Web Accessibility Prepared by Cynthia D. Waddell ITU Senior Accessibility Consultant Executive Director, International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility for Persons with Disabilities August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Organized by ITU and ESCAP

2 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Overview Connectivity v. Accessible Web Accessible Web Benefits Technical Standards for Design UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Web Barriers & Accessibility Solutions Resources

3 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Connectivity v. Accessible Web Internet Connectivity Is Not Accessibility – A Person with a Disability can be online and connected BUT NOT able to access the content of a website – A Website designed using Accessible Web Standards Enables Persons with Disabilities to access the content of a website

4 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessible Web Benefits Benefits Persons with Disabilities AND Persons without Disabilities – Social Benefits – Technical Benefits – Financial Benefits

5 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Social Benefits Promotes Equal Opportunity for Persons with Disabilities Benefits Persons Without Disabilities: – Older Adults – People with Low Literacy – People with Low Bandwidth Connections to the Internet and Older Technologies – People who are New & Infrequent Web Users

6 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Technical Benefits Reduces Web Site Development and Maintenance Time Reduces Server Load Enables Content on Different Configurations and Promotes Interoperability Prepares for Advances in Web Technologies

7 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Technical Benefits Reduces Web Site Development and Maintenance Time Reduces Server Load Enables Content on Different Configurations and Promotes Interoperability Prepares for Advances in Web Technologies

8 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Financial Benefits Enables Increased Web Site Use & Reduces Maintenance Costs Reduces Transaction and Service Costs by Enabling Users to Access Information and Complete Transactions Online Decreases Cost of Upgrading to New Technologies

9 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Technical Standards for Design Emergence of Technical Standards for Accessible Design of ICT – US: Section 508 Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards at 36 CFR Part – Japan: JIS X – Industry Standards- W3C WCAG 1.0 (1999); WCAG 2.0 (2008)

10 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Technical Standards for Design At least 26 Countries Around the World Adopted Accessible Web Design as a Policy or Law prior to the UNCRPD Implementation of US Section 508 Accessible Web Rules, W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or a Hybrid See 2006 Global Survey Published in Web Accessibility: Web Standards & Regulatory Compliance

11 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rights of 650 Million Persons with Disabilities and Impacts 2 Billion Persons including Family Members of Persons with Disabilities UNCRPD Opened for Signature in march 2007; Entered into Legal Force 3 May Signatories; 58 Ratifications 82 Signatories to Optional Protocol; 36 Ratifications

12 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand

13 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Monitoring Committee – Housed in the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and First Meeting Held February 2009 Article 25: Reports by State Parties – Each State shall submit a comprehensive Report on measures taken to meet obligations under the Convention – First Reports to be in 2010; Subsequent Reports every 4 years

14 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Accessibility- Countries Hungary- Although no specific legislation requires accessible public or private web sites, there is tendency to implement W3C WCAG per 1998 equality legislation Lithuania Resolution No requires public websites to be accessible and standards are based on W3C WCAG

15 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Accessibility- Countries Tunisia- Presidential Decision, 24 February 2007 calls for Government Websites to be Accessible According to W3C Web Accessibility Initiative by end of 2009 Government RFP at mentation/e_accessibilite/avis_manifes tation_d_interet_definitive.pdf mentation/e_accessibilite/avis_manifes tation_d_interet_definitive.pdf

16 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 9 Accessibility – Requires States Parties to ensure access on an Equal Basis to information and communications, including ICT and systems AND emergency services (1) – Requires Identification and Elimination of Barriers to accessibility (1)

17 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 9: Accessibility – Requires implementation of minimum standards & guidelines for accessibility of services (2a) – Ensure that private entities offering services to the public take into account accessibility (2b)

18 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities Article 9: Accessibility – Requires training for stakeholders on accessibility issues (2c) – States Parties must promote access to new ICT and systems, including the Internet (2g) and – States Parties must promote ICT at early stage to minimize cost (2h)

19 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers Web Design Historically Has Not Included Accessible Design for Persons with Disabilities Web Developers have Lacked Training, Tools & Resources to Design Accessibly; Web Tools Would Break Accessibility Governments & Businesses Had No Incentive to Address Accessible Design

20 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers An Inaccessible Web: Prevents Screen Reader Software from Reading Text Out Loud to Persons who are Blind or Have Specific Learning Disabilities Can be a Barrier for People with Busy Eyes, Or Work in a Dark Room Or Have a Slow Modem

21 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Screen Reader Resource Six Minute Video Clip of Neal Ewers, a Blind Software Engineer, Using a Screen Reader o/intro.asp o/intro.asp

22 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers An Inaccessible Web: Images that Contain Content: Pictures, Charts, Graphs PDF Documents Online Forms Missing Labels

23 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution Images-Pictures: Add “Alt” attributes or Alternative Text Images-Charts/Graphs: Add Link that Describes the Chart/Graph PDF Documents: Tag the PDF for Structure OR Also Post an Accessible Format Online Forms: Techniques for W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

24 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers An Inaccessible Web: People with Mobility Disabilities Need Keyboard Access when They Cannot Use a Mouse People who have Busy Hands, Or Limited Dexterity Or No Hands Available

25 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution An Accessible Web: Provides Logical Linear Tab Order Provides Device Independence so that Mouse is Not Required for Operation Exposes Content for All Devices Implements Techniques for W3C WCAG 1.0 or 2.0

26 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers An Inaccessible Web: People Using Speech Technology Input Cannot Access Web Content People with Low Vision Cannot Increase Web Text Size

27 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution An Accessible Web: Implements Accessibility Standards W3C WCAG 1.0 or 2.0 Uses Relative Rather than Absolute Units in Markup so that Text can be Resized by User without Breaking Layout

28 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers An Inaccessible Web: People who are Deaf Cannot Access Audio- Streaming or Multi-Media that are not Captioned People who Cannot Hear in a Noisy Room Need Captioning

29 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution An Accessible Web: Provides Captioning for Audio in Multi-media Try MAGpie (Media Access Generator) to Create Captions and Audio Description for Rich Media- Free Software at ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie/

30 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution An Accessible Web: Uses Captioning Feature for Audio on YouTube Videos Allows User to Turn Captioning On/Off See

31 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Web Barriers Online Conferencing Applications – Many Rely on Audio Only with no text alternative for People with Speech or Hearing Loss – Many Do not Work with Assistive Computer Technologies – Some allow for Text Alternative of Captioning Services, but Fail to Provide Ability to Resize Captioning Window

32 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution Online Conferencing Applications – Should be compatible with Captioning Services – Should work with Assistive Technologies (AT) such as screen readers, screen magnifiers & speech recognition systems Example of Accessible Online Conferencing Application at

33 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Accessibility Solution Web Based Captioning Services – Enables people with hearing and speech disabilities to follow online what is being said during a teleconference meeting or a conference – User can go online and read the text of the audio stream onto a website; website allows chat text for questions and comments – Example of Service Provider: CaptionFirst

34 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Resources See Workshop Bibliography Including: Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance by Jim Thatcher, Cynthia Waddell et al Published by Apress 2006 ISBN: Published in Japanese 2007 ISBN:

35 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Resources Free Web Accessibility Checkers Cynthia Says – The WAVE – Wave.webaim.org – Wave Firefox Toolbar Vision Australia Web Accessibility Toolbar s/toolbar/

36 Asia Pacific Regional Forum on Mainstreaming ICT Accessibility August 2009 Bangkok, Thailand Contact Cynthia WADDELL ITU Senior Accessibility Consultant Executive Director International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet (ICDRI) Web: