Disabilities and Computing Program

To help mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, DCP demoed the AMP accessibility testing software (from SSB Bart Group) to UCLA web developers. AMP is now easily available to Staff via single sign-on. We also gave an intro to what accessibility is, and the role programmers can play in improving it.

• Location: 5628 Math Science (Visualization Portal; UCLA campus)
• Date: May 9
• Time: 10:30-11:30 AM

UC Berkeley’s event was broadcast via the Berkeley UStream feed from noon-2PM Thursday (The loop will continue, until replaced by the next event.)

The main event in the Los Angeles area took place in Santa Monica, with headline speaker Molly Holzschlag. Free registration and follow-up info is via the Meetup event page.

Events for the day were truly worldwide, and you can get an overview on the Global Accessibility Awareness Day site.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights has issued a 15-question FAQ clarifying its stand on accessibility of electronic reading devices and electronic information in general. The document was announced in “Dear Colleague” letters, sent out to both K12 and post-secondary institutions.

This guidance document is an outgrowth of the 2010 Kindle case, in which the National Federation of the Blind sued several universities for providing students with the Kindle e-reader, which was deemed inaccessible to blind students.

The FAQ spells out conditions under which schools can sponsor electronic technology projects and steps they can take to ensure accessibility (either built into the device, or through a “substantively equivalent” process).

The document affirms that such dedicated reading devices, along with online courses and other web-based information fall under Section 504 of the Rehab Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. As “programs and services” of the educational institution, these information sources must be made accessible, analogous to the requirements for physical access to the built environment.

Frequently Asked Questions About the June 29, 2010, Dear Colleague Letter

Jennifer Dillon and Heather Wozniak
Disabilities and Computing Program, UCLA Office of Information Technology
Originally presented to UCLA Campus Web Publishers on April 19, 2011

Presentation Slides in PDF

Choosing accessible colors for your website’s text is important.  The readability of your site affects all users, not just those with vision impairments. It’s a basic usability issue.  The only people for whom the color choices don’t matter are those using screen readers.

(more…)

The DCP staff presented a “Web Accessibility Quick Guide” at the UCLA Campus Web Publishers meeting on April 13, 2010.  If you missed the meeting, you can download the handout below:

Web Accessibility Quick Guide (PDF)

Patrick Burke gave an update on the new UC-wide Electronic Accessibility Leadership Team (E-ALT), and Heather Wozniak demonstrated WebAIM’s WAVE Toolbar, a free tool for evaluating the accessibility of your websites.  You can use WAVE online or download the Firefox toolbar from wave.webaim.org.

USA.gov has published a resource guide on multimedia online materials and accessibility:

Make Your Multimedia Section 508 Compliant and Accessible (WebContent.gov)

This is a thorough survey of the topic, with many links to examples, legal references, and further resources.

On a few points it seems to me to set a high standard for federal agencies.:

• Captioning must be provided for live video (such as live speeches);
• Audiodescription as well as captioning must be included where necessary;
• The accessibility rules apply to agencies posting material to public websites (Youtube etc.) “Many agencies have found that a practical approach to providing accessible content is to post videos and presentations
  on these sites and also post the same content, in an accessible manner, on their own agency sites.”

These points have been “gray areas” in the past. For example, captioning of live video gets a lower priority rating in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. However, the USA.gov document stresses the affirmative need for access on all three of the above issues.