from the article at :
http://www.idg.net/ec?go=1&content_source_id=13&link_id=401652




   From InfoWorld.com
   Published at: Friday, Jan. 19, 2001 2:31 pm PT
   Organization unveils portal for disabled users
   By Jennifer Jones

   THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION for the Blind on Wednesday debuted its new Web
   site, designed to be a portal for the 10 million visually impaired
   Americans largely shut out of Internet use.

   Washington-based AFB billed the site as a way to prove to the industry
   that Web sites can be both attractive and accessible to people with
   disabilities.

   Most Web developers now immediately revert to text-only versions of a
   Web site when trying to accommodate users with disabilities, AFB
   officials said.

   "But the biggest problem with industry today is it hasn't a clue that
   accessibility should be important or how to make a Web site
   accessible," said Carl Augusto, AFB's president and CEO.

   AFB's new site -- redesigned by ASP (application service provider)
   Interliant -- wraps in limited e-commerce functionality. Specifically,
   users will be able to purchase special books online through the site
   and receive shipments from Amazon.com.

   But AFB for now has stopped short of serving as a gateway for blind
   users to purchase merchandise off mainstream e-commerce sites that are
   often not outfitted for use by people with disabilities.

   "Our major underlying initiative is to get all Internet companies
   fully accessible and to avoid the middleman, so blind or visually
   impaired users can go to any site," Augusto said.

   The key to making a Web site accessible without reverting to
   less-exciting text versions is to think through the layout and design
   of the site, said David O'Neill, senior director of consulting and
   professional services for Interliant, in Purchase, N.Y.

   "There are many things that can be done in terms of laying out a page
   in ways that it can best be read by certain technologies," O'Neill
   said.

   Blind Web users often rely on add-on devices such as screen readers
   and synthetic speech devices, which can be confused by traditional Web
   pages that flow from left to right, O'Neill said.

   AFB's push to make its Web site an example of how to dual-purpose Web
   development for both mainstream and disabled users dovetails with a
   new federal government effort to outfit its disabled workers.

   Sweeping new rules contained in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
   issued last month require government technology vendors to supply
   accessible alternatives to everything sold to federal agencies.

   Government officials and advocates for the disabled community hope the
   rules will spur more vendors to consider ways to make products more
   accessible during the development stage.

   Section 508 also mandates that the federal government's Web sites be
   made accessible to people with disabilities.

   "We think a great outcome of Section 508 will be the private sector's
   ability to compete and market on the accessibility value-add," said
   Paul Schroeder, who heads government affairs for AFB.



   Jennifer Jones is an InfoWorld senior editor.


   Copyright (c) 2000 by InfoWorld Media Group, Inc., a subsidiary of IDG
   Communications, Inc. Reprinted from InfoWorld, 155 Bovet Road, San
   Mateo, CA 94402. Further reproduction is prohibited without express
   written permission from InfoWorld.

   _________________________________________________________________


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