FW: CNN.com - Technology - Analysis: Web sites are locking out thedisabled - August 7, 2000
Stephen Dawes
SDawes at gov.calgary.ab.ca
Tue Aug 8 15:26:43 EDT 2000
CNN.com - Technology - Analysis: Web sites are locking out the disabled -
August 7, 2000Here is an interesting article,
Sorry if I have strayed of topic.
Stephen Dawes B.A. B.Sc.
Web Business Office, City of Calgary
PHONE: (403) 268-5527. FAX: (403) 268-6423
E-MAIL ADDRESS: sdawes at gov.calgary.ab.ca
-----Original Message-----
From: George Tapley [mailto:george.tapley at gov.calgary.ab.ca]
Sent: 2000 August 08 11:06 AM
To: Stephen.Dawes at gov.calgary.ab.ca
Subject: CNN.com - Technology - Analysis: Web sites are locking out
thedisabled - August 7, 2000
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Analysis: Web sites are locking out the disabled
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In this story:
A problem ignored
Access is not so hard
Signs of progress
Uncle Sam steps in
Smarter technology ahead?
Access versus isolation
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by Judy Heim
(IDG) -- Every morning Marlaina Lieberg, who's been blind from birth,
reads her local paper, the Seattle Times, on the Web, with her guide dog,
Madeline, at her feet. Lieberg also taps into Web sites to research
corporations she'll pitch her consulting company's services to and trades
e-mail with clients. In her spare moments, she trades stocks online and
shops for groceries. Last year she bought all her gifts on the Web.
ALSO
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Titles I and
V
Lieberg navigates cyberspace with a screen reader, a software utility
that reads Web pages out loud, chattering like a robot as it recites links
and text. Surfing the Web without seeing is time-consuming; Lieberg must
orient herself on pages by listening carefully to words rather than scanning
pictures and must navigate using her keyboard instead of a mouse.
Even so, Lieberg exults over the freedom that the Web has given her.
"These shopping services are so important for people who are unable to
drive, and for those of us who are unable to peruse the aisles," she says.
"It is such a joy. I can even read package directions. I've never done this
sort of thing before."
Lieberg can't navigate every Web site easily with her screen reader,
though. The majority of Web pages are poorly designed for anyone who's not
surfing with a standard copy of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator:
Buttons can be hard to identify, Java applets can be impenetrable, and forms
tend to be indecipherable if they're not coded for a screen reader.
Making Web sites accessible to all potential customers seems like
common sense. One in five Americans has some disability; as the country
ages, that percentage is expected to increase. A Web site that's navigable
by an assistive technology such as a screen reader is also accessible by
phones and palmtops, not to mention by old, slow computers. In addition,
suggests Mike Piper of PiperStudiosInc, designers of an accessible site for
Easter Seals, every site wants to stand out, and the goodwill generated by
maintaining an accessible online presence can be a powerful way to do that.
MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
IDG.net home page
PC World home page
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How the talking Web works -- and doesn't
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Accessibility also makes sense legally: The Justice Department has
ruled that the Americans With Disabilities Act applies to the Web, not just
to places that can be accessed physically. A retailer whose Web site doesn't
meet ADA standards can be sued under the act, just as a brick-and-mortar
store can.
But as the online world grows more graphical, it becomes less
accessible to disabled users. For years Rose Combs, a blind medical
transcriptionist in Scottsdale, Arizona, used the text-based GEnie service,
which was easy to traverse with a screen reader. When GEnie shut its doors,
Combs found that getting Web tasks accomplished could be a struggle. "I
can't count the times I have had to call my husband to help me navigate a
site," she says.
Web sites also hamper those with nonvisual disabilities. Jamie Berke,
who is deaf, says she has "waged losing battles" trying to convince
network-TV Web sites to provide closed captions for news Webcasts. Even
President Clinton's recent Webcast about government and the Internet wasn't
captioned, notes Berke, who runs a site called the Closed Captioning Web
(link below).
"It's hit-or-miss whether a site will be accessible," says Joseph
Lazzaro, director of the adaptive technology program at the Massachusetts
Commission for the Blind and author of Adapting PCs for Disabilities
(Addison-Wesley, 1995). "If you're cut off from information, you're not
going to go to school, you're not going to get a job. You're going to be
left out of a lot that society has to offer."
Even being a good citizen may pose a challenge. Recently, Arizona
became the first state to let its citizens vote online. But Rose Combs
couldn't cast her cyberballot without assistance.
A problem ignored
In recent years, the physical world has adapted to the needs of the
disabled: wheelchair ramps, Braille markings, closed captioning. But of more
than 30 major shopping, search, auction, news, and financial Web sites that
PC World contacted, only a handful admitted any interest in -- much less any
action taken toward -- tailoring the sites for accessibility. A spokesperson
for one electronics retailer that asked not to be named said, "That's not a
market we've thought about pursuing." Many Web retailers declined to be
interviewed for this article. Others did not return repeated calls.
Some sites expressed a vague interest in keeping all users happy;
others were dismissive. Anna Lonergan, a spokesperson for The Gap, told us
the company has no plans to make its site accessible. "We're aware of the
technologies but have no plans to implement them," she said. Asked why not,
she replied, "That touches in the realm of strategy, and we don't discuss
strategy."
A spokesperson at one of the country's largest computer retailers said
that the company's Web designers had not even considered the issue until PC
World brought it to their attention. That retailer isn't alone: Until this
article, this magazine hadn't examined the accessibility of its own site,
PCWorld.com. Since then, we've made plans for modest immediate moves to
improve access, such as using larger type and clearer directory
descriptions, as well as for more-substantial long-term efforts.
Why don't more firms keep accessibility in mind? Mike Paciello, a Web
accessibility consultant and technical director for WebAble, a resource for
accessible Web design, says, "They don't see the market. The moment you tell
a company how important it is to their business to make their Web site
accessible, they come back with statistics that the market isn't big enough
for them to spend the money."
Access is not so hard
But developing an accessible site is pricey only if you're redesigning
a large site from the ground up, contends Kynn Bartlett, director of the
HTML Writers Guild's Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education Center
and a Web site accessibility consultant. "We're not talking about doubling
the cost of your site; we're talking about adding 1 or 2 percent to its cost
and increasing your audience by 20 percent," he says.
Other Webmasters fear that making a site accessible means replacing
attractive graphics with an austere look and a big typeface. Bartlett says
that's a myth. "I tell people, don't take down Java, don't get rid of that
animation -- just add an alternative."
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines released by the World Wide
Web Consortium call for simple changes, such as describing graphics and
audio using text and providing alternatives to applets and scripts. Such
tweaks result in a site that's easily navigable by many assistive tools.
They also make a site friendly to those with a wide variety of disabilities,
including visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairments.
Signs of progress
For now, many sites remain oblivious to the problem. But the news
isn't all bad. Judy Brewer, director of the W3C's Web Accessibility
Initiative, says that a number of sites are beginning to consider it. "I
think that in probably half of those companies [that PC World contacted],
people are already working on Web accessibility, but word hasn't spread
through the organization."
Some companies have made progress. Microsoft, for instance, is
gradually improving its sites. "The [W3C] guidelines are not rocket science,
but they're not that easy to figure out how to apply in some cases," says
Dick Brown, program manager for Web accessibility at Microsoft.
IBM is also revising its Web site as part of a companywide initiative
to make all its products accessible. Kim Stephens, Webmaster at IBM's
accessibility center, says that the biggest challenge has been educating
employees on the importance of Web accessibility. "We've found that one of
the most effective motivators is to let someone hear how their Web page
sounds [when recited by a screen reader]. When they hear how broken it
sounds, [it inspires] them to change it."
In many cases, smaller sites can move more quickly than big ones.
Consider Coffee Anyone?, a mom-and-pop site operated by Norman and Rosemary
Belssner. Until they started corresponding with customers, the Belssners
were unaware that many were blind. They hadn't known about site
accessibility but were surprised at how easy it was to implement.
"The problems [customers] were having were subtle," explains Norman
Belssner. "We didn't have some shopping cart buttons labeled, for example."
The changes he made were simple and took minutes. "Creating accessibility in
a brick-and-mortar environment is far more challenging than adding
accessibility to your Web site," concludes Belssner, who says revamping the
site has helped his company's bottom line.
Uncle Sam steps in
Not every company sees accessibility as a smart business decision, but
those that do not could find themselves in trouble with the law. Last year,
the National Federation of the Blind filed suit against America Online,
arguing that because AOL's software does not work with screen readers, the
service violates the ADA. Under Title III of the act, passed in 1990, all
"public accommodations" must provide reasonable access to persons with
disabilities. In 1996, the Department of Justice ruled that Web sites are
public accommodations and must therefore offer access to the disabled. (A
separate law mandates that federal sites created after August 7, 2000, be
accessible.)
"Traditionally, what has been covered by the ADA is physical
structures," says Curtis Chong, director of technology for the NFB. "We in
the National Federation of the Blind believe that although we don't have
many problems accessing buildings, the world is moving in the direction that
everything one does revolves around electronic services and the Internet. If
the blind can't use that information, we will not be able to compete. We
will be relegated to the backwaters of the electronic information highway."
Chong says that before filing suit, the organization asked AOL to
modify its software, but the company "pretty much ignored us." Nicholas
Graham of AOL reports that the company is talking with the NFB. He says AOL
will support screen readers in future versions of its software, although he
can't say when.
Editor's note: As this story went to press, the NFB dropped its
lawsuit against AOL, after the company agreed to make its Internet browsing
software and content compatible with screen-reading programs.
The NFB is considering suits against other ISPs and Web sites. "The
AOL suit has drawn people's attention to the fact that this is a serious
issue," says Cynthia Waddell, ADA coordinator for the city of San Jose,
California. The ADA mandates both that sites be accessible to the disabled
and that workers can request that their own company's site be redesigned so
they can perform their jobs, she says.
Waddell says many businesses fear the expense that could accompany
redesigning their sites to comply with the ADA, but accessible design isn't
necessarily costly. "When the ADA was passed in 1990, there was concern that
businesses would go bankrupt because they would have to make their buildings
accessible," she explains. "Now we're hearing the same argument."
Steve Jacobson, vice president of the computer science division for
the National Federation of the Blind, says such concerns are mostly
groundless. "Some of [this is] fear mongering.... We're not looking at a
massive rewrite of Web pages but at working with Web designers to make pages
accessible."
Earlier this year, the NFB and the Connecticut attorney general's
office reached an agreement with four companies that provide online tax
filing services. The Internal Revenue Service listed HDVest, Intuit, H & R
Block, and Gilman & Ciocia on its site as partners for e-filing, but users
with screen readers couldn't file returns on those sites. The firms agreed
to make their sites accessible by the 2000 tax season.
Similarly, the California Council of the Blind has been working with
large financial institutions to ensure that their sites are accessible. The
first agreement was reached in March with Bank of America. "I think it's
really important to get people in the institutions to understand why
technology should be accessible," says Lainey Feingold, a disability rights
lawyer in Berkeley, California, who represents the council. "We approached
the banks and said, 'You have a problem here.' They've been totally on
board."
Smarter technology ahead?
One reason the Internet isn't more hospitable to the disabled is that
few Web authoring tools take accessibility into consideration. But new W3C
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines should improve the situation.
"Hopefully, in the future any tool you pull off the shelf is going to help
you to automatically create accessible Web pages," says the W3C's Brewer.
Some Web technology companies are also working on fixes. For instance,
when a screen reader encounters Java on a Web site, the result can sound
like a Martian poem. Sun Microsystems has created the Java Accessibility
API, which lets screen readers and voice recognition devices make Java
applets and applications talk as well as listen. However, this solution
works only if developers build Java apps that take advantage of the new API
and users have an up-to-date screen reader and browser.
Another new tool is the Web-captioning editor Media Access Generator
from public TV station WGBH and its National Center for Accessible Media in
Boston. "One reason there are hardly any captions on the Web is because
they're a big pain in the neck to create," says Geoff Freed, project manager
for the Web Access Project at NCAM. With MAGpie, as the editor is called,
one can write video captions in multiple formats simply. "This knocks down
one excuse for not providing captions," he says.
Disabled users may also benefit as companies see profit in providing
Web access to phones, wireless PDAs, and other devices. "When we were
writing the accessibility guidelines, someone told us we should really call
them Guidelines for Making Your Web Site Work With Mobile Technologies,"
says Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the University of Wisconsin's Trace
Research Center and an editor of the W3C accessibility guidelines. "If you
want to access the Web with a Palm Pilot, you want text large, and that's
how people with low vision want to view the page. If you want to access the
Internet via phone, you're accessing it auditorily, and that's how someone
with a speech reader accesses it."
Earl Johnson, an accessibility architect at Sun, feels that wireless
devices will start to transform the Web in as little as two to three years,
making it more accessible to people with and without disabilities in the
process. "If you start introducing in your site the ability to display
information on different devices, that's where accessibility starts to
benefit every user," he says.
Access versus isolation
Despite remaining roadblocks, the Web is already helping the disabled.
"Look at the wealth of information you have at your fingertips," marvels
Kelly Ford, an access technology coordinator at Mount Hood Community College
in Gresham, Oregon. Ford has been blind since birth. "Admittedly some of it
is hard to get at, but 20 years ago I couldn't flip through the L.A. Times
and read book reviews, let alone buy the books online."
Looking ahead, users and activists voice cautious optimism. Most agree
that there will be more lawsuits, and more rankling between consumers and
Webmasters. "I see [the Web] becoming accessible, but slowly," says the
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind's Lazzaro. "It's not going to happen
overnight."
And the Web won't truly be open to all until "all providers of
information on the Net... put effort into making that information readily
accessible to everyone, regardless of physical barriers," says Vint Cerf, an
Internet founding father and chairman of the Internet Societal Task Force.
"If you are deaf, you need captions for spoken elements. If you are
blind, you need voiced descriptions of Web contents and spoken renderings of
e-mail. The range of physical disabilities is very large, and we need many
different tools to overcome the consequential barriers to Internet use,"
says Cerf, who himself has a hearing impairment. "Let us commit ourselves to
truly assuring that the Internet really is for everyone."
For more in this article, see "Learn more about Web accessibility" and
"How the talking Web works -- and doesn't," links below.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Wanted: A Web for all of us
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RELATED IDG.net STORIES:
Learn more about Web accessibility
(PC World Online)
How the talking Web works -- and doesn't
(PC World Online)
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(PC World Online)
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(PC World Online)
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(PC World Online)
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(PC World Online)
Download textHELP ScreenReader from FileWorld
(PC World Online)
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World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
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