[gui-talk] Fwd: Introducing the Social Accessibility Project

[Steve Pattison]

From: Peter Altschul paltschul at centurytel.net

I'd like to introduce an exciting service that was made available last 
week.
This is a collaborative way to improve the accessibility of the web.
Basically, screen reader users can submit requests to make a site more
accessible, such as adding a heading, labeling a graphic and so on.
A community of volunteers or supporters can take a look at the requests 
and
the web site and make updates to a server so that these suggestions will 
be
available the next time you access the site. Furthermore, these updates 
will
be available to anyone accessing the same site.

Below, Hiro--one of the researchers--explains how to request and IBM ID,
install the JAWS scripts and use the service. The tutorial he points to 
is
especially good. If you have any questions, please send them to 
Hiro-who's
email address is below, or myself. I'll answer what I can and forward 
the
rest on to Hiro.

Subject:    Social Accessibility Project

Hi Christopher,

Thank you for your great support in development phase!
We finally started an external service, just yesterday.
The number of active volunteers is increasing, so now, we really welcome
participation of screen reader users.
Could you forward this mail to potential participants?
I will attach a brief description and an instruction to join the

service.

-----------
What is the Social Accessibility Project?

The Social Accessibility Project is a service whose goal is to make Web
pages more accessible to people with disabilities. The service gathers
users' input and uses the power of the open community while not
changing any existing content.

This pilot service focuses on users of screen readers. Users
encountering Web access problems anywhere at any time can immediately
report problems to the Social Accessibility server. Volunteers (called
supporters) can be quickly notified and can easily respond by creating
and publishing the requested accessibility metadata, which will help
other users who encounter the same problems. Users themselves are also
allowed to improve accessibility of pages by sharing landmarks on a
page. Site owners can learn about methods for future accessibility
renovations based on the volunteers' external metadata.

The system consists of tools and a server that enables the
collaborative authoring. The entire process is empowered by various
collaboration services, such as comments, discussions, measurements,
and incentives.

Front page
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/socialaccessibility/

How to join it?

Step 1. Please get an IBM ID.
https://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/help/get_ibm_id
If you have any problem with IBM ID, please contact call center.
+1 888 426 4409 or +1 303 262 5669 in U.S.

Step 2. Please sign up to the service with IBM ID and password. In the

sign up process, please select "join as a user".
https://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/account/login

Step 3. Download and install a screen reader extension for Jaws.
http://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/help/download_user

Step 4. Please refer the tutorial section for submitting requests.
http://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/help/jfw_tutorial

Step 5. For further questions, please refer FAQ or help documents, or
contact me at takagih at jp.ibm.com.

FAQ
http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/socialaccessibility/faq.html

Help
http://socialaccessibility.alphaworks.ibm.com/help

----------------

Thank you.

Best Regards
Hiro

---------------------
Hironobu Takagi, PhD.
Accessibility Research
Tokyo Research Laboratory, IBM Research
+81-46-215-4557
E-mail: takagih at jp.ibm.com

--
Christopher
cchaltain at austin.rr.com

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