Hi all,
this is an article from Newshound. It is most interesting and promising,
especially in light of the debachal (sp) with IE4.0. Let's hope that it
is what is truly needed. Let's hope that the money really pays off.
Please distribute this if you like, though do not repost to the CC's here
listed as that would be spammish.
Ann P.
Ann K. Parsons
akp@frontiernet.net
Professional Tutor, high school and adults
English/Social Studies
Bard and lover of words
Head Gardener, GrassRoots MOO
"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost."
J.R.R. Tolkien
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 22:21:41 -0700
From: NewsHound <NewsHound@hound.com>
To: akp@frontiernet.net
Subject: Internet to become far more accessible to disabled
NewsHound article from "technology" hound, score "95."
Posted at 9:37 p.m. PDT Wednesday, October 22, 1997
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Internet to become far more accessible to disabled
By Aaron Pressman
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For more than 50 million disabled Americans the
Internet is often an inhospitable jumble, but access could be dramatically
improved under a program announced Wednesday.
The Clinton administration and leading private-sector Internet groups said
they would provide funds to design new >>technologies<< and standards to
improve accessibility and to educate Web site designers about their use.
"Little of the world's storehouse of knowledge has been available in
alternative formats such as braille," said Judy Brewer, director of the new
initiative at the World Wide Web Consortium, an international
standards-setting body.
"The information age that is rapidly enveloping us with its fascinating new
>>technologies<< has the potential to change that," Brewer told reporters
at a news briefing here. "But only if the designers of the user interface
remember the variability of human functioning."
>>Computer<< software is available to read text out loud or convert it to
braille for the blind, but most sites on the World Wide Web contain images
and text formats that confuse the software.
For example, many sites put text in tables to improve the appearance of the
sites, but the tables lack cues to help Web readers for the blind convert
the information in a meaningful way.
And cutting-edge multimedia sites loaded with audio or video clips rarely
include transcripts or other means for the deaf to access the data.
"The power of the Web is in its universality," said Tim Berners-Lee, who
proposed the idea for the Web and now is director of the Web consortium.
"Access by everyone regardless of >>disability<< is an essential aspect."
A new standard for creating Web pages expected by the end of the year,
called HyperText Mark-up Language version 4.0, will likely incorporate
features to improved access for the disabled, Brewer said.
President Clinton endorsed the effort. "The Web has the potential to be one
of >>technology<<'s greatest creators of opportunity, bringing the
resources of the world directly to all people," Clinton said in a
statement. "But this can only be done if the Web is designed in a way that
enables everyone to use it."
Ensuring access for the disabled also may have benefits for the
non-disabled, according to Gary Strong, director of the National
>>Science<< Foundation's interactive systems program.
"It really benefits everyone," Strong said. "Other markets may very well
open up when we make information available in different forms."
Reformatted information might be better suited for pocket-sized, wireless
Internet readers or Internet connections in cars, Strong noted.
The National >>Science<< Foundation and the Department of Education said
they would provide $1 million to fund the accessibility initiative.
REUTERS
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