It may be true that there are some things that people with disabilities
cannot do, but I get touchy when people without disabilities start
explaining that to me. I damn well know what I cannot do, and it's a lot
more than most sighted people believe. And many blind people can do lots
of things that I cannot. There are lots of people without disabilities who
cannot fly a plane or drive a car. So what? A person who never learned to
drive a car won't be denied an office job if they have other means of
transportation.
As for those diagrams, I certainly know how to make those accessible. The
new ViewPlus Chameleon technology is now in beta test and should reach
market later this year. One just needs to create graphics or convert them
to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format, take a few moments to open the
file and add labels in the "title" attribute of important graphical
objects, and then make these files available for all users. Descriptions
of the whole graphic and the various objects can be helpful, and these can
be included (in the optional "description" attribute) if the author wants
to make them really extremely accessible. But descriptions aren't usually
necessary when the diagrams are presented in the context of the full
document or unless they are horribly complex.
Such accessible SVG files will be better for everybody, not just blind
people. A sighted person can click on an object or a text label and hear
it spoken. One can also display and hear the description field if
desired. It has never been possible to do research to learn just how
helpful this will be to people with learning and/or cognitive disabilities,
but many experts in these fields believe it can improve access
considerably. A blind user needs to make a tactile copy on a Tiger
embosser, place that copy on some surface (ViewPlus will offer desktop
access units, but other things such as tablet PC screens work well too)
that permit the blind user to locate objects and "click" to hear the labels
spoken. In some future time, it should be easy for authors to create
graphics in an automatically accessible form, and only rarely will such a
graphic need to be "made accessible". Until that time comes, inaccessible
graphical information will need to be made accessible, but Chameleon should
make the effort far easier and faster than it is today.
John Gardner
At 11:55 PM 6/22/2004, you wrote:
>This response is from someone who is very involved in on-line learning at
>our college. Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can respond to
>this in a meaningful way that will help this instructor learn about the
>value of accessibility? Please do not respond to him yourselves. I just
>want some idea of how I might approach this.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>Walter Behnke
>To: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask] ;
><mailto:[log in to unmask]>Norm Dooley
>Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 11:11 AM
>Subject: Re: Fw: Announcement: article on online accessibility inthe
>Chronicle of Higher Educa
>
>Thanks, Betty
>I am following some of these articles as they appear.
>In the Dreamweaver workshops, I emphasize design with accessibility in mind.
>
>The VCC Learns site contains a huge volume of graphics files that are
>annotated illustrations of complex steps in computing tasks -- not exactly
>something for which alternate text would do justice. That site and similar
>situations that contain graphics to illustrate processes rather than
>static images, are difficult to translate into accessibility sites. I hope
>you understand. I think some domains of operation in life may just fall
>outside the capabilities of some disabilities -- an example would be
>driving a car or flying a plane.
>
>Thanks for keeping the issues in front of us.
>WWB
>
>Walter Behnke VCC-KEC (604) 871-7284
>E-Mail Walter
>Behnke: <mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
>also
>at:
><mailto:[log in to unmask]>[log in to unmask]
>VCC
>Learns
><http://vcclearns.vcc.ca>http://vcclearns.vcc.ca
>Comp Studies
>Website: <http://upgrading.vcc.ca/st63-wwb/>http://upgrading.vcc.ca/st63-wwb/
>
> >>> "Betty Nobel" <[log in to unmask]> 6/21/2004 10:17:07 AM >>>
> You may be interested in the article mentioned below.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Schmetzke, Axel" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Monday, June 21, 2004 7:33 AM
>Subject: Announcement: article on online accessibility in the Chronicle of
>Higher Education (June 11, 2004)
>
>
>Here is a recent article on online accessibility (entitled "Left Out
>Online") by Chronicle of Higher Education staff writer Scott Carlson:
>
><http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i40/40a02301.htm.>http://chronicle.com/free/v50/i40/40a02301.htm.
>
>Citation of print article: Chronicle of Higher Education, Vol. 50, No.
>40, June 11, 2004: pp. A23-A25.
>
>Greetings,
>
>Axel Schmetzke
>Library
>University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
>[log in to unmask]
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>See EASI Special October Bonus offer at
><http://easi.cc/clinic.htm>http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
>EASI November courses are:
>Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business
>Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
><http://easi.cc/workshop.htm>http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
>EASI Home Page <http://www.rit.edu/~easi>http://www.rit.edu/~easi
>
> >>> Error in line 8 of EASI.MAILTPL: unknown formatting command <<<
>-> ............. <-
>
>
>
John A. Gardner
Professor and Director, Science Access Project
Department of Physics
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
tel: (541) 737 3278
FAX: (541) 737 1683
SAP URL: http://dots.physics.orst.edu/
-------------------------------------------------------------
See EASI Special October Bonus offer at http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
EASI November courses are:
Barrier-free E-learning, Accessible Internet Multimedia and Business Benefits of Accessible IT Design:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm
EASI Home Page http://www.rit.edu/~easi
>>> Error in line 8 of EASI.MAILTPL: unknown formatting command <<<
-> ............. <-
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