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Accessibility in mind

USU-based project helps make Web sites ‘friendly’ for users with disabilities

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret News staff writer

By law, federal Web sites and those of entities the government does business with must be accessible to people with disabilities. But the
private sector has been much slower to adopt the technologies and designs that allow people with visual, hearing or mobility impairments to
use sites.
Euro RSCG DSW Partners, an ad agency, and WebAIM, a national project based at
Utah State University’s Center for Persons With Disabilities http://www.cpd.usu.edu/ , have teamed up to help make
user-friendly features that help people with disabilities just another part of doing business.
They unveiled some of what works and what doesn’t during a special presentation Monday,
timed to coincide with the ongoing Paralympic Games.
"We want to help companies engage consumers with disabilities as part of business
practice," said Don Bailey, senior vice president of DSW Partners interactive operations, of
the partnership.
Sachin Pavithran, who is visually impaired, uses screen-reader technology to help him
online. Some Web sites are simple and do a good job of describing what’s there, including
pictures and charts. Others are confusing and simply too dense to translate by reading a
description, he said.
Byran Carroll, an engineer who uses a wheelchair, navigates the Web with a trackball.
Many people with mobility impairments can’t; they need ways to navigate that don’t include
any variation of mouse technology — and they, too, need simplicity. To be truly accessible
also requires voice-recognition technology for people who can’t use their hands. "Hands-free
is not quite there," he said.
And Mitch Moyers, outreach specialist for the Utah Community Center for the Deaf and
Hard of Hearing, who is himself hearing-impaired, is frustrated by the sheer number of online newscasts and video-streaming Web pages that
don’t provide either closed-captioning or transcripts. Footage of crews milling around a disaster doesn’t mean much; it could be any time,
anywhere, any calamity.
Euro has an iLab, which does automated testing and checks for certain attributes of the code to see if it is accessible. Designing Web
page code for accessibility is a process called "universal design," according to Martin Blair, director the USU center’s Utah Assistive
Technology Program. And it’s much cheaper and less labor intensive to do it at the front end than to try to retrofit a Web site later.
It makes economic sense for companies to look for ways to engage all comers,
said Cyndi Rowland, WebAIM (Accessibility In Mind) project director. "I think of the
Web as a transforming force in society today. Look at e-commerce and what it can
provide for folks." She cited estimates that put the discretionary income of people with
disabilities at $179 billion back in 1995.
There are "tricks of the trade that are not that hard to do," she said.
Software companies can also be an important part of the solution, Rowland said.
They, too, can create their products with accessibility for people with disabilities in
mind.
The Paralympic Web site earns a B grade, according to Paul Bohman of the
center. He calls it a site "in transition" to being fully accessible. But that’s not bad,
considering the number of Web sites that fail to do anything to be useful to people
with physical disabilities.
Bailey said the iLab is available to the industry at large. More information is online
at (ilab.dsw.com). And the center at USU has information on specific-disability
design functions that make Web sites easier to use.

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