On November 18, YouTube posted a video demo of their automatic captions:

This may be one of the best examples of a web 2.0 tool where one could easily show a direct cost savings for taxpayers. Having a captioning service caption even a short video can cost several hundred dollars.  This service will be free, sans labor to write a script or edit a caption file.

The unfortunate reality is that there isn’t currently enough money, time, or resources to caption all videos, even though the state and federal laws say it should be done.

Instead of ignoring this issue and pretending that signing bills into law will somehow magically solve the problem, we should open up a conversation about how to balance the letter of the law, the spirit of the law, and our current/future budget problems.

The public should demand that more cheap and free services like these be utilized by government to decrease costs, increase transparency, and enable online, public interaction with and between taxpayers.

Phi at Three months

There are many reasons to consider web accessibility and Section 508, but let’s focus on possible financial incentives. According to Austin Usability, twenty-one percent of the US population in the mid 1990’s had some level of disability. In this economy, it is the smart business person who wants to attract every customer possible. With a little markup changes and attention to 508 compliance, you can enhance your web site and make it possible for disabled users to use your web site.

Many businesses on the web are ignoring these potential customers. With an accessible web site, you could even attract customers other businesses are ignoring. If similar products or services have inaccessible web sites, and yours is one of the few which is accessible, then you have attracted customers because of the accessibility. And if you hope to do business with the federal and some state and local agencies, Section 508 compliance is mandatory.

Bruce Bailey is an Accessibility Specialist with the United States Access Board.

Today, he talks with FCB about Section 508 compliance — and how cloud computing might help agencies and businesses when it comes to meeting government standards for those with disabilities.

He says part of the problem is that the current provisions were written in 2001 — when the Internet was a different animal.

“The current provisions are very product-centric. Nowadays, so much technology just doesn’t fit into those nice, neat categories that are in the standards. Cloud computing kind of leads in that way in that — the Web provisions that we have are from 2001 and are really quite limiting in terms of trying to assess accessibility of a modern Web application.”

He says, however, that the Web is probably one of the more adaptable portions of IT when it comes to making information available to those with disabilities.

“Web sites are really one of the areas that’s pretty well-defined and there’s been a lot of work done. The W3C, the WAI — at this time last year — came out with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 — and ten years’ worth of work went into that document. So, in terms of knowing what’s accessible when it comes to the Web, we really actually have a pretty good handle on that.”

This means that there isn’t a lot of grey area when it comes to moving an application from a desktop to, say, the cloud.

Bailey says this is a positive change, but there’s also a lot of unknowns when it comes to agencies and businesses moving into the cloud.

“Right now, we’re transitioning from a platform that people know works, to something that people don’t have experience with. . . . So, it’s a reason to be anxious. I think there’s a lot of potential with cloud computing, but the potential is not realized yet.”

As far as moving into the cloud at the United States Access Board, Bailey told FCB that, because they’re a fairly small organization (29 people total), they’re looking at cloud products, but don’t have any plans to move themselves in the near future.

To learn more about Section 508, compliance and the U.S. Access Board, click on the audio link above.

For those of you who think that You Tube is the cat’s meow, I’m sorry to let the dogs out.

And there’s a reason I’m writing about this now and why, particularly since it directly impacts your Democracy and how you interact with your government.  Particularly The White House.

You see, the White House has chosen Google to be their video vendor, along with hiring many Google personel to strategic IT positions in government.  And of course the CEO of Google is one of the President’s closest advisors.  It is far from appropriate in this particular case, for the White House to be giving so much influence and business to a company that already has a monopoly share of the browser market, particularly when Obama, at least in campaign mode, specifically said he was interested in “spreading the wealth around.”

Little hint there buddy.  That’s not how you do it.  Especially when Google is also getting a lot of money from DoE right now to invest in cleantech, and partnered with GE to do exactly the same thing.

This is called President’s creating monopolies.

Plus of course Google is not exactly a company with a stellar past when it comes to ethical business practices, which range from stock manipulation to bending if not breaking securities laws, and developing applications that do not comply with disability law.  Not to mention stealing IP.

Hardly a model vendor, much less advisor, or company on those grounds alone for the White House video vendor , company or even Presidential advisor, in an “age of a new era of personal responsibility” as I believe someone who looked remarkably like the current head honcho in chief at 1600 Penn said on his remarkably expensive inauguration day speech.  Then again, we’ve seen alot of deviations from that pure as driven snow ethic since then.

But there are other problems too, which point both to the President’s determination to get exactly what he wants, come hell or high water, whether it breaks the rules or not.   And his attitude that he thinks that he is above the law.

Specifically the White House website breaks a couple of rather large laws, which the White House is trying to pretend they are immune to or don’t matter.

And you should be aware of if you should be inclined to visit the White House website any time soon.  Because they directly affect YOU.

The first is that the website uses Google You Tube as their video vendor.  And You Tube collects cookies.  No, not the Oreo kind that you dip in milk, but the kind that track your activities once you click on the video window of any You Tube site.  Including the ones on the White House website.

According to the White House legal counsel, who has written a legal brief excusing this, which in my opinon holds about legal water as a Yoo memo on torture, this is perfectly okay.

But it’s not.

For several reasons.

The first is that the White House or any government entity should not allow ANY private vendor to collect citizen’s information for their own private and commercial gain, which is exactly what happens when you click on any video window on the White House Website.

The second is that, according to the White House legal counsel, they had no choice in the matter because Google couldn’t turn off the cookies.  Which is complete BS, because they can if they wanted to, but if they didn’t want to take the expense.  In my opinion, then the White House should use another vendor.  Which of course they don’t want to do, because the CEO of Google is a major contributor and sits on Obama’s advisory board.

Thirdly, despite the fact that the site warns people in writing that Google does in fact collect such cookies, this is still not appropriate for several reasons and breaks several rather big laws.  To wit:

1.  The Rehabilitation Act.  Specifically Section 508, which mandates that ALL government websites must comply with this law.  NO EXCEPTIONS FOR EGOTISTICAL PRESIDENTS ALLOWED.

Over thirty million people in the United States cannot read, mosty due to disability.  Therefore they have no idea that when they click on either the window itself, which does contain a popup saying that this is a You Tube window, but since they can’t read, they can’t understand it.  Neither can they understand the legal mumbo jumbo disclaimers the White House has posted on the site elsewhere.  Therefore, the White House is running roughshod over the civil and privacy rights of over thirty million Americans just because it feels like it.

2.  The fact that the White House is allowing a monopoly to have such product placement on THE PREMIERE government website in the first place is appalling, unprecedented and essentially puts a dollar sign on the front door of the White House saying “THIS REAL ESTATE IS FOR SALE.”  Which is exactly what is wrong with politics in general, not to mention probably illegal.  The government is not for sale.

3.  The fact that the White House allows Google to collect YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION for their own private profit is not only appalling, but is most definately illegal as in a violation of privacy, and could be construed as either bribes for future business (i.e. first dibs on bailout cleantech grants for example as a quid pro quo swap) or in fact a round about and illegal way to raise campaign dollars.

4.  The fact that the White House is doing this to begin with is so appalling and unethical, particuarly because Obama and the White House staff KNOW, or they should, that dealing with the Government should not be the same as dealing with Wall Street, i.e. Caveat Emptor, or buyer beware.  The government is there to PROTECT its citizens, not take advantage of them.  Most people in this country are technologically illiterate, and not through their own faults.  Most of Congress is too.  This is a classic case of Obama’s elitism and “I’m so much smarter than the rest of you idiots that I can take advantage of you” and his penchant for secrecy harming the privacy of the American public.  Just like Bush.   It is completely inappropriate for ANY public entity to take advantage of the public’s lack of awareness or education for it’s own advantage.

And despite my long and very heated discussion on the matter with several White House staffers, all of whom, in their ignorance and arrogance think they can do whatever they want because they sit their butts in the White House, have forgotten one crucial and very important thing.

THEY WORK FOR US.  NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND.  We pay for their salaries, their health insurance and the real estate.

It’s time they remembered that.  Particularly the arrogant head honcho in the Oval Office, who seems to think that blowing $215K on date night of the tax payers money is perfectly okay, while the taxpayers sink.  While furthering executive privilege established under Bush and acting like a spoiled child when he is criticized.

Even by members of his own party.  Or those who voted for him.

Being President, or even going to Harvard, does not make you infallible, smarter than anyone else, or above the law.  As much as Obama is fighting to make it that way.

That was the problem with Bush.  That is the problem with Congress.  And that will, in the end, if we do not stop it, be the end of Democracy as we know it.

Is your eLearning Section 508 compliant?    Unfortunately, many eLearning authoring tools support some accessibility standards, but they do so largely by relying on individual developers to interpret and apply the complexities of compliance requirements.  From what we’ve seen the likelihood and cost of producing non-compliant eLearning is very high when inexperienced developers make their first attempts at accessibility.  Attempting to meld instructional design, accessibility standards, and screen reader functionality with a wide array of content and assessment elements has resulted in a number of costly mistakes. 

We have discussed Why Technology Makes 508 eLearning so Challenging and some Tips for Organizations Starting eLearning Development.  Today we discuss four steps that’ll help get you on the path to Section 508 compliant eLearning for your organization.

1. Scope– identify and define which eLearning courses should be made accessible.  Really, shouldn’t this be all your eLearning courses?  Well, those that are discontinued or no longer in use certainly won’t be on the list.  And some eLearning courses may already be accessible.  Again, focus on the ones that need to be accessible.
2. Assess– determine where the eLearning courses are not meeting the requirements of the code.  
3. Remediate– fix the eLearning courses not meeting Section 508 requirements.
4. Maintain– now that you’ve come this far, keep the eLearning courses current both in terms of content and for accessibility.

Starting from scratch, ensuring Section 508 compliance for a typical Flash-based eLearning course can add over $25,000 to the development costs and extend the development cycle at least 6 months.  Our clients can expect to cut this additional time and costs between 70%-80% by using the CourseAvenue platform. 

 Utilizing CourseAvenue Studio, our collaborative web-based and team-based authoring environment, and the Accessibility Player, the technology that “plays” the course in a Section 508 compliant manner, course developers can rapidly create accessible eLearning.  Moreover, using the CourseAvenue platform allows you to cost effectively maintain your eLearning program.  CourseAvenue will take care of incorporating the latest changes in adaptive technologies as they evolve, and ensures that even when changes are made to your eLearning courses, they will continue to be Section 508 compliant.

- Mike

The good news and bad news

Adaptive technology allows people with disabilities to perform tasks they wouldn’t otherwise be able to perform.  This is the good news… along with the fact that this technology allows better access to the internet as well as eLearning courses. 

The bad news is that the eLearning market has been slow in developing courses for use with screen readers, speech recognition software and other adaptive technologies.  The technology is there but people can’t use it in a way that could certainly benefit them most!  Going one step further, true usability with these technologies must be considered very early in the design process.  …more about usability in a future blog. 

Do your learners use Adaptive Technology? 

• JAWS for Windows Screen Reading Software by Freedom Scientific
• Window-Eyes Screen Reader by GW Micro
• Dragon Naturally Speaking Speech Recognition Software by Nuance Communications, Inc.

Our Accessibility Player allows access to eLearning courses through these and other adaptive technologies available on the market.  Contact us to learn more about how our CourseAvenue can help your organization become and remain compliant with Section 508 requirements.

What is Section 508 compliant eLearning?

We believe that Section 508 compliant eLearning is simply about providing people with  disabilities equivalent access to electronic training material used by their peers! 

Criterion 508 Solutions provides a more formal summary, briefly:

Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act (of 1973) in 1998, requiring federal agencies to make electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities.  Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that help achieve these goals.  While the law applies to all federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology, many state agencies and corporations are also implementing internal accessibility requirements.

Though Section 508 does not include language specific to eLearning, it is still an important part of planning for accessibility for online courses.  Yet, we’ve seen that eLearning development can be challenged by the complex interactions between web browsers, the eLearning content itself, and an LMS (Learning Management System).  An adaptive technology layer (screen readers, for example) adds an entirely new dimension to an already complex landscape.  That said, Section 508 compliant eLearning must be offered because it’s the law, the right thing to do, helps expand the knowledge base, etc.  Now what?!

And is there a cost effective solution?

Yes!  For arguably a small percentage of your overall eLearning course production cost, the CourseAvenue Accessibility Player is a new technology that builds Section 508 compliance into the core of eLearning content.  By embedding Section 508 requirements directly into our course player, CourseAvenue provides a shorter and easier path for organizations to provide Section 508 compliant accessible training content to learners with disabilities in a very cost effective manner.  Furthermore, combining the use of our Accessibility Player with CourseAvenue Studio the collaborative web-based and team based authoring environment, Course Designers can rapidly create Section 508 compliant eLearning. 

Both CourseAvenue Studio and Accessibility Player are Flash-based.  With a web-based access to CourseAvenue Studio there is no software to download allowing course designers, reviewers, SMEs, and a distributed team to collectively and simultaneously develop Section 508 compliant eLearning courses.  In addition, CourseAvenue offers professional eLearning services that include:

• Remediation Services: Converting and/or repairing legacy content
• Development & Validation Services: Complete eLearning creation and 508 Validation
• Technology & Training: Leverage the CourseAvenue Accessibility Player and learn how to create and maintain your own Section 508 Compliant eLearning

Consider the numerous interactions between the technologies involved in an eLearning course including:  adaptive technology, web browsers, the eLearning content, and an LMS (Learning Management System.  The sheer number of technology layers that must work together is significant.  Consider the following software that must work in concert for every learner:

• Operating System.  Type, version, and options used in the operating system and support components (e.g. Windows XP, Vista, Mac OS)
• Browser.  Type and version of the browser
• Multimedia Player.  Type and version of multimedia player (e.g. Adobe Flash player, RealPlayer, QuickTime)

Simply navigating and coordinating this matrix and combinations of technologies is challenging.  The addition of an adaptive technology layer adds an entirely new dimension to an already complex landscape.

• Adaptive Technology.  Make and version of accessibility tools (e.g. WindowEyes, JAWS)

CourseAvenue’s Accessibility Player breaks through much of the complexity of building accessible (and usable) eLearning content by building accessibility standards, as well as LMS communications and adaptive technology methods, into the courseware technology itself.

We’d be glad to help you decrease the complexity involved in creating Section 508 compliant eLearning courses.  Lear more at http://www.courseavenue.com/accessibleelearning.aspx.

There are a few elements that appear in every document you create. Usually, a  document is a tree of elements, including a title, body, headings, subheads, tables, paragraphs, lists, etc. This “tree of elements” is your document’s hierarchy. Hierarchy is extremely important when creating accessible files because:

• It dictates the order of how things should be read and navigated.
• It provides information to the screen reader about how items are organized on the page, as well as how important they are.

The easiest way to creature a strong document structure is to use the technique of progressive enhancement, however this sounds easier in theory than in practice. Most designers focus on design aspects, then content, and structure last (if at all). As designers, we need to rethink our top-to-bottom approach and work from the bottom up. Using the method of “progressive enhancement”, we would start with a solid document structure and add styles and other design functionality for those who can use it. In a way, it is like thinking in layers in Photoshop. I like to think of document structure as layers of a cake. Start with the bottom (the cake), add the style (the frosting) and work your way to the fancy flourishes at top (the sugar roses and sprinkles).*

Begin with a solid document hierarchy by creating templates and styles for every project. Create a wireframe of your layout, or begin by creating your styles (heading levels, body text, lists, etc.) before you begin adding content. Next, add document content, including your copy and photos, and use the styles that you created to format your text. Be meticulous with your styles; you should never be manually formatting text. By using the styles, you are creating a reading hierarchy that will generate XML tags in a relatively quick and painless way. If you want to really step it up a notch, right click each image you place and add alternative text for those images. Lastly, focus on design.

Document structure is all about using the program’s features to “tag” objects with a semantic markup, as well as arrange them in their correct reading order on the back end. Remember–a better and more organized document structure will always create a better, more accessible file.

Document Structure Tips

• To simplify how you think about your document’s structure, aim to separate content from form. Ask yourself first “What is it?”, then “What does it look like?”
• Use progressive enhancement to think in layers and work from the bottom up. Start with document structure and organizational flow, next add your content, and lastly focus on the design that brings it all together.

*In case you were wondering, I picture a white cake with buttercream frosting and tons of sugar roses and swirls. What can I say? I had a lot of delicious grocery store birthday cakes when I was growing up.

In Adobe Acrobat, when you run an accessibility check you are given the option to select the criteria you would like to check your file against. I would like to explain what some of the various options can do, as well as when you should use each while working to create accessible PDF files.

Adobe PDF
Adobe PDF is the most lenient of the bunch, but it can be a nice jumping off point when you are working your initial drafts. For example, I will often run an Adobe PDF check to verify that it is ready to go to the next steps in compliance.  As a rule, if your PDF fails to pass an Adobe PDF check, it will not pass Section 508 or WCAG. So when you run your check and your tab order is off or your language is not specified, go back and check your work.

Section 508
In the U.S., when we create accessible files we are working to meet a set of criteria established by the Federal government as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Section 508 web site is chock full of great information about the requirements, but the accessibility checker in Acrobat can leave quite a bit to be desired. Most often, the checker will find no problems in the document but require quite a bit of manual verification. If you are not familiar with the requirements of 508, you can easily mistake a non-compliant file for a compliant one.

WCAG 1.0 & 2.0
WCAG, or Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is series of Web accessibility guidelines published by the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative. When it comes to running an Adobe accessibility check, the WCAG reports that are generated have always been more detailed than the 508 reports. For example, a 508 check will not reveal problems associated with not have a language defined for the file while the WCAG will prompt you to change it. I have found WCAG to be far more useful when working with tables, which is interesting when considering that Section 508 also requires clearly defined headers and read order for tables. Also, although 1.0 appears in the accessibility checker as current, with the release of WCAG 2.0 in December 2008, you should not rely on passing 1.0 alone. The new WCAG standard is 2.0.

Putting it all together
As a general rule, you should not rely on the accessibility checker in Acrobat to verify that your document is accessible or complying with Federal regulations. A better course of action is to be proactive about familiarizing yourself with the different standards and using the checker as a tool rather than a certification of compliance. It is important to remember that just because the checker doesn’t detect any problems, the content still may not be fully accessible to someone using a screen reader. Checking your document on a screen reader (such as JAWS) will always be the best way to verify that your document is fully accessible. If you do not have access to a screen reader, you can use the “Read Out Loud” feature in Acrobat to verify that the document is being read in the proper order. You can also using the “Touch Up Reading Order” tools to check your document hierarchy, tags, and order. The reading order tool is especially useful when checking for artifacts, which will not be played when read out loud or detected when running the compliance checker. Can you imagine what would happen if you accidentally flagged an important graph as an artifact? (After a long day, it can happen!)

8 Steps to Checking Accessibility in Acrobat

When I am checking a file for 508 compliance, I practice the following steps:

1. I make sure to export a tagged, bookmarked document from the source file.
2. In Acrobat, I open the Document Properties and verify that the PDF is tagged. While in the dialog box, I make sure that the  filename is correct (not too long, no spaces or special characters), add the title and keywords, and specify the document’s language.
3. Use the “Touch Up Reading Order” tool and Tags pane to verify that things are tagged correctly and in their proper order. Use the Table Inspector to verify that tables are structured properly, and add any table descriptions.
4. Using my own checklist based on the different requirements, I review the file for errors (especially useful for things like color requirements, etc).
5. Run the accessibility checker for Adobe PDF and correct any errors until it passes.
6. Run the accessibility checker for 508 and correct any errors until it passes.
7. Run the accessibility checker for WCAG (1.0 and 2.0), correcting errors until it passes.
8. Finally, if the document has been especially tricky, play the document using the “Read Out Loud” feature.

Did you know: often, Section 508 compliant eLearning involves failing Section 508 compliance tests, exporting content to countless lines of HTML, and then spending countless hours hand coding compliance into a course.

There are other ways: CourseAvenue’s PowerPoint import utility and Accessibility Player quickly turns presentations into standard Flash-based, SCORM compliant eLearning.

Come join our how to Webinar on Thursday, July 9…

* This webinar will benefit anyone who needs to quickly and efficiently convert PowerPoint presentations into Section 508 compliant elearning.

* We’ll provide you with a market overview and share some of our accessible eLearning experiences.

* You’ll learn how working directly with a Section 508 compliance validation company, we embedded Section 508 requirements directly into our core technology that you can leverage yourself.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/257116963

AChecker is an open source web accessibility evaluation tool developed by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre and other contributors.  It’s available in a public, online version at http://www.atutor.ca/achecker/index.php. You can also download a local version in PHP and TinyMCE plugin.

The ACheck report generates a list of known problems, likely problems, and potential problems. Known problems are definite, machine identifiable accessibility barriers. AChecker identifies the line of code and offers instructions to fix it. Likely problems are those which require a human to check, such as nondescriptive links or layout tables. Potential problems also require knowledgeable human intervention. In both cases, the reviewer logs in and answers questions to verify whether the code is a barrier or not.

Once the site receives a clean report, you can paste a conformance seal in your Web Accessibility policy section.

AChecker includes guidelines for Section 508, and WCAG 1 and 2. It also includes accessibility guidelines for Italy, and Germany.

I’m looking for one more client to use up another 15 to 20 hours a week of my time, hopefully right here in Jefferson County and preferably in Shepherdstown, Charles Town or Martinsburg. This would have to be afternoon or late-afternoon work, if I have to be at the client location (I often work for my clients out of my Shepherdstown studio at least part of the time), or Friday-Saturday day work, which doesn’t conflict with my current client’s requirements.

It can be any organization, corporation or small business that has realized how much business can be generated by one or more websites and needs an experienced Usability and Marketing Expert to improve the traffic that existing websites are providing. I am not aiming to take over the jobs of existing web developers and webmasters on a client site – these are people who I have deep respect for and love to work with. As a team player, I bring out the best in those developers and they bring out the best in me.

My goal is to provide that necessary outside view of the site and it’s potential, evaluate it carefully, run independent Search Engine Optimizations (SEOs) and increase the client’s traffic or profits or both.

My experience includes running Section 508 evaluations for major Government sites (IRS, Homeland Security), doing usability tests on major corporate sites (Hyatt Hotels, Computer Sciences Corporation, The Bureau of Business Practice), and running seminars and training sessions in web tools and on-line promotion and marketing.

So what can I do for you?

Drop me a note at btchakir@mac.com nor give me a call at 301-467-9607 and leave a message. I will get back to you ASAP.

As you may have noticed, just about every program you watch on television offers closed captioning functionality.  However, videos online rarely have captions available.  At the same time, Federal agencies are forced to caption all of their online content.  Why is this the case?  A lot of it has to do with legislation.

Let’s start with where we are today.

Section 508 – Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act in 1998 to require all Federal agencies to make their IT accessible to people with disabilities.  Under this law, agencies must give disabled employees and the public access to information that is available to others.  This specifically applies to all media content published on Federal websites:

The standards also require captioning and audio description for certain training and informational multimedia productions developed or procured by Federal agencies. The standards also provide that viewers be able to turn captioning or video description features on or off. (Section 508 1194.24)

Stand alone audio does not require captions because it is not considered multimedia, but a full transcript or text equivalent must be available on the website.

States have the option of adopting their own policy with regards to accessibility.  Many are using much of the Section 508 guidelines to dictate their laws.  State funded universities in states with accessibility guidelines are subject to making all their web content accessible as well.  This includes captions and/or transcripts for all videos of lectures, guest speakers, and news clips that are posted online.  Due to budget constraints, educational institutions often prioritize price above other qualities when choosing a captioning vendor.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the FCC – The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires that all businesses and organizations ensure that disabled individuals are not excluded from services due to a lack of auxiliary aids, which includes captions for video programming.

The FCC currently requires that all new television programming be captioned for the hearing impaired with few exemptions.  One of the main exemptions is for commercials less than 5 minutes in length.  As of January 1, 2006, all analog programming first aired on or after January 1, 1998, and all digital programming first aired on or after July 1, 2002, must be fully captioned with the same exemptions.  Starting in 2008, 75% of all programming first aired prior to 1998 must be captioned.  This calculation is made for each network airing such content.

Despite all this legislation, most online video is not included within the current captioning mandate.

The latest comScore Media Metrix states that 14.5 billion online videos were watched during the month of March.  Google sites, including YouTube, account for 40% of these videos.  One of the big stories in this data is the ascent of Hulu in the rankings, up to the number 3 spot with 380 million videos viewed.  But even on Hulu, a site filled with content that was once shown on network television with captions, only offers captions for select shows.

With a legitimate increase in professionally produced video, rather than user-generated content, online video advertising finally seems to have some legs.  But many sites have refrained from adding captioning capabilities due to the added cost.  Ironically, captions would likely help increase advertising effectiveness and revenues due to the rich data that it provides for each video.  In addition, many of the traditional caption providers for network television have had a difficult time shifting to the low cost model that web-based content has grown accustomed to.  Regardless, accessibility is a must for the 28 million Americans who suffer from hearing disabilities.

In June of 2008, Representatives Edward Markey (D-MA) and Heather Wilson (R-NM) introduced “The 21^st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2008” (H.R. 6320) in June, 2008.  This bill, currently in the House, would amend the Communications act to significantly expand disability requirements for video programming over the internet.

The new bill would require that all video programming devices – televisions, PCs, mobile phones, iPods, etc. – be equipped with closed captioning capabilities.  Furthermore, it would extend captioning obligations to all television-type programming and up to all professional video other than user-generated content.  Any of the web-based video content portals will be forced to caption their content.  Finally, it also suggests that private universities will be forced to caption their content as well.

Kudos to the sites who have made a strong push to support online captions.  Even though user-generated content won’t be mandated, YouTube has launched one of the most public implementations of captioning capabilities.

It’s pretty amazing if you think about it.  Instead of sending messages during class or a meeting, with the addition of captions you’ll be able to watch reruns of “The Office” on your iPhone under your desk!

If you thought Section 508 was all the Fed had to say about Web and electronic accessibility, think again! The Telecommunications and Electronic and Information Technology Advisory Committee (TEITAC) is currently reviewing web accessibility guidelines, identifying gaps, and making recommendations for revisions and updates. TEITAC members have created a wiki, hosted by WebAIM, to discuss these issues. Anyone and everyone may participate.

http://webaim.org/teitac/wiki/teitac_wiki

Podcast logo

Liveblogged notes from the TCC online conference. My comments in italics.

Presenters:

• Dr. John R. Kallis, California University of Pennsylvania
• Dr. Chris Patti, California University of Pennsylvania

This presentation will be an overview of the different methods in the planning, producing, publishing and promoting of hybrid podcasts with instructions on the building of a 508 compliant podcast. This workshop will provide participants with new concepts and augment their skills to current guidelines on the accessibility of emerging technologies. Method of delivery will be a hybrid podcast via the web with interaction either via email or a forum.

Market research on US podcast audience

• 18.5 million (2007)
• 28.0 million (2008)
• 65 million (2012 projected)

Focus on enhanced podcasts, including visuals/slides/etc.

Digital File

• Can be mp3
• AAC (m4a)–audio
• mp4 video
• m4b audiobooks
• PDF

RSS feed–podcasts are syndicated

Plan – Produce – Publish – Promote

Plan

Good to have two people–more interesting than listening to just one person at a time. Two people don’t have to be in the same physical location.

• Topic: Something you care about
• Format: solo/co-host, length, posting
• Location: setup, hardware, software

Produce

• computer
• software: GarageBand, iTunes, Camtasia, ProTools LE, Office 2008. I’ve never heard of doing podcasts in Camtasia–he says he uses ie when he wants chapters
• open source software options: Audacity
• microphone–dynamic or condenser
• Headset
• Pop filter
• Mixer–no open source ones out there, but Audacity does a lot

Learning In Hand has a free booklet with step-by-step directions for getting started with podcasting–good for K-12 or higher ed.

Podcast Gear

• He has a small recording studio at home
• He has a mic designed for podcasting–$200
• Digital reference monitors–speakers for playback
• Pop filters–you can buy it at any audio supply or use an old screen door and bend it around your mic
• He has a mixer to edit multiple people
• ProTools has a portable USB mixer
• He also has a keyboard (the piano kind) for music too

At the other end of the spectrum, you can use a headset mic and Audacity.

Audacity

• lets you get rid of your mistakes
• free mp3 encoder
• free special effects can be downloaded
• PC/Mac/Linux
• Audacity has its own tutorials, including video

Office 2008

• From PowerPoint:
  • Save as Pictures
  • Save as Movie

Camtasia

• Save in different formats
• Save to CD, swf, avi, mp3, Quicktime
• 30 day free trial
• He records in Audacity, then puts the pieces together in Camtasia

Garageband

• multitrack audio for Mac
• chapter markers
• lots of music, instruments, etc available

Save

• Include ID3 tags to make it easier for people to find

Publish

• Your server
• Ourmedia: free hosting
• Lipsync: small fee based on how many people listen
• Odeo: record, share; 50 MB limit for upload
• Many others

RSS feed: can do the XML yourself. Or just use something that provides it automatically–I wouldn’t want to mess with this regularly

iTunes has different code–not standard RSS XML

Feedburner for RSS

Use a Feed Validator if you do the code yourself

Can do conference calls to get multiple people together–Skype or whatever. I’ve done this for SME interviews for our team blog–worked pretty well.

Promote

• Aggregators
• Podcast Directories

Section 508

• Want to make sure that all students are able to learn from podcasts
• Web pages
• Captions for videos
• Need for podcast

Interactivity is important for e-learning

Very few people said they are required to meet 508 or doing anything for accessibility now

Technical Standards

• Open or closed captions
• Open captions are visible like subtitles
  

Transcripts can be used if it’s just audio (mp3 or radio)

Transcripts can be used to create captions, but aren’t appropriate as a substitute for multimedia

Software

• Dragon Naturally Speaking
• Casting Words–transcription service
• QuickTime has CC
• Camtasia has CC
• Magpie Media Access Generator This is a totally new tool to me–never heard of it before. Creates captions for rich media.
• Captivate has CC

Podcasts within LMS

• They have Blackboard–just link to everything within there
• Someone in chat said they do the same in ANGEL

Interactivity or Assessment

• Camtasia lets you do quizzes and surveys-export SCORM to Blackboard

Most people at their university use media players, not iPods

Image: ‘Official Podcast Logo‘
www.flickr.com/photos/60236052@N00/145053162

I was pleased to see that CourseSmart has acknowledged the issue of  the inaccessibility of their e-textbooks and have a page on their site with an apology and a statement concerning their intent to change the format of their e-textbooks to become Section 508 compliant.  The page also lists the links to the permission forms for their publishers.  I am hoping that as more universities and colleges are leaning towards using open-course content and away from using standard textbooks, CourseSmart will fear the loss of income and speed up the process towards compliance.

DISCLAIMER STATEMENT: The views and conclusions expressed in this blog are those of the author and not necessarily those of Landmark College or its officers and trustees.

A lot of the work I do involves making electronic documents accessible for people with disabilities. I’m happy that I can provide this service, but following government regulations for compliance with section 508 of the 1998 Disabilities act actually hinders progress.

For me to post a document on the government Web sites I work on, I complete a lengthy sequence of checks and fixes to ensure an item meets compliance standards. If an item is not compliant, it doesn’t make it to the Web. The compliance makes it easier for a person to skim through an electronic file, whether they have a sight, hearing or physical impairment.

From what I’ve been told, approximately 10 percent of the population has a disability that requires the use assistive-reading technology (usual a computer program that reads the contents of the file to the user) to get at the information contained in these electronic documents. I basically add something akin to an index to the contents of the file so a computer program knows the proper reading order of the document contents and add descriptions for images in the file.

Again, all items I create must be compliant. But herein lies the issue. An edict has now been passed that requires all items on the sites I run to be compliant. If an item isn’t compliant by April 1, 2009, it has to come off the web. So I’ve been tasked with fixing all of these older documents (there are approximately 500 items that need to be fixed. And that’s only on the site I work on. Eventually there will be a deadline for all sites, and there are probably millions of documents that need remediation within the government.). Unfortunately, some of the older PDFs and other files cannot be fixed because they were created in a time before assistive technology existed. These items, many still relevant, will either need to be removed from the web or entirely recreated.

Part of the reason behind 508 compliance is creating equal access to items for the 10 percent of people that have an impairment of some kind. But this doesn’t make sense to me. Some of the items I can’t fix have to be removed from the web because 10 percent of people can’t use them. What about the other 90 percent? It doesn’t seem like the rules created here make sense. Why should 90 percent of the population not have access to something because the other 10 percent can’t use it?

Someone please explain how these non-compliant documents, already created with tax payer money, should accessible to no one because 10 percent of the population can’t use it.

A recent post from Sun Federal (creators of OpenOffice, Solaris and OpenSolaris) on the digital exclusion of individuals with disabilities, information on Section 508 and a crazy statistic about unemployment.

The digital divide does not stop at mere access to IT and online information though; it is also about being able to afford access. Over 70% of blind and low vision citizens in the United States are unemployed. People with other severe disabilities have similar employment statistics. Assistive technology software costs as much as $1,095 for a screen reader that enables blind people to use their computers, which means that access to computing is out of reach for the majority of Americans with disabilities.

Read the full article here.

Brush up on Solaris, OpenSolaris, Xeon and Intel’s work with me:

• Solaris

• OpenSolaris

• Intel’s Xeon

• Section 508

• GNOME Screencasts

• Jaws Screen Reader

Next post: Project updates

I recently met with Pierce Crowell who manages Section 508 compliance for Sun Federal. He arranged a demonstration for the Sun Federal leadership by Sun’s Accessibility Program Office. I was very impressed with what the accessibility team and the open source community has done as far as adding features to Open Source Solaris and Open Office.

Even if you don’t have an accessibility requirement, I believe you will be impressed with what these products can do. I don’t think you can adequately describe the features without seeing them in action, so I asked the team to put together some short videos that would demonstrate the features. I would encourage everyone to take a look.

I believe from an accessibility feature point of view, the Solaris platform is becoming a leader in the software industry.

Pierce also helped me pull together all the information for this blog.

Sun has been contributing to accessibility and usability for decades, and is now leading an industry transition toward architectural support for accessibility – whereby support for people with disabilities and the assistive technologies they use is built directly into the computing platform.

Sun began this industry transition with the Java platform accessibility framework in 1997 and is doing the same with the OpenSolaris desktop (GNOME) and applications like OpenOffice.org and Firefox and Evolution. We likewise support and develop open source assistive technologies including the popular open source Orca screen reader. These are powerful and free alternatives to the traditional commercial accessibility model. Often software assistive technologies can cost many times more than the PC hardware on which they are installed.

Sun’s just-released OpenSolaris 2008.11 is the pinnacle of open source accessibility, and is already receiving rave reviews from blind users. Josh Lambert, a blind user, summed up his first experiences with OpenSolaris: “congratulations to you all at Sun, and thank you so very much for making my boyhood dream come true. Ever since the early 90s when I used to dial into shell accounts, and would hear "unix r system v release, I have wanted to sit behind a Sun console. Now I and many others can.”

Regarding the accessible installation experience in OpenSolaris 2008.11, Everett Zufelt responded: “I am overwhelmingly impressed with the 2008.11 accessible install.” He went on to say: “it was the smoothest operating system install that I have ever performed.”

The digital divide does not stop at mere access to IT and online information though; it is also about being able to afford access. Over 70% of blind and low vision citizens in the United States are unemployed. People with other severe disabilities have similar employment statistics. Assistive technology software costs as much as $1,095 for a screen reader that enables blind people to use their computers, which means that access to computing is out of reach for the majority of Americans with disabilities. OpenSolaris, open source and free, fosters digital inclusion that was economically impossible under the costly commercial model associated with Microsoft Windows.

Take a look at these demonstration videos to see for yourself how we are welcoming people with disabilities to the Solaris user community.

As I noted the last time I posted about Philly Standards, I have a “thing” for web design, programming, and development.  A “clean” site not only plays a crucial role in ensuring search engine friendliness, but in user experience as well.  Ask my roommate, I have a pet-peeve for poorly designed and flashy websites that are hard to navigate and read.  But I digress.

This past Tuesday at Ly Michael’s, Philly Standards hosted a presentation by Kel Smith who explained what Section 508 is and why it is important for anybody with a web presence, or marketing a website, get up to speed on what he calls “inclusive design”.  More on that later.

He started the lecture by boldly declaring there are no standards.  He prefaced the remark by saying he knew he’d get a lot of flack for that.  Naturally the World Wide Web Consortium exists to develop specifications, guidelines and tools to ensure web accessibility.  While some of these guidelines seem like no-brainers, there are still millions (billions?) of web sites that don’t adhere to them.  His point is that unless builders and people who fund websites adopt these standards, they may as well not exist. The importance and existence of WCAG shouldn’t be understated.

He went on to explain the 4 design principles (POUR) from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0:

P – Perceivable
O – Operable
U – Understandable
R – Robust

From there he plowed into the importance of Section 508 – a statutory section in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, whose primary purpose is to provide access (“reasonable accommodation”) to electronic and information technology (EIT) for individuals with disabilities.

EIT includes:

• telecommunication products, such as telephones;
• information kiosks;
• transaction machines;
• World Wide Web sites;
• multimedia (including videotapes); and
• office equipment, such as copiers and fax machines.

He went on to cite the landmark class action lawsuit against Target by the National Federation of the Blind. A blind user was awarded a $6m settlement because Target’s website was not accessible to him.  Amazing, huh?  Drop in the bucket for Target, of course.  But this lawsuit brought the issue to light.  Some companies began to worry about it in fear they would get sued, too.

The fact is, in an ever increasingly technical world, we need to develop new standards for ease of use for everybody (“inclusive design”).  There are between 40 million and 50 million Americans with disabilities.  Not to mention, a large aging population with various special needs as well.  A growing proportion of these disabled and aging people are connected online and spending online.  These people often use screen readers (such as JAWS®) and braille keyboards to access the Internet.

Some good practices in accessible web design include:

• include a Table of Contents if possible
• specify language
• use understandable semantic rich elements (such as header tags)
• include accurate, succinct alt attributes to all images – for example: “Picture of…”
• write anchor text (on links) so that it makes sense when read out of context
• separate words so that when spelled out it makes sent – for example: homepage -> home page
• increase letting on website for people who are color-blind or dyslexic
• if you install a captcha, ensure it includes audio

These are just some of the things you can do to create a barrier-free user experience for everybody.

Testing software and tools are available that can help make sure the websites you create are accessible.

Cynthia Says Portal
Wave 4.0
FAE (Functional Accessibility Evaluator)
Firefox Accessibility tools

To learn more about barrier-free user experience, web accessibility, and user-centered design, read more at Kel’s blog.  Thanks Kel!

What is Section 508?
Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act prohibits federal agencies from buying, developing, maintaining, or using electronic and information technology that is inaccessible to people with disabilities. Although Section 508 came about more than 14 years ago, little progress was made until 1998, when Congress passed the Workforce Investment Act, amending the law to give members of the public and government employees with disabilities the right to sue agencies in federal court and file administrative complaints for noncompliance. The transition of Federal funded websites to meet the guidelines has been slow. An initial deadline of full compliance of Federal funded websites with Section 508 was June 21, 2001. These were basically any website that ended with a .gov extension.

Section 508 specifies the criteria for web-based technology and information based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C. Helpful information with specifics of the guidelines can be found at: http://www.section508.gov/.

Many of these requirements ensure access for people with vision impairments who rely on various assistive products (such as screen readers, which translate the contents of a computer screen into automated audible output and refreshable Braille displays) to access computer-based information. Certain conventions, such as verbal tags or graphic identification and format devices like frames, are necessary so that these devices can “read” them for the user in a sensible way.

Why is Section 508 Important?
Federal Funding – Agencies/associations that apply for Federal Funding are graded on their compliance to the Section 508 Guidelines. If the Agencies/Associations are not meeting and/or showing an attempt to meet Section 508 Guidelines, they could possibly be risking Federal Funding for some organizations.

Testing/verifying your Section 508 Compliance
As a developer or a client, you need to check and ensure that any changes made to your site to become 508 compliant are translated correctly through the readers. Developers can make changes to the code and the layout according to the 508 standards, but was the change effective?

A great resource for verifying that your site has become Section 508 compliant can be found at your local Libraries. Libraries have access to Assisted Listening Devises that you can utilize to test your website.

Check with you local public or academic library. Test the site using the readers that are available to ensure compliancy. If you are spending the time to make your site 508 compliant, ensure that it is by performing the testing. This may take a little extra time, but will be worth it.

Work with a company that is versed in Section 508 guidelines and can provide assistance in upgrading your site to meet the guidelines.