Certification - September 2008 - (Page 18)

LOOK AhEAD The Accessibility Issue AGAThA GILMORE The widespread availability of DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem) could have a major impact not only on the blind and visually impaired community but on computer use in general. For an industry that makes a business out of being advanced, IT historically has lagged in the area of accessibility. Since the beginning, IT companies set out to develop operating systems and software programs that made work and life easier, faster and more accurate, but ironically, they often left out the millions of people worldwide with special needs who could really benefit from such technology. For example, features such as audio clips embedded in software and Web pages often exclude members of the deaf or hard of hearing community, while blind and visually impaired computer users miss out on graphics and videos. In 2004, the U.K.’s Disability Rights Commission (now part of the Equality and Human Rights Commission) surveyed 1,000 sites and found only six to be AA compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 put out by the World Wide Web Consortium, according to London-based publication The Register. But now, it seems IT is finally catching up with the rest of the world. In May, Microsoft announced the availability of a new plug-in for Microsoft Word 2007, 2003 and XP that allows users to save Office Open XML documents in the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) XML format, which improves accessibility for the blind and visually impaired. DAISY XML was developed based on a standard created in 1998 by the nonprofit DAISY Consortium, which serves the visually impaired community. Many visually impaired computer users currently turn to screen readers and auditory tools to interpret Web pages, Word documents and Adobe PDF files. Such programs rely on the metadata embedded in files that relay document structure, graphics and tone. But the experience is less than enjoyable, to say the least. According to a May article on Computerworld. com, the free, built-in auditory tools such as Windows XP’s Narrator often are too rudimentary to convey the information properly, and vendor text-to-speech programs can run up to $5,000. Plus, improper cod- 18 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE September 2008 http://www.daisy.org/ http://www.daisy.org/ http://geology.usgs.gov/tools/metadata/tools/doc/faq.html http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/pages/eocdrccre.aspx http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/pages/eocdrccre.aspx http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=open_source&articleId=9084438&taxonomyId=88&intsrc=kc_feat http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/ http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/ http://www.w3.org/ http://www.w3.org/

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Certification - September 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead So You Want to Be an IT Major The Title Is Information Officer… Chief Information Officer Interface Network Administration: Working From the Ground Up Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - September 2008

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