FORWARDED EMESSAGE
Date: 04 Feb 2003 15:47:08 -0500
Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mary Watkins <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: WGBH/MIT Collaboration Yields Expanded Access Guidelines
WGBH's National Center for Accessible Media Publishes Updated and Expanded
Guidelines for Making Software and Web Sites Accessible
Print and On-line Versions Available Free of Charge
Boston, MA. (February 2003). Publishers, educational programmers and Web
site developers are increasingly aware that they must include students with
disabilities in their audience to comply with a range of accessibility
regulations. However, few developers understand why access is a critical
need or how to provide it in their products. A newly updated and expanded
publication from the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM),
"Making Educational Software and Web Sites Accessible: Design Guidelines
Including Math and Science Solutions," addresses both these points in detail.
The original guidelines, published in 2000, represented an ambitious
initiative to capture access challenges and solutions and present them in a
format specifically designed to educate and assist software
developers. The current set of guidelines builds on the original document,
and offers further lessons learned from a four-year collaboration with the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called Access to PIVoT (Physics
Interactive Video Tutor).
With funding from the National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/) and
the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation (MEAF, http://www.meaf.org/),
NCAM and MIT's staff added accessibility enhancements to PIVoT, a
sophisticated and comprehensive on-line physics resource. Along the way,
tools and strategies for making less-daunting subject matter accessible
emerged, and are now available in the new publication.
"NCAM has just released these long-awaited guidelines, and they are well
worth the wait. Curriculum developers and designers of on-line educational
materials will greatly benefit from the information contained in these
guidelines. While accessible software and Web sites help meet the needs of
deaf, hard-of-hearing, blind and visually impaired users, these guidelines
effectively advance the theory that non-disabled users always gain from
accessibility enhancements. While this information is crucial for students
and faculty in higher education, they will benefit K-12 at one end and
working professionals at the other end."
Norm Coombs, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Rochester Institute of
Technology
In the guidelines, readers will find:
- a basic understanding of the needs of users with different disabilities.
- a summary of various approaches to serve users with different disabilities.
- specific solutions for designing more accessible software.
- guidelines with specific checkpoints and detailed techniques for
implementation.
- extensive information on making multimedia presentations accessible to
students who are deaf or blind
- examples of writing image descriptions for blind students
- solutions for making forms and databases accessible
- information on making electronic and on-line textbooks accessible.
"Making Educational Software and Web Sites Accessible: Design Guidelines
Including Math and Science Solutions" is available free of charge in print
and on the Web in a fully accessible version. Request print copies (bulk
orders accepted) by sending an e-mail to [log in to unmask] or by
calling 617 300-3400 voice, 617 300-2489 TTY. Read the guidelines on line
at: http://ncam.wgbh.org/cdrom/guideline/.
CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM)
NCAM and its fellow access departments at WGBH, The Caption Center and
Descriptive Video Service®, make up the Media Access Group at WGBH. WGBH
pioneered captioning and video description on television, the Web and in
movie theaters. NCAM is a founding member of the Web Accessibility
Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). NCAM works with
standards bodies, industry, consumer organizations and educators to develop
and implement non-proprietary technical standards for multimedia, advanced
television, and convergent media that ease implementation, foster growth
and lay common groundwork for equal access to new technologies. For more
information visit http://access.wgbh.org.
WGBH Boston
WGBH Boston is America's preeminent public broadcasting producer, the
source of nearly one-third of PBS's prime-time lineup and companion online
content as well as many public radio favorites. WGBH is a pioneer in
educational multimedia (including the Web, broadband, and interactive
television) and in technologies and services that make media accessible for
people with disabilities. WGBH has been recognized with hundreds of honors:
Emmys, Peabodys, duPont-Columbia Awards…even two Oscars. In 2002, WGBH was
honored with a special institutional Peabody Award for 50 years of
excellence. For more information visit http://www.wgbh.org.
Contact: Mary Watkins/Media Access Group at WGBH
617 300-3700 voice
617 300-2459 TTY
[log in to unmask]
http://access.wgbh.org
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The optimist thinks that this is the best of all
possible worlds; the pessimist knows it is.
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Gregory J. Rosmaita <[log in to unmask]>
Webmaster & Minister of Propaganda
The Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group of
the New York City Metropolitan Area (VICUG NYC)
<http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/>
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