November Weblog

Crunchy Technologies, known for its accessibility validation and correction software, is partnering with IBM. Their joint product collaboration will target those who need to meet Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

"Making sure no one is left behind" is a general article emphasizing the importance of universal access to the Web. It provides some interesting statistics. For example, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers study, only 13.5 percent of the 148 U.S. Federal agencies were considered "fully accessible". All of these agencies should have been fully compliant with U.S. Section 508 accessibility guidelines by June 25, 2001.

The SXSW Conference site featured an interview with Sharron Rush, co-founder of Knowbility and co-author of the book "Maximum Accessibility". She will speak on a panel about Federal Web accessibility standards at SXSW in March.

News about the dismissed Access Now and Gumson lawsuit against Southwest airline's site has gained international attention. "Disabled meet boundaries in cyberspace too" is an article on a Scottish news site. The author drives home the point I made yesterday that the ADA is not up-to-date enough to take the Web into consideration. British laws have been updated to try to keep up with changing technology and the accessibility barriers it may create. However, their legislation did not include guidelines to judge the level of accessibility required, so there is still much to debate in a court of law should a case come to trial over it.

A recent CNN article, "Should Web-only businesses be required to be disabled-accessible?" reviewed previous lawsuits and built a case to show that the ADA should apply to private business Web sites. I completely agree with the author's point that Web sites should be accessible, but I don't think using the ADA is the right solution.

The ADA was written without taking into account the unique characteristics and limitations of the Web. The ADA may only be applied to private business Web sites by taking advantage of ambiguous language in the statute. The ambiguity that allows it to be applied to the Web does not limit how it is applied and to what extent. That responsibility is left in the hands of a judge, who may or may not understand the technology. That's a power that could be potentially misused. The only form of accountability for it would be to take the case to a higher court.

The end of the article mentions the possibility of amending the ADA. Enacting either an amendment or a new law would be a better solution. (The Section 508 amendment of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a prime example of such an amendment.) The ADA, in its current form, should not be applied to private business Web sites because it is too ambiguous to provide appropriate and adequately defined guidelines. Until such guidelines exist, we should reinforce the business advantages of making a site accessible and demonstrate ways to do it. Awareness, education, and self-policing are our best current solution.

ComputerWorld has a follow-up article to the Southwest airlines Web accessibility lawsuit. The plaintiffs, (Access Now and Robert Gumson), plan to appeal, as I suspected they would. The article is generally informative, but I totally disagree with the quotation at the end. Gerry Santoro, an assistant professor of information sciences and technology at Pennsylvania State University, is quoted as saying that Web designers "tend to design for themselves". Based on my experience, this is far from the truth for most professional Web designers. It's only truly applicable to personal Web sites, which aren't the issue of the lawsuit. Web designers who create professional Web sites must fulfill certain business and marketing needs. Too often, Web designers are required to create what clients or upper management members want, regardless of its impact on the site. These decision makers may not understand basic design principles, much less usability or Web accessibility guidelines. It doesn't matter if a Web designer is capable of creating an accessible, usable site if the design and implementation decisions are dictated by people who don't understand or care. To implement real change in the industry, we need to reach and educate the decision makers about Web accessibility and usability. If the people in charge want their sites accessible and more usable, you better believe that the people working for them will have every incentive to make it so.

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The feature article for this edition of Digital Web Magazine is "Accountability of Accessibility and Usability". The article recommends that business (e-commerce) sites should be accessible. Southwest airline's site is used as a case study. The article examines inaccessible aspects of that site and provides ways to fix or avoid those accessibility problems. It also reviews a couple current legal cases for and against requiring a minimum level of accessibility.
</gratuitous_self_plug>

Jakob Nielsen has been an outspoken advocate for usability and accessibility for so long that some people treat his recommendations like they're "church" doctrine. In recognition of this, I wrote a parody of a favorite song of mine by Depeche Mode.

(Thanks Christopher for your encouragement and editorial help!)

Usable Jakob by Anitra Pavka
sung to the tune of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus"

Mark up and use it

The Web's usable Jakob
Someone to judge Flash players
Someone who cares
The Web's usable Jakob
Someone standards aware
Someone who's square

Target unknown
Testing hasn't shown
that users think
pink text is a link
Your users are naïver
He'll make you a believer

Your site had best
Pass the Bobby test
There's code to assess
so blind can access
You must deliver
You know he's no forgiver

Mark up and use it
Mark up and use it

The Web's usable Jakob
Someone to judge Flash players
Someone who cares
The Web's usable Jakob
Someone standards aware
Someone who's square

He get users alone,
writes down what they've shown
His testing's blown
what you thought you'd known
Your users are naïver
He'll make you a believer
You must deliver
You know he's no forgiver

Mark up and use it
The Web's usable Jakob
Mark up and use it

FCW.com's article "Device helps blind computer users 'see' " and Wired's article "Feeling Is Believing" both discuss a new assistive technology that will help the blind. It's a refreshable, tactile graphic display that will allow blind users to touch three-dimensional renderings of two-dimensional images. It will be like Braille for images. Its creator, NIST, and the National Federation of the Blind will perform user testing on the prototype. They expect it to cost about $2,000 when commercially produced.