CREATING ACCESSIBLE WEB PAGES: RESOURCES

 

Accessibility Resouce Center from Adobe

"This site is a jumping-off point for information on the features and capabilities of Adobe products that enhance electronic document accessibility for people with disabilities such as blindness, low vision, and motor impairments. There are also links to resources that help people with disabilities work more effectively with Adobe software and aid authors in optimizing content for accessibility."

Accessibility Forum

"The forum brings government representatives together with representatives from the information technology and assistive technology industries for the purpose of establishing voluntary consensus standards for product development. Projects are defined to produce results that assist government in making informed decisions about Section 508 related procurement."

 

CAST -- Universal Design for Learning

"Founded in 1984, CAST is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities." CAST is known for its support for accessible design issues and for promoting and maintaining the single most popular site for checking on the accessibility of web pages:

DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology)

Located at the University of Washington DO-IT provides information on accessible Web design and other topics focused on increasing the participation of people with disabilities in higher education and careers.

EASI-- Equal Access to Software and Information

"EASI's mission is to serve as a resource to the education community by providing information and guidance in the area of access-to-information technologies by individuals with disabilities. We stay informed about developments and advancements within the adaptive computer technology field and spread that information to colleges, universities, K-12 schools, libraries and into the workplace. EASI is the recipient of two National Science Foundation grants to disseminate information on access for disabled persons to science, engineering and math."

IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center: Developer Guidelines

"Successful access to information and use of information technology by people who have disabilities is known as "accessibility." Following these guidelines will ensure developers and content providers understand why and what they need to do to make all of their technology and information accessible to people who have disabilities."

ICDRI

"The International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI) seeks to increase opportunities for people with disabilities by identifying barriers to participation in society and promoting best practices and universal design for the global community."

 

Sun Microsystems' Accessibility Program

This web site has significant information for developers using Java who care about accessibility. There are extensive guidelines for Designing for Accessibility at: http://www.sun.com/tech/access/software.guides.html

Trace Center: Designing a More Usable World

Trace is a research center at the University of Wisconsin - Madison which focuses on making off the shelf technologies and systems like computers, the Internet, and information kiosks more accessible for everyone through the process known as universal, or accessible design.

W3C -- Web Accessibililty Initiative

"The World Wide Web offers the promise of transforming many traditional barriers to information and interaction among different peoples. The W3C's commitment to lead the Web to its full potential includes promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with other organizations, is pursuing accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education & outreach, and research & development Accessibility features - Some users rely on speech synthesizers or Braille readers when browsing the Web. HTML 4 includes features which makes the Web more accessible to those who are visually impaired or have other disabilities."
W3C -- Web content accessibility guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with disabilities.

WebAIM -- Web Accessibility in Mind

Provides a checklist for Section 508 compliance and tutorials for accessible web design. "Our goal is to improve accessibility to online learning opportunities for all people; in particular to improve accessibility for individuals with disabilities who currently may have a difficult time getting access to post secondary online learning opportunities."

WebXACT

WebXACT is a free online service that lets you test single pages of web content for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues.

 

PRODUCTS AND SERVICES:

Anthro Corporation.

Source for adjustable height workstation keyboard surfaces. Mobility issues are usually addressed by a variety of table heights. Many newer libraries have a fixed number, usually 10% of surfaces at 31" which will accommodate the arms of a traditional wheelchair. A more flexible option is to have adjustable height surfaces. The AdjustaCart from the Anthro corporation is a particularly well designed product which is manual but very easy to adjust.

Apple Corporation: Accessibility

Accessibility technologies in Mac OS X

Dragon Naturally Speaking speech recognition software at http://www.nuance.com

A variety of products for voice activated control of a computer

HotBraille

A Web-based braille transcribing service. Send free braille in the regular mail in 19 different languages. Learn about this alphabet for the blind and its inventor, Louis Braille. There is also a bulletin board to share information with other members. Registration is free and related resources are available.

IBM Home Page Reader available at: http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html

"Home Page Reader (HPR) Reads Web pages, the Microsoft® Windows® desktop and selected system applications

JAWS software

"The most popular screen reader worldwide, JAWS® for Windows® works with your PC to provide access to today’s software applications and the Internet. With its internal software speech synthesizer and the computer’s sound card, information from the screen is read aloud, providing technology to access a wide variety of information, education and job related applications. JAWS also outputs to refreshable Braille displays, providing unmatched Braille support of any screen reader on the market. A training tutorial is included."

Kurzweil Educational Systems

"Produce and market two exemplary products. Kurzweil 1000 for people who are blind or severely visually impaired and Kurzweil 3000 for people with Dyslexia or other reading difficulties. These products are PC-based software programs that utilize speech, language, and optical character recognition (OCR) technology to scan, digitize and then read aloud the printed word."

Large Print Keytops and Low Vision Products:

Information on purchasing Large Print Keytops can be obtained from:
1) Hooleon at: http://www.hooleon.com
2) Maxi-Aids at: http://www.maxiaids.com
3) LS & S at: http://www.lssgroup.com

Microsoft Corporation. Guides by Impairment.

These guides organize information from this site into helpful resources for various types of difficulties and impairments.Each guide provides a list of assistive technology products and links to Step by Step Tutorials for accessibility features that are helpful for specific types of difficulties and impairments.

Microsoft Corporation. Accessible Documentation.

Documentation in Accessible Formats. If you have difficulty reading or handling printed materials, you can obtain the documentation for many Microsoft products in more accessible formats

National Center for Accessible Media

"Dedicated to achieving media access equality for people with disabilities."

Optelec

ClearView onscreen CCTV video magnifier is one of the easiest viewing stations to set up and use for low vision people. Text and photographs can be viewed at a variety of magnifications (black and white or color) as they are placed under the attached video camera.

P. I. Engineering

Y-mouse adapters provide a fast, easy means to connect two keyboards, two mice, or two monitors to a single port. They install without opening your computer, using software already on your system -- just plug them in and go.

ZoomText

A demonstration download of ZoomText, a large print software program is available at:
http://www.aisquared.com

U.S. GOVERNMENT WEB SITES:

ADA Home Page; U.S. Department of Justice. Americans with Disabilities Act.

"The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in employment, programs and services provided by state and local governments, goods and services provided by private companies, and in commercial facilities."

The Access Board: United State Architecture and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.

"Created in 1973, the Board has served the nation as the only independent federal agency whose primary mission is accessibility for people with disabilities."

 

ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities

Section 4.30 provides signage requirements for all buildings and facilities that are required to be accessible. Section 8 includes additional physical requirements for public areas of a library, including reading and study areas, stacks, reference rooms, reserve areas, and special facilities or collections. All of Sections 1-4 (as amended through January 1998) of the Guidelines spell out the "scoping and technical requirements for accessibility to buildings and facilities by individuals with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990."

 

Department of Justice. Section 508 Homepage.

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508home.html

Using this web site, Federal employees and the public can access resources for understanding and implementing the requirements of Section 508.

 

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, Association for College and Research Libraries

Electronic resources on disabilities; A wealth of information on topics from jobs to recreation.

by Jennifer Church, Sharon Drouin, and Katherine Rankin. This selected list of electronic resources identifies information sources on disabilities in general, assistive technology, associations and organizations, government resources, and sites centered on specific disabilities, as well as Web page accessibility. Published in C&RL News, February 2000
Vol. 61 No. 2

This resources list was originally created for a presentation at CAPED98, October 31, 1998 in San Jose CA
Expanded and updated regularly from a version published with the article "Assistive Technology at Cabrillo College Library" in Community & Junior College Libraries, Vol. 9 (1) 1999 p.47-56 [all quoted descriptions are from the homepages of the sites mentioned]

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