E-Access Bulletin Live

Improved accessibility features on the new Kindle 3 electronic book reader will help vision-impaired users, but do not yet go far enough to make the device fully accessible, a leading analyst said this month.

The Kindle 3, developed by the online retailer Amazon, features a display with improved contrast and an audible menu facility, ‘Voice Guide’, enabling users to select an e-book using sound and activate the device’s text-to-speech ‘Read to Me’ feature. The Kindle 3 also features a display with 50% improved contrast between the text and background, improving the readability of text for partially sighted users.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new island themed around disability and inclusion has been ‘discovered’ in Second Life, by the man whose online character or ‘avatar’ was the first to use a wheelchair in the virtual world.

Llamdos (try reading the name backwards) was created by Simon Stevens, a consultant who in 2006 created Wheelies, the first virtual night-club in Second Life aimed at both disabled and non-disabled users.

Read the rest of this entry »

Delegates at this month’s ‘Web Accessibility London Unconference 2010’ ( www.a11yldn.org.uk ) were treated to a run-through of the state-of-the-art for open source accessibility solutions by one of the world’s leading experts in the field.

Steve Lee, of consultancy Full Measure ( www.fullmeasure.co.uk ), is the driving force behind many open source accessibility projects and is also a contributor to ‘OSS Watch’ ( www.oss-watch.ac.uk ), a service advising higher and further education institutions on use or development of free and open source software. It is funded by higher education IT support agency JISC.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Dan Jellinek.

For people with motor disabilities, who may have problems leaving the house, communicating or with social confidence, online social networks can be a true liberator, delegates heard at this year’s E-Access ’10 conference hosted by Headstar and E-Access Bulletin with One Voice for Accessible ICT Coalition (www.headstar-events.com/eaccess10).

A discussion group on the accessibility of social networks to users with motor disabilities was hosted by Makayla Lewis of the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction Design, City University London, and herself a carer for her parents and a voluntary worker for people with cerebral palsy.
Read the rest of this entry »

A ‘web accessibility cloud centre’ to help Japanese government departments improve online services to elderly and disabled people is being built by a consortium led by IBM Japan:
www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/32265.wss
Short Link: bit.ly/bEpADT

Working with IT solutions firm the KOA Corporation and the Tottori Prefecture Information-Center (TIC: a third sector Japanese company that supports government IT projects), the cloud centre will feature a collaborative system that allows citizens to browse government websites; report any accessibility issues they encounter; and suggest improvements. For example, users with visual impairments will be able to easily record difficulties in understanding text or images.

Read the rest of this entry »

Voluntary application of technical standards on accessibility of web sites to people with disabilities has proved “inadequate”, suggesting more formal regulation is needed, the US government has said.

In a document issued as part of a public consultation process on four new proposed regulations to extend the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to improve technology access for disabled people, the US Department of Justice said: “Voluntary standards have generally proved to be sufficient where obvious business incentives align with discretionary governing standards as, for example, with respect to privacy and security standards designed to increase consumer confidence in e-commerce. There has not, however, been equal success in the area of accessibility.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Apple’s iPhone and iPad devices are “revolutionary” and “game-changing” in offering built-in accessibility functions for people with disabilities, delegates heard at this year’s E-Access ’10 conference in London.

Kiran Kaja of the RNIB Digital Accessibility Team told a mobile phone workshop that while accessibility applications are available for other smartphones – such as the ‘Eyes Free Shell’ for Google’s  Android phone – the iPhone 3GS is a “game-changer” because its accessibility features are built in across all its functions.
Read the rest of this entry »

The UK government’s new ‘eAccessibility Forum’ will address three key areas: improving the regulatory framework; supporting businesses; and developing an ‘e-accessibility action plan, Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, told delegates at the recent E-Access ’10 event in London. The event was hosted by E-Access Bulletin publisher Headstar with the OneVoice Coalition for Accessible ICT.

The eAccessibility Forum was announced in the Digital Britain Act and is led by officials at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). On its first area of work, regulation, Vaizey said a consultation document would be published in September on the UK’s implementation of the Regulatory Framework for Electronic Communications in the European Union, amended in November of last year, which covers electronic accessibility. The UK is required to transpose the framework by the end of 2011, he said.

The forum’s eventual ‘e-accessibility action plan’ will cover both consumer technologies and website accessibility, Vaizey said. “[This] doesn’t necessarily mean by imposing regulations on bodies. It can be through partnership and persuasiveness as well and working together,” he said.

The minister was speaking the day after UK digital champion Martha Lane Fox launched her Manifesto for a Networked Nation which included the recommendation (in paragraph 9.2) that “Government should close down publicly funded websites that consistently fail to meet its own web accessibility guidelines.”

Note: Further in-depth coverage of E-Access ’10 will be featured in our August issue.

Memory-improvement games and an activity allowing children to create their own music are two of the games in a new free online play environment for children with special needs and disabilities.

The All Abilities ePlayground was created by the Australian arm of Sonokids, an international non-profit organisation developing technology for disabled people. It was commissioned by Gold Coast City Council in Queensland, Australia, with the state’s Department of Communities (Disability Services).

Access features include a ‘function for children with limited motor skills who can blow into a microphone to control games; and a ‘single switch’ control for children who are only able to use a single button on a computer.

The platform is based on the objectives behind 17 outdoor ‘All Abilities’ playgrounds built by councils across Queensland, as part of a government project.

Phia Damsma, creative director of Sonokids Australia, told E-Access Bulletin the ePlayground was designed to be as inclusive as possible. “In addition to more traditional devices like keyboards, mice and joysticks, the ePlayground is tailored for use with touch screens and low-tech assistive technologies”, Damsma said.

The ePlayground received positive feedback after being tested by special schools and special education units throughout Queensland, and it is hoped funding will be found for further development including personalising the platform to offer relevant local educational information, said Damsma.

“The current ePlayground introduces children to iconic Australian animals such as kangaroos, pelicans and crocs. We invite requests for Sonokids to localise and customise the ePlayground’s design concept to suit other countries, languages and cultures”, she said.

Deaf users of Sutton Council’s website in the UK will be able to contact customer services through a live, online sign language interpreter, in what the system’s owners believe to be the first service of its kind.

Sutton Council’s website features a ‘SignVideo’ link which connects deaf users to a specialist video call centre staffed by British Sign Language interpreters. The interpreters then contact the relevant council department and act as translators between the deaf website user and the hearing council staff member. This means that deaf website users can instantly discuss their queries with the council from any location with internet access and a webcam, without first having to book an appointment to ensure an interpreter is present.

The system was created by the social enterprise Significan’t. Brigitte Francois, director of interpreting services at Significan’t, told E-Access Bulletin that as well as giving deaf residents equal access to customers services within the council, the system also makes financial sense for the council.

“People are reluctant to book interpreters for a small conversation of 10-15 minutes, because most face-to-face interpreters charge for a minimum of three hours,” Francois said. “Significan’t’s director, Jeff McWhinney, decided that video interpreting would bring a solution to this. Face-to-face interpreting is very necessary – we don’t want to get rid of it – but in some circumstances it makes sense and is more cost efficient to be able to make a short call on the videophone.”

The system has already received positive feedback from residents in Sutton, a borough in which there are around 250 deaf people. Sutton is the only London borough to have been awarded accreditation for accessibility by the Shaw Trust, a charity which assists disabled people to find and prepare for employment.