Web Accessibility

Readers, we need your help!

Guest Blogger, Lee Huffman, National Technology Associate

As most of you know, here at AFB, we are constantly working to make life more accessible for people with vision loss, and lately there has been a good deal of buzz about the work AFB Consulting (AFBC) is doing to make web sites accessible to all individuals. Back in April, AFBC launched its new initiative in web accessibility: the Accessibility Assurance Program (AAP)—and both AFB and the lead AAP participant, Marriott International have been working together to get this initiative moving forward. Now we need your help to determine if users are having difficulty accessing any aspect of Marriott's web site such as making or canceling a reservation, learning about a hotel's amenities, or redeeming your Marriot Rewards points.

We'd love anyone using assistive technology to visit Marriott's AAP page and take a look at the Marriott Site Accessibility Policy page and its Site Accessibility FAQs. If you encounter any accessibility issues, please let us know by submitting the Accessibility Feedback form.

Now's your chance to help us improve web accessibility—don't miss out!

Singing About Web Accessibility

Thought you all would enjoy this fun and creative video that was mentioned in the March edition of AFB's Accessworld®. In the video, David MacDonald, who produced and created the video, sings the "WCAG theme song" to show what technology and following the Web Accessibility Content Guidelines can achieve. Enjoy!

Marriott International Becomes Industry Leader on Web Accessibility

We have exciting news today for travelers with disabilities. Marriott International has announced its commitment to making Marriott.com fully usable for people with disabilities by becoming a participant in AFB's Accessibility Assurance™ Program (AAP). The site will be designed for universal access and all visitors will benefit from these changes, including people with various degrees of vision loss. Mr. Marriott has a great post about this on his blog today.

Using the web to research travel has become extremely popular in today's world, but for those of us with disabilities, making travel plans online can be very difficult if a site isn't designed with accessibility in mind. By becoming an AAP participant, Marriott.com has made a commitment to address the needs of all of its customers, ensuring that people using screen readers and screen magnifiers can easily book reservations and research Marriott hotels online.

For those who aren't familiar with the AAP, we created it as an avenue for companies to actively engage the community of users with disabilities in order to improve web site accessibility. The program goes beyond traditional web site evaluation services and embraces the concept of user empowerment, allowing companies and organizations to proactively engage the community of users with disabilities.

Marriott International has become an industry leader on accessibility and we applaud its continued efforts to ensure Marriott.com serves all of its customers. We hope others in the travel and lodging industry follow Marriott's lead, and we invite them to read more at AFB Consulting. With baby boomers aging and the number of people experiencing vision loss projected to grow significantly, it is extremely important that all consumer-oriented companies take accessibility seriously. It is not only the right thing to do—it makes good business sense.

Exciting News from AFB and Facebook

I took a little break from writing on our AFB blog yesterday and wrote a blog post for our friends at Facebook. In the post, which went live yesterday, I was excited to annouce that Facebook has taken the next step toward making their site more accessible and will be working with our web accessibility experts at AFB to make this happen. Check out my post on Facebook's blog about how AFB and Facebook are working together to improve Facebook's accessibility.

More on Web Accessibility

Guest Blogger, Mark Richert, Director, Public Policy

Since web accessibility is a hot topic these days, I thought I'd let you know about a great blog post I just came across. Check out the post and let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Target Pledges to Make Web Site More Accessible

Guest Blogger, Mark Richert, Director, Public Policy

The announcement that Target is going to make ongoing improvements to its web site to be sure the site is more usable by customers with vision loss is welcome news. The fact that Target is taking web accessibility so seriously is an example for many other online retailers and other businesses to follow.

Seeing the law suit against Target settle is frankly the best outcome we could have hoped for from a legal perspective for a couple reasons. First, the settlement leaves intact the fairly well-accepted understanding that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) can reach the Internet. And, perhaps more importantly, the resolution of this important case through settlement and not through protracted litigation, which is always a risky proposition, means that the somewhat less clear issue of the ADA's applicability to businesses operating exclusively online is still in play.

More and more businesses are moving their offerings to the web only and are not maintaining brick and mortar stores. We need to be sure that, as this trend continues, people who are blind or visually impaired can browse, make purchases, and transact confidential business just like everybody else. We hope the Target settlement will build on the momentum to make that happen. To learn more about the settlement, check out an article that ran in today's San Francisco Chronicle.

Facebook Does It Again!

Hi again, blog readers,

I was going to hold off until next week to post again, but this is too exciting to keep quiet about. (Ask my mom; she'll tell you I'm a chatterbox she wishes she could turn off, sometimes.) Anyway, Jeff from Facebook has done it again! We've been working together for a few months now to make the social networking tool www.Facebook.com a more accessible website for people who are blind or visually impaired. During that time, I've seen considerable improvements on the accessibility front throughout the site. Things which are inconspicuous to others—like the vital "add as friend" button—now have slightly different coding so that they are accessible.

This time, Jeff has put up a whole page, dedicated to the site's accessibility with assistive technology, inside the help center. This is pretty momentous, if you ask me. I only wish I could take credit for it! Unfortunately though, Jeff came up with this one utterly on his own. Good going, there!

Michelle

To Chat, or Not To Chat?

Dear Blog Readers,

If you do not use a chat, or instant messaging (IM), program of some sort, I am assuming you at least know about their existence. You may not be aware, however, of their immense importance to the social lives of the "kids" growing up here in the information age. Instant messaging can often determine the fate of our Saturday night plans, or help us get through that particularly difficult math assignment. After all, isn't the Information Age all about finding different ways of not having to get up?

So, in order to further promote couch-potatoism, I have decided to review the usability of a few, different chat programs with a JAWS screen reader. I chose to focus on three big ones right now — AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Facebook Chat (found on the Facebook home page), and GChat (Google and Gmail's official chat software). Please take note that these are by no means the only chat programs available, or the only widely used ones, either.

Let's start by talking about the classic AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). AIM's main window seems accessible enough, when given patience. It is easy to scroll (with the arrow keys) through my buddys' screen names, their profiles, and initiate conversations with them. Many of the options listed on the page are hard to find, but using the tab key, they are all eventually locatable. I am still more satisfied with AIM's chat window, over its main page. The chat, between my buddy and me, is presented in a clear, list-like conversation. All I have to do is repeatedly tab between the edit field and the conversation list. I would be more satisfied if my screen reader would actually read my buddy's IMs aloud, but alas…nothing is perfect.

So with one reasonably accessible option on the market, let's also look at alternatives that your friends may be using instead. Facebook Chat is an interesting option, because many users are likely to find more of their friends on Facebook than on AOL. Facebook's chat window, however, is by no means as cleanly laid out as AOL's. Names are listed as "on mouse over links" and it is difficult selecting a specific name. Once a chat is initiated, the chat window will pop up at the top of the Facebook page. There is more than one form field, which can be confusing. There are also a few poorly labeled buttons, which have the potential to throw off users completely, as well. However, the most irritating drawback of this chat window is that it makes the screen reader jump around the page constantly. (Facebook and I are working out some of these kinks as we speak).

So this brings us to our last attempt. Google and its affiliates are known to be particularly thoughtful with regard to the visually impaired. They always offer an audio CAPTCHA throughout their various web sites, and offer basic HTML format on Gmail specifically designed for users of screen readers. So naturally, all this made me want to try GChat. Let me tell you: GChat is a disaster. When using it on my Gmail account, all the links are visible, but only as plain text. Initiating a conversation, or doing anything else on the chat program for that matter, is simply impossible. So I gave Google Talk, the downloadable version of the same program, a try. This time, when opening the software, my screen reader refused to read a single word. No luck!

So what's my conclusion? Seeing as instant messaging is a pivotal part of so many people's lives, glitches in accessibility should not hold any of them back. AOL Instant Messenger is your best bet, but if you have more friends on Facebook Chat, this can work for you, as well. The most important thing, surely, is keeping up to date. And, of course, not having to walk all the way over to the telephone!

Michelle

The Mystery of the Suddenly Inacccessible Encyclopaedia Britannica

Here's one thing I bet you never knew about me…I'm what one might call an "encyclopedia fanatic." It all started back when I had my vision—I was fascinated by the encyclopedia and the vast amount of information it offered. I would often refer to the print version to read about various people, places, and things. After losing my vision about 25 years ago, I could no longer refer to the print version, but was fortunately able to buy an embossed version. Starting in 1993, I read every title from A-Z and, for any title that interested me, I read the entire entry. Some of my favorite entries revolved around countries of the world or famous personalities I knew little about. I finally got through all of the entries last year (took a while, right?!), but wasn't quite ready to part with my beloved hobby. When I found out an accessible version of the Encyclopædia Britannica was available online, I thought this would be a great way for me to continue to expand my knowledge and access information in a quick, easy fashion. This past January, I subscribed, was trained on how to use the tool, and started enjoying the entries. All was going well until one day I tried to log on and couldn't access the site. I contacted my accessibility technology trainer, and sure enough, she couldn't access the site with a screen reader either. I'm not sure what happened, but I plan on sending a letter to the company to find out why the site is suddenly inaccessible. Whatever the reason, I really hope they will change things around ASAP! I'll keep you posted on what they say.

Top Credit Agencies to Make Accessible Credit Reports

Earlier this week, through the result of an agreement signed by the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and other organizations, the top three major U.S. credit reporting agencies—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—said the free online credit reports they offer through www.annualcreditreport.com will now comply with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by October 31, 2008; braille, large print, and audio CD reports will be available by the end of the year. These guidelines ensure web sites are accessible for people with vision loss, especially when using screen reading software or screen magnifiers. Our friends, Lainey Feingold and Linda Dardarian, who were recently awarded an Access Award at AFB's 2008 National Conference (JLTLI), used their Structured Negotiations process to work with the ACB and the credit agencies.

This is a huge advancement in accessibility because up until now, those of us with vision loss have not been able to independently access and read our credit reports, something all of us should be doing periodically. By addressing barriers to web accessibility and by providing reports in alternate formats such as braille and large print, people with vision loss can now independently monitor our credit and financial data and keep the information private.

Kudos to Linda Dardarian and Lainey Feingold for their continued use of Structured Negotiations, and to ACB, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion for their initiative in making accessibility a top priority.

For more information or to view the full agreement, visit www.lflegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-agreement. You can also view the press release online at www.lflegal.com/2008/04/credit-report-press-release.

SPECIAL VALENTINE'S REPORT

AFB Puts Match.com, eHarmony, and Love is Blind to the Accessibility Test

By Adrianna Montague-Gray, AFB Communications, and Marc Grossman, AFB Consulting

With Valentine's upon us—that time of year when everyone's talking about relationships and dating—I was curious about the accessibility of online dating sites, so I asked my colleague Marc Grossman to help me evaluate a few. We didn't do a formal evaluation of each. Instead we looked at the homepages of Match.com, eHarmony, and Love is Blind, and tried to sign up for these sites' services using the JAWS screen reader on Marc's computer.

We started with Match.com, one of the most popular dating sites on the web. At first, things were looking good. Match makes good use of headings, and most of the links, edit boxes, and controls on the site were well labeled. But then, we started hitting some bumps. First, the "sign up" and "subscribe" buttons were not clearly labeled, which made it hard to locate them without sighted assistance. But the kicker came at the end of the sign-up process where we hit a CAPTCHA—the inaccessible, visual verification tool designed to keep spam out of systems. Though Match offers an 800 number (1-800-838-9045) for sight-impaired people who cannot read the CAPTCHA, it's not a working number. We tried it three times and got the same "out of service" recording!

From there we moved to Love is Blind, an online matchmaking site for blind and visually impaired people. This site was an accessibility dream in comparison. Links, edit boxes, and controls were well labeled. The site was clutter free and had a clean design. Unfortunately, we were constantly being reminded that we were not running the latest version of Adobe Flash. This file type is not supported by the W3C guidelines and efforts should be made to come up with a suitable workaround.

Our last stop was eHarmony, a site that asks users to fill out a very long compatibility survey before sending potential love interests their way. The good news is eHarmony doesn't use a CAPTCHA for their sign-up process. But the site was a little disorienting to navigate because it doesn't make use of headings or other markup. In addition, "register to begin" was an unlabeled graphic, which made it near impossible to find the sign up page. But once we did, the combo-boxes and edit fields and radio buttons all had clear labels. We wanted to check out the accessibility of the rest of the site, but we couldn't make it through the questionnaire. It was just too long!

So how many Cupids do these sites get for accessibility?

Here is Marc's conclusion:

Love Is Blind gets four Cupids for accessibility but could easily jump to a perfect five if they would develop a workaround for the Flash barrier.

The eHarmony site earns three Cupids for accessibility. While a few of the problems were annoying and slowed me down, with only minor persistence, I was able to navigate the site.

Match.com would have also earned three Cupids—as most of the site is well labeled and easy to navigate—but with its inaccessible CAPTCHA and out-of-service help number, I have no choice but to give it one Cupid.

But we're hoping all these sites show us some love this Valentine's Day by fixing their accessibility problems.

Now, how to convince my wife that I was on these sites for "research purposes…."

Thanks, Facebook!

Guest Blogger, Caitlin McFeely, AFB Communications

Over the past few months, AFB's Communications Department has spread the word about AFB through the "Cause" application on the social networking site Facebook. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, the Cause application allows individuals and organizations like AFB to explain their mission, invite other "Facebookers" to join and learn more, keep indivudals up to speed on issues, and raise money. To date, AFB's cause has 334 members and has raised $35!

AFB's biggest recruiter for our Cause is Michelle Hackman, one of the teenagers who spent a week at the L'Occitane Perfume School last June. Not only has Michelle recruited 65 people to AFB's Cause, but she has recently become an advocate for an accessible Facebook. Many blind and visually impaired users of Facebook, including Michelle, have noticed some flaws with the site.

One of the biggest problems still revolves around the CAPTCHA-the visual verification tool used to keep spam out of sites that provide online services. While it was great that Facebook added e-mail and audio alternatives to the CAPTCHA, Michelle noted these options don't always work: specifically, the audio alternative is difficult to comprehend. So even with these alternatives, the CAPTCHA still prohibits her from using many of Facebook's features. Another problem we recently encountered is that the audio CAPTCHA is available only when a screen reader is detected by the program. While this is great for blind users of Facebook who are accessing the site with a screen reader, this can prohibit low vision users from accessing the audio and/or e-mail alternative.

Michelle decided to take action and bring this and other problems to the Facebook staff. Last week, Michelle and I had the pleasure of discussing the inaccessible features of the site with Jeff, a Facebook employee that works on accessibility issues. Jeff was really responsive to our concerns and promised that his team would work hard to tackle these issues. He even hopes to set up a project timeline to keep track of the concerns and progress made.

I'll keep you posted about changes that are made by Facebook to make the site usable by all. For now, we want to thank Jeff and Facebook for making accessibility a priority. As Michelle said after the meeting, "I really liked what he said about Facebook really being accessible for everyone who wants to use it, because, of course he's right, but I don't think other people are always as considerate."

Bloggers Take on Web Accessibility

A few weeks ago, I posted about NY Times blogger David Pogue's acknowledgement of the inaccessibility of technology gadgets. I was thrilled to see Pogue mention the accessibility issue and also to see the larger discussion about the accessibility of cell phones, iPods, and other gadgets that unfolded.

This week Wendy Bounds, another accomplished blogger from the Wall Street Journal, is talking about another important issue—web accessibility. In the post, Bounds encourages businesses, bloggers, and web designers to ask themselves an important question: Is Your Web Site Blind Friendly? She explains how the NFB/Target lawsuit has brought about a push to make sure web sites are compatible with screen reading software used by computer users who are blind and offers ways to test the accessibility of your site (including a link to AFB.org, which was great to see!).

As we know too well, people with vision loss are being shut out from popular commercial web sites because so few businesses follow accessibility guidelines for the web. This is despite the fact that the US Department of Justice and the presidentially appointed National Council on Disability have said repeatedly that the ADA covers accessibility of commercial web sites for people with disabilities. When web pages are not designed with accessibility in mind, people with vision loss and other disabilities are shut out from the goods and services on the site.

Improving the accessibility of a site is not that difficult, and can be done by making a few simple modifications, ­such as properly labeling graphics and links. As baby boomers reach retirement age and beyond, and the vision loss numbers begin to multiply, more and more of us will expect the web to be accessible. It's time businesses, bloggers, and designers pay attention to web accessibility, and make necessary changes to their sites.

Does ADA Apply in Cyberspace?

From Mark Richert, Esq., Director, Public Policy

Today the National Law Journal is examining the question: Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) apply in cyberspace?

According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the presidentially appointed National Council on Disability, it does. They have said repeatedly that ADA covers accessibility of commercial web sites for people with disabilities.

And many companies are responding. Just recently RadioShack announced a nationwide initiative to improve access for people with vision loss and other disabilities to its web site and to protect the privacy and security of visually impaired shoppers in its stores. RadioShack will be taking steps to ensure the accessibility of its web site so that people with vision loss will be able to browse and purchase RadioShack products just like sighted customers.

Making a company web site accessible is no longer just the right, and legal, thing to do. It's fast becoming a way to keep customers happy. Boomers, accounting for nearly 30% of the U.S. population with an estimated annual spending power of over $2 trillion, are growing older. And with age comes age-related vision loss. According to health officials, diseases like age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetic retinopathy are expected to double as the nation's 78 million baby boomers reach retirement age and beyond.

And besides, making a web site accessible isn't that hard. Businesses can easily improve the accessibility of their sites with a few simple modifications—such as labeling graphics and links, and following other accessible design techniques. AFB has a lot of these tips in the web accessibility section of our site.

Safari for Windows is far from "the world's best browser."

Guest Blogger, Brad Hodges, National Technology Associate

With everyone talking about Apple's new web browser, the Safari 3 Public Beta for Windows, we decided to give it a whirl to find out how accessible it is for people who are blind. Apple hasn't always been the best about accessibility, but we were hoping to discover that Safari 3—touted by Apple as "the world's best browser"—would play well with screen readers. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Using the popular screen reading program, Window-Eyes, we downloaded and installed Safari 3 this morning, and opened up the default web page, and then... we heard nothing. Safari 3 proved to be completely inaccessible, making it impossible to read anything on the web with the Window-Eyes screen reader. Unlike Internet Explorer and Firefox, which are both vision loss-friendly browsers, Safari 3 appears to be missing the technology that communicates information about a web page to a screen reader and ultimately to someone with vision loss.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been calling Safari 3 "the most innovative browser in the world, and the fastest browser on Windows." He forgot to mention that it's also the most inaccessible. In a time when more and more people are losing their sight, it would be smart for Apple to make its products user friendly to everyone.

RadioShack Commits To Accessible Shopping For All Customers

Guest Blogger, Paul Schroeder, VP, Programs & Policy

Today marks another great step forward in independent shopping for consumers with vision loss. This morning, RadioShack announced a nationwide initiative to improve access to their web site for people with vision loss and other disabilities and to protect the privacy and security of visually impaired shoppers in their stores.

RadioShack will be taking steps to ensure the accessibility of its web site (www.RadioShack.com) so that people with vision loss will be able to browse and purchase RadioShack products just like sighted customers. And, the company also will install new point of sale equipment with tactile keypads in every RadioShack store.

We hope other organizations will follow in the footsteps of leaders like RadioShack and ensure that those of us with vision loss are able to enjoy greater access to goods and services in our neighborhoods and on the web. I am convinced that RadioShack took this step not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because it's a smart business decision. Kudos to RadioShack.

The United Nations Takes on Web Accessibility

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.

Google Wants Feedback on Its Audio CAPTCHA

Google is asking users for feedback on its new audio CAPTCHA. Take a look at this blog post on CAPTCHAs by Google Research Scientist, T.V. Raman, and click on the "We welcome feedback" link to weigh in.

Facebook Offers E-mail Alternative to CAPTCHA

Guest Blogger, Adrianna Montague-Gray, Communications Manager

Just one day after we released our report on the accessibility of social networking sites, Facebook has added an e-mail alternative to their CAPTCHA. Thank you, Charlie and Miss Rogue, for helping us get the word out! And thank you, Facebook, for taking this important step. We look forward to using your site, and hope other social networking sites follow your lead in offering an alternative for registration.

UPDATE: We tested the e-mail alternative and the good news is customer services got back to us pretty quickly. Unfortunately, we didn't get the CAPTCHA issue resolved, but we're hoping Facebook is developing a solution that works for everyone.

CAPTCHAs on MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster Shut Out Blind Users

Social networking sites MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are all the rage these days. Even AFB is on MySpace! These sites have become the places to meet new people, update friends on life happenings, find jobs, network, and discover new music. MySpace, the top social networking site on the web, has now reached 47.3 million members and is growing by 160,000 new users a day according to news reports.

But signing up for these sites without sighted help is impossible for people who are blind or visually impaired because of CAPTCHAs—a visual verification tool used to keep spam out of sites that provide online services.

Today we released a new report and video on YouTube (embedded below) that talk about the accessibility of these sites. Check out the press release, and the full report.

Web Accessibility in the News

Associated Press writer Seth Sutel just wrote a great article on web accessibility you all should read. The article, which focuses on the recent lawsuit against Target, clearly depicts what it's like for screen reader users to navigate web pages that aren't well labeled. And the best part is, it features our very own Crista Earl. For people who are unfamiliar with web accessibility, this is a great first read.

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ADA Goes Digital for Its Sweet Sixteen

Join us today in celebrating the sweet 16 of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the landmark legislation that revolutionized life for people with disabilities. Mark Richert, our director of public policy, released a great statement today about ADA in the digital age. Take a look at it when you have a second.

Google and Yahoo Work to Improve Site Accessibility

Guest Blogger, Jay Leventhal, Editor in Chief, AccessWorld®

Yesterday marked a day of progress in the world of web accessibility. Google launched a search tool, Google Accessible Search that ranks results based on the accessibility of the site. Sites designed with a lot of images and unlabeled, repetitive links make a web page harder to navigate using screen reader technology. So, the simpler the layout, the higher the rank. Yahoo.com has also taken steps toward improving the accessibility of its site by adding headings to the site, which people can easily navigate using screen reader commands.

People with vision loss who use the Internet have struggled with the navigation of these sites, so it is encouraging to know that these big-name companies are beginning to address the problems. We hope the word spreads quickly about the improvements. We also hope Google includes a link to its accessible search site on the Google home page, and that both Google and Yahoo work to make the rest of their sites and tools accessible to users with vision loss.

BIG.com

One of my colleagues was doing a little web research earlier today when she happened upon Big.com—a search engine with "the most readable results on the web." Literally. There is no squinting or straining to read small type when you're on the site. I hear the design is clean (somewhat Google-like) and the font size is large to begin with, with the option to make it bigger. This is a great find for people with vision loss. The site also offers a Big.com toolbar you can download, which enables you to enlarge everything on a page. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Progress in the captcha department

Last week, the Wall Street Journal Online featured an interesting piece on captchas—those abstract renderings of random characters that ask users to retype the word they see on the screen. Captchas were designed to keep spam programs out of the system, but the big problem is, they also keep out people with vision loss. As many of you probably know, captchas are extremely difficult for people with low vision to decipher and screen readers cannot read them because they are unlabeled graphics. This is a huge accessibility barrier because so many popular sites use them. It is almost impossible to buy concert tickets, comment on a blog, or sign up for an e-mail service without encountering one. And, from what I hear, even people with good vision have trouble reading captchas because they are so garbled.

Web accessibility advocates have been working to raise awareness about the accessibility problems caused by captchas, and some progress has been made! Just recently Google, which uses captchas for its blogging and e-mail services, implemented an audio version, which lets people listen to a series of letters or numbers and type them into their computer. This is great because Blogger and Gmail can now be used by people who are blind or have low vision. Although the audio version isn't perfect, it's a huge step in the right direction, and we hope other services that use captchas will quickly follow suit.

More Webby Love

In the midst of yesterday's excitement about the Webbys, we missed even more good news! AFB's Anne Sullivan Macy online museum was also recognized as an official honoree. You may remember me blogging about this back in January... in order to revive the important legacy of Anne Sullivan Macy, Helen Keller's famous teacher, AFB launched an online museum dedicated to her life. The museum's galleries seek to show Anne through her own words as well as through the eyes of others.

Our staff worked incredibly hard on this, and I am thrilled that their efforts are being recognized... also, kudos to our consultant Daily-e for their great work on this site. The museum was designed in memory of AFB staff member Regina Genwright.

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We're a Webby Honoree!

It's time to gush over my staff and all the wonderful work they do, particularly on our web site....

Today the 10th Annual Webby Award Nominees were announced, and though we're not a nominee, AFB made the list of "official honorees." The Webby Awards, which were dubbed the "online Oscars" by TIME magazine, are a really big deal.

The honorees represent a new category, recognizing sites that were not nominated for Webbys, but "demonstrated a standard of excellence [and] an outstanding caliber of work." According to the Webby site, more than 5,500 entries were submitted to the 10th Annual Webby Awards, and fewer than 20% were distinguished as an Official Honoree.

The AFB staff works really hard to make our web site intuitive and user friendly for all people, including those who use assistive technology. It's an honor to have our site recognized by the Webby Awards. Bravo to the AFB team and CDG Solutions, our wonderful web consultants. This is really exciting news!

Tailor-made spam blocker

Well, we now have our spam problem under control.

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the software we created to make AFB's fully accessible blog does not have a spam blocker. We can't implement CAPTCHAs—the most common way sites keep out spam—because they are inaccessible for people with low vision, and people who use screen readers. We also didn't want to implement a system where we had to "approve" comments because it goes against the purpose of blogging—open dialogue.

But thanks to our savvy web department, and the helpful advice we received from Jeremy Wright and Duncan Riley, we developed a solution. First, we receive an email notification every time a comment is posted. If it's spam—which is indicated in the subject line—we can delete it. This is more work on our end, but we've figured out some ways to pare down the process.

Any email that has five links or more, or contains key words that we've flagged (i.e., casino, Viagra, you get the point...), are automatically identified as spam and are not posted on the blog. However, we receive email notification of these postings as well on the off chance they are legit messages. Our email boxes are very full in the morning, but as we continue to add key words to the list, the time it takes to deal with the spam has decreased significantly.

It's a small inconvenience that's worth it for us to have a fully accessible blog that's available to all computer users.

Spam infestation.....

Last week I told you we corrected a problem with our comments function on the blog—basically that the comments people were submitting weren't showing up online. Well, now we have a new problem—spam!

The software we created to make AFB's fully accessible blog does not have a spam blocker. We can't implement CAPTCHAs—the most common way sites keep out spam—because they are inaccessible for people with low vision, as well as people who use screen readers. Another option would be to read and "approve" comments before they are posted, but I don't want to do that because I believe it goes against the spirit of blogging. We want to facilitate an open conversation and by reviewing comments before they "go live" I'm afraid we'll start censoring unintentionally. Our web experts have also suggested that we could ask people to create a user name and password in order to comment, as we do on our message boards. Anyone could do it, but I'm afraid it will be a cumbersome extra step that will deter people from commenting.

We are brainstorming other ideas that will deter spammers while encouraging dialogue on this blog. If you have any ideas, please share.

In the meantime, if you run into spam, please know that we're on top of it and will do our best to erase it as it's posted.

Online Shopping Makes for a Happy, Hassle-Free Holiday Season

Holiday shopping is right around the corner and this year I'm doing mine online. Long gone are the days of mile-long lines, busy sales clerks, and crowded stores; online shopping is convenient and hassle-free. One of the things I like most about shopping on the web is that the majority of sites contain useful descriptions of their products and are very accessible to people with vision loss. A recent review of online shopping sites in AccessWorld® shows that most e-tailers are actually ahead of the curve when it comes to accessibility. From Amazon to Gap to PetDiscounters, shopping sites are screen reader-friendly and, best of all, they are open 24 hours a day.

Accessibility Benefits All of Us

I've been thinking a lot about the importance of accessible design since reading an article on Gizmodo.com—a blog all about new gadgets. The story entitled "A World of the Insatiably Enabled" reminds readers that accessibility is something we all benefit from. Take closed captioning for example... closed captioning was originally designed so that people with hearing loss could follow what was happening on TV. But how many people read closed captions while working out at the gym or sitting at the gate in the airport? A lot of people...

That's because features that make products or services universally accessible are beneficial to people with and without disabilities. Curb cuts are another common example of how universal design helps all of us. While curb cuts were created to enable people in wheelchairs to cross the street, they have made life easier for parents with strollers, shoppers with carts, and travelers with pull-type suitcases. As the Gizmodo article points out, accessible design often boils down to user-friendly design... and we all want user-friendly products and services.

We Love Web Accessibility

As you may have noticed, web accessibility is a hot topic on the AFB blog. That's because ensuring the web is accessible to people with vision loss is extremely important to us. After all, it's the place to find information on everything from employment, health and travel to shopping, sports and music...and we all know, I like to follow sports and music. It's hard to remember what life was like before the web. Anyway, on that topic... today's Herald Dispatch—the hometown paper of AFB TECH—features an op-ed I wrote on the importance of making websites accessible to people with vision loss. Check it out and let us know what you think.

2 Comments

Spam, Splogs and Accessibility

Jay Leventhal, editor of AccessWorld®, comments...

Splogs, also called spam blogs, are a hot topic in the blogging world, since splogs seem to be cropping up in uncanny numbers. Google's Blogger, its popular blog-creation tool, has been hit hard by the spammers and they've been working hard to come up with ways to keep splogs out of their system. In fact, today's free feature in the Wall Street Journal—"'Splogs'Roil Web, and Some Blame Google"—discusses this very topic. What worries me about splogging is that it affects web accessibility. More splogs means more captchas—those abstract renderings of random characters that ask users to retype the word they see on the screen that are meant to keep spam programs out of the system. The big issue with captchas is in addition to keeping spammers away, they also keep out people with vision loss. Captchas are extremely difficult for people with low vision to decipher and screen readers cannot read them because they are unlabeled graphics. Blogger is using more and more captchas to respond to the spam problem, but as you can read in our recent blogging evaluations, this solution poses big accessibility problems. There's got to be a way to fight splogs and spam without shutting out people with vision loss. Providing an audio pronunciation of the word to be entered is one possible solution, but not for people with hearing impairments.

Are Feed Readers Satisfying the Appetites of Blind Computer Users?

Ensuring the latest technology is accessible to people with vision loss is a huge priority for me and the staff at AFB, which is why we just completed an evaluation on the accessibility of RSS readers, following up our May 2005 report on blogging. We looked at Bloglines, NewsGator, Feedster, FeedDemon and My Yahoo! to figure out how user friendly these services are for people with vision loss. Some fared well, some fared poorly... but on almost all of the sites, evaluators found things like improperly labeled links and non-intuitive interfaces. These things make it difficult, if not impossible, to navigate a web site using a screen reader. The good news is that with a few changes, most of the inaccessibility problems found on these sites can be resolved.

And, if you check out the report you'll see that not all of these sites are impossible to navigate... Bloglines was a big hit with our evaluators.

Good News on Web Accessibility

Just yesterday, I stumbled across an article in The Wall Street Journal by Chris Reiter about new technology from Microsoft, IBM and others designed to improve software and Internet access to people who are blind or who have low vision.

I can't help but feel like a kid in a candy store when I read good news about web accessibility—the web holds so much possibility. Americans now use it to search for jobs, buy prescription drugs, take college courses, book flights and hotels, and do holiday shopping. But not all of us get to join in on that fun. Millions of Americans with vision loss are unable to reap the benefits of the web because many sites are still not screen reader-friendly.

But the good news is technology is improving. According to the WSJ article:

"Mozilla Corp., creator of the free Firefox Web browser, plans to release Firefox 1.5 in November that will incorporate assist features contained in software programming donated by IBM. Among other features, the new version will allow users to tab over to pulldown menus in the browser window by using the keyboard. Keyboard arrow keys then can be used to access options in the menu — functions that are usually only available with a mouse."

And...

"Microsoft, as part of its new Windows Vista operating system slated for release in the second half of 2006, plans to make accessibility easier for the impaired by standardizing and simplifying common features incorporated into software programs operating on Windows. Scroll bars and menus, for example, will operate in a standardized fashion, simplifying the job for developers creating accessibility software."

With the vision loss numbers expected to multiply in the coming decades, more and more of us will expect computer software and the web to be accessible. It's not just the right thing for companies to do, it's also a smart business decision.

If you have subscription to The Wall Street Journal and would like to read the full article, here's the citation: "New Technology Aims to Improve Internet Access for the Impaired" (Chris Reiter, September 22, 2005; Page B6).

Welcome to AFB's Blog!

As we started developing AFB's blog our number one priority was ensuring that the site was fully accessible. This means that people who use computer screen reader software or have low vision can navigate the site with no problems and customize the display to fit their specific needs.

After considering a number of options including some of the hosting sites we evaluated in May we decided to create our own customized blogging software, which is fully accessible to visually impaired visitors.

On the user's end, AFB followed its own tips for "How to Make Your Blog Accessible to Blind Readers" from describing all images with alt text to avoiding the dreaded "click here." The architecture also enables bloggers at AFB—sighted or people who have vision loss—to develop and post blogs independently. (For more details on accessibility guidelines visit our web site at www.afb.org/webaccess.asp.)

We also think it looks good and is easy to navigate for our sighted audience. As with all our printed and online materials, we believe good design and accessible design are the same thing. (More on that at a later date.)

We hope you enjoy AFB's blog and come to rely on it as a resource. And, please don't be shy...we want your comments and feedback.