E-Access Bulletin Live

Mobile phones and other mobile technologies have great potential to help older people, but existing methods of evaluating older people’s access requirements for such technologies are inadequate, according to a paper presented at last week’s British HCI (human-computer interaction) 2008 conference at Liverpool John Moores University (www.hci2008.org).

The paper, by Sofianiza Malik and Alistair Edwards from the Department of Computer Science, University of York, was presented at a workshop on HCI and the older population.
(more…)

Following a two-year legal battle, US superstore chain Target has agreed to pay six million dollars to settle a class action brought against it for the inaccessibility of its website.

The company also agreed to make changes to its site to ensure it is accessible, to pay for regular independent accessibility testing of its site, and to pay the legal fees of those who brought the case, although it does not accept liability or agree that the website is inaccessible (fastlink.headstar.com/target1 ).
(more…)

A new device called STEP-HEAR (stephear.com), enabling blind and partially sighted people to navigate in public places,
is among technologies reviewed by the RNIB’s radio station Insight Radio as part of its reporting from Vision 2008 (www.vision2008.ca).

Vision 2008, held this summer in Montreal, Canada, is the world’s biggest conference on low vision.

STEP-HEAR is a relatively low cost device consisting of two parts. A base station includes a speaker and a small recording device onto which the user can record, re-record or store sounds and messages. The second part, a remote control, can be worn as a pendant, strapped to the wrist or carried in a pocket. When a blind person carrying the remote control walks within range of the base the remote vibrates, prompting the user to press a button to hear the message or sound recorded.
(more…)

By Majeed Saleh and Dan Jellinek
For years the web accessibility community has been waiting for clear legal precedent to be set enforcing the accessibility of websites for people with disabilities, but to date the wait has gone largely unrewarded.

The ruling cited most often dates back to 2000, when blind web user Bruce Maguire won 20,000 Australian Dollars from the organisers of the Sydney Olympics for failing to address the inaccessibility of the games’ website (for case details see contenu.nu/socog.html and E-Access Bulletin back issues including August 2008). But the ruling was that of an equal opportunity commission rather than a full court, and has little resonance outside that country.

Since then, a series of cases brought in the UK and elsewhere have been settled out of court with payments made to plaintiffs, often in secret. Such settlements are frustrating: for while it is understandable that complainants, many of whom are people with disabilities, are inclined to accept offers of financial compensation in return for dropping their claims, only completed court cases can set a legal precedent.
(more…)

Here’s a new development at YouTube that could prove very useful for many – if its implementation catches on.

www.youtube.com/blog?entry=mi8D3ntPgFQ

A web database helping UK education institutions to obtain learning materials from publishing houses in accessible formats has been launched by educational IT access agency TechDis.

TechDis is funded by JISC, the education sector’s Joint Information Systems Committee, to support the sector in achieving greater technology inclusion. In an audio interview or ‘podcast’ published on the JISC website, TechDis director Sal Cooke said the Publisher Lookup UK service (www.publisherlookup.org.uk) had been developed in partnership with the Publishers Association.

The website allows people to search an online database in which publishers have entered a single point of contact for library staff or other staff seeking to support students with learning difficulties to obtain alternative formats. It is thought to be the first resource of its kind in Europe, Cooke said, though a similar service already exists in the US (www.publisherlookup.org). (more…)

A draft anti-discrimination directive from the European Commission has been criticised by a major disability lobby group for failing to cover technology accessibility standards.

The commission’s proposal, ‘Non-discrimination and equal opportunities: a renewed commitment’, deals with discrimination against people on the basis of disability, race, religion, gender or sexual orientation and covers non-employment areas such as education, social security and health care (see fastlink.headstar.com/eur8).

In a statement European disability Forum (EDF) President Yannis Vardakastanis said the draft directive omits “important issues for persons with disabilities as the concept of universal design, the necessity of European and national accessibility standards and the right to services ensuring inclusion.”

In addition the document “leaves room for interpretation and will create legal uncertainties”, Vardakastanis said (see fastlink.headstar.com/edf2).

The EDF was created in 1996 to give a voice in the European Union to Europe’s 50 million disabled people (www.edf-feph.org).

More help is needed to ensure the ‘struggling seventh’ – the most disadvantaged 15 per cent of UK society – are reached by the benefits of the information society, according to a ‘Digital inclusion manifesto’ published by specialist consultancy humanITy (www.humanity.org.uk).

Contrary to expectation the so-called ‘digital divide’ has compounded exclusion among vulnerable groups, and while a lot of resources have been directed towards the improving the access of the ‘final third’, there is still more to be done for the most disadvantaged groups, the manifesto finds.
(more…)

The forthcoming British Standard for accessible websites, BS8878, is to be aimed at marketing departments of major retailers and suppliers of consumer goods and services, it has emerged.

At an open planning meeting hosted this week by the British Standards Institution (BSi –
www.bsi-global.com), the committee charged with producing the standard consulted a range of other academic and technical bodies to ensure the new work will not repeat or  Compete with other guidelines.
(more…)

A leading charity is using a wide range of social networking and multimedia sites – Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, YouTube and iTunes  – to provide support and information to parents of disabled children and help them contact each other.

Contact a Family (www.cafamily.org.uk), which runs a parent networking website called Making Contact (www.makingcontact.org), says parents of disabled children often feel isolated because they don’t know anybody in the same situation. But mothers, who are often the primary carers for children with disabilities, are now among the biggest users of social networking sites, it says.
(more…)