E-Access Bulletin Live

The UK government set up Ofcom in 2003 to be a ‘super-regulator’ for the nation’s communications industries, merging five former regulatory bodies across the television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications sectors.

Part of the body’s role includes ensuring equal access to communications technology for disabled people, and in its first five years of operation it has carried out various projects relating to access to television, telecommunications and radio by all users. People with disabilities have been involved for example in work by Ofcom’s Consumer panel, an advisory body representing consumer interests; its broadcasting Content Board, which looks beyond consumer issues to the broader ‘public interest'; and its Advisory Committee on Older and Disabled People.
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Despite rising awareness in the web development community of issues relating to access by people with disabilities, it appears that in one vital sector at least, things may be going backwards.

The 10th annual ‘Better connected’ review of every UK council website from the local government Society of IT Management (Socitm), published this month, has revealed an alarming picture of falling standards.

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The largest conference dedicated to access to technology by people with disabilities ever to take place on the sub-continent was held in New Delhi last month, with assistance from the UK’s leading blindness charity RNIB.
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It is impossible to state a definitive number for the percentage of people who suffer from dyslexia because there is no single definition of dyslexia, delegates heard at this month’s conference on Dyslexia and the Civil Service.
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An increasing amount of research showing that large numbers of staff with dyslexia and other disabilities can benefit from assistive technology mean that public sector bodies face the likelihood of legal action this year or next under the Disability Discrimination Act, a leading analyst said this month.
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The smallest ever portable device allowing users to scan printed text and convert it to speech has been unveiled by KNFB Reading Technology. The KNFB Reader uses software installed on a Nokia N82 multi-function mobile phone handset weighing only 114 grams
(www.knfbreader.com).
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Although awareness of the importance of web accessibility is now relatively high after years of struggle by disability campaigners, website owners and developers still face a confusing task in trying to ascertain exactly what they should do to make their sites accessible.

There are a variety of guidelines and standards, and the main recognised international standard, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) from the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), is now outdated. A new version – WCAG 2.0 – might appear next year, but no-one is holding their breath since already almost a decade of wrangling and delays has passed since the appearance of WCAG version 1.0.

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Another step towards publication of the long-awaited international
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) will be
reached on 1 February, with the closing of the call for public comment
on a final working draft.
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The UK’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission is likely to be a more effective ally for those lobbying for better access to technology by people with disabilities than its predecessor Disability Rights Commission, a senior official told E-Access Bulletin this month.
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An email-based service which translates electronic documents into Braille or synthetic speech has won the British Computer Society’s 2007 Social Contribution Award.
‘RoboBraille’ is a free service and currently supports seven languages. It was developed by a consortium led by the Danish National Centre for Visual Impairment for Children and Youth:
www.robobraille.org .