Hello All,
Just received this article and wanted to share it with all of you. It is
great to see web accessibility highlighted in a national publication. My
friend DeAnn Elliott is the author and she quotes Brian too <smile>
Kim
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the ADA, please see the opinion
piece below from the BSCB's very own Dean Elliott which appeared in this
morning's edition of the Wall Street Journal. At the bottom of the article
is included the URL to the website where you can also check out reader
comments.
***********
The Challenges of Surfing While Blind. My seeing-eye dog can't help me with
your website. Please code it for accessibility.. By Dean Elliott . The other
day while going about my business on the Internet, I hit a brick wall: a map
of the United States. I was diagnosed at 28 with retinitis pigmentosa and
declared legally blind at 41. I no longer see the screen well enough to use
my mouse to point and click. But with a standard laptop and some software
that reads the screen to me in a voice that sounds like Stephen Hawking's, I
can accomplish nearly everything that I once did with a mouse using
memorized key commands. But to make a purchase on this particular website, I
was asked to choose my home state not from an alphabetical list, but by
clicking on a map. For a blind person, that's akin to being in a wheelchair
and encountering a flight of stairs. A well-designed website that conforms
to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) permits use by people
of all abilities. In my case, text labels that identify the buttons and
graphical features allow me to "see" what's on the screen. The code is
hidden and need not interfere with the way the website works for sighted
customers. But without these features, a site that works beautifully with a
mouse is useless to me. Technology has removed many of the barriers that
people with disabilities face in the physical world, making life in the
mainstream tantalizingly close. Can't drive to the mall? There's Amazon!
Can't read the electric bill? Bank online! As my guide dog and I contemplate
the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the
landmark civil-rights law signed July 26, 1990, the gap between sight and
blindness has never been narrower. The ADA requires government websites to
be accessible. Sadly, the law provides little guidance to the private sector
on this point, since it was passed before the Internet became ubiquitous. It
applies to a "place" of public accommodation-but is the Internet a place?
That question has been wending its way through the courts. Disability
advocates have worked to broaden the law's applicability, with some success.
In April, Harvard University and M.I.T. announced plans to voluntarily make
their edX website for online courses compliant with the WCAG after deaf
advocates filed federal lawsuits alleging discrimination. In 2010 the
Justice Department announced it would consider issuing Web-accessibility
regulations under the ADA, though the rule-making process lumbers on. With
the number of websites growing rapidly, change isn't coming fast enough.
"More than 50 percent of the websites on the Internet are either
inaccessible or unusable for people who use adaptive technology," Brian
Charlson, director of technology at the Carroll Center for the Blind in
Newton, Mass., told me in his office a few months back. The consequences
range from inconvenient to significant. When I can't place an online order
at my favorite Vietnamese noodle shop, I get Chinese instead. If a task is
urgent, I pester family and friends for "favors. When they hover over my
screen to help me navigate around a virtual barrier, I'm keenly aware that
my charge-card number and the details of my transaction are on display. At
work, unequal access in an increasingly networked economy contributes to an
unemployment rate that's more than twice as high for people with
disabilities-and that's not counting many who have given up looking for
work. Recently I met a Web programmer who confessed that she omitted
accessibility features because they weren't explicitly required. Deadlines
were tight. Budgets were tighter. Most customers liked the graphics. I
appreciated her candor. I explained that making a site accessible shouldn't
be seen as a bother. Rather, compliance helps a company reach the largest
number of customers. As techno-savvy baby boomers age into vision and
hearing loss, many more people will need accommodation. Companies that fail
to adjust risk squandering years of accumulated goodwill. Further,
accessible websites often perform better in search results, since images are
tagged with descriptive text. These features benefit people who have limited
English proficiency or are using technology in places where they have
difficulty reading the screen. Several organizations, including the
nonprofit Carroll Center, offer accessibility consulting to help businesses.
"The changes are often cheaper and easier than people think," Mr. Charlson
says. There are three levels of WCAG conformance, and though the highest
level might look intimidating, settlements to accessibility lawsuits usually
recommend the middle one. In the 25 years since the passage of the ADA,
businesses have removed brick-and-mortar barriers to their facilities,
erecting ramps and installing elevators. Now it's time to finish the job and
tear down the virtual barriers. Besides, I'd rather shop than sue. Ms.
Elliott is a Boston-based disability advocate who blogs for the Carroll
Center for the Blind. .
Article URL:
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H_Eto>
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/the-challenges-of-surfing-while-blind-14379
50347-lMyQjAxMTA1NDI5NzMyNDc2Wj
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