Here's the full text version of the PC World article referenced last week
on the list.  Overall, it is a fair and very positive piece.  It doesn't
try to say that the sky is falling, as some articles do, nor does it say
that the Internet helps people with disabilities so much that the access
issues are secondary.  It is very balanced and well researched.

kelly



 From the web page:

http://www.pcworld.com/consumer/article/0,5120,17690+1+0,00.html


 From PC World.com
  Locking Out the Disabled
by Judy Heim



Every morning Marlaina Lieberg, who's been blind from birth, reads her
local paper, the Seattle Times, on the Web, with her guide dog, Madeline,
at her feet. Lieberg also taps into Web sites to research corporations
she'll pitch her consulting company's services to and trades e-mail with
clients. In her spare moments, she trades stocks online and shops for
groceries. Last year she bought all her gifts on the Web.

Lieberg navigates cyberspace with a screen reader, a software utility that
reads Web pages out loud, chattering like a robot as it recites links and
text. Surfing the Web without seeing is time-consuming; Lieberg must orient
herself on pages by listening carefully to words rather than scanning
pictures and must navigate using her keyboard instead of a mouse.


Consultant Marlaina Lieberg (with guide dog Madeline) finds the Web essential.


Even so, Lieberg exults over the freedom that the Web has given her. "These
shopping services are so important for people who are unable to drive, and
for those of us who are unable to peruse the aisles," she says. "It is such
a joy. I can even read package directions. I've never done this sort of
thing before."

Lieberg can't navigate every Web site easily with her screen reader,
though. The majority of Web pages are poorly designed for anyone who's not
surfing with a standard copy of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator:
Buttons can be hard to identify, Java applets can be impenetrable, and
forms tend to be indecipherable if they're not coded for a screen reader.

Making Web sites accessible to all potential customers seems like common
sense. One in five Americans has some disability; as the country ages, that
percentage is expected to increase. A Web site that's navigable by an
assistive technology such as a screen reader is also accessible by phones
and palmtops, not to mention by old, slow computers. In addition, suggests
Mike Piper of PiperStudiosInc, designers of an accessible site for Easter
Seals, every site wants to stand out, and the goodwill generated by
maintaining an accessible online presence can be a powerful way to do that.

Accessibility also makes sense legally: The Justice Department has ruled
that the Americans With Disabilities Act applies to the Web, not just to
places that can be accessed physically. A retailer whose Web site doesn't
meet ADA standards can be sued under the act, just as a brick-and-mortar
store can.

But as the online world grows more graphical, it becomes less accessible to
disabled users. For years Rose Combs, a blind medical transcriptionist in
Scottsdale, Arizona, used the text-based GEnie service, which was easy to
traverse with a screen reader. When GEnie shut its doors, Combs found that
getting Web tasks accomplished could be a struggle. "I can't count the
times I have had to call my husband to help me navigate a site," she says.

Web sites also hamper those with nonvisual disabilities. Jamie Berke, who
is deaf, says she has "waged losing battles" trying to convince network-TV
Web sites to provide closed captions for news Webcasts. Even President
Clinton's recent Webcast about government and the Internet wasn't
captioned, notes Berke, who runs a site called the Closed Captioning Web.
(www.captions.org)

"It's hit-or-miss whether a site will be accessible," says Joseph Lazzaro,
director of the adaptive technology program at the Massachusetts Commission
for the Blind and author of Adapting PCs for Disabilities (Addison-Wesley,
1995). "If you're cut off from information, you're not going to go to
school, you're not going to get a job. You're going to be left out of a lot
that society has to offer."

Even being a good citizen may pose a challenge. Recently, Arizona became
the first state to let its citizens vote online. But Rose Combs couldn't
cast her cyberballot without assistance.

A Problem Ignored


In recent years, the physical world has adapted to the needs of the
disabled: wheelchair ramps, Braille markings, closed captioning. But of
more than 30 major shopping, search, auction, news, and financial Web sites
that PC World contacted, only a handful admitted any interest in--much less
any action taken toward--tailoring the sites for accessibility. A
spokesperson for one electronics retailer that asked not to be named said,
"That's not a market we've thought about pursuing." Many Web retailers
declined to be interviewed for this article. Others did not return repeated
calls.

Some sites expressed a vague interest in keeping all users happy; others
were dismissive. Anna Lonergan, a spokesperson for The Gap, told us the
company has no plans to make its site accessible. "We're aware of the
technologies but have no plans to implement them," she said. Asked why not,
she replied, "That touches in the realm of strategy, and we don't discuss
strategy."

A spokesperson at one of the country's largest computer retailers said that
the company's Web designers had not even considered the issue until PC
World brought it to their attention. That retailer isn't alone: Until this
article, this magazine hadn't examined the accessibility of its own site,
PCWorld.com. Since then, we've made plans for modest immediate moves to
improve access, such as using larger type and clearer directory
descriptions, as well as for more-substantial long-term efforts.

Why don't more firms keep accessibility in mind? Mike Paciello, a Web
accessibility consultant and technical director for WebAble, a resource for
accessible Web design, says, "They don't see the market. The moment you
tell a company how important it is to their business to make their Web site
accessible, they come back with statistics that the market isn't big enough
for them to spend the money."


Access Is Not So Hard


But developing an accessible site is pricey only if you're redesigning a
large site from the ground up, contends Kynn Bartlett, director of the HTML
Writers Guild's Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education Center and
a Web site accessibility consultant. "We're not talking about doubling the
cost of your site; we're talking about adding 1 or 2 percent to its cost
and increasing your audience by 20 percent," he says.

Other Webmasters fear that making a site accessible means replacing
attractive graphics with an austere look and a big typeface. Bartlett says
that's a myth. "I tell people, don't take down Java, don't get rid of that
animation--just add an alternative."

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines released by the World Wide Web
Consortium call for simple changes, such as describing graphics and audio
using text and providing alternatives to applets and scripts. Such tweaks
result in a site that's easily navigable by many assistive tools. They also
make a site friendly to those with a wide variety of disabilities,
including visual, auditory, cognitive, and motor impairments.

Signs of Progress


For now, many sites remain oblivious to the problem. But the news isn't all
bad. Judy Brewer, director of the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative, says
that a number of sites are beginning to consider it. "I think that in
probably half of those companies [that PC World contacted], people are
already working on Web accessibility, but word hasn't spread through the
organization."


"In many companies, there are people working on Web accessibility, but word
hasn't spread throughout the organization." --Judy Brewer


Some companies have made progress. Microsoft, for instance, is gradually
improving its sites. "The [W3C] guidelines are not rocket science, but
they're not that easy to figure out how to apply in some cases," says Dick
Brown, program manager for Web accessibility at Microsoft.

IBM is also revising its Web site as part of a companywide initiative to
make all its products accessible. Kim Stephens, Webmaster at IBM's
accessibility center, says that the biggest challenge has been educating
employees on the importance of Web accessibility. "We've found that one of
the most effective motivators is to let someone hear how their Web page
sounds [when recited by a screen reader]. When they hear how broken it
sounds, [it inspires] them to change it."

In many cases, smaller sites can move more quickly than big ones. Consider
Coffee Anyone?, a mom-and-pop site operated by Norman and Rosemary
Belssner. Until they started corresponding with customers, the Belssners
were unaware that many were blind. They hadn't known about site
accessibility but were surprised at how easy it was to implement.

"The problems [customers] were having were subtle," explains Norman
Belssner. "We didn't have some shopping cart buttons labeled, for example."
The changes he made were simple and took minutes. "Creating accessibility
in a brick-and-mortar environment is far more challenging than adding
accessibility to your Web site," concludes Belssner, who says revamping the
site has helped his company's bottom line.


Uncle Sam Steps In


Not every company sees accessibility as a smart business decision, but
those that do not could find themselves in trouble with the law. Last year,
the National Federation of the Blind filed suit against America Online,
arguing that because AOL's software does not work with screen readers, the
service violates the ADA. Under Title III of the act, passed in 1990, all
"public accommodations" must provide reasonable access to persons with
disabilities. In 1996, the Department of Justice ruled that Web sites are
public accommodations and must therefore offer access to the disabled. (A
separate law mandates that federal sites created after August 7, 2000, be
accessible.)

"Traditionally, what has been covered by the ADA is physical structures,"
says Curtis Chong, director of technology for the NFB. "We in the National
Federation of the Blind believe that although we don't have many problems
accessing buildings, the world is moving in the direction that everything
one does revolves around electronic services and the Internet. If the blind
can't use that information, we will not be able to compete. We will be
relegated to the backwaters of the electronic information highway."

Chong says that before filing suit, the organization asked AOL to modify
its software, but the company "pretty much ignored us." Nicholas Graham of
AOL reports that the company is talking with the NFB. He says AOL will
support screen readers in future versions of its software, although he
can't say when. Editor's note: As this story went to press, the NFB dropped
its lawsuit against AOL, (/pcwtoday/article/0,1510,17855,00.html) after the
company agreed to make its Internet browsing software and content
compatible with screen-reading programs.

The NFB is considering suits against other ISPs and Web sites. "The AOL
suit has drawn people's attention to the fact that this is a serious
issue," says Cynthia Waddell, ADA coordinator for the city of San Jose,
California. The ADA mandates both that sites be accessible to the disabled
and that workers can request that their own company's site be redesigned so
they can perform their jobs, she says.

Waddell says many businesses fear the expense that could accompany
redesigning their sites to comply with the ADA, but accessible design isn't
necessarily costly. "When the ADA was passed in 1990, there was concern
that businesses would go bankrupt because they would have to make their
buildings accessible," she explains. "Now we're hearing the same argument."

Steve Jacobson, vice president of the computer science division for the
National Federation of the Blind, says such concerns are mostly groundless.
"Some of [this is] fear mongering.... We're not looking at a massive
rewrite of Web pages but at working with Web designers to make pages
accessible."

Earlier this year, the NFB and the Connecticut attorney general's office
reached an agreement with four companies that provide online tax filing
services. The Internal Revenue Service listed HDVest, Intuit, H & R Block,
and Gilman & Ciocia on its site as partners for e-filing, but users with
screen readers couldn't file returns on those sites. The firms agreed to
make their sites accessible by the 2000 tax season.

Similarly, the California Council of the Blind has been working with large
financial institutions to ensure that their sites are accessible. The first
agreement was reached in March with Bank of America. "I think it's really
important to get people in the institutions to understand why technology
should be accessible," says Lainey Feingold, a disability rights lawyer in
Berkeley, California, who represents the council. "We approached the banks
and said, 'You have a problem here.' They've been totally on board."

Smarter Technology Ahead?


One reason the Internet isn't more hospitable to the disabled is that few
Web authoring tools take accessibility into consideration. But new W3C
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines should improve the situation.
"Hopefully, in the future any tool you pull off the shelf is going to help
you to automatically create accessible Web pages," says the W3C's Brewer.

Some Web technology companies are also working on fixes. For instance, when
a screen reader encounters Java on a Web site, the result can sound like a
Martian poem. Sun Microsystems has created the Java Accessibility API,
which lets screen readers and voice recognition devices make Java applets
and applications talk as well as listen. However, this solution works only
if developers build Java apps that take advantage of the new API and users
have an up-to-date screen reader and browser.

Another new tool is the Web-captioning editor Media Access Generator from
public TV station WGBH and its National Center for Accessible Media in
Boston. "One reason there are hardly any captions on the Web is because
they're a big pain in the neck to create," says Geoff Freed, project
manager for the Web Access Project at NCAM. With MAGpie, as the editor is
called, one can write video captions in multiple formats simply. "This
knocks down one excuse for not providing captions," he says.

Disabled users may also benefit as companies see profit in providing Web
access to phones, wireless PDAs, and other devices. "When we were writing
the accessibility guidelines, someone told us we should really call them
Guidelines for Making Your Web Site Work With Mobile Technologies," says
Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the University of Wisconsin's Trace
Research Center and an editor of the W3C accessibility guidelines. "If you
want to access the Web with a Palm Pilot, you want text large, and that's
how people with low vision want to view the page. If you want to access the
Internet via phone, you're accessing it auditorily, and that's how someone
with a speech reader accesses it."

Earl Johnson, an accessibility architect at Sun, feels that wireless
devices will start to transform the Web in as little as two to three years,
making it more accessible to people with and without disabilities in the
process. "If you start introducing in your site the ability to display
information on different devices, that's where accessibility starts to
benefit every user," he says.

Access Versus Isolation


Despite remaining roadblocks, the Web is already helping the disabled.
"Look at the wealth of information you have at your fingertips," marvels
Kelly Ford, an access technology coordinator at Mount Hood Community
College in Gresham, Oregon. Ford has been blind since birth. "Admittedly
some of it is hard to get at, but 20 years ago I couldn't flip through the
L.A. Times and read book reviews, let alone buy the books online."


"The range of physical disabilities is very large, and we need many
different tools to overcome the barriers to Internet use." --Vint Cerf


Looking ahead, users and activists voice cautious optimism. Most agree that
there will be more lawsuits, and more rankling between consumers and
Webmasters. "I see [the Web] becoming accessible, but slowly," says the
Massachusetts Commission for the Blind's Lazzaro. "It's not going to happen
overnight."

And the Web won't truly be open to all until "all providers of information
on the Net...put effort into making that information readily accessible to
everyone, regardless of physical barriers," says Vint Cerf, an Internet
founding father and chairman of the Internet Societal Task Force.

"If you are deaf, you need captions for spoken elements. If you are blind,
you need voiced descriptions of Web contents and spoken renderings of
e-mail. The range of physical disabilities is very large, and we need many
different tools to overcome the consequential barriers to Internet use,"
says Cerf, who himself has a hearing impairment. "Let us commit ourselves
to truly assuring that the Internet really is for everyone."


The Talking Web: How It Works--And Doesn't


Blind Web surfers rely on screen reader software or talking Web browsers
(such as IBM's Home Page Reader, used in these examples) to navigate the
Web. But while these utilities can handle some pages well, many others are
partly or completely inaccessible.

Good Access


All links on Hewlett-Packard's home page work properly when spoken aloud by
a screen reader, and the page isn't overloaded with dozens of links that
must be recited. All images have alternate text that can be read out loud.



Poor Access


The home page of clothing merchant The Gap is mostly graphics with no
alternate text, so the spoken version makes little sense; the only links
that work properly are the privacy policy and terms of use.




Learn More About Web Accessibility


If you would like an instant lesson in how inaccessible the Web remains for
some, do what we did and download and install the free trial version of
IBM's Home Page Reader, (http://www.ibm.com/able/products.htm) a talking
browser. Use it to get a sense of what it's like to hear the Web rather
than see it, and to understand more clearly why many sites flunk the
accessibility test.

Try visiting your own business or personal page with Home Page Reader.
Can't find your way around? The Web is full of accessibility resources.
Here's where to start if you're responsible for a site, or just want
ammunition to nudge those in charge of your company's online presence in
the right direction:

First, head to the Bobby accessibility checker (www.cast.org/bobby) at the
Center for Applied Special Technology. Enter your site's URL, and Bobby
will give you a rough idea of what you need to do to make the pages usable
by a screen reader--the most helpful tool for visually impaired Web
surfers. (One tip: When Bobby spits out a long-winded report card, don't
get hung up on its details. Use it as a guide, not a mandate.)

To learn a few easy tricks for making your site more accessible, visit the
World Wide Web Consortium's Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites.
(www.w3.org/wai/references/quicktips) Next, check out the W3C's Web
Accessibility Guidelines. (www.w3.org/tr/wai-webcontent) You can also
download the free utility HTML Tidy, (www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy) a
useful supplement to the checks performed by Bobby.

A bastion of support, information, and reality checks, the HTML Writers
Guild's AWARE Center (www.awarecenter.org) offers straightforward Web page
coding tutorials and thought-provoking essays, including one on the myths
(www.awarecenter.org/why/myths.html) about creating accessible sites. Myth
no. 1: An accessible Web page is dull, boring, plain text.

For additional help, check out the following sites:

Designing More Usable Web Sites, (www.trace.wisc.edu/world/web) from the
University of Wisconsin's Trace Research & Development Center
The Department of Justice's Web Page Accessibility Checklist
(www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/webpage.html)
IBM's Accessibility Guidelines (www.ibm.com/able/guidelines.htm)
Adobe's tips and tools (access.adobe.com) for optimizing PDF files for
accessibility
Microsoft's Accessibility Center (www.microsoft.com/enable)
Judy Heim (mailto:[log in to unmask]) is a contributing editor for PC
World.


VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask]  In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
 VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html