Blog
November 26, 2009
Accessibility Knowledge Series III – Mobile Accessibility
Filed under: Accessibility, Accessibility Knowledge Series, Assistive Technologies, Developing Technologies, Hearing, Techshare India, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 7:01 pm
Mobile Accessibility
With the advent of technology Mobile Phones are becoming more and more powerful and feature rich devices and are great temptation to have one with us. The visually impaired users are no exception to this.
Apart from making and receiving call and to sending SMS a phone is a gadget full of features including variety of communication options, navigation aid, reading appliance, internet device and yes, great asset of entertainment with the option to play and record multimedia content.
Thus the mobile technology is growing at a rate out of imagination but for Person with disability, it is not that easy to opt for high tech solutions that are made available to their non disabled counterpart.
Hold on, you will be happy to know that there are companies like Code Factory working to Make Mobile Phone Accessible to visually impaired and hearing impaired.
The Screen Reader and Magnifier are available for High-tech Phones running Either Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 or Blackberry (Orator). The software is capable of rendering Text in Audio or in Braille on a Braille Display. Thus making most of the things accessible out of the box such as personal information management, browsing internet, etc.
There are few interesting advantages of using a high-tech Mobile Phones with accessibility products.
- For instance using Mobile Geo can give the sense of independence in navigation and is very helpful in determining Point of Interest while navigating on a unfamiliar vicinity.
- The tools like color recognizer can help you to identify colors of different objects giving sense of independence over color choices.
- On account of learning, Daisy Books can also be played on a mobile Device thus evading the need to carry a separate device to read books. The Daisy player provides all the option available on any other hardware / software Daisy player.
Thus technology is changing lives of every one with no exception of Disabled people.
Reference:
Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/codefactory and on our blog at http://codefactoryblog.wordpress.com/
Website: http://www.codefactory.es
This Accessibility Knowledge Series has been provided by Caroline Ragot, Marketing Director, Code Factory, S.L
Disclaimer:The views expressed herein are solely those of the author as an individual with interest in accessibility and assistive technology and do not claim to represent those of Techshare India, BarrierBreak Technologies or Net Systems Informatics.
Contribute
Got an idea/product that would bring a change for persons with disabilities? Send it across to techshare@barrierbreak.com
March 19, 2009
Accessibility is an area that has to be considered as per Indian Goverment WebSite Guidelines!
Filed under: Accessibility Review of Indian Websites, Developing Technologies, General — Shilpi Kapoor @ 1:08 pmIndia has taken the first step ahead in the area of web accessibility. Visit http://web.guidelines.gov.in to access the guideline released by NIC. What i appreciate is that the guideline clearly refers to the W3C WCAG and emphasises the need for including persons with disabilities.
This is a positive step and one that the indian IT industry should also adher to.
No CommentsFebruary 12, 2009
Web Accessibility Development
Filed under: Developing Technologies, Elderly, General, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Mamta Tandel @ 7:01 pmWeb Accessibility refers to making the web site accessible to all, irrespective to the type of disability and the medium which people use. It is crucial that accessibility is looked at on every stage of website development, be it design, content writing and integration.
Web Accessibility Development is not drastically different from regular web development. Web Accessibility Development has an edge over ‘regular’ Web Development; it involves combination and correct use of:
- Valid markups
- Valid Styles
- Web page compliant with:
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Different laws, for example in US – Section 508
- Scripts
- Client-side scripts
- Server-side scripts
- Content with:
- Appropriate heading structure and links
- Appropriate color contrasts
- Consistent navigational structure
- Text alternatives for images
- Accessible forms
- Accessible tables (data tables and not layout tables)
- Link to third-party plugins such as PDF, Excel, Word etc
- Accessible documents especially PDF
The above list doesn’t end… an important aspect of Web Accessibility Development includes testing the web pages created. Not only by automated checks but crucial and most importantly by end users including people with different types of disabilities such as visual, hearing, mobility and learning disability. It would be an added advantage if a senior citizen could test the web pages to certify that a web page is actually simple and easy to understand!
So, web accessibility development is for those who believe that there web site is not only for a section of a group in the world, but also includes 60 million of the lot that people believe cannot access or work with the web. Web accessibility development is for those who believe that web site is not a mere creation of fancy and jazzy web pages but an information portal or a source where all users can access the CONTENT and INFORMATION with ease.
Bottom line: Web Accessibility Development looks at not only FACE-VALUE but ADDED-VALUE!
No CommentsJanuary 5, 2009
BarrierBreak launches “BCAT” – A tool to create Accessible Flash based Elearning course
Filed under: Assistive Technologies, Authoring Technologies, Developing Technologies, Elderly, Flash, Hearing, Learning, Mobility, Visual — Shilpi Kapoor @ 9:49 pmRight to education is universal. Education has evolved from blackboard to keyboard. Elearning has broken the geographical barriers and made it possible for people to access knowledge with ease and convenience.
Despite the benefits offered by Elearning, it is not possible for students with special needs to access Elearning courses. Students using assistive technologies can with little ease access HTML based elearning but are deprived of the rich learning experience provided by technologies such as Flash. The common myth that prevails is that ‘Flash cannot be made accessible’ Its time that we over come this myth and change the mind set to ‘Flash can be made Accessible’
Net Systems Informatics & BarrierBreak Technologies have taken the initiative to break this myth and have launched the Beta version of “BarrierBreak Course Authoring Tool (BCAT)”. BCAT is designed and developed to assist teachers/authors in creating accessible Flash based Elearning courses. BCAT is an easy to use tool with in-built keyboard and screen reader support enabling students with disabilities to experience the power of Elearning!
BCAT comprises of two main components, Course Authoring Tool based on Moodle Learning Management System and Flash Architecture to access the course contents. In addition, the teacher/author can add various accessibility options to the course such as: Alternate Text, Captions, and Transcripts.
Once the course is published, the contents are generated in to XML and users can access the course using a Flash player. The Flash course thus created provides users with an “Accessibility Panel” to meet their needs:
- Show/Hide Captions
- Audio Transcript
- Change Themes
- Small/Large Icons
- Show/Hide Labels
- Text Size
We invite users with disabilities, teachers/authors, accessibility community at large to access BCAT and provide their valuable feedback and suggestions to make BCAT a tool for inclusive education.
To access Beta version of BCAT, visit: http://www.n-syst.com/lms/login/signup.php
Once you sign up, you will receive an email including further instructions. Along with the email, you will receive a ReadMe file, documentation for creating a course, documentation for using the course and bug report file.
The Beta Test Run is open until 20th January 2009. All suggestions are highly appreciated and will help us to make BCAT more user-friendly and accessible for all.
peace, veiky
No CommentsNovember 5, 2008
WCAG 2.0 is finally a proposed recommendation!
Filed under: Developing Technologies, General — Shilpi Kapoor @ 11:32 amFinally WCAG 2.0 is a proposed recommendation. We have all been eagerly waiting for this in the Accessibility world.
From the WAI:
“Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 was published as a W3C
Proposed Recommendation on 3 November 2008. This means that the
technical material of WCAG 2.0 is complete and it has been implemented
in real sites. The next stage is the final publication, which is
expected in December 2008.”
http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/PR-WCAG20-20081103/
Its time to start working on the new accessibility guidelines.
No CommentsSeptember 25, 2008
Adhering to Web Standards important to meet Accessibility – Opera’s Web Standard Curriculum
Filed under: Authoring Technologies, General — Shilpi Kapoor @ 12:38 pmI’ve been conducting accessibility training in India for the last 4 years. One of the first questions i ask participants is “does your document have a doctype?” At most times the answer i get is “What is a doctype?”
I think the first step is to explain to the developers the need to adher to web standards. Opera’s Web Standard released in association with the Yahoo! Developers Network is a complete course to teach you standard based web development including HTML, CSS, Javascript.
I hope people make good use of this curricilum. So head over to http://www.opera.com/wsc
No CommentsApril 4, 2008
Importance of ‘Help’ for Accessibility
Filed under: Flash — Shilpi Kapoor @ 2:18 pmAlthough the topic seems small, ‘Help Screen’ plays an important role in making any application accessible/usable. In our typical developer role we create all the fantastic things in an application, we provide keyboard shortcuts, alternative text for images, descriptions for buttons and images, various ways of handling different things in the course etc… but we forget to pass all of this information to the user. We assume that the user will come to know this when he/she will use the course, which is not fair.
The best way of conveying this information to the user is by providing a ‘Help Screen’.
We must include ALL the information which is beneficial for the users to access the application in a ‘Help Screen’. If we have developed the application catering to various disabilities, we should not hesitate to add an additional help topic for them so that the application becomes practically accessible to them. In case of a screen reader user, we should inform him/her about how to get to the buttons, how to read the alt for a button, if description is provided for a particular object how to access it? What are the different key combinations used by the screen reader to provide the information faster. (e.g.: Insert+Ctrl+G gives the list of all the graphics on the screen). We can’t assume an average screen reader user to know all these shortcuts.
To avoid the confusion, while the user is accessing the help screen, he/she should not have access to rest of the information. For example if a screen reader user is using the help screen and he/she press ‘Insert+F5’ to get the list of controls, he/she should only be presented with the controls on the help screen. This not only applies for help screen but also for other major parts of your flash screen (application). Normally what developers do is, they just make rest of the things disabled by writing simple code. But only disabling is not enough for keeping screen reader away from that information. Screen reader picks up all that stuff even if it’s disabled. We need to think one step ahead and deliver the solution.
We have to give the users what they want and not what we think they need.
And last but not the least; the ‘Help Screen’ has to be completely accessible 
You can have a look at our Hangman game for reference.
peace, veiky
No CommentsNext Page |
