Blog
April 21, 2009
BarrierBreak Technologies (a subsidiary of Net Systems Informatics) becomes a friend of the Daisy Consortium. Another way to show our stand to persons with disabilities.
Filed under: Daisy, General — Shilpi Kapoor @ 2:58 pmThe right to read is important and is applicable to persons with print disabilities. BarrierBreak Technologies (a subsidiary of Net Systems Informatics) has been working with Librariers and Publishers to make books accessible to all in the form of digital talking books.
We have been providing NIMAS and DAISY conversions services to our clients. As a step ahead, we are now Friends of the Daisy Consortium.
You can know more about our conversion services at http://barrierbreak.com/services/conversion.php
No CommentsMarch 19, 2009
Accessibility is an area that has to be considered as per Indian Goverment WebSite Guidelines!
Filed under: Accessibility Review of Indian Websites, General, Developing Technologies — 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 CommentsMarch 13, 2009
Apple’s Accessible iPod shuffle that talks!!
Filed under: General, Elderly, Mobility, Visual — Priti Rohra @ 3:33 pmApple’s latest iPod shuffle comes with VoiceOver that provides complete speech support while listening to your favorite music. Whether you want to listen to the song title, artist’s name or navigate between multiple play lists, it provides complete speech output without interrupting the music. Thus making it possible to control your iPod without requiring to look at the screen while you are in the middle of work-out, driving or reading a news paper.
The biggest advantage of this iPod is it is accessible for people with visual and mobility disabilities. All the controls of the iPod are present on the ear bud, thus removing the problems associated with Touch pad navigation for people with vision and dexterity impairments. This will make it possible for people with visual impairments to listen to the music as per their mood rather then listening to the music in the default order, being stored on their player.
Above all the in-built VoiceOver comes with support for 14 languages; it’s very small in size and has 4 GB storage capacity!!
Time to enjoy music!!!
Priti
February 27, 2009
India.gov.in - The Accessible National Portal of India
Filed under: Accessibility Review of Indian Websites, General — Priti Rohra @ 6:04 pmIndia.gov.in, The Accessible National Portal of India has been launched!!
The pleasing aspect of india.gov.in is that it is accessible with a screen reader!
I have visited several Indian government department websites in search of information and found most of them having some problems when accessed using a screen reader. But India.gov.in has given me a pleasing surprise by defeating them all and making an Accessible website that works perfectly fine with a screen reader.
India.gov.in, The National Portal of India has taken care of the needs of disabled users of India and ensured that their site is accessible for all!!
All sections of the website can be used with a keyboard, images were labelled, headings were defined, links were well defined, form labels were well described and supplemented with instructions and error messages. It was very heartening to see that some thing as basic as page title was so self explanatory that users can understand by reading the title, what the page will include.
I feel that the site has taken an innitiative by adding accessibility features, such as Accessibility options which allow users to change contrast and text size, skip to content and skip to navigation. In addition, they have provided an Accessibility Statement which describes the different Accessibility features included across the website.
Being an Assistive technology user, I have never seen any Indian government website so accessible. Hope this rubs on other Government of India and public sector websites and we can see more and more accessible websites in India.
No CommentsFebruary 12, 2009
Web Accessibility Development
Filed under: Elderly, General, Learning, Mobility, Visual, Hearing, Developing Technologies — 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: Learning, Elderly, Flash, Mobility, Hearing, Assistive Technologies, Developing Technologies, Visual, Authoring Technologies — Vivek Gaikwad @ 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 CommentsDecember 26, 2008
Browse our Assistive Technology Products that help people with disabilities
Filed under: General, Assistive Technologies — Srinivasu @ 5:46 pmGreetings for the New Year 2009!
Assistive Technologies plays an important role in the career development of people with disabilities. In the last decade, there has been a rapid development in the area of assistive technologies. However, the biggest challenge for India is affordability.
It’s a dream for BarrierBreak Technologies that every person with disability in India should take maximum advantage of assistive technologies and lead an independent life. BarrierBreak Technologies is working with International organizations to think of India and provide best of the products at an affordable price.
Some of the products that we deal with includes Dolphin Supernova – a powerful screen reader, magnifier with Braille support including RealSpeak Lekha, Optelec Compact + a portable magnifier etc. Browse our products section to know more of range of assistive technologies. In addition, if you would like demo CDs you can write to us at sales@barrierbreak.com.
For any queries and to schedule a demo at your organization / company, please contact our Sales Team at sales@barrierbreak.com or call us at +91 22 26860485 / 86 / +91 9177 383855.
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