Please encourage all your colleagues to sign up! To unsubscribe at any time, put 'unsubscribe eab' in the subject header. Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at: dan@headstar.com . Copyright 2011 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com . The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including this copyright notice are included, and as long as people are always encouraged to subscribe with us individually by email. Please also inform the editor when you are reproducing our content. Sections of the bulletin may be quoted as long as they are clearly sourced as 'taken from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter', and our web site address: http://www.headstar.com/eab is also cited. +Personnel: Editor: Dan Jellinek. Reporter: Tristan Parker. Editorial advisor: Kevin Carey. ISSN 1476-6337. [Issue 136 ends.]