This all comes from a recent class-action suit brought on by the National Federation of the Blind against Target Corporation. National Federation challenged that Target’s website is inaccessible to the vision impaired and therefore violates ADA. The court denied Target the request to acquit the action claiming that no law required their site to be accessible. The court held that federal and state civil laws apply to a large retailer site like Target’s. Because ADA compliant brick-and-mortar Target stores are accessible for those with disabilities to enjoy goods and services, all services they provide must be accessible for those with disabilities, like their website.

According to National Federation of the Blind president Dr. Marc Maurer, this has been a great triumph for vision impaired people throughout the country.

Some particular areas on Target’s site that were nearly impossible for vision impaired users to independently navigate were product browsing and purchasing as well as being able to find important information like employment opportunities, investor news, and policies. This is because alt-text that allows users to obtain information vocally was not included and maps and graphical features were very unfriendly for those with accessibility needs. Vision impaired users use screen reading software to navigate websites where on-screen information is vocalized to the user.

This case calls for web site owners to analyze their site for accessibility. Places of public accommodation are not allowed to discriminate, meaning if they provide goods in brick-and-mortar ADA compliant establishments, the website the company uses to enhance and provide those same goods on must be ADA compliant.

SAMSA specializes in web accessibility and can help make your company’s website truly accessible to all.

According to the American Foundation for the Blind, roughly only 200,000 people who cannot see print at all have access to the Internet. This is in addition to the estimated 1.5 million users who have difficulty seeing with glasses that have access to the Web.

With the increasing amount of features on sites and complex programming involved, companies know they have to ensure accessibility if they want to retain and grow their vision impaired customer base. So what are top companies doing?

Google Inc. recently launched Google Accessible Search. This search tool ranks results based on the simplicity of the sites. Pages with numerous headings, appropriate numbers of pictures and text, and factors that make the pages easier to read with a screen reader have the highest ranking. The tool can be found at http://labs.google.com/accessible.

In the near future AOL plans to revise its current AOL Web Mail. The updated version will be more screen reader friendly. It will eliminate the need for screen reader users to switch to a text-only page.

When Yahoo Inc. redesigned their home page a couple of months ago, they made it more accessible by adding a large number of headings that allows low vision users to navigate sections much more smoothly than before.

New tools for developers will continue to have a positive impact on improving a broad range of sites. Microsoft Corporation will be releasing UI Automation with its Vista Operating System in the upcoming future. This new technology makes it simpler for screen readers to translate Web applications. Users will be able to use their screen readers to retrieve information about how many messages are in their inboxes without having to go through each message. They’re also able to alert their browser about which links they have already visited on a page.

With technology improving and Internet companies offering new services, the number of blind users with access to the Internet is expected to continue growing. Internet companies’ pushing themselves to be more accessible is just the beginning of a larger push to revise federal Web accessibility standards and legal efforts to get the guidelines adopted nationally wide. There are currently no Federal laws requiring all Web sites to be accessible to those with vision or other physical disabilities. SAMSA supports accessibility compliance and can help you make your site more accessible.

This tool helps site owners detect and promptly fix any problems that might be experienced by low vision and blind website visitors. At the same time, screen readers help give more of the population the means to having true access to technology. Thunder uses audio output to convey the text on the web page to the user. It can be downloaded from the ScreenReader website. For a modest fee, SAMSA can set it up for you and address any other accessibility needs your organization’s website may have.

ScreenReader is a non-profit, Community Interest Company from Choice Technology that partnered with United Kingdom international assistive technology company Sensory Software to develop this new innovative accessibility software. Thunder is free to individuals but businesses using this software have to pay for a yearly subscription based on their size. If you prefer, SAMSA can maintain your account for you.

Requirements to run this software effectively include a Windows 2000, XP, or Vista operating system along with working speakers or headphones. This software is easy for vision impaired users who are new or veterans of navigating the web. It also has a very low chance of conflicting with other software running on the family or company computer, making it great screen reading software to use on computers with multiple users unlike competitor software.

So while individuals are able to use screen readers to surf the web, web site owner’s can use the software to make sure that their website is accessible and functioning right for potential customers that rely on a screen reader to navigate and conduct business with you.

The most popular type of system is one in which a user is presented an image of distorted numbers and letters and is prompted to enter them to proceed with their navigation. Some sites offer users an alternate choice of verification in the form of audio and speech recognition. Although there is a logical reason wanting to implement a system that serves to block spam, the social cost of doing so weighs heavily. The problem of limited accessibility is presented to those Internet users who are blind, have learning disabilities, or have other visionary problems. This sector of people accounts for 10 million people in the United Sates alone. Visually impaired users have their privacy taken away when trying to retrieve information from sites that use verification in the form of CAPTCHA because another person must be with them to get them past the roadblock.

As spammers continue to figure out how to bypass and defeat the systems the images become even less legible to recognize which makes accessibility continue to decrease and affect even more people. If people with good vision are beginning to struggle with severely distorted images, CAPTCHA-using is not any closer to heading in a user-friendly direction. Even though some sites using CATPTCHA are offering verification in alternate forms, the problem is not solved for those users who are both deaf and blind.

For this reason, Internet Accessibility has become a widely discussed topic and has made progress in legislation. In 1999, Section 508 was added to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law for people with disabilities, which expanded its scope of providing accessibility to include federally owned or funded websites. The reason for this expansion is clear. Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee states, “Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.”

Information available on the Internet must be visible (easy to find), accessible (easy to use), and usable (easy to understand). An accessible web site entails an array of characteristics. Web accessibility includes web sites and applications that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with. To begin with, page organization that is clear, consistent in structure, and easily navigable is crucial. The Web Accessibility Initiative offers quick tips for developers that includes but is not limited to:

• Use the Alt attribute to describe the function of each image or animation
• Provide captioning and transcripts of audio and descriptions of video
• In regards to hypertext links, use text that makes sense when read out of context
• Provide alternative content in case active features such as scripts, applets, and plug-ins are inaccessible or unsupported

It takes a lot of effort and time to learn the guidelines of accessibility and how to implement them. If your business is unsure about implementing the guidelines itself or is lacking the internal resources to do so, a highly sought choice is to hire an accessibility expert to reconstruct your existing site. Though money must be spent, the benefits reaped by doing so are incalculable. A company that is socially responsible is highly regarded in the community. The truth is, people with disabilities aren’t the largest segment of population but accessibility benefits more people than those who are deaf, mentally impaired, dyslexic, motion impaired, or have low or no vision, combined. Research has shown that most of the population will need extra accessibility to web sites at some point in our lives, so why not make your site accessible for those who need that extra assistance right now.

Web developers and designers have a duty to educate clients on the importance of accessibility, and SAMSA is firmly committed to this responsibility.

The Internet has an astonishing potential for users with disabilities. With it, a blind person can use a screen reader to easily look up information for a work or school report; a deaf person can quickly access transcripts of an important speaker; a paralyzed person can take college classes and your elderly father or grandfather can write you an email from his recliner. To live up to its potential, the Internet must be as its founder intended – accessible to all.

Government mandated guidelines and information as made by the Web Accessibility Initiative can be found at http://www.w3c.org/WAI

SAMSA can help improve your website accessibility. For more information visit http://www.samsa.com/internet/website-design-development/handicap-accessibility/

I am researching section 508 and am wondering if there are levels of compliancy or if it is an all or nothing situation.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Chris Robbins

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ANSWER
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For true compliance websites must comply with all guidelines under section 508: http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=12#Web
If you are retro-fitting an existing website I would definately suggest a phased approach. Using the W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, it is possible to define 3 levels of priorities. See http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/#priorities. Bringing a website from non-complience to Priority 1compliance can prove very useful to users. Once that level has been achieved the steps to Priority 2 , then 3 can be attacked. These levels will then naturally make it easier to conform to the legal standards.

I have the following code. Will screen readers read it? If so, will they just read the name, or nothing at all?

<input type="hidden" name="topage" value="/etshome.jsp">

Thank you very much.

Joanne Lastort

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ANSWER
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Hi Joanne,

Great question!

Using the type ‘hidden’ will hide the input field from all types of user interfaces – including screen readers.

For more information on creating accessible forms, check out WebAIM: http://www.webaim.org/techniques/forms/

This resource has examples and information about the various form tags, how they work, and includes access to how each of the forms sound when a reader is being used.

web sites and rates them for accessibility for any query entered is to be formally launched by the end of the month. Web site consultancy Net Progress’s ‘Net-guide’ currently features 1,000 sites from around the world in its database:

http://www.net-guide.co.uk.

Do you know if this is true?

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ANSWER

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Hi Ken,

Section 508 Standards outlines the legal requirements for Federal agencies to offer full access to all available information – regardless of disability or assistive technology used.

Thus, unless your non-profit organization is also part of the federal government, Section 508 does not apply.

That being said, why not offer the same opportunities to your website visitors that the government is legally compelled to offer? If cost is a factor you might want to check with your funding avenues. Many non-profit organizations are able to obtain technology grants to cover accessibility upgrades.

For further information on what it would take to bring your site into compliance, SAMSA offers a free simple accessibility report. The bottom line is, website accessibility is not just a legal issue, it’s the right thing to do.