The United Nations Takes on Web Accessibility

Posted by Carl Augusto on 12/7/2006 3:07:59 PM

Guest Blogger Adrianna Montague-Gray, Communications Manager

On Monday I had the pleasure of spending the day at the United Nations with fellow AFB staffers Crista Earl and Marc Grossman. We were invited in honor of International Day of Disabled Persons, which aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities. This year's theme was e-accessibility—an important topic in the digital age, and one AFB works hard to promote.

In honor of the e-accessibility theme, the UN hosted a large panel discussion on web accessibility featuring Judy Brewer, Director, Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), World Wide Web Consortium; Simon Norris, Managing Director, Nomensa; Leonie Watson, Head of Accessibility, Nomensa; Dr. Betsy A. Zaborowski, Executive Director, Jernigan Institute, National Federation of the Blind; Preety Kumar, Founder, President and CEO, Deque Systems; and Frances West, Director, World Wide Human Ability and Accessibility Center, IBM. In addition, Crista Earl gave a presentation to UN employees on how to make the UN web site more user friendly to people with vision loss. From fixing unlabeled images and forms to how best to use video and PDF files, Crista showed UN employees ways to make their site accessible to everyone.

The UN also released a report this week on how accessible the Internet is to people with disabilities. The results, which were featured in a Reuters story, show that many sites are out of reach for people with disabilities because of accessibility problems. We are thrilled the UN is pushing people to take accessibility seriously, and hope some great changes come out of its efforts.

Re: The United Nations Takes on Web Accessibility
Posted by Daniel Lousi [http://www.youtube.com/smartysanlousi] on 10/12/2007 5:05:19 AM

THE BLIND ARE AFFECTED

Now that the year is o’er,
At a time when I’m bent o’er
The touch is, I’m lucky to be alive.
It was my mother who first arrived.
Next, who is next? They crane their necks
At the hospital, they are tired
Looking at me, you’ll see, I’m admired

And the girl who took care of my mother
Is nothing but a public bother.
District coordinators should move further,
Several facilitators may check the weather.

Come on brothers and sisters!
Others will come forth with blisters,
Nerves will curl on you when they say ‘chira’
Take my home, hope, my wife, and my life and_
Rightfully, it’s all yours
O’er and o’er they will be finished
Lazy people will be fished_Hey!

Coin your words to fit your theory.
Only when they die and you raise your fly,
Under the sun without a finger.
Not one of the blind can explain.
Child to adult, it’s a harbinger.
In the pool of knowledge, it’s an ocean
Lest you drop, and cry, yet they keep an eye.

DANIEL LOUSI
NAIROBI,
KENYA

Re: The United Nations Takes on Web Accessibility
Posted by DANIEL on 2/6/2007 11:29:45 AM

ASSIST INSTITUTIONS FOR PERSONS WUITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN KENYA

Founded in 2001, The National Education Support for Visually Impaired Persons (NESVIP). Despite the menace caused by the HIV/AIDS in this region, there is no AIV/AIDS materials in braille for the blind to get access in the very reader-friendly to them.

The Kenyan population that includes, persons h disabilities need help.

We hereby request for any assistance to help us help others in need. We ought to get information on HIV/AIDS put in Braille for them to have access. They also suffer and even die of this dreaded scourge.

When a Visually Impaired Person die of HIV/ADS, nobody raises a finger yet, they too are victims.

We are able to help find solution to the problems faced by our fellows who are Visually Impaired, but we are lucking in on funding to enable us to do so.

A consumer driven entity is the only way to help in this situation.

We, therefore, humbly put forth our kind request to enable us find the best solution to this problem facing our fellows who are blind or Visually Impaired.

Any minimum support of any kind will help us in this initiative.

Thank you in advance as I await a necessary response from you: People with who we share the fraternity.

Daniel Lousi
NESVIP

Re: The United Nations Takes on Web Accessibility
Posted by Watson on 1/18/2007 6:35:41 AM

I am very excited by you article. I however want to ask how the blind and deaf people communicate on the internet especially when they are using VOIP. If possible may you tell me the type of tools that are used. This will include both hardware and software. I will be very happy to receive this information because, I am a Masters in Science Student, in Zimbabwe who wants to work on that research.

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