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May 14, 2008
India’s First Accessible Website for People with Disabilities
Filed under: General — Pooja Nahata @ 6:15 pmMumbai, May 14th 2008 – Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH), an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment launches India’s first accessible website - http://ayjnihh.nic.in/. With the UN Convention on Rights of People with Disabilities (PWD) coming in force from 3rd May 2008, it is imperative that India takes on the initiative of protecting the rights of the disabled.
With emerging technologies, innovation has no bounds. The Web can help bridge the barriers and provide opportunities to people with disabilities. In a country where it is considered that almost 10% of the world’s disabled population lives in India, it is imperative for the ecosystem to realize the power of technology that can break barriers for people with disabilities and include them in the main stream.
The launch of http://ayjnihh.nic.in/ is a stepping stone for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in achieving its vision to empower people with disabilities and bring them into the main stream of society by giving them access to information using the Web.
The website has been designed and developed by Net Systems Informatics (India) Private Limited to comply with international web accessibility standards – Web Content Accessibility Guidelines by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Ms. Shilpi Kedia, Director of Net Systems Informatics says “Today, we are talking of empowering people with disabilities. The Web as a medium can help us bridge the gap. It can be used to provide education, employment and equal opportunity to the people with disabilities. AYJNIHH initiative as an organization under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment shows the commitment to the cause.”
Shri. R. Rangasayee, Director, AYJNIHH says “AYJNIHH is committed to remove barriers and provide seamless accessibility to PWDs especially in access to information and this accessible website is a step in this direction.”
About Net Systems Informatics (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Net Systems Informatics (India) Pvt. Ltd. is an Accessibility Consulting and Knowledge Management firm. Our accessibility consulting unit is managed by BarrierBreak Technologies that provides innovative solutions in the field of Accessibility for People with Disabilities.
We work with corporates, institutions and individuals to provide accessibility training, accessibility testing and accessibility consulting services that would empower people with disabilities to avoid discrimination and enjoy equal rights and opportunities.
For more information about Net Systems Informatics visit: http://www.n-syst.com/
About Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Impaired (AYJNIHH)
AYJNIHH is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, New Delhi.
For more information about AYJNIHH visit: http://ayjnihh.nic.in/
No CommentsApril 29, 2008
Techshare India 2008 Presentations are now available online!!
Filed under: Techshare India — Priti Rohra @ 11:25 amTechshare India 2008, the first accessibility conference and exhibition held in New Delhi included a range of presentations by speakers across the world. The presentations were on different topics including Web Accessibility, PDF accessibility, Flash Accessibility, Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA), Section 508 etc.
Some of the speakers who presented at Techshare India include Brian Hardy and Kenny Johar of Vision Australia, Mandy Thompson and Steve Morgan of The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) UK, Steve Bennett of Dolphin Computer Access, David Baquis of Section 508, Lisa Friendly of Bookshare, Sameer Bhatt of Adobe Systems, omprakash subbarao of Yahoo etc.
The presentations are in different format, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Power Point (PPT), and Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) etc. These presentations are now available online at: http://barrierbreak.com/techshare_presentations2008.php.
No CommentsApril 9, 2008
United Nation (UN) convention on the rights of people with disabilities will be coming to force on 3rd May 2008…
Filed under: General — Priti Rohra @ 6:59 pmOn 3rd April 2008, Ecuador became the 20th country to ratify the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities. This has resulted in the treaty coming in to force on 3rd May 2008. Following is the list of 20 countries, who have ratified the convention:
- Bangladesh - 30 November 2007
- Croatia - 15 August 2007
- Cuba - 6 September 2007
- Ecuador - 3 April 2008
- El Salvador - 14 December 2007
- Gabon - 1 October 2007
- Guinea - 8 February 2008
- Hungary - 20 July 2007
- India - 1 October 2007
- Jamaica - 30 March 2007
- Jordan - 31 March 2008
- Mexico - 17 December 2007
- Namibia - 4 December 2007
- Nicaragua - 7 December 2007
- Panama - 7 August 2007
- Peru - 30 January 2008
- San Marino - 22 February 2008
- South Africa - 30 November 2007
- Spain - 3 December 2007
- Tunisia - 2 April 2008
Source: United Nations website (http://www.un.org/disabilities/default.asp?id=257)
Let’s hope this landmark convention on rights of people with disabilities will help to build an Inclusive society across the globe.
No CommentsApril 4, 2008
Importance of ‘Help’ for Accessibility
Filed under: Flash — Vivek Gaikwad @ 2:18 pmAlthough the topic seems small, ‘Help Screen’ plays an important role in making any application accessible/usable. In our typical developer role we create all the fantastic things in an application, we provide keyboard shortcuts, alternative text for images, descriptions for buttons and images, various ways of handling different things in the course etc… but we forget to pass all of this information to the user. We assume that the user will come to know this when he/she will use the course, which is not fair.
The best way of conveying this information to the user is by providing a ‘Help Screen’.
We must include ALL the information which is beneficial for the users to access the application in a ‘Help Screen’. If we have developed the application catering to various disabilities, we should not hesitate to add an additional help topic for them so that the application becomes practically accessible to them. In case of a screen reader user, we should inform him/her about how to get to the buttons, how to read the alt for a button, if description is provided for a particular object how to access it? What are the different key combinations used by the screen reader to provide the information faster. (e.g.: Insert+Ctrl+G gives the list of all the graphics on the screen). We can’t assume an average screen reader user to know all these shortcuts.
To avoid the confusion, while the user is accessing the help screen, he/she should not have access to rest of the information. For example if a screen reader user is using the help screen and he/she press ‘Insert+F5’ to get the list of controls, he/she should only be presented with the controls on the help screen. This not only applies for help screen but also for other major parts of your flash screen (application). Normally what developers do is, they just make rest of the things disabled by writing simple code. But only disabling is not enough for keeping screen reader away from that information. Screen reader picks up all that stuff even if it’s disabled. We need to think one step ahead and deliver the solution.
We have to give the users what they want and not what we think they need.
And last but not the least; the ‘Help Screen’ has to be completely accessible 
You can have a look at our Hangman game for reference.
peace, veiky
No CommentsMarch 24, 2008
Accessibe Flash - Is this possible?
Filed under: Flash — Shilpi Kedia @ 6:50 pmI’ve just come back from CSUN, 2008 and again had the same thoughts through most of my meetings. Mos people didnt even think that flash could be made accessible.
I was sitting there and wondering why is this the case? Accessible Flash is surely a possibility and actually is not as painful as most people think it to be. I think largely the problem is not knowin what is possible and then not knowing how to implement it.
I’d suggest people start with checking out some of our examples at http://www.barrierbreak.com/ourshowcase.php. Every example in our showcase has been tested by users using assistive technology.
These examples are only a start point. We will soon showcase an accessible e-learning framework that would show people that everything is possible in Flash and would re-iterate the point that “Accessible Flash is a possibility”
Comment (1)February 21, 2008
JAWS keystrokes with Accessible Flash
Filed under: Flash — Vivek Gaikwad @ 5:50 pmI’ve listed down the common keystrokes which JAWS users use to work with flash. We can also use these for testing flash for accessibility.
These keystrokes are available for JAWS 7.0 and above to work with Flash player 8.0 and above.
| Keystroke | Description |
|---|---|
| ARROW keys | To read the text |
| CTRL + HOME | Move to the top of the window |
| CTRL + END | Move to the bottom of the window |
| ENTER | Turn On Forms Mode |
| NUMPAD PLUS (NUMLOCK Off) | Turn off Forms Mode (Virtual cursor on) |
| TAB | Move to the next control |
| SHIFT + TAB | Move to the prior control |
| INSERT + N | Toggles between Navigation quick keys: On, Off and Say All |
| F | Move to and read next form field |
| SHIFT + F | Move to and read prior form field |
| INSERT + F | Form field list |
| G | Move to and read next graphic |
| SHIFT + G | Move to and read previous graphic |
| CTRL + INSERT + G | Graphics list |
| B | Move to and read next button |
| SHIFT + B | Move to and read previous button |
| CTRL + INSERT + B | Buttons list |
| R | Move to and read next radio button |
| SHIFT + R | Move to and read previous radio button |
| CTRL + INSERT + R | Radio buttons list |
| E | Move to and read next edit field |
| CTRL + INSERT + E | Edit field list |
| X | Move to and read next check box |
| SHIFT + X | Move to and read next check box |
| CTRL + INSERT + X | Check boxes list |
peace, veiky
No CommentsFebruary 12, 2008
Techshare India 2008 - Great Experience
Filed under: Techshare India — namrata @ 6:53 pmHi Everyone,
It was an outstanding experience being a part of Techshare India 2008. I was given an opportunity to anchor Track 2 – Making a Difference. This track included presentations on different technologies which would help people with disabilities to make a difference in their lives.
Different speakers included, Mr Dipendra Manocha, Ms. Shanti Raghavan, Mr. Steve Bennett, Ms. Priya James, Mr. Ram Agarwal, Mr. Om Deskmukh. According to me, one of the best presentations was ‘Use of technology in education training and development of the disabled’ which was presented by Ms. Shanti Raghavan. She used some very good examples to explain the topic.
Dr. Analpa Paranjpe of Morris Trust gave an insightful presentation on Indian Child Intelligence Test (ICIT). This test is used as diagnostic tool for people with learning disabilities. Another presentation on different Assistive Technologies by Ram Agarwal was also very interesting. The different products showcased were amazing.
Presentation on ‘Dolphin Easy Converter’ by Steve Bennett was also one of the good presentations. The Question and Answer session at the end of every presentation was very interesting and the audience response was beyond expectations.
It was really nice to see many people with different disabilities had come to attend the presentations. Volunteers were trying to help them in every possible way. We also had sign language interpreters for hearing impaired people for every presentation.
Though, some presentations started late, while some went beyond the specified time limit, but the enthusiasm of the audience was clearly visible and they enjoyed every presentation.
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