Web Site Accessibility Blog

T.V. Raman posted to the Google Blog about new enhancements to the Accessible Search. An Advanced Search feature is now part of the interface and gives the same options as the regular Advanced Search.

In addition, the algorithm “continues to take into account and give higher priority to pages that are more easily accessible by the visually impaired.”

We knew that the algorithm already favored pages that degraded gracefully for text readers, using standards-based measurements to determine the accessibility of a page. It seems as though improvements to the algorithm rely on even more structural mark-up features.

The accessible search features now allow advanced search features such as;
• restrict search to portions of a page, e.g., the title
• restrict search to results in a given language
• restrict searches to web pages found during a given time period
• restrict searches to content in a given file format
It is great to see Google being so quick to add features and do so much based on user feedback. According to Dr. Raman, “We get better when we know what works for the user and welcome user feedback on everything from improving taglines to adding new features.”

http://www.googlersblogs.com/node/4527

Last week, I posted an article from WebCredible about the future of accessibility. Trenton Moss initiated a good start to a conversation that needs to happen in the accessibility and developer community about the co-existence of rich media, social media, and accessibility.

Interestingly, Alastair Campbell, on his blog, AlastairC, finds the post here on Accessibility blog and adds a significant amount of comments and opinion about it. As such, I feel as though I have to give his post notice, as it provides an interesting contrast to Trenton’s article. Alastair feels that there can be compatibility between rich media and accessbility, and provides many excellent examples of these applications.

Here are Alastair’s comments on seperate sites, but please go read the entire article:

Will separate sites be needed?

I don’t believe so. However, there is a compromise needed whilst we are waiting for screen readers to catch up. A Hijax application will work as a standard site when JavaScript is turned off. The problem is that screen reader users are generally on Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari, which have JavaScript.

Therefore there should be an option built into the application to easily allow people to effectively turn off JavaScript (i.e. an option on the site, not telling people to turn off JavaScript in their browser!).

ZDNet Education reports on the struggle American universities and colleges have experienced in reaching for website accessibility. According to a Hannon Hill study, only 17 of 124 tested American institutions of higher education were in compliance with the WCAG.

This is sad. Having worked at a couple of colleges, I know that concern with accessibility was nowhere near the level it needed to be: a lot of lip service, little action. If there is any single category of websites which has a critical need for accessibility, it’s education. Yet these institutions are definitely lagging behind.

Why?

Well, once again hearkening back to my own experience at small colleges, the problem is complex. It comes down to a couple of principle problems: governance and knowledge.

Colleges and universities have immense, complex websites. These sites are frequently maintained by any number of different people: faculty, administrative staff, departmental staff, or web management teams. It’s rare for everything in a site to be managed in any truly central manner. Why would they? Every department wants control. Enforcing compliance to the esoteric rules of website accessibility is a monumental task. The governance of a college website is no less complicated then that of a major corporation: but the college environment rarely lends itself to the kind of strict business organization or chains of command present in some corporations.

Even if the college has a dedicated webmaster or web team, these groups (or individuals, in the case of both colleges I’ve worked at) are swamped with new projects, maintenance, and updating. Where’s the time to learn accessibility? The number of web professionals who are aware of and experienced with accessibility is still quite small.

Colleges commonly respond to pressures from their student body, alumni organizations, and donors. When these groups band together to press for change, educational institutions react. So what’s the best way to build momentum and attempt to persuade these colleges? Write them a letter. Write your alma mater; write a letter to the editor in your alumni magazine. Do whatever you can to make the institution know that you care.

It’s highly unlikely that the institution doesn’t think accessibility is important; but the people who are distributing funds may not have realized that their website needs to be addressed.

Voice Recognition and Learning
ClaroRead, from EnableMart, enables users to integrate with Dragon Naturally Speaking to create a powerful tool for reading, proofreading and composing emails, papers or homework assignments. People with dyslexia benefit from the features like advanced spell checking, homophone support, word prediction, and audio feedback. When used with Dragon NaturallySpeaking, ClaroRead becomes learning software that can be voice controlled for easier access.

Word Prediction Software
Premier Predictor Pro, from Premier Assistive Technology, is a word predictor program that integrates with all of the programs on a user’s computer and websites. The program scans documents on the hard drive and builds a customized prediction list of words. The tool also allows for easy dictionary look up and a text-to-speech function that says the word to make sure that it was the intended word for the user. This technology eliminates keystrokes and also assists with cognitive disabilities, such as dyslexia.

Assistive Technology Comparison Shopping
Empower Technologies teams with Microsoft to offer Assistive Technology products through comparison shopping sites including MSN Shopping and Windows Live Shopping. With the increasing need and demand for AT products, Microsoft partnered with Empower’s shopping comparison solution to offer consumers side-by-side comparison shopping.
MSN Shopping AT Comparison

Windows Live Shopping AT Comparison

Trenton Moss at WebCredible provides his opinion of the future of accessibility.  In doing so, he gives a good overview of new technologies and their impact on accessibility.

Trenton provides a good explanation of AJAX and accessibility.  The increased usability and dynamic nature of this technology also makes an accessible alternative much more dofficult.  New technologies are widening the divide between dynamic usability features  and accessibility.  New Web2.0 applications provide an easy way for users to interact in feature-rich environments.  However, accessibility is not able to keep up with the amount and the diversity of user generated content.

One prediction he gives I would like to explore in more detail.  Trenton feels that the once frowned upon separate accessible versions may have to make a come-back, as interactive interfaces do not often allow full accessibility.

I agree that other routes should be researched, but at what point does creating a featureless, accessible, text based interface become more appealing?  A development firm may find that the option of creating simple interface is much more affordable than re-creating or dual-development of a system that offers full features and accessibility.

In theory, they are following the letter of accessibility law (which barely exists anyway), but will users accept that as an alternative?  Or would users rather have a simple interface that is understandable and gets the job done?