Accessibility means the ability to make available technology to both disabled as well as regularly abled people  without any discrimination.
For e.g: If a person visits your website and has a disability, say  low vision, there should not be any difficulty for him to gather all the information available in the website – information accessible to any vistor should be available to the disabled person also. Hence , the ability to access any information/service on the web  by any kind of person irrespective of his/her disability is said to be accessibility.

Why should we make the website accessible?

Accessibility is part of your job
To many people who make a living from designing or programming websites, accessibility is something unknown,  something frightening and something that is hardly ever taken into account

I don’t understand that way of thinking at all. Accessibility is one of the fundamentals of the Web, so how people  who claim to be passionate about the Web and  deliver high quality,  can choose to ignore it is beyond me.

Why Accessibility? Because It’s Our Job!
Its-our-job/ If we call ourselves professionals, we owe it to our clients, their clients, and ourselves, to do our job properly.

A chef must care about health,
a builder must care about safety,
and we must care about accessibility.

Now if only everybody working in the web industry could take their jobs seriously enough to realise that accessability is a must….
For more information on how it is not taken seriously,  click the link below

Most websites’ failing Accessibility

There are certain laws which make the accessibility  compulsory  for the websites. Companies all over the world have now started to make there websites accessible.

There are well defined  guidelines on Web accessibility provided by ‘World Wide Web Consortium W3C’, even section 508 (1194.22) gives 16 points to be satisfied by the websites to make them accessible. The Web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) suggested by W3c are 14 with priority levels.

WCAG and Section 508 guidelines:
Section 508:

The legislation referred to as “Section 508″ is actually an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The amendment was signed into law by President Clinton on August 7, 1998. Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology that is developed by or purchased by the Federal Agencies be accessible by people with disabilities.

W3C is the World Wide Web consortium which has a control over the websites through out the world and gives a 14 point list of guidelines called WCAG guidelines. In the year 1999 the first version of WCAG guidelines were  released (WCAG 1.0) , the next version of guidelines, finalized in november 2008 (WCAG 2.0). are about to release by December  2008.

For a complete list of WCAG guidelines visit:
WCAG recommendations Section 508 :
Section 508: The Road to Accessibility

Tools for testing Web accessibility:
Our CEO and Founder Sriram Bharatam and the other experts in this area in the organization have suggested the following tools for testing the accessibility of websites

Ten tools for testing accessibility

For a complete list of the tools see the following link Complete list of testing tools

Manual Testing of accessibility
Here is some useful  information to check accessibility of your website manually.

Manual checks for web accessibility

Here are some other ways to test accessibility manually

Case 1:Check whether the text in the site can be enlarged and decreased in size .

This can be done by activating different options of text size sub menu in view menu of internet explorer.
In Internet explorer view>textsize>largest, larger, medium, smaller, smallest . Or press alt+v+x+g(for largest), l (for larger) , m (for medium) , s ( for smaller),a(for smallest)

Case 2: Check whether enough contrasting is available for people with low vision to easily use the website. This can be done by changing the settings in display options in control panel .
Press shift + alt+ print screen to get high contrast dialog box.

Case 3: Avoid the feature of opening the link in a new window.
This can be done by avoiding target attribute in links . It is not suggested that this be  completely avoided,  but it is advisable to decrease the usage. This  is suggested because when the focus moves to new window , it confuses for a visually impaired user.

Case 4: Make sure that Maps and Graphical representations are understandable by every one.
You can do this by giving long descriptions for maps and graphs.

Case 5: Make sure that all the assistive devices are able to work perfectly in your website.
You can do this by using screen readers , screen magnifiers and even checking with keyboard and mouse.
(a) Verify the short cuts and all the other related features of the assistive devices are working perfectly .
(b) Make sure that the screen magnifier is magnifying the text and is perfect.

Case 6: Check whether your webpage can be navigated entirely using key board and mouse.
You can do this by checking with your standard input devices keyboard and mouse and verify that you can navigate from left top to right bottom.

Case 7: Check whether  labels are given to all elements.
You can do this in JAWS by opening the virtual features dialog box by pressing insert +f3 and selecting the required element .
Now the list of the particular element is opened , if it shows ‘unlabel’ in the list it is said to be unlabeled.

Case 8: Conforming the title and making sure that it is the required one.
Setting title for the webpage is a must and it should be like this,
Website name : visited link 1 : visited link 1 (a) :visited link 1(a)(1)
Here the website name is ‘website name’ visited link 1 refers to the link in home page , visited link 1(a) refers to the link home page> visited link 1> visited link 1(a) …

Case 9: Make sure that there are no blank spaces in the web pages.
The table attribute makes your websites read blank with screen readers and this can be restricted by using divs in most cases instead of tables.

Benefits if the website passes the accessibility test:
What are the benefits if a web site is accessible?
Click here to get the information
Benefits in making a website accessible
 

I

Its my privilege to talk about the other three you see here in the clipping …. Sriram, CEO of iridium Interactive, the company I am part of and proud to be associated with. As a person who began my career with NGOs , what attracted me to iridium Interactive in the first place was the importance the company accords to social responsibility – be it through the various social welfare activities of CauseanEffect or by training and employing disabled people or as crusaders of web accessibility. And Sriram has been at the helm of it all ..

You also see Rakesh, my colleague, who works as a software engineer and Raj Kishore who handles the front office. Guys with the most pleasant disposition, they really are an inspiration – the way they have handled adversities in life and emerged winners are perfect examples of what disabled people can do given the right opportunities. Three fantastic people ….read on to know more about them and the place we all work ….

TV5, the popular telugu news channel , recently featured the web accessibility initiatives taken up by iridium Interactive. Here goes the newsclipping.

Here Mr.Sriram Bharatam, CEO of the company talks of the web accessibility related projects and research work being carried out by the organization in this field. He goes on to explain how it is a part of the HR policy to hire disabled people and also ensure equal Pay and equal opportunities to them. Mr. Bharatam elaborates on the training process followed at iridium Interactive –for the disabled employees so that they can be absorbed seamlessly into the workforce and also for the regular employees on how to interact with their differently- abled colleagues.

I am planning a trip to Gods own Country, Kerala in a couple of months and recently visited the Indian Railways website to book my tickets online. The experience was mixed.

The site is very nice even though it is missing some accessibility guidelines. Let me share the good things first.

I could recognize the link which I required by navigating through the link.

eg:- link for seat availability, Internet reservation link etc

The links are in sequential order, so it makes navigation more easy.

The most used links are given in a table which is a very useful thing for users of screen reader.

(giving a label or summary to the table works more efficiently)

• The web pages are small and concise. It makes less confusion.

• Graphics and frames are less in number, It is good for accessibility.

I could find a lot of scope for improvement from the accessibility point of view, that I am enlisting here. Some food for thought !!!!

• Relevent text:-

The graphics of this website are not having text which tells about the graphic, the screen reader can recognize only the label of the graphic but it cannot make what the graphic contains.

• About links:-

Only a few links can be recognized by its labels. It is better to give relevant labels to the links or provide some text after the link which speaks about the link. Then the user can see the label or the text of the link and make sure that this link is the required one.

For example : The link “bottom1” is taking the focus to the home page but it cannot be recognized by its label. The link “IRCTC” is for online reservation but it is highly impossible to recognize it.

• Opening new browser window:-

In most of the links the focus is moving to new browser window so it is confusing to the user in checking the focus, Even the link to move the focus to home page .i.e. link “bottom1” cannot work when a new browser window is opened.

• Assigning short cut keys:-
  It would be helpful if short-cut keys are available for usually used links like “link for PNR status”, “link for train enquiry” etc.

• Font size :-

The font size has to be increased to 12 so that the low visioned users can also use the website more easily.

• Giving proper labels to frames:-

If the labels of the frames are resembling the contents of the frame the navigation becomes more easy.

Hope these will be helpful the crusaders of accessibility !!!

Rakesh.

When many companies prefer to pursue corporate social responsibility as an activity extraneous to organisational functions, Hyderabad –based iridium Interactive has embraced it as a human resource policy and is hiring the visually challenged without batting an eyelid.

Chances are that a casual or even a business visitor to iridium Interactive‘s offices will spend a good half hour in the Internet consultancy firm without seeing the truth. About 5% of the employees are visually challenged. They go about their work like any other professional, sitting at their desktops, making presentations, interacting with US-based clients and even heading projects. Even the headphones that help them with the screen-reader software do not stand out as they are so ubiquitous in an office with a young crowd.

When Sriram Bharatam, the CEO & Founder of iridium Interactive went ahead and hired these professionals, they were absorbed into the workforce seamlessly after just one orientation programme and within half-a-working-day. It was the “inclusion” workshops held for the other employees blessed with vision, which took up many many hours and workdays.

Sriram is a social entrepreneur who first made waves after the Orissa Cyclone in 1999. Leveraging the power of the Internet, he floated a website, CauseanEffect to raise $ 1.5 million in 45 days to help the victims. While he went on to win the Kauffman Community award for Social Entrepreneurship for this effort, he had already launched several other social re-engineering projects in the areas of sustainable livelihood, rescue and rehabilitation, animal care, health and nutrition and childcare and education.

Spotting the right kind of talent

Meanwhile, a chance encounter with a blind engineer hired as a telephone operator urged Sriram to give this wasted pool of talent a fresh lease of life. “I did some research and found that most blind professionals, no matter how qualified they were, had been hired only for odd jobs”. EnableIndia, a leading NGO working in the disability sector supported Iridium in identifying disabled talent and inducting them. The people hired proved themselves to be no less or perhaps even better in terms of enthusiasm, adherence to deadline and quality of work. Soon, iridium Interactive made it part of its human resource policy to be an equal opportunities and equal pay employer.

iridium Interactive employs the visually challenged and is an ‘equal opportunity and equal pay’ employer, headed by social entrepreneur Sriram Bharatam

Today, in addition to the visually challenged persons, a professional with cerebral palsy works at Iridium. They are all mostly graduates. What do they do? “They are engaged in programming, database and server management functions,” reveals Sriram. Is the office specially equipped to help them perform their duties? Do they need additional training and work-aids?

Sriram scoffs at the question. “Have you ever felt the ‘F’ and ‘J’ letters on your computer keyboard? There is a slight protrusion. None of us even notice it. But it is with the help of these two keys alone that the visually challenged manage to negotiate with typewriters, computers, phones (check the number 5)—they are already designed with such interventions.” he says. Desktop software like MS office, “shortcuts” and keyboard combinations are designed to enable use by the visually challenged. “You would be amazed to see the speed with which they manage the keyboard just using shortcuts,” he adds.

Working for web accessibility

iridium Interactive has also forayed into making and testing websites, intranets and software products accessible for the blind. Web accessibility for the blind has become a mantra of sorts for Sriram. A random survey of all the Internet sites of Indian origin revealed that most were inaccessible to the blind. In contrast, in most countries abroad accessibility to physical structures and cyber spaces including Internet sites are mandated by law. Ironically, 1% of India’s population (around 12 million people) suffer from some form of blindness and this number is estimated to go up to 24.1 million by 2020

Sriram has been lobbying with policy makers to make the necessary changes in the Disabilities law, the Right to Information law and other related statutes to make web accessibility a must. “Imagine the future scenario which would be further dominated by the Internet—the physically and visually challenged will be marginalised,” he points out. According to him India Inc is neither aware nor interested in taking steps to undo this. “We have approached several entities. It is not just the corporate, even government sites and social organisations are lagging behind,” he points out.

Most websites of Indian origin are not accessible to the blind. iridium redesigns them to make them so. But there are few takers.

At present though, iridium Interactiveis in the last leg of making rediff.com accessible. “The redesigning is not just for the blind, but for the colour blind, those with eye defects and weak sight,” he clarifies. According to him, most sites can be re-designed to make them accessible to all at just a fraction of the initial cost. If the accessibility is planned at the launch of a site, a separate section can also be designed. But there are not many takers.

Undeterred by the lack of enthusiasm, Sriram is striving on. For a Media Labs Asia and Rehabilitation Council of India initiative, iridium Interactive has designed and developed a website for the challenged, www.punarbhava.in This site hosts all rules and regulations –both domestic and international—on disabilities. It showcases all products and helping aids for the disabled. It has also put up a disability registry to help the physically challenged register for a certificate or for other facilities.

Software pros aid disability certification

Iridium was specifically assigned this task because it has already worked in the area of disability certifications. Going out to rural areas in Andhra Pradesh, software engineers from iridium conduct ‘disability melas’ over weekends and have awarded 6000 certificates of disability last year. “A disability certificate is very important for the challenged. It helps them access several benefits throughout life. But it takes nearly two years for a disabled person to get this document. So iridium has stepped in and works with the authorities to help speed up the process,’ Sriram says. The disability mela has also become an IT-fraternity and family- and -friends mela of sorts as everyone ropes in everyone they know and it is growing in popularity.

Software engineers from iridium Interactive tour rural areas in Andhra Pradesh during weekends to distribute disability certificates to the visually and physically challenged. 6000 certificates have been distributed in association with the authorities last year, speeding up the process which normally takes two years.

Working on solutions to help the deaf access multimedia content (which is captioned in detail), the blind to understand graphics (screen-readers that convey graphics and images too), and handicapped to work without a mouse, iridium has a fast growing business in this space too.

Among the various projects is an Intranet with a potential 10,000 users across a business school campus in the US which is to be made accessible to the handicapped.
Another revolves around making telecom products similarly accessible as well as software solutions for use in a call centre where the visually challenged are to be employed. For all of these assignments, iridium Interactive actively employs the services of the handicapped. “We have signed MoUs with organisations that care for the disabled and we hire them from there to help us in these assignments,” says Sriram. He plans to set up an Accessibility Lab in Hyderabad to facilitate further research and development in this area.

In the beginning there was some discomfort within the organisation and some “unchallenged” employees left, feeling challenged in the new atmosphere. But now it has become an accepted practice and people hardly discuss the issue. In fact, there have been instances where employees are inspired by the visually challenged in their midst and have worked harder. Isn’t this a grand vision that has made an HR practice turn into a corporate social responsibility activity, fuelling enterprise growth as well… …to Cause an Effect?

Remember Amitabh Bachchan pushing Rani Mukherjee to speed up her typing skills to pass her examinations in Black?

Visually challenged software engineers are part of the workforce at Sriram’s firm — iridium Interactive, which works towards making web pages accessible. Accessibility is more than making a website compatible to users grappling with bandwidth restrictions. It’s about making the pages friendly to the blind.

We spot Rakesh Paladugula, one of the visually challenged software engineers in the firm, trying to book railway tickets online.

Aided with screen reader software that reads out the contents of web pages, Rakesh usually works at a pace that makes his other colleagues to work harder. “I was diagnosed with Retina Pigmentosa as a child and lost my eyesight during my graduation,” he recalls.

Trained by Enable India, a Bangalore-based NGO, Rakesh fine-tuned his skill sets. At iridium, he conducts training sessions during the weekends. The firm has more professionals like him taking on varied tasks — from conducting training sessions to interacting with the US clientele.

“We hire trained challenged people as a HR strategy. They work twice as much as the regular employees do. They are eager to acquire new skill sets. This motivates the regular staff,” says Sriram. Each visually challenged person, when recruited, is trained for an hour or two to find their way in the office. Then, they are on their own. “We have inclusion programmes that help normal people learn to deal with their challenged counterparts. The moment you see a blind person, you tend to be too helpful. But trained people need no help. It’s amazing how they find their way across floors easily,” says Sriram.

Apart from the screen reader software, Sriram shows us how the websites can be reader-friendly to those with partial blindness. Two icons placed on the right upper corner can help increase and decrease the font size. Navigating through the webpage and working on a computer is simple thanks to the existing keyboard shortcuts.

In keeping with this, an eponymous portal for the differently abled community has been launched in India – developed by iridium Interactive, on behalf of Media Lab Asia, a unit of the Indian Department of Information Technology, and the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), a federal body dealing with rehabilitation of the disabled.

The first phase of the portal, http://www.punarbhava was launched in March 2008 by Smt. Meira Kumar Hon’ble Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment and Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology.

Punarbhava is an excellent example of the efficient use of ICT and the web medium for the betterment of the differently-abled.

The aim of Punarbhava is to create and run a comprehensive Internet Portal, which collects specialised information and useful services for all the people involved in the disability issue as an information database, sources of daily updated news and media for the development of the disability and rehabilitation sector in India.

There will be an array of resources like films documentaries, list of publications and institutions for users to download a repository of books in text, audio and multimedia mode. Not only that in schools where computer based printing system is available the text in language script or Braille script can be printed locally. Users could also access a complete database on NGOs working in the field of disability in India and network with sponsors for financing projects for the welfare of the disabled.. The user can view and even download all government orders, laws, circulars related to disability and disability certificate form. Not just this, the disabled-friendly texts in audio, video and multimedia mode will be cataloged and stored in web format for easy download.Besides, a dedicated section will be available for information on professional personnel and students being trained as specialists to deal with disability related issues. Currently there are 30000 such professionals in the country and an estimated 5,000 persons register themselves for fresh training every year. A closed user group would be launched to unite them and other stakeholders.

Punarbhava is a Pali word for “renewed becoming”. It refers to the process of rebirth after death and is synonymous with samsara. Rebirth in Buddhism does not mean reincarnation, in the sense of an eternal, separate soul transferring to a new body. Rather it is the continuation of the psyche with its conditioning and habits. Each rebirth is a new life.

Punarbhava is an excellent example of the efficient use of ICT and the web medium for the betterment of the differently-abled. The aim of Punarbhava is to create and run a comprehensive Internet Portal, which collects specialized information and useful services for all the people involved in the disability issue as an information database, sources of daily updated news and media for the development of the disability and rehabilitation sector in India. – added Pratap T. P., Chief Marketing Officer, iridium Interactive.

There will be an array of resources like films documentaries, list of publications and institutions for users to download a repository of books in text, audio and multimedia mode. Not only that in schools where computer based printing system is available the text in language script or Braille script can be printed locally. Users could also access a complete database on NGOs working in the field of disability in India and network with sponsors for financing projects for the welfare of the disabled” – added Manish Kumar, Practice Head, iridium Interactive.

The user can view and even download all government orders, laws, circulars related to disability and disability certificate form. Not just this, the disabled-friendly texts in audio, video and multimedia mode will be cataloged and stored in web format for easy download.Besides, a dedicated section will be available for information on professional personnel and students being trained as specialists to deal with disability related issues. Currently there are 30000 such professionals in the country and an estimated 5,000 persons register themselves for fresh training every year. A closed user group would be launched to unite them and other stakeholders. iridium Interactive has been actively involved in ensuring web accessibility and inclusion of the differently abled – and this was the main reason for leading organisations like Media Lab Asia & Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) to have selected iridium Interactive for this important assignment. It is a chance through the power of the Internet to unite on a global scale and influence matters in local, regional and international attitudes and thinking” – said Sriram Bharatam, CEO, iridium Interactive.

The yet-to-be-named portal whose beta version is doing the rounds is likely to be launched by the second week of February, Sriram Bharatam, the chief executive officer of Hyderabad-based iridium Interactive, which is designing the website with the help of NASSCOM Foundation, told Deccan Herald.

Developed using indigenous tools, the upcoming website is being considered a key achievement in aiding the visually challenged community to organise their lives with the power of the net.

At the NASSCOM Foundation, we are looking at different ways to bring the disabled people including the blind community into the mainstream. Giving them an option to search for jobs is one, the foundation’s CEO Rufina Fernandez said.

Other NASSCOM members are developing an inexpensive “screen reader” for the blind and developing technologies for them to operate automated teller machines (ATMs) without assistance. An inexpensive screen reader will reduce the burden on the employer to recruit the visually impaired as the licensing fee for existing readers are huge.

“The new job portal is an welcome step as almost one fourth of the world’s total blind population lives in India,” said Shanthi Ranganathan who heads Enable India, an NGO in Bangalore for the disabled community.

“Also if big business houses make their websites disabled-friendly, they will get additional customers,” she said, adding that some of the foreign business houses have gained financially just by doing that.

The UK-based supermarket chain Tescos has increased their sales just by making their website disabled-friendly as they too can navigate through the websites and place orders, claimed Mr Bharatam.

However, despite having legal protection in USA, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, most of the websites in these countries are not disabled-friendly. According to a survey carried out by an website standards magazine, among the official websites of Australia, Canada UK, USA and India, the Indian portal www.india.gov.in fared the worst.

Earlier this month, US officials had shared their experiences and offered assistance to Indian officials in a meeting in Bangalore.

iridium too is planning to recruit about 25 visually impaired people in three of its testing centres in Noida, Mumbai and Hyderabad. “We have already recruited eight and are planning to recruit more in these centres in the next three months so that all of them are up and ready by March 2007.

They will test all our disable-friendly products before launching,” said Mr Bharatam.

OTHER PLANS

*A screen reader to help the blind operate ATMs

*Inexpensive screen readers for employers

*Making business websites disabled-friendly

*Recruiting more visually impaired

A report commissioned by the United Nations recently found that none of the Indian websites tested met even the most basic accessibility standards for the disabled. “The results were very disappointing. It is important for commercial, legal and moral reasons that websites put in place a strategy for accessibility”, said Alex Metcalfe of Nomensa, the agency which tested leading websites in five different sectors across 20 countries for the UN.

In order to reach the minimum standards — tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) — websites needed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphical content so that visually impaired people could ‘read’ pictures. They also didn’t follow industry web standards for programming code, meaning the foundations for web accessibility simply were not there.

“Only eight to 10 websites of private companies are accessible to the disabled in India,” said Sriram Bharatam, founder of iridium Interactive who has advised many clients both in India and abroad on how to make their websites accessible.

But why don’t more firms keep accessibility in mind? “Companies, especially those in e-commerce, just don’t realise the market potential. For just 10% more cost, they can increase access and improve bottomlines,” points out Sriram.
Making a site accessible doesn’t mean replacing attractive graphics with an austere look and a big typeface. “I tell people, don’t get rid of the flash players or animation but just provide users an alternative,” adds Sriram.

iridium, which is setting up three web accessibility testing centres, is also working with the Nasscomm Foundation on its disability initiative.

“The web isn’t just about information. Nowadays, employment also depends on one’s technology quotient,” points out Rufina Fernandes, CEO of Nasscom Foundation. The Foundation is trying to improve web accessibility by working on guidelines that could apply to both government and private websites.

“The aim is to formulate criteria so that organisations can make their web initiatives accessibility-standards compliant,” adds Rufina. Some simple changes — such as describing graphics and audio using text, allowing the user to increase typesize or change background — can make a site friendly to those with disabilities.

The government, too, has finally made a start, with the ministry of social justice and empowerment setting the process in motion. “We have written to the DG, National Informatics Centre in this regard. But since certain compliancy standards have to be formulated and all government websites redesigned, it might take some time,” said Ashish Kumar, deputy director general.

Till then, small tasks like making a railway reservation or checking their bank balance will be out of bounds for the millions who are disabled in the country. Says Charudutta Jadhav, visually challenged former national chess champion who navigates cyberspace with a screen-reader (a software utility that reads web pages out aloud, “A simple thing like reading a newspaper can be a great joy. And only web access can make it possible.”