[gui-talk] Fwd: E-Access Bulletin, September 2010: Volunteer Pool To 'Crowd-Source' Web Accessibility

[Steve Pattison]

-----Original Message-----
 From:    Dan Jellinek dan at headstar.com
 To:      eaccess at headstar.com

++E-ACCESS BULLETIN
Access To Technology For All, Regardless Of Ability
- ISSUE 129, September 2010.

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

Please forward this free bulletin to others (subscription details 
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++Issue 129 Contents.

01:  Volunteer Pool To 'Crowd-Source' Web Accessibility
- One-stop system for disabled web users to log complaints.
 
02: Kindle 3: Better Accessibility, But Still Not Perfect
- Analyst welcomes new audio features, but says gaps remain.

03: Inclusive Island 'Discovered' In Second Life
- Creator of 'Wheelies' Club Unveils Disability-Themed Area.

News in Brief: 04: Radio Assistance - assistive technology 
broadcast; 05: iPhone Version - accessibility features 
correction; 06: European Nominations - European Parliament 
members shortlisted for disability award.

Section Two: Event Report - Web Accessibility Unconference.
+07: Open For Access: At the recent 'Web Accessibility 
London Unconference 2010,' delegates heard details of a wide 
range of innovative accessibility projects using open source 
technology. Dan Jellinek reports on the benefits of open 
development.

[Contents ends].


++Section One: News.

+01:  Volunteer Pool To 'Crowd-Source' Web Accessibility.

An online service helping web users with disabilities report 
accessibility problems by linking them with thousands of tech-
savvy volunteers is to be launched later this year by digital 
inclusion charity Citizens Online.

A trial version of 'Fix the Web', sub-titled 'crowd-sourcing e-
accessibility', was unveiled at this week's Web Accessibility 
London Unconference 2010 by Dr Gail Bradbrook, the 
charity's lead consulant.

Web users will be able to report accessibility problems directly 
to the service using Twitter, email or online forms. Members of 
a pool of registered volunteers will then take responsibility for 
finding the correct official path or website owner contact to 
lodge the complaint on the user's behalf, follow up any 
response and feed back to the user.

The project's initial goal is to sign up 10,000 volunteers to 
cover 250,000 websites a year, Bradbrook said. Eventually she 
hopes to sign up 1.5 million volunteers worldwide.

Research has found that people with disabilities face many 
access issues, but do not often complain about them, 
Bradbrook said. "This isn't surprising - if so much of your 
time has already been wasted, why would you spend further 
time trying to communicate with the website owner?"

Benefits of making it easier for people to complain could 
include greater pressure for accessibility; feedback that website 
owners can work with or use to justify changes; and increased 
knowledge and skills for volunteers, she said.

Generally, volunteers would simply be raising awareness of 
accessibility issues, but if some major companies repeatedly 
ignored requests for help the project might consider working 
with campaign groups to lobby for action, Bradbrook said.

One business manager present welcomed the project, saying it 
could save firms like his money by providing valuable user 
feedback. "We want to make our websites as accessible as 
possible to everyone, so we would put your link on all of our 
sites, and I don't see why anyone else wouldn't," he said. 
However, a web developer delegate said he was worried that 
unfounded complaints passed on by volunteers with 
insufficient technical understanding could be used to criticise 
web developers unfairly.

In response, Bradbrook said volunteers would be given 
guidance, and the project would be monitored for potential 
problems. "We are not asking them to be experts in e-
accessibility - just to go to the website and log the problem 
formally. We hope it will open up communication which can 
be carried on by the volunteer so that proper understanding can 
be reached."

Anyone interested in helping develop a trial version of the 
system is invited to visit:
http://www.fixtheweb.net .

NOTE: Web Accessibility London Unconference 2010 was 
organised by Makayla Lewis at City University London:
http://www.a11yldn.org.uk .
And for further reporting see section two, this issue.

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=472


+02: Kindle 3: Better Accessibility, But Still Not Perfect.

Improved accessibility features on the new Kindle 3 electronic 
book reader will help vision-impaired users, but do not yet go 
far enough to make the device fully accessible, a leading 
analyst said this month.

The Kindle 3, developed by the online retailer Amazon, 
features a display with improved contrast and an audible menu 
facility, 'Voice Guide', enabling users to select an e-book using 
sound and activate the device's text-to-speech 'Read to Me' 
feature. The Kindle 3 also features a display with 50% 
improved contrast between the text and background, improving 
the readability of text for partially sighted users. 

"The Voice Guide does improve the accessibility of the device 
significantly", RNIB Principal Manager of Digital Accessibility 
Robin Spinks told E-Access Bulletin.
"However, certain functions are not yet possible, for example, 
being able to browse the electronic bookstore using text-to-
speech and being able to select, purchase and download book 
content from the device [using Voice Guide], rather than 
having to do that from a computer."

Amazon's decision to incorporate audible menus follows 
growing pressure over the past year about the device's 
inaccessibility to visually impaired users, much of which arose 
after several US universities rejected the Kindle as a teaching 
aid (see E-Access Bulletin issue 119: 
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=357 ). In January, 
Amazon agreed to incorporate audible menus and an extra-
large font size into the Kindle (see E-Access Bulletin issue 121: 
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=383 ). 

Furthermore, some publishers are still refusing to allow their 
books to be converted into text-to-speech on the Kindle, due to 
an ongoing row over publishing rights
(see E-Access Bulletin issue 110: 
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=244 ).
"We hope that through the ongoing campaign work that RNIB 
and other organisations are engaged in globally, we will be able 
to secure universal availability of text-to-speech on e-books" 
said Spinks. "It's vital that blind and partially sighted people 
are able to be part of the e-book revolution." 

The Kindle 3 is available now in the UK. The RNIB has 
published a detailed accessibility review of the device and 
other e-book readers on its website:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/readingwriting/ebook
s/Pages/ebook_readers_compared.aspx 
Short link: http://bit.ly/cNZKJz 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=474


+03: Inclusive Island 'Discovered' In Second Life.

A new island themed around disability and inclusion has been 
'discovered' in Second Life, by the man whose online 
character or 'avatar' was the first to use a wheelchair in the 
virtual world.

Llamdos (try reading the name backwards) was created by 
Simon Stevens, a consultant who in 2006 created Wheelies, the 
first virtual night-club in Second Life aimed at both disabled 
and non-disabled users.

The island, which Stevens estimates has already received more 
than 10,000 visitors from around 30 countries, is now home to 
Wheelies plus a range of virtual shops and services such as the 
Understand training centre and Viewpoint conference centre, 
where Stevens organises and hosts workshops and seminars on 
a wide range of issues in the fields of disability and social care. 

Stevens told E-Access Bulletin that although Llamdos has the 
themes of disability and inclusion, the island is not solely "for 
disabled people, and is intended to be a place for both disabled 
and non-disabled Second Life users". Although Llamdos is 
"probably not as technically accessible as it can be", he said 
"many organisations have become too obsessed with the rules 
of [accessibility] and they have forgotten the spirit of the 
intentions. My aim is for the island to feel inclusive and 
welcoming."

A number of communities in Second Life now explore themes 
of disability, such as Ability Island, a training and discussion 
area owned by US organisation Virtual Ability. Virtual Ability 
also own Cape Able Island, designed primarily for deaf and 
hard of hearing Second Life users. 

And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=476


++News in Brief: 

+04: Radio Assistance: An assistive technology discussion 
programme is now being broadcast every weekend on Insight 
Radio, the radio station of the RNIB and Europe's first station 
for blind and partially sighted people, available online, and 
also through Sky, freesat and 101 FM in Glasgow. The slot 
forms part of Weekend Edition, hosted by Allan Russell with 
software developer Monty Lilburn and broadcast every 
Saturday from 10am to 1pm. Anyone wishing to pose a 
technology question - no matter how simple or complicated - 
can email info at insightradio.co.uk , putting 'tech question' in 
the email subject box:
http://www.insightradio.co.uk/
or http://bit.ly/b0Lw4X 


+05: iPhone Version: In the last issue of E-Access Bulletin, we 
used the wrong model number in referring to the accessibility 
functions of Apple's iPhone as discussed by the RNIB's Kiran 
Kaja at our E-Access '10 event. The "revolutionary" features 
built into the phone's touch-screen that Kaja mentioned are in 
fact only available on the newer iPhone 3GS, and not the 
iPhone 3G. We apologise for this mistake, which has now been 
corrected in the online version of our article:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=457 
or http://bit.ly/ase5No 


+06: European Nominations: Three Members of the European 
Parliament have been nominated for the European Blind 
Union's MEP Awards 2010, to recognise their contribution to 
the advancement of disability rights over the past year. The 
three are German member Ska Keller, who called for 
legislation to increase disabled citizens' access to reading 
materials, including e-books; UK member Liz Lynne, who 
raised awareness of the need for accessible manufactured 
goods, including consumer electronics; and Italian member 
Antonio Cancian, who highlighted the bus and coach travel 
needs of disabled people. Winners will be announced in 
Brussels at the end of this month:
http://bit.ly/dCmt0Z 

[Section One ends].


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++Section Two: Event Report
- Web Accessibility Unconference.

+07: Open For Access.

Delegates at this month's 'Web Accessibility London 
Unconference 2010' ( http://www.a11yldn.org.uk ) were 
treated to a run-through of the state-of-the-art for open source 
accessibility solutions by one of the world's leading experts in 
the field.

Steve Lee, of consultancy Full Measure ( 
http://www.fullmeasure.co.uk ), is the driving force behind 
many open source accessibility projects including several of 
those gathered under the umbrella of 'OSS Watch' ( 
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/ ), a free public service to help 
higher and further education institutions in the UK use or 
develop free and open source software. It is funded by higher 
education IT support agency JISC.

"There are some very strong potential benefits of open 
technology for users with disabilities," said Lee. These 
included making it easier for developers to create new tools 
and innovations, by working with what is already there; the 
creation of shared resources; and greater user engagement in 
the creation of new technologies, he said. "With open 
standards, the users are the developers."

Projects highlighted by Lee included:

- AccessApps
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/getaccessapps
AccessApps is an initiative supported by JISC TechDis, the 
accessibility advisory arm of JISC. It consists of more than 50 
open source and freeware Windows applications, running from 
a USB stick, to support writing, reading and planning for 
students with sensory, cognitive and physical difficulties;

- Simon Listens
http://www.simon-listens.org
An open source speech-recognition programme, allowing users 
to control the computer by voice alone, bypassing mouse and 
keyboard;

- NVDA
http://www.nvda-project.org/ 
NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) is a free, open source 
screen reader for Windows. It supports more than 20 languages 
and has the ability to run entirely from a USB drive, with no 
installation;

- Opengazer 
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/opengazer 
Opengazer is an open source eye-tracking application that uses 
an ordinary webcam to estimate the direction of your gaze. 
This information can then be passed to other applications. For 
example, used in conjunction with the smartphone app Dasher, 
Opengazer allows you to write with your eyes;

- GOK (GNOME on-screen keyboard)
http://www.gok.ca/
Free software working with GNOME, the popular GNU/Linux 
desktop environment, that provides text entry and graphical 
user interface interaction using only switches or mice;

- Caribou
http://live.gnome.org/Caribou
Another on-screen keyboard application for use with switches;

- Straight-Street
http://straight-street.com 
An open symbol set known as 'Mulberry' - a free, scalable 
collection of about 800 picture symbols, and growing - 3,000 
are promised by this time next year. Symbols like these are 
very useful for clear communication, particularly for use with 
solutions aimed at those with literacy issues like dyslexia or 
learning difficulties;

- Maavis
http://maavis.fullmeasure.co.uk 
Project from Sheffield University and Barnsley NHS offering 
simple access to a range of tasks and games such as viewing 
photographs and making skype video calls, for older people 
including people with dementia. Applications, images and 
information are accessed by touching the screen and the 
interface is so simple and intuitive that users are not aware they 
are using a computer, Lee said. Buttons are also spoken aloud 
when pressed.

Overall, the key to developing successful open source 
solutions is the creation of a vibrant developer community, and 
the commitment of as many users as possible to helping with 
development, Lee said.

"A lot of people latch onto open source software and say 'free 
stuff - great'. And there are some things that are just free to 
download and that's it, no community.

"But where there are communities, it is always better if you 
engage with them, try and contribute something - it could be a 
graphic, it could be some help text for the online manual. And 
if you are a programmer, you could contribute code - or fix 
something - that will get you a lot of brownie points."
  
And you can comment on this story now, on EAB Live:
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=478

[Section Two ends]. 


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++End Notes.

+How to Receive the Bulletin.

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Please send comments on coverage or leads to Dan Jellinek at:
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Copyright 2010 Headstar Ltd http://www.headstar.com .
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is also cited.

+Personnel:
Editor: Dan Jellinek.
Reporter: Tristan Parker.
Editorial advisor: Kevin Carey.

ISSN 1476-6337.

[Issue 129 ends.]

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963
Twitter:  steve9782