Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 1 Internet for All l Internationalisation beyond English l Accessibility for disabled l Access as a necessity, not a luxury.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 2 Internet for All l Internet/Web should be available for everyone, including »People who dont know English »People with disabilities l Be aware of this when designing websites and software!

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 3 International Internet l Character sets l Localised web sites l Computer translation

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 4 Character Sets l ASCII – only English »Standard in USA? »Still used for Internet names l Latin1 – also other W Euro Latin alpha »French, German, Swedish, … »Accented chars, eg é ß å æ »Other, eg £ ¿ »Standard in UK

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 5 Unicode l Unicode »Add support for Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, … –Also Linear B, Cherokee, hieroglyphics, … – l Unicode is just a character set, need to install font as well »Complete Unicode font came with Office 2003

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 6 Unicode l In principle supported by all major programming languages, web browsers, operating systems, etc. »Problems can arise, though »Java support for Unicode is not perfect

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 7 Bidirectional texts l English written left-to-right l Hebrew, Arabic written right-to-left »But embedded English left-to-right »Does strange things to page layout

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 8 Touchscreen Input

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 9 International Domain Name l Internet software/standards assume names are in ASCII » -- OKabdn.ac.uk » -- not OKwww.uquébec.ca – insteadwww.uquebec.ca l Unfair ….

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 10 International Domain Names l International Domain Names (IDN) »Allow Unicode in names »Based on encoding Unicode as ASCII l Spread is slow »Standard now agreed, but not yet universally implemented. »ICANN will allow Unicode top-level domains

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 11 Localisation l Web sites localised for different places »Language, currency, text direction, etc –Spelling: eg, colour vs color »Local news, offers »Culturally differences –Images: modestly dressed women for muslims –Names: Icelanders dont have last names

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 12 Example l In-depth: office.microsoft.com »Requires a lot of work! l Shallower: google.com

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 13 Internationalisation l Making one web site (or Java app) which is maximally useful worldwide »Language: simple English »Forms: allow Unicode, dont assume people have last names or postal codes »Avoid images that might offend some

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 14 Translation l Ultimate goal is to let people read web pages in other languages »translate.google.co.uk »Quality variable, (slowly) getting better »Widely used by many non-English speakers

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 15 Accessible Internet l Not everyone uses mouse and (touch)screen to access the Internet! l Web accessibility should address their needs, including: Web accessibility »Visual, motor, auditory, cognitive disabilities and those affected by seizures. l How to help such people use the Internet? »With a little bit of effort, developers can really enhance accessibility.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 16 Visual Disabilities l Colour-blind »Developers: dont assume people can see when something is red! l Poor vision »Need large fonts and screen magnifiers »Developers: DO NOT HARD-CODE FONTS IN WEB PAGES!!! –It may look nice to you, but means someone with poor vision cannot use it

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 17 Visual Disabilities l Blind »Screen readers: speak out web pagesScreen readers »Braille displays: display text in brailleBraille displays »Embossed printers: print brailleEmbossed printers l Screen readers most common »Essentially scan through a web page »Developers: –Include ALT tags for imagesALT tags –Remember that blind user will not see entire page!

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 18 Motor Disabilities l Poor hand control »Use keyboard instead of mouse »Developers: allow keyboard control!! l No hand control (or no hands) »scanning interface, controlled by switch –Assistive tech., head switch, sip/puffAssistive techsip/puff –Maybe Eye tracking.Eye tracking »Need special interface »Often expensive

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 19 Example: Scanning interface

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 20 Auditory l If sound or spoken word is used, may need to find alternative ways to convey content to deaf or hard of hearing users.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 21 Cognitive Disability l General »Keep things simple and clear l Dyslexia »Avoid white backgrounds, »dont justify texts (stretch to fit column), »avoid italics

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 22 Seizures l Be aware that photoepileptic seizures can be caused by flashing flights, particularly repeated strobe effects.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 23 Disabilities l Plenty of guidelines exist » l Following them makes websites more useful to disabled people, probably helps normal people as well »Helps mobile access in particular l Just need to make the effort!

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 24 Accessibility Guidelines l The W3C has provided a set of web content accessibility guidelinesweb content accessibility guidelines l Now accepted as ISO/IEC 40500:2012.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 25 Legal Aspects l Increasing legal requirement that websites be accessible to disabled »Especially for (quasi-)government sites, such as Aberdeen University »E.g., the Jodhan decision in Canada.Jodhan decision l Good business sense as well »Biggest disabled group is elderly, and they have lots of money to spend

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 26 Legal Aspects (UK) l UK Equality Act. E.G. The RNIB says it may be unlawful for a website to : UK Equality ActRNIB »`` have links on that are not accessible to a screen reader »have application forms (for instance, for bank accounts or job application forms) in a PDF format that cannot be read by a screen reader »have core service information (for instance, timetables on a public transport website) that is not in a format accessible to screen readers. »use text, colour contrasting and formatting that make the website inaccessible to a partially sighted service user »change security procedures (for instance, on an e-commerce website) without considering the impact of blind and partially sighted customers that use screen readers.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 27 Internet For All l Developers (us) have moral duty to make our products available to all »People with limited English »People with disabilities l Also legal duty, sensible business l Tools exist, we need to use them!

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 28 Recap: Helping Everyone l Internet should benefit everyone. l Essential for fair society!

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 29 Helping Everyone l How should Internet be used in third- world countries? »Bangladesh vs India vs Chile »Much use via mobile devices now. l How can Internet help people at bottom of heap in UK? »Will growth of Internet hurt people who cannot or will not use it?

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 30 Helping Everyone l How can we make websites universally useful? »Non-English speakers »disabled l How should the Internet be controlled (governed)? »So that it helps everyone!