Practical Web Accessibility news

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W3C WAI news: Calls for feedback on WAI-ARIA, multimedia accessibility and updated WCAG 2.0 Techniques

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The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) sets the standard for websites to reach in order to be accessible for people with disabilities. The international body has issued a number of updates relating to its accessibility work, including a call for review of the WAI-ARIA 1.0 Use Agent Implementation Guide, updated WCAG 2.0 Techniques and a first draft of the Media Accessibility User Requirements.

The first working draft of the WAI-AIRA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide, which describes how browsers and other user agents should support WAI-ARIA (the Accessible Rich Internet Applications specification), has been released. The guide explains how to expose WAI-ARIA features to platform accessibility APIs. This is a final request and feedback needs to be provided by 17 February 2012.

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New apps improve Android accessibility

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A developer of open-source accessible apps, Apps4Android, has announced the release of four new IDEAL apps for Android smartphones. Android is Google’s operating system for smartphones and tablets. The apps aim to improve the accessibility of the Android devices, which have lagged in this area behind Apple devices.

The newly announced Apps4Android apps called IDEAL Self-Voicing News Reader, IDEAL Audio-Described Movie Viewer, IDEAL WebMath and IDEAL Accessible YouTube Viewer will improve access to news and video content on the web for people who have a disability. The IDEAL suite of apps developed by Apps4Android for Android presents alternative ways of using mobile devices for people who have a disability.

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Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news
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How to contact organisations about website accessibility

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Many organisations fail to consider how people with a disability interact with their websites. As this is a large number of potential customers and audience members, website owners often work towards improving web accessibility. If you encounter a site that has accessibility issues you can contact the website owners and let them know how they can improve their sites.

Top 5 tips for contacting organisations about website accessibility

People with disabilities often find it frustrating when inaccessible websites prevent them from finding information or completing a task.  If you find an accessibility issue on a website, it may be worth contacting the website owner to see if the problem can be resolved. 

Consider the following tips when going through this process:

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Free-to-air TV requests temporary caption exemption

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Australian free-to-air TV broadcasters, including the commercial networks, ABC and SBS, have applied to the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for a temporary exemption under the Disability Discrimination Act, with regard to the provision of captions.

Exemptions which were previously granted to the broadcasters by the AHRC expire on 31 December 2011. In the new application, the broadcasters advise that they have complied with all the terms of the current exemptions, which include meeting staged increases in captioning levels, consulting with deafness community groups and reporting on the consultations to the AHRC.

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