Accessibility Issues

Accessibility IssuesLiddy Nevile

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Overview

• Accessibility definitions• Current work to minimise problems• IMS accessibility activities• Matching content to people’s needs• Implementations• References

Overview

• Accessibility definitionsNot …• Telecommunications …. Or is it?• Economic equity … or is it?

Typical problems

• Can’t see screen• Can’t see colours• Can’t read text• Can’t hear• Can’t control cursor• Can’t type

OS supportAdd this to Favorites folderAdd this to startup itemsApple channel…..

Browser support (?)

• Lynx• IE• Netscape/Mozilla• iCab• Opera• Amaya• There are about 35 browsers in common

use…• (Note W3C UAAG - includes LMS)

ATs for people with vision disabilities

Jason White

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Other assistive technologies

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Other accessibility problems

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressorare needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Accessibility definitions

• W3C - device independence, separation of content from presentation

• U.S. - s. 508 for Federal Govt. contracts• Australia - common law system with

regulations• UK, European Commission …• IMS/MMI-DC Working definition:

mismatch between user needs and content

W3C Guidelines

• Accessibility guidelines• Techniques• Checkpoints• Checkpoint techniques• QA and Certification- for authors, authoring tools, user

agents

Localisation of W3C guidelines

• University, system, organisational guidelines

• Controlling systems and templates• EuroAccessibility efforts• CEN MMI-DC Workshop• IMS Accessibility Guidelines• ( -> maths interest)

W3C Technologies that work

• Cascading style sheets (CSS1)• eXtensible Markup Language and CSS2• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)• Synchronised Multimedia Integration

Language (SMIL) • eXtensible Stylesheet Language (XSLT)• ChemML, MathML, MusicML, ...

SVG example

SVG example

• Image is represented as vectors in text• Sub-images can be identified• Metadata can be added• Rights management can be used• Behaviours can be controlled

– Eg an interactive knee dissection linked to external resources

Technologies that work (contd.)

• XML => MathML, ChemML, etc• MathML as an example

– The equation x2 + 4x + 4 =0

Separate presentation from content

• Presentational markup to ensure display can be controlled - with style sheets to define the display characteristics

• Content markup to provide machine readable version of content so it could be read into content manipulators

• <mrow>• <mrow>• <msup> <mi>x</MI> <mn>2</mn> </msup> <mo>+</MO>• <mrow>• <mn>4</mn>• <MO>&InvisibleTimes;</MO>• <MI>x</MI>• </mrow>• <MO>+</MO>• <mn>4</mn>• </mrow>• <MO>=</MO>• <mn>0</mn>• </mrow>

MathML is like HTML…

Screen presentation

• It can be read aloud by screen readers

• It can be used in maths applications

• It can be programmed for interactivity

• It can be programmed for feedback

• But it can’t yet be used in Braille.

Technologies that work (contd.)

• XML and RDF and EARL ….• XML - human readable, schemas etc …..• RDF - this ‘object’ has property ‘this’• EARL - this ’agent’ said this ‘object’ has this

‘property’ on this ‘date’• Eg “The application ‘Lift’ evaluated this

page as accessible (didn’t fail) on 3/9/2002”.

Author support

• W3C described what to do, how to do it, when and why,…

• Automatic support is required ->• W3C Authoring Tools Accessibility

Guidelines - note s. 508

Accessibility tools• Accessible tools• Tools for accessible authoring• Validators ie code validators • Evaluators ie compliance with

guidelines producing metadata (EARL)• Digital repositories for descriptive

metadata• (re-usable metadata??)• On-the-fly repair tools (SWAP, TILE, ..)

New IMS/DC/…approach

• Think of the user and work towards user needs and preferences

• Provide a good, easy way to record user needs and preferences

• Describe content in terms of needs and preferences

• Avoid all issues to do with disabilities and to do with legal liability

Accessibility issues

• Direct accessibility• Compatible accessibility• Alternative modality• Equivalent content• User choice

User profiles

• Control• Display (presentation)• Content• A special element to add to the LIP

because this info is usually managed by a different person from the teacher (and sometimes the student)

• Multiple, cascading profiles

AccLIP (User profile)

• AccessForAll:http://www.imsproject.org/accessibility/

Content profiles

• Control• Display (presentation)• Content• A separate element as the information

is usually an EARL statement• Same schema for exact matching and

easy maintenance

AccMD (Content profile)

• An EARL statement … so a URI:http://www.imsproject.org/accessibility

Implementation

• The Inclusive Learning Exchange at http://inclusivelearning.ca/

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

References

• http://w3.org/• http://w3.org/WAI/• http://www.imsproject.org/accessibility• http://dublincore.org/groups/access/• http://inclusivelearning.ca• http://www.OZeWAI.org/