[gui-talk] Fwd: E-Access Bulletin: Issue 108, December 2008

[Steve Pattison]

From: Dan Jellinek dan at headstar.com
To: eaccess at headstar.com

++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
- ISSUE 108, December 2008.

A Headstar Publication.
http://www.headstar.com/eab/ .

Sponsored by:
Ford Motor Company
( http://www.ford.co.uk ).

Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details at the
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++Sponsored Notice: Fortune Cookie
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Julie Howell is our Director of Accessibility. Email Julie at:
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[Sponsored Notice ends].


++Issue 108 Contents.

+01: Inaccessible Recruitment Websites 'An Emerging Scandal'
- Warning from leader of Employers' Forum on Disability.

+02: Guidelines Create Landmark Month For Web Accessibility
- Long-awaited WCAG 2.0 release, plus draft British standard.

+03: Global Online Accessibility Resource Set For 2009 Launch
- Plans for open source, royalty-free bank of technologies.

News in Brief: 04: Inclusion Solutions - case study database ; 05:
Robo Prize - European award for Braille by email; 06: DeafBlind
Companion - multiple channel communication device; Portable Tools:
e-accessibility memory stick.

Section Two: 'The Inbox' - Readers' Forum.
08: Recession Buster - Accessibility can drive profits; 09: Automatic
Captcha - Online solution.

Section Three: Interview - Susan Scott-Parker OBE.
10: Fighting Talk From Taskforce Commander: The founder of the
world's largest employers' body dealing with disability issues, Susan
Scott-Parker, seized the attention of delegates at a recent European
Commission conference on digital inclusion with an attack on
inaccessible recruitment advertising websites. Afterwards she spoke to
Dan Jellinek about this and other vital issues of equality in the modern
workplace.

[Contents ends].


++Section One: News.

+01: Inaccessible Recruitment Websites 'An Emerging Scandal'.

The inaccessibility of job advertising websites to people with
disabilities is an "emerging scandal" which could expose companies to
legal challenge, according to the head of one of the world's leading
bodies promoting equal opportunities in the workplace.

Susan Scott-Parker, founder and chief executive of the Employers'
Forum on Disability (http://www.efd.org.uk/), said this month that
inaccessible recruitment sites pose a "huge problem" to jobseekers
with disabilities, particularly since many employers were now
recruiting exclusively online.

Speaking at the e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference hosted in Vienna
by the European Commission earlier, Scott-Parker cited inaccessible
online psychometric tests and internet job application forms as two
examples of features that could exclude jobseekers with disabilities.

"If you put a sign up saying no disabled people need apply, people
would get cross. But thousands of jobs are like that. Surely if an
employer chooses not to allow a disabled person to apply online, this is
an employment rights issue?"

Companies need to ensure they provide alternative routes to job
application that are taken as seriously as applications received online,
Scott-Parker said. It was no good providing alternatives if applications
received via those routes are perceived as second-class, she said.

NOTE: For a full interview with Susan Scott-Parker about ICT
accessibility and employment see Section Three, this issue.

Comment on this story now on E-Access Bulletin Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=216


+02: Guidelines Create Landmark Month For Web Accessibility.

The long-anticipated publication of new international web accessibility
standard WCAG 2.0 has coincided with the release of a draft British
Standard for managing web accessibility, in a landmark month for
internet inclusion.

WCAG 2.0 ( http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ ) is the new version of
the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines from the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C), accepted as the main benchmark for ensuring web
content is usable by people with disabilities

The new 'recommendation' - the consortium's term for a full standard
- was finally released on 11 December 2008, nine years and seven
months after the adoption of its predecessor WCAG 1.0. The delay was
caused by the W3C's desire to consult as widely as possible on every
stage of the complex guidelines' development; and to ensure the
standard is as generic and flexible as possible so it will remain 
relevant
as web technologies develop.

A wide range of implementation and explanatory guidance has been
published alongside the new guidelines, and W3C says websites which
met the WCAG 1.0 guidelines should need little or no adjustment to
meet WCAG 2.0.

Speaking to E-Access Bulletin shortly after publication, Judy Brewer,
director of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative, said one of the keys
to WCAG 2.0 was improved flexibility, and an approach which
emphasises generic outcomes rather than specific technical
checkpoints. "They apply to all web technologies - we wanted
developers to have fewer constraints in areas like scripting, and to be
able to innovate," Brewer said.

Meanwhile the consultation draft of a new British Standard for
developing accessible websites has been published on the website of
BSI, the UK's national standards body (
http://drafts.bsigroup.com/?i=245 ).

The eventual standard BS 8878, entitled 'Web accessibility - building
accessible experiences for disabled people', will be based on the
previous Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 (see E-Access
Bulletin issue 98 - http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=159 )

It will not set technical specifications for accessibility, instead 
offering
recommendations on upholding existing specifications, notably WCAG
2.0, and involving disabled people in developing and testing websites.

Julie Howell, chair of the BSI technical committee IST/45 which
produced the draft, said: "This standard will be a fantastic tool for
organisations wishing to understand their responsibilities in enabling
disabled people to use web content."

Ironically, many of the comments posted on the draft to date have
focused on the relative inaccessibility and inflexibility of the 
document
itself, and on difficulties with the registration process. Consultation
continues to 31 January and the release of BS 8878 is expected in
summer 2009.

Comment on this story now on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=218


+03: Global Online Accessibility Resource Set For 2009 Launch.

An online resource of open source, royalty-free assistive technology
tools, accessible and usable at any time and across the world, is to be
launched next year by a consortium of more than 30 US and European
IT and disability organisations and leaders, the European Commission
e-Inclusion conference heard this month.

Addressing the Vienna conference Dr Gregg Vanderheiden, director of
the Trace Research and Development Centre at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison (http://trace.wisc.edu/), said the rationale for the
project was to ensure that the societies of the future did not create a
global disconnected underclass.

"Tomorrow will not look like today. IT will be like electricity is today
- you won't be able to find a place, a room, a vehicle where it is not
available," Vanderheiden said. "It is like the electric light switch -
people used to have to carry their light with them, to carry lantern 
into
a room. They would have laughed if you had said to them in the future
you won't have to, there will be light in every room," he said.

So the world will be one of IT convenience, Vanderheiden said,
"Unless we have a disability that prevents us from using the default
interfaces provided, or they are too complicated for us to understand.
Then we won't be able to operate in the world as it is
designed...somehow we have to figure out a way that we can
economically deliver accessibility to a wide variety of interfaces...to
build accessibility into the internet."

The 'Raising the Floor' project will seek to address this problem by
creating a collaborative, international virtual community of businesses,
public sector agencies, charities and others to create a bank of open
source virtual assistive technologies, he said. Tools would be
"localisation-friendly, and culturally open and agnostic," and offline
access would be possible for those who cannot afford to get or stay
online, for example using e-book readers downloaded to mobile
phones.

The initiative received its first grant in October from the US
Department of Education and will have its formal launch at the UN
next year, Vanderheiden said. For a link to a copy of his Vienna
presentation see:
http://fastlink.headstar.com/vdh1 .

Comment on this story now on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=217


++News in Brief:

+04: Inclusion Solutions: A new database of projects supporting digital
inclusion, including access to technology by people with disabilities,
has been launched by the UK's Department for Communities and
Local Government, in partnership with De Montfort University and
others. Case studies from the UK and elsewhere can be searched and
browsed by category including all 198 national indicators used by
government to assess council performance:
http://www.esd.org.uk/solutions4Inclusion/ .

+05: Robo Prize: The online text conversion service RoboBraille has
won the eAccessibility category at the European e-inclusion awards,
hosted by the European Commission in Vienna this month. Created by
the Danish Centre for Visual Impairment, RoboBraille automatically
converts text sent by email in Danish, English, Italian, Greek or
Portuguese into either Braille or speech:
http://www.e-inclusionawards.eu/ .

+06: Deafblind Companion: A new, multi-function portable
communication device for deafblind people has been launched by the
leading access technology firm Humanware. The DeafBlind
Communicator includes a telephone typewriter with Braille display
that enables two deafblind people to communicate with each other and
also a portable companion phone which connects with the typewriter
via Bluetooth and allows the user to communicate with sighted or
hearing people face-to-face:
http://www.humanware.com/deafblind_communicator

+07: Portable Tools: A set of accessibility tools which can work on
most computers, carried on a portable USB flash drive, has been
released by disability charity AbilityNet. The 'AccessAT' device
includes a choice of screenreaders, a virtual magnifying glass and a
screen 'tinter' to improve contrast. A similar device containing
accessible games and entertainment software has also been released,
entitled AccessFun:
http://www.abilitynet.org.uk/newsarticle72

[Section One ends].


++Special Notice: Web Accessibility Forum.

Accessify Forum is a discussion forum devoted to all topics relating to
web accessibility. Topics cover everything from 'Beginners' and 'Site
building and testing' through to projects such as the new accessibility
testing tool WaiZilla and the accessibility of the open source forum
software itself.

All you need to register is a working email address, so come along and
join in the fun at:
http://www.accessifyforum.com .

[Special notice ends].


++Section Two: 'The Inbox'
- Readers' Forum.

Please email all contributions or responses to:
inbox at headstar.com .


+08: Recession Buster: Mike Paciello, founder of the leading US-based
accessibility consultancy The Paciello Group (
http://www.paciellogroup.com ), has posted onto the E-Access Bulletin
Live blog in response to our piece on a paper by Ted Page of PWS web
services, 'Recession is poor excuse for exclusion'.

Paciello writes: "Great article and well stated. Business affected by 
the
recession should use accessibility as a business value proposition.
Laws that require accessibility are business opportunities. Use them to
create customer value propositions.

"From my perspective, the corporate world strictly sees accessibility
and government mandates (such as US Section 508, UK Disability
Discrimination Act and so on) as additional line item costs. Businesses
(in general) have not figured out how to take the accessibility laws and
turn them into profitable opportunity, much like they have with
alternative energy."

[Further comments please to the blog
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=209 or email
inbox at headstar.com ].


+09: Automatic Captcha: Open source accessibility specialist Steve
Lee of Fullmeasure.co.uk writes in to contribute to our long-running
discussion about the inaccessibility of website 'captcha' devices that
require people to recognise letters and numbers in a distorted visual
graphic.

Steve writes: "FYI, webvisum provides an automatic captcha-solving
service:
http://www.webvisum.com/

"I must admit I did not find it obvious how to use the keys etc but
looking at the add-on settings and right click menu worked for me but
I'm sighted. If you could not easily work out how to use it then I'm 
sure
they'd appreciate feedback."

He also sends a link to a very positive review of the Webvisum service
by fellow accessibility blogger Marco Zehe from Mozilla:
http://eduspaces.net/stevelee/weblog/508709.html

Following Steve's note, E-Access Bulletin contacted Webvisum to see
if its service really was a fully automated way of making captchas
accessible to all. The company sent an intriguing response: "The
system is truly automated and you are welcome to try it for yourself.
We cannot go into the detail on how exactly we do captchas, as that is
sensitive information."

[Further comments please to inbox at headstar.com].

[Section Two Ends]


++Special Notice: Opportunities and risks of open source software in
the public sector.
-A Headstar Training/Positive Internet Masterclass
Thursday 05 February 2009, Central London
http://www.headstar-training.com/Open/

Free and open source software have revolutionised ICT. In the public
sector, an increasing number of bodies are making use of these
technologies.

Cost is the main driver, since open source software has few of the costs
and licensing restrictions of traditional software. However, the area is
complex, and the savings analysis - taking into account training, full
cost of ownership, and other issues - can lead to confusion.

Our masterclass can help. In our unique open source software overview
training course aimed at the public sector, Nick Mailer unpicks the
major controversies and myths surrounding free and open source
software.

Nick will illustrate how you can leverage this software into your ICT
environment, and move on safely to larger scale deployments. He
shows how best to get support, advice and maintenance, and how best
to secure your investment. To book a place visit:
http://www.headstar-training.com/Open/ .

[Special notice ends]


++Section Three: Interview
- Susan Scott-Parker OBE.

+10: Fighting Talk From Taskforce Commander
by Dan Jellinek.

The inaccessibility of job advertising websites to people with
disabilities is an "emerging scandal," delegates heard earlier this 
month
at the e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference hosted in Vienna by the
European Commission.

The source of this stinging rebuke was Susan Scott-Parker OBE,
founder and chief executive of the Employers' Forum on Disability
(http://www.efd.org.uk/). In a world where, increasingly, employers
are choosing to advertise positions solely online, inaccessible
recruitment sites pose a "huge problem" to jobseekers with disabilities,
Scott-Parker said.

"We see inaccessible psychometric tests, application forms that don't
work if you have dyslexia. If you put a sign up saying no disabled
people need apply, people would get cross. But thousands of jobs are
like that. Surely if an employer chooses not to allow a disabled person
to apply online, this is an employment rights issue?"

Combative words, but from a surprising source perhaps? After all the
EFD, which Scott-Parker founded in 1991, is funded by and serves the
very companies she appeared to be excoriating. Its 400 current
members between them employ eight million people, or some 20 per
cent of the UK's workforce, including many global players such as
Barclays, whose group CEO John Varley is current EFD president.

Speaking to E-Access Bulletin a short while after delivering her
Vienna speech, however, Scott-Parker said it was in her members'
interests to realise the scale of this problem and take corrective 
action.

"We'd like to tip off members that there might be legal challenges,"
she said. "It is best practice, if millions of people are not being
excluded. Firms need to require people like online psychometric testers
to prove they are accessible before they use them, particularly where
they insist people can only apply for jobs online, which is increasingly
the case, even for jobs that don't require computer literacy."

Companies need to ensure they provide alternative routes to job
application that are taken as seriously as applications received online,
Scott-Parker said. It was no good providing alternatives if applications
received via those routes are perceived as second-class, she said.

Use of inaccessible recruitment sites were not the only corporate IT
failures to come under fire from Scott-Parker in Vienna. Another was a
failure by some organisations to make proper and timely adjustments
to internal IT systems for employees with disabilities or who became
disabled through the process of ageing or accidents.

This represented a costly waste of resources: "All the investment in the
individual fails if employers choose not to make adjustments, and the
employee moves onto benefits instead of remaining at work," Scott-
Parker said.

A third key issue was a failure by employers and the IT industry to
train IT staffing accessibility issues and the use of assistive 
technology,
she said. "People shouldn't be accredited: how can you be accredited
as an IT professional if you can't adapt a system so everyone can use
it? And if you've got assistive technology but the IT department
doesn't know about it, there is no point."

Training costs could be controlled by building it into the existing
regular retraining programmes undergone by programmer and
technicians, Scott-Parker said.

"In each course they do, there needs to be something about adapting
for the human. I don't think it would cost much for Microsoft to put on
[their training] curriculum how their technology could be adapted so
everybody could use it.

"We'll never crack this if the IT profession don't know how to use
accessible technology. All we'll do is have better and better kit that 
just
sits there."

Technology companies have a double responsibility, to be suppliers of
accessible technology and to be accessible employers, Scott-Parker
said. And in today's tight financial climate, an integrated approach to
accessibility could give ICT suppliers a competitive edge, she said. "I
would like to see the ICT industry itself an exemplar of employing
disabled people. The timing is now right, because the more disabled
people you employ inside an IT giant, the better understanding you
have of the needs of a client such as Lloyds TSB, which employs
hundreds of disabled people."

Although the EFD works across all aspects of employment, IT
accessibility has been placed among its top priorities recently, with 
the
creation of a Business Taskforce on Accessible Technology (see E-
Access Bulletin, issue 102, June 2008).

To date the taskforce has met three times, and is still building its
membership, which stands at around 20 organisations including
Accenture, GlaxoSmithKline, HM Revenue and Customs, the BBC and
Sainsbury's Supermarkets.

The group is working with accessibility charity AbilityNet to collect
examples of the benefits to business of an accessible approach, "We
are trying to produce a compelling rationale for businesses," Scott-
Parker said.

Also in the pipeline, though still in its infancy, is a paper-based 
audit
tool allowing major organisations to check where they are on a scale of
1-5 in terms of their current ICT accessibility practices.

"It will be a maturity model, from nowhere to excellent, looking at
business processes and governance systems," Scott-Parker said. "If an
organisation is at level 1-2, they could face legal exposure. We would
not expect anyone at level 5 yet: I would fall over."

Comment on this story now on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=219

[Section Three ends]


++End Notes.

+How to Receive the Bulletin.

To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, email
eab-subs at headstar.com
with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header. You can list other email
addresses to subscribe in the body of the message. Please encourage all
your colleagues to sign up! To unsubscribe at any time, put
'unsubscribe eab' in the subject header.

Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at:
dan at headstar.com .

Copyright 2008 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
The Bulletin may be reproduced as long as all parts including this
copyright notice are included, and as long as people are always
encouraged to subscribe with us individually by email. Please also
inform the editor when you are reproducing our content. Sections of
the bulletin may be quoted as long as they are clearly sourced as 'taken
from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter', and our web
site address:
http://www.headstar.com/eab
is also cited.

+Personnel:
Editor - Dan Jellinek
Reporters: Majeed Saleh, Tristan Parker.
Editorial advisor - Kevin Carey

ISSN 1476-6337 .

[Issue 108 ends.]

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
Windows Live Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963