Web Site Accessibility Blog

Today is the 16th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the director of Public Policy for the American Federation of the Blind released a statement commemorating the day.

His statement focused on the digital divide that people with vision loss experience on the web. That most websites are not accessible, and many can be remedied by simple labeling of graphics and links.

He mentions the Target lawsuit, Google Accessible Search, and Yahoo’s steps towards better accessibility on the homepage as both good and bad aspects of the awareness of the needs for “electronic ramps” to be built on websites.

One of the interesting points he makes is that the Department of Justice and the National Council on Disability “have said repeatedly that the ADA covers accessibility of commercial web sites for people with disabilities, but too few adhere to it.”

(That statement makes me wonder where the case against Target will be heading - will Target be made an example?)

It’s a Press Release, so it’s pretty formal, but an interesting read if you feel like celebrating ADA Day.

A human interest story you will have to read to believe.

Ben is a 14-year old who enjoys skateboarding, video games, kickball and basketball – to watch him you wouldn’t believe that he does not have eyes. Ben was diagnosed with retinal cancer at age 2, and lost his ability to see when he was three. However, that has not kept him from doing all of the things that he wants to do.

Most amazingly, Ben uses echolocation to “see” objects. By clicking with his tongue, he is able to perceive distances, objects and obstacles in his path. By hearing the echo, Ben can tell what is ahead and what it is made of. He is truly a special young man and is baffling the experts.

Having lived with a father who has combated Multiple Sclerosis for over 20 years, I am always overwhelmed to hear stories of people who demand not to be considered “special” or “victims of circumstance.” People who demand to live life the way they want with no special treatment or quarter given to them is an amazing and inspirational story every time. We all have something to learn from the will and determination demonstrated by these inspirational few.

There’s Ben zooming around on his skateboard outside his home in Sacramento; there he is playing kickball with his buddies. To see him speed down hallways and make sharp turns around corners is to observe a typical teen – except, that is, for the clicking. Completely blind since the age of 3, after retinal cancer claimed both his eyes (he now wears two prostheses), Ben has learned to perceive and locate objects by making a steady stream of sounds with his tongue, then listening for the echoes as they bounce off the surfaces around him. About as loud as the snapping of fingers, Ben’s clicks tell him what’s ahead: the echoes they produce can be soft (indicating metals), dense (wood) or sharp (glass). Judging by how loud or faint they are, Ben has learned to gauge distances.

The technique is called echolocation, and many species, most notably bats and dolphins, use it to get around. But a 14-year-old boy from Sacramento? While many blind people listen for echoes to some degree, Ben’s ability to navigate in his sightless world is, say experts, extraordinary. “His skills are rare,” says Dan Kish, a blind psychologist and leading teacher of echomobility among the blind. “Ben pushes the limits of human perception.”

I can’t do much more for this story other than to quote a few paragraphs and to tell you that you have to read the entire story. The Boy Who Sees with Sound - People.com

Google wasn’t the only web property to announce something new yesterday; AOL and Yahoo have also taken steps to make browsing and other services easier for screen reader access. The Pittsburg Post Gazette has an excellent article not only on the changes, but also provides a human element of the problems that people face and a good explanation of the assistive technology that they use.

However, even assistive technology cannot provide information that isn’t there. In what has the potential to be a very liberating experience for a blind person, shopping online tends to be one of the most frustrating. here is an excellent example, provided in the article,

“Unless accompanied by alternative text, code embedded beneath a graphic, photos and video are incomprehensible to a screen reader and its user. Kathy Brack, a 55-year-old blind Internet user, was recently shopping online at LLBean.com for a bathrobe and slippers but got stuck when she couldn’t get any verbal information on the products. . . .”Online shopping sites are terribly inaccessible,” she says. “I often have no idea what the product looks like.”"

AOL announced that they will update their web mail to make it more screen reader friendly. They plan to eliminate the need for users to switch to a separate text-only page.

Yahoo has improved its homepage by implementing additional topic headings, which allow for better scanning by screen readers. Most screen readers users listen to pages, just as sighted users read them, by scanning headings and looking for relevant information.

Google Labs unveiled its new site to aid the blind in searching the web today. Google Accessible Search service is aimed to aid those using screen readers. The service is designed to filter out sites that may have extraneous content on them and may not be ideal for screen readers to handle. Too much information can prevent users from finding what they need.

In a CNet interview, T.V. Raman, the research scientist in charge of the product built the service “for purely selfish reasons” after joining Google. Google encourages employees to work on independent projects using the resources of the company. Many of these projects have become part of the mainstream offerings, such as Google News.

The service examines the code on the pages of sites that are returned in a search. The algorithm favors pages with fewer visual distractions and will render well with images turned off.

The Accessible Search looks like a stripped-down version of the regular search product, as the main navigation is out of the way, allowing users to go directly to the search results. Comparing the results for “AOL Cancellation”, there is a significant difference between the results.

AOL Cancellation - Accessible Search results.

AOL Cancellation - Traditional Search results

Most noticeably, the YouTube video of the NBC interview is #4 on the standard search, but not in the top 30 results at Accessible Search. What is most prevalent on the Accessible search are news and blog sites, which makes sense as the HTML mark-up on blogs is usually clean and easy for screenreader translation.Thank you to Google for making serious steps for the Blind community. Google changed to creating alternative CAPTCHA’s a few months ago. This new service provides a very sincere effort to assist a very strong user community.

[Added] Rueters news does a much more extensive article on Dr. Raman and his “selfish reasons”, as he is blind and benefits from this service as well. Google could use more of this type of “selfishness”. The article goes into much more depth and offers some great information beyond the simple announcement. (Thanks, Rich)