NYS Forum IT Accessibility Work Group

December 2009 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

December 10, 2009, 2:30-4:00 p.m.
Forum Offices, 24 Aviation Road, Colonie

Directions? Please e-mail Joel Obuchowski jobuchow@ins.state.ny.us.

AGENDA

508 Recommendations to OFT.
508 Training
Upcoming Presentations
"Accessible PDF"
"Writing for the Web"
Consultations
Newsletter
Miscellaneous Matters

UPCOMING EVENTS

"Creating Accessible PDFs".
Coming in 2010

With the holidays approaching, this session offering has been delayed. However, we plan to re-schedule this in 2010. More information will be provided via the Accessibility listserv.

"Writing for the Web"
Returning in 2010

With the large interest in and success of these sessions on November 12, 2009, another session is being planned for January 2010. More information will be forthcoming on the Accessibility and Webmaster Guild listservs.

Note: The following video resources were shown in the November 2009 sessions.

Web Manager University recently commissioned these new Howcast videos on Usability and Plain Language. The videos show how the (fictional) U.S. Department of Very Fast Trains handles usability and plain language:

How to Increase Usability of Government Websites and Boost Your ROI:
http://bit.ly/2y7HfP
How to Use Plain Language on a Government Website:
http://bit.ly/1vndUL

Web Accessibility Webinar Series
Decmber 2009 - March 2010

The DBTAC - Northeast ADA Center and the New York State Disability Services Council presents WebAIM, a leading provider of web accessibility services and training.

Topics will include:

December 11, 2009: Advanced HTML Accessibility (2 PM to 4 PM EST)
January 11, 2009: JavaScript and ARIA (2 PM to 4 PM EST)
February 22, 2010: Rich Media (2 PM to 4 PM EST)
March 18, 2010: Captioning and Flash (2 PM to 4 PM EST)

Who Should Attend?
This training is recommended and designed for information technology staff, disability services staff, library staff, administrators, faculty, compliance officers, and web masters and other staff members who have an investment in creating an accessible web site.

Registration?
Please contact Barbara Sosna at 607.255.8660 or 800.949.4232 or you can register online at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/register/dbtac-webinar.cfm. You will receive the log-in information for each webinar 2 days prior to each event.

Accommodations?
If you require any accommodations to attend this event or access the materials, please contact Barbara Sosna at 607.255.8660, or 800.949.4232 or via email at bms8@cornell.edu

More information?
Please contact Barbara Sonsa or Sharon Therise trerise@cayuga-cc.edu.

RECENT NEWS

WGBH - Creating Accessible iTunes U Content guidelines

The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH (NCAM) has written guidelines for content providers who would like to create accessible iTunes U media via captions, subtitles and audio descriptions. This guidelines document provides step-by-step documentation on creating fully accessible media, including:

Closed captions and audio descriptions that the user can turn on or off as needed.
Open subtitles and descriptions that are available to everyone watching or listening.
Closed subtitles for adding multiple language tracks to video files.
Accessible PDFs.

Also included with the guidelines are links to eight video and audio clips that illustrate the various forms of accessible media discussed in the document. Using these guidelines, iTunes U content providers can create content that all people can learn from including people with vision and hearing loss.

To access the Creating Accessible iTunes U Content guidelines document and related media, see Creating Accessible iTunes U Content on Apple's iTunes site, http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/wgbh.org.2010579900.

Google adding automatic captions to YouTube videos
* Posted on - Thu Nov 19, 2009 2:31PM EST (AP)

WASHINGTON - Think of it as closed captioning for the new media world.

Google Inc. said Thursday it is introducing automatic, machine-generated captions for videos on its YouTube site. The new service, being launched this week, is intended to make online videos accessible to the deaf and hearing-impaired.

For the full article, please visit this link: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091119/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_google_video_captioning

Web accessibility for screen magnifier users

OUT-LAW News, 05/05/2005

The following article was contributed to OUT-LAW.COM by Trenton Moss of usability and accessibility specialists WebCredible.

The needs of screen magnifier users are overlooked when implementing web accessibility on to a website. Screen magnifiers are used by partially sighted web users to increase the size of on-screen elements. Some users will magnify the screen so that only three to four words are able to appear on the screen at any one time. You can try using a screen magnifier yourself by downloading the Zoomtext screen magnifier for a free 30 day trial.

The good news is that some of the basic principles for improving accessibility and usability for screen magnifiers users, also increase usability for everyone. To help, Webcredible have listed six ways to improve accessibility and usability for screen magnifier users:

For further details on these ways, please visit this address: http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=5668

Schools shun Kindle, saying blind can't use it

By RACHEL METZ, AP Technology Writer
Nov 11, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - Amazon's Kindle can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup.

For the full article, please visit this link: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20091111/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_kindle_blind

FEATURE ARTICLE
(more like a featurette)
by Joel Obuchowski

With Estelle Council and I becoming co-chairs, we have a lot of responsibilities to tackle as we settle into these positions. We also have "big shoes to fill" with Debi and Mike's efforts - past and ongoing. One of these is updating the Resources Web site.

In November, the main navigation was updated, along with a few content revisions. If you see this (Embedded image moved to file: pic05225.jpg) image in the navigation bar, it denotes external links. In the future, that will also appear before external links not explicitly noted otherwise. A lot more content updates are underway, and will continue into 2010.

To see the Resources Web site: http://www.nysforum.org/accessibility/resources/

If you have questions regarding the Web site , please e-mail myself (Joel Obuchowski) or Estelle Council.

RESOURCES

Thanks to Mike Hritcko, NYS Insurance Fund and Debi Orton, NYS GOER for the following resources.

ADA Online Learning - Accessible Technology Online Series,
http://www.ada-audio.org/Webinar/AccessibleTechnology/Schedule/
AccessibleTech.org - For Accessible Technology in the Workplace
http://www.accessibletech.org/
Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center - National Network of ADA Centers
http://www.adata.org/index.html
WebContent.gov
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/index.shtml

These resources are available via the disability.gov link following the "Discover How ... " bullet.

An Introduction to the Screen Reader
A 6-minute video that demonstrates how screen readers assist people who are blind navigate the web, access the electronic page and more.
A transcript of this video is also available.
Section 508 Compliant Video Player
Would you like to embed YouTube videos on your website? ....
Designing Web Content That Is Accessible to Users with Cognitive Disabilities
Webcast from the National Center on Disability and Access to Education ...
Discover How to Provide Accessible Online Presentations
Learn about the capabilities and limitations of web presentation software, especially as they apply to Section 508 and web accessibility.

http://www.disability.gov/technology/accessible_technology

The last four resources here are from the online journal "Practical eCommerce":

Accessibility: How Many Disabled Web Users Are There?
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1417-Accessibility-How-Many-Disabled-Web-Users-Are-There-
ADA And State Disability Laws.
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/683-ADA-And-State-Disability-Laws
Accessibility - The Wheelchair Ramp to Your Website
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/350-Accessibility-The-Wheelchair-Ramp-to-Your-Website
Web Accessibility and the Law.
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1167-Web-Accessibility-and-the-Law