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Hundreds of millions of disabled people around the world have little or no access to the Web. If they can't use this new technology, business won't realize the full potential of E-commerce. And a lot of disabled people won't realize their potential, either. So who's working to make the Web accessible to the disabled? Meet Judy Brewer, the director of the Web Accessibility Initiative International Program Office for the World Wide Web Consortium, with offices in Cambridge, Mass., Europe, and Japan. She's developed the Web Content Disability Guidelines. Brewer's program is supported in part by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Disability & Rehabilitation Research, the European Commission's DG XIII Telematics Applications Programme for Disabled & Elderly, and the government of Canada, as well as IBM, Bell Atlantic, and Microsoft. CRITICAL ACCESS. In a recent interview, Brewer laid out her goals: Ensure that core Web technologies support access by the disabled. Promote the voluntary international guidelines for so-called user agents -- browsers, multimedia players, screen readers, and voice-recognition devices -- and for authoring tools. Develop evaluation and repair tools for technologies that give the disabled Web access. Sponsor education and outreach on the subject. And monitor research and development efforts that could improve access to the Web for the disabled. For the 10% to 20% of the world's people who have a disability, using the Web is more critical than for the able-bodied, who generally have an easier time using printed information, Brewer says. Common accessibility problems on Web sites include a lack of alternative text for images that are hard to see, uncaptioned audio or video, and linear tables that have poor color contrast. Sounds minor? Then consider these real-life stories: Mark Tyler does business development for a software firm in Tysons Corner, Va. Part of his job is to search the Web for business opportunities. And he's angry. Since losing most of his sight two years ago, he can no longer read charts and graphs. "Even with my talking browser, I have problems," he says. "The text and graphics must be in a format that I can easily read or can be easily read to me." Sheryl Mason of Baltimore can't use a keyboard. She lost both arms as a child in a fire and is almost legally blind. At age 20, she is a part-time student, on a scholarship, who uses speech-recognition programs for her work. "Navigating the Web is very, very difficult for me," she says. "Getting the program to turn pages on command is sometimes impossible. Often I have difficulty reading the text because of the color background on the page. And using a headpointer only draws additional attention to my limitations and strains my neck." Mason has hired an assistant to help her navigate the Web -- an expense that's hard on her budget. CHEAP REDESIGNS. Then there's James Holloway of Houston. He is deaf and recently lost his job as an economist. "We started to do frequent videoconferences on the Web to cut back on travel and to improve efficiency," he says, with a touch of bitterness. "Without closed captioning and a sign language interpreter to sign for me, I couldn't do my job." The livelihoods and futures of these people depend on their ability to use the Web. Yet, none of three knew about the accessibility guidelines from Web Accessibility Initiative when I spoke with them recently. Brewer stresses that for disabled people, Web barriers mean losing access to information needed for education, employment, health, entertainment, E-commerce, and social interaction. The voluntary WAI guidelines are meant for a variety of audiences -- including Web designers. Creating or revamping a site so that it meets WAI standards shouldn't add significantly to development costs, Brewer stresses. And some tools that promote accessibility can even help reduce the cost of maintaining or updating sites. Brewer reminded me that any good Web site presents information in a way that's easy to use. You can learn more about what that means for the disabled by visiting www.w3.org/WAI. Share your opinion of Bowe's new book on BW Online's Assistive Tech Forum. Or, if you have a question about assistive technology, write to John at JMMAW@aol.com EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT |
