Sarah is the New Media Manager and has been at Media Access Australia since the beginning of 2010. Sarah highlights some of the great strides that technology and policy have made towards accessibility this year.
What have been a few of the highlights of 2010 for you in your area of access?
There was great excitement in the office when in February 2010 the Commonwealth Government committed to making all its websites compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 by 2014. The Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy released by the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) in June outlines the strategy for adoption and implementation of WCAG 2.0 for all Federal Government websites. Federal Government websites must comply with WCAG 2.0 Level A by the end of 2012 and WCAG 2.0 Level AA by the end of 2014.
Many, particularly in the blind and vision impaired community, have applauded the accessibility features of the iPad that was released in May this year. Apple is well known for its screen reader software VoiceOver that has made devices such as the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch accessible for these communities.
As of March this year, consumers who use ABC iView to catch up on TV shows they have missed can now do so with captions. Any captioned TV show aired on ABC 1 or ABC2 will be shown with captions on ABC iView. ABC iView also won the Best New Captioning Initiative at the 2010 Deafness Forum Captioning Awards.
What was one of the challenges faced in your area in 2010?
One of the challenges in the digital technology and online media space is keeping up with all the new accessible technology that is being updated or released. As much as this is a challenge for the new media team, it is also a wonderful thing for consumers as they have more and more choice and that’s something that we can all get excited about!
How do you see accessibility improving in 2011?
In 2011, the Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy will move into the transition phase, which is the second of three phases. Although consumers may not see a significant improvement in website accessibility on Federal Government websites until 2012 (the implementation phase), there will be lots going on behind the scenes next year to make this happen.
The convergence review scheduled for next year will also have a significant impact for online media. Examples of where accessible content stays accessible as it jumps from more traditional media formats such as TV or DVD to online media like ABC iView is the exception rather than the rule. The convergence review will be the start of properly sorting out these issues.
What’s your top pick for a gift with accessible features this festive season?
Who could go past any one of the iDevices this Christmas?
For audio playback like music, audio books and podcasts, look at the updated versions of the iPod shuffle and iPod nano, both of which have inbuilt accessibility features that announce song details and playlists to you.
If you are looking for an iPhone-like device but without the phone capability, then the iPod touch is for you. It runs the same software as the iPhone and has the same accessibility features including VoiceOver.
And of course there is the iPad. Need I say more?
Top of page