Hello friends, This post gives expression to many of the facts that a differently abled person suffers from in his every day life. Please read and commend. Infosys Labs - Web 2.0 Challenges Accessibility? Does Web 2.0 Challenge Accessibility?
By Shrirang Sahasrabuddhe and Ajay Kolhatkar PhD Web 2.0 poses a volley of challenges for the differently-abled user and any step ahead in the technology must mull on inclusiveness Download With its global reach and versatility the world wide web has had a huge impact on the way we work and live. The web has enabled access to a range of news, information, services and entertainment. It has also provided means for social interaction, civic participation and in many cases, a means of livelihood. While for the able user the web opened a wealth of information and entertainment, it provided more independence, work opportunities and social interaction for people with different abilities (PwDA). Assistive technologies such as screen readers and speech recognition have made the websites easily accessible for people with visual and auditory impairments. Over the past few years developments in web technologies such as JavaScript, cascading style sheets (CSS), eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and Asynchronous Java and XML (AJAX) have transformed the web from being a mere information provider to an interactive medium that allows two-way communication between a website and its users. It has converted the web users from being passive consumers to being active producers and consumers of content. The new web harnesses collective wisdom of crowds through means such as wikis, blogging, tagging and social networking. Rather than being a means of disseminating marketing information the web is now being used to involve consumers in the processes of product design, development, marketing (buzz or word of mouth) and even after sales support. This new web — christened Web 2.0— provides interactions that are visually rich, contents that comprises multi-media and experiences that pan both real and virtual worlds. Most such visually rich applications rely extensively on user interactions especially using mice or other interface devices. While all the above are welcome changes for able users, for PwDAs it creates new challenges for access and usage. What follows is a brief discussion on the need to address the requirements of differently-abled people, challenges posed by some of the technologies and possible resolutions of some of these challenges. NEED FOR ACCESSIBILITY According to World Health Organization (WHO), close to 10% of the world’s population (a little over 650 million people) suffers from some form of disability [1]. However some country specific statistics, collated from the respective country’s census data, indicates that the malaise might actually be larger. Table 1 gives an indication of the percentage of PwDA population as a percentage of total population. As per the WHO, disability is an umbrella term that covers impairments, limitations on human activities and restriction in social participation. Since the use of information and communication technology (ICT) is increasingly becoming a vital part of educational, economic and social life for everyone today, people with different abilities are likely to be excluded unless efforts are undertaken to make ICT accessible. On a contrasting note, as per US Department of Labor estimates, the PwDAs in the US have discretionary income of $175 billion [8]. In the UK a similar estimate puts the number at £200 billion and in Canada the estimate is $26 billion [8]. This clearly indicates that there is a huge untapped market that has expectations of high quality products and services that are available at competitive prices. Another important consideration is the fact that for most able users the internet is just one more medium for transaction. But for a differently-abled individual, it is probably the most important (and sometimes the only) means of interaction with the world outside. It also affords them the much desired sense of independence. In 2000, the National Organization on Disability and Aetna U.S. Healthcare instituted Harris Interactive to conduct a survey of Americans with Disabilities [9]. One of the findings of this research was that four out of ten people with disabilities were online and spent twice as much time on the internet compared to their able counterparts. Notwithstanding such an overwhelming case for making the web an accessible place, almost 97% of the WWW is inaccessible as per the United Nations Global Audit of Web Accessibility conducted in 2006 [10]. MAKING WWW AN ACCESSIBLE PLACE In view of the situation described in the previous section, a world wide effort is on to make the WWW an accessible place for all. The efforts are at multiple fronts of instituting legal requirements, to creating new standards and guidelines for web development, to developing tools and services for assessing if a website is indeed accessible, to creating awareness amongst large organizations about the business case for accessibility. Several developed countries that already had laws governing people with different abilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, the US Rehabilitation Act, the Disability Discrimination Act of UK and Disability Discrimination Act of Australia, have now included the internet as a public property and hence have mandated that websites be accessible to differently-abled people. All over the world special laws are being drafted and existing laws are being amended to ensure that a differently-abled person is not excluded from this new means of information sharing, socializing and in some cases, even earning a livelihood. ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGES OF WEB 2.0 Here we discuss the technological challenges that have resulted from the development and adoption of technologies that are collectively referred to as web 2.0 technologies. AJAX: Asynchronous Javascript and XML is increasingly becoming the lingua franca of the new web development. It makes web-based interactions much more spontaneous and user friendly, responses much more real-time, closely imitating desktop interactions. But the dynamic web, with its constantly changing and updated text, requires screen readers to reset the page and start all over again. This makes it difficult for visually-impaired users to comprehend the website. RIA: Rich Internet Applications such as Flash or Shockwave files that rely extensively on the usage of animation, graphic imagery and colors to represent information is a nightmare for the alternative access technologies that are rendering this information perceptible by the visually impaired users (color blind, partially impaired or fully impaired). User Generated Content: This has become the mainstay of Web 2.0 where users are contributing their opinion, experiences, expertise and feedback as web content in the form of blogs, wikis, tags, ratings and reviews. While this has been welcomed by able users, it has made life difficult for users with some form of impairment. The reason is that not all users are experts in making their content PwDA friendly, not everyone complies with the standard practices of making content easily accessible and not everyone really cares who consumes their content. Extensive Use of Colors: With millions of colors now being rendered by LCD screens and new-age CRT monitors, web designers are letting their creativity take wing, using colors not only to accentuate backgrounds but also to emphasize text on screen. Sometimes colors are used to announce special information and even to require user interaction, for example: ‘All fields marked with red asterix are mandatory.’ While this has made life easier for able users, users of assistive technologies are finding it very difficult. This applies not just to the physically challenged user but also to people who use monochrome monitors and ageing users with weak eyesight. Use of Mouse or Other Pointing Interfaces: Just as an exercise, an able user should disconnect all input devices like the mouse from the computer and try to accomplish the most routine of tasks, such as selecting a website link or browsing through a series of websites. The challenge will become evident. This does not mean that alternatives do not exist; it is just that it has become second nature to use a mouse or other pointing devices. This makes people with motor disability, who are unable to control a mouse, frustrated with web access today (not to mention those who cannot use the mouse because of old age). CAPTCHA: Since the focus of Web 2.0 is on user involvement and contributions, almost every interaction with the web today demands that users undergo a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA). For a visually impaired user this is inaccessible unless accompanied by an audio CAPTCHA option. Videos: On the web today amateur as well as professional videos are abundantly available and are increasingly consumed for their novelty as well as content with a human touch. Almost all aspects of our interaction with the web today viz., news, entertainment, education, commerce or social interaction is full of video content. This is not really accessible by visually as well as audio impaired users unless accompanied by a full text or close captioning. Fat Pipe Requirement: Most of the Web 2.0 content requires larger bandwidth and faster networks. These are not always available in remote locations and in lower income households which limits their use of the internet. ADDRESSING THE ACCESSIBILITY CHALLENGES Despite the challenges all is not lost for users with physical or technological impairment. Their spirit overtakes their disabilities and has demanded, nay, forced development of alternative access mechanism. Several approaches are being explored to make the web an accessible place for people with different abilities. Standardizing Accessible Web Development: The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has spent lot of efforts in bringing about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) way back in 1999 and the second version (WCAG 2.0) in 2008. These guidelines offer specific recommendations to make the web more accessible by following simple design principles. Across the world the adoption of WCAG 1.0 has been slow, but nevertheless has made its impact on the country specific guidelines. There will soon be laws in the USA, UK, Australia and several EU countries, forcing enterprises to abide by these guidelines. Design for Accessibility: Experts around the world are of the opinion that guidelines alone may not be sufficient to enforce accessible web development. A need is felt for adopting best practices right at the requirements and design stages that incorporates non-functional requirements related with accessibility. These practices need to be taught at various levels of vocational and professional training. Development of Accessible Web 2.0 Technologies: Companies like Adobe® and Microsoft® that make the building blocks of Web 2.0 technologies are themselves focusing efforts on making such technologies ready for accessibility. Examples are, Accessible RIA (ARIA), PDFs, Flash® and Silverlight® development platforms, AJAX and Java scripts that are alternatively accessible such as AxsJAX. Improved Alternate Access Mechanisms: Screen readers and magnifiers have existed for a while now. But several other alternate access mechanisms are being developed for people with multiple disabilities like physical impairment as well as speech/hearing impairment. Text/symbols to synthesized or digitized audio, speech to text convertors, close captioning creators and synchronizers, smart phrases and next word predictors, screen magnifiers, gesture recognition are all examples of these alternate/assistive accesses. CONCLUSION Although the preceding section discussed potential problems with accessibility of Web 2.0 and their solutions, Web 2.0 accessibility is a much wider discussion. It probably needs to be approached with a multi-modal solution rather than a point solution. It also needs a well-orchestrated approach that considers not only the guidelines and best practices, but also the content going on the website, the authoring tools used to create the content, and the assistive technologies employed to make the web accessible. Most importantly the approach needs to be cognizant of the specific challenges faced by differently-abled people. Even before the design is put in place and introspection is a must to check whether the final results assume faculties that might not be available with some people. Once this level of sensitivity is imbibed into the entire developmental activity, the technologies are already available to make things happen. Accessibility then happens not by chance, but by design. REFERENCES list of 7 items Disability and Rehabilitation, World Health Organization. Available at http://www.who.int/disabilities/en/index.html Opens in a new window Americans with Disabilities: 2002, Household Economic Studies, US Census Bureau. Available at http://www.census.gov/prod/2006pubs/p70-107.pdf Opens in a new window Census 2001 - Health, disability and provision of care, National Statistics, Census 2001. Available at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/profiles/commentaries/health.asp Opens in a new window Introduction to disability and disability services in Australia, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Available at http://www.aihw.gov.au/disability/natpic/index.cfm Opens in a new window 2006 Disability Survey, Statistics New Zealand. Available at http://www.stats.govt.nz/NR/rdonlyres/799A77CC-4DF6-445C-96DA-F5A266538A72/0/2006disabilitysurveyhotp.pdf Opens in a new window Advancing the Inclusion of People with Disabilities (2008), Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Available at http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/disability_issues/reports/fdr/2008/page03.shtml#overview One in six of the EU working-age population report disability, EuroStat News Release, December 2003. Available at http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/health_safety/docs/ceremony_en.pdf. Opens in a new window Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. 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