NYS Forum IT Accessibility Committee

October 2008 Newsletter

### Edited by Joel Obuchowski

Articles and ideas for future newsletters? Please e-mail them to Debi Orton dorton@goer.state.ny.us and Joel Obuchowski jobuchow@ins.state.ny.us

NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

October 9, 2:30pm - 4:00pm

*** Note location change ***

Meeting Room 7, Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY

Among the items for discussion for the next Committee meeting:

The October 27 "Introduction to Web Accessibility" session in White Plains
Upcoming "How to Create an Accessible PDF" session
Status of new policy/standard updates
Ongoing funding for the NYSVT
Best practice session by DOH

UPCOMING EVENTS

SAVE THE DATE!

Introduction to Web Accessibility

New York Power Authority, Jaguar Room, 123 Main Street, White Plains, NY 10601
October 27, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

On October 27, the Forum's IT Accessibility Committee will be presenting a three-hour Introduction to Web Accessibility. In addition to a background in policy and law, the session will cover the most basic changes you can make to your web site to dramatically increase its accessibility.

Our Introduction to Web Accessibility will also cover the recently updated CIO/OFT web accessibility policy and standard, along with the Forum's NYS Validation tool. This session is appropriate for web developers, those whose work includes managing a web site or part of a web site, and for those who provide content for web sites.

To register, visit http://nysforum.org/events/webaccessibilityintro-10-27-08/.

We hope to see you there!

Disability Awareness Month at HVCC

Hudson Valley Community College will be celebrating Disability Awareness Month from October 4 through the 24th with a series of events:

Oct. 14 - Supporting Students with Autism in the Classroom
Oct. 18 - Passport to Awareness
Oct. 20 - Disability Film Series
Oct. 24 - Dr. J. T. Brown, UConn Director of Student Services conducts workshops on Students with Asperger's Syndrome in Higher Education
Oct. 24 - Salome Heyward, Esq., Disability and Discrimination Law expert, conducts workshops

For more information, please see https://www.hvcc.edu/drc/awareness.html (External Link).

RECENT NEWS

Tim Berners-Lee Announces Creation of New Foundation to Bring the Web to All People

2008-09-14: Before a gathering of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Washington, D.C. (USA), Tim Berners-Lee announced today the creation of the World Wide Web Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is:

  • to advance One Web that is free and open,
  • to expand the Web's capability and robustness,
  • and to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet.

Following Berners-Lee's speech, Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO, announced a $5 million seed grant in support of the mission. Learn more about the World Wide Web Foundation at www.webfoundation.org (External Link), which also includes a FAQ and video and photos from the event.

From:

DBTAC-Northeast ADA Center

Technical Bulletin

September 19, 2008

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month!

This year's theme as announced by the U.S. Secretary of Labor is America's People, America's Talent, America's Strength! Read more at: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/odep/odep20080993.htm (External Link)

New Website for Employers Hiring Veterans with Brain Injuries and Stress!

The Department of Labor launched America's Heroes at Work, an online resource to assist employers in hiring veterans who have traumatic brain injuries (TBI) or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), two conditions that can be common among vets returning from this particular war.

This program, managed jointly by DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy and Veterans' Employment and Training Service, is a comprehensive Web site that educates employers, human resources professionals, and the workforce system in how to help veterans return to work. It provides information about TBI and PTSD, job coaching and mentoring programs, and suggestions for workplace accommodations. Read more at: http://www.AmericasHeroesAtWork.gov (External Link).

The Financial State of Americans with Disabilities in the 21st Century!

The National Council on Disability (NCD) has submitted a groundbreaking report, The State of 21st Century Financial Incentives for Americans with Disabilities, that addresses economic equality issues and financial incentives affecting people of all abilities, regardless of race or socioeconomic status. It presents research findings in important areas of people's lives and suggests strategies for securing employment and daily living benefits. Read more at: http://www.ncd.gov/ (External Link).

New FREE Internet Course!

Ready, Willing, and Able, Assisting People with Disabilities During Disasters is a free, professional, 2 hour, introductory, online training course for health workers, disaster preparedness workers, and emergency response staff. The course is offered through TRAIN, a project of the Public Health Foundation, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Course number is 1010882. Register at: https://www.train.org/DesktopModules/eLearning/CourseDetails/CourseDetailsForm.aspx?tabid=62&CourseID=1010882 (External Link)

Senate Passes the ADA Amendments Act

Feature Story from civilrights.org

Tyler Lewis

September 11, 2008

On September 11, the U.S. Senate passed the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 on a voice vote, restoring Congress' original intent to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.

"Today's Senate passage of the ADA Amendments Act gives the nation a glimpse of the legislative process at its highest and best. No narrow partisan politics barred the way to reinstating a vulnerable class of people with disabilities who had been excluded by narrow court decisions from the law's protections such as those with diabetes, cancer and bipolar disorder," said Nancy Zirkin, executive vice president of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, in a statement.

The bill will overturn Supreme Court decisions that have reduced protections for certain people with disabilities including people with diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, mental disabilities, and cancer who were originally intended to be covered by the ADA. The ADA prohibits discrimination against Americans with physical and mental disabilities in such areas as employment, public accommodations, and transportation.

"This vote demonstrates the broad-based bipartisan support for the need to restore protections under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to people with epilepsy, depression, diabetes, cancer and a host of other conditions who have been interpreted out of the ADA by a callous majority of the U.S. Supreme Court," said Andrew Imparato, president and CEO of the American Association of People with Disabilities, in a joint statement.

In an unprecedented show of cooperation, disability rights, civil rights, and employer groups worked together to propose language that eventually became part of the bill, which made it easier for both chambers to vote on the bill quickly. The House passed its version of the bill overwhelmingly (402-17) on June 25.

"After many months of negotiation, the legislation represents a sound compromise between the Senate, the House, the business community, and the disability community. We urge that it be enacted quickly and signed into law," said Randel K. Johnson, vice president of labor, immigration, and employee benefits of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

President Bush is expected to sign the bill into law in the coming weeks.

WGBH Releases "CC for Flash" - Free Tool to Simplify Captioning for Flash

WGBH Access Division Creates "CC for Flash" to Simplify Captioning for Adobe Flash Technology

Accessibility and Search Enhanced by Free Tool; Easy-to-Embed Flash-Based-Media Player also Available

Use of Adobe Flash technology to add dynamic and engaging video content to Web sites is growing exponentially. With WGBH's new solution, developers are able to more easily add captions in Flash. Now, millions of users who are deaf or hard of hearing are better able to experience Web-based video in Flash and search engines are able to capitalize on captions as search metadata for SWF content.

WGBH, Boston's public broadcaster and a decades-long pioneer in developing access solutions to media for audiences with disabilities has created a component for Flash, CC for Flash, that can be authored into any SWF file for playback in Adobe Flash Player. The component is easy to use, and freely available from the NCAM Web site at http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/ccforflash (External Link).

Funding for development of CC for Flash was provided by a grant to WGBH's Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) from the NEC Foundation of America, with additional support provided by Yahoo!

A Best Friend for CC for Flash: MAGpie

MAGpie, NCAM's free do-it-yourself captioning and description application allows developers to create captions once, and then to output those captions in multiple formats, including QuickTime, Windows Media, and Real.

NCAM has now added the W3C's new timed-text format, the Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP), to MAGpie's caption export options. MAGpie version 2.0.2 is the only tool available today for authoring DFXP caption files. With MAGpie and CC for Flash, it's now easier than ever to provide captions for Flash Player compatible video content.

WGBH's Media Access Group can also provide Flash caption authoring services for long-form content not easily handled by MAGpie, and for producers who would rather outsource their captioning work. WGBH's Media Access Group, since 1972 the leader in providing captioning and description to the broadcast, film, educational and online media worlds, is now the first organization that can provide DFXP captions for Flash presentations.

RESOURCES

If you would like to submit items for this section, please e-mail them to Debi Orton dorton@goer.state.ny.us and Joel Obuchowski jobuchow@ins.state.ny.us.

Federal web development resources

The federal government has a number of free and low-cost training opportunities for public sector web developers, including some free online training opportunities. You can find links to what's available at http://webcontent.gov (External Link). Among the free opportunities, you will find an October 23 two-hour webinar on "How to Create Your Own RSS Feeds" http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/fall2008/howtocreaterss.shtml (External Link). (Note, registration is required.)

There are also a number of online resources on specific tasks, such as:

"Writing for the Web/Plain Language" http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/managing_content/writing_and_editing.shtml (External Link)
 
"Organizing and Categorizing Content" http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/managing_content/organizing.shtml (External Link)
 
"Keeping Content Current" http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/managing_content/keeping_content_current.shtml (External Link)

For more training opportunities, see the Web Manager University schedule at http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/wmu/schedule.shtml (External Link).

There is also a wealth of information on how to create usable web sites at Usability.gov http://usability.gov/ (External Link), such as:

"Creating Usable Online Forms" http://usability.gov/pubs/042008news.html (External Link)
 
A free copy of "Research-Based Web Design and Usability Guidelines" in PDF format http://www.usability.gov/pdfs/guidelines.html (External Link)
 
A primer on Usability Basics http://usability.gov/basics/ (External Link).

The following were submitted by Mike Hritcko ...

"Contrast Analyser, Version 2.1"

http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=96 (External Link)

"History of the browser user-agent string"

http://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/ (External Link)

"The Helen Project"

http://www.afb.org/aap.asp (External Link)

"Understanding Disabilities When Designing a Website"

http://www.digital-web.com/articles/understanding_disabilities_when_designing_a_website/ (External Link)