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Internet Sources providing advice to service and system designers concerning good design principles

Papers/Reports

1. Access to Multimedia Technology by People with Sensory Disabilities - A National Council on Disability paper from March 13, 1998. The report was developed with the advice of NCD's Tech Watch Task Force, a group of experts in technology and disability from around the USA.
2. SUN Brings power of Java to users with disabilities - Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the preview specification for its JavaTM Accessibility API, which will enable Java developers to write applications that many more of America's 40 million people with disabilities can immediately access and use.
3. Articles - The Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT), includes Adapting Web Browsers for Accessibility.
4. Keyboard Shortcuts for Windows - From Microsoft's Knowledge Base online technical support.
5. Free Pint Issue 14 - Deafblind Web Access - An article by James Gallagher who describes the issues that affect him as a deaf/blind user of the web Deafblind Link. He has his own web site at http://www.deafblind.com/
6. Giving Sight To The Blind On The Web - A New York Times article by Debra Nussbaum. "Curtis Chong has been using the World Wide Web for three years to look up topics like music, fund-raising and medical research. He also uses it as a way to teach and encourage other blind people to get on the Web. How does someone who cannot see the screen navigate the computer and Web, which is full of glitzy graphics and icons?"
7. Accessible Design for Users With Disabilities - A 1996 article by Jakob Nielsen, a SunSoft Distinguished Engineer.
8. A variety of Library of Research Papers at ATRC at the University of Toronto.
9. Mail List Discussion -- Accessible for All? New Information Technologies, Libraries, and Users with Disabilities. Kellogg CRISTAL-ED Mail List, January 1999.

Projects/Initiatives

1. Betsie - Betsie stands for BBC Education Text to Speech Internet Enhancer, and is a simple Perl script which is intended to alleviate some of the problems experienced by people using text to speech systems for web browsing.
2. TechDis - A JISC service aimed at enhancing access for those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, to learning and teaching, research and administration across higher and further education through the use of information and communication technologies.
3. Digital Media Access Group - An expert accessibility consultancy. The site includes services, research activities and resources.
4. National Center for Accessible Media. - The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a research and development facility that works to make media accessible to underserved populations such as disabled persons, minority-language users, and people with low literacy skills.
5. Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). - From the W3C; commitment to lead the Web to its full potential includes promoting a high degree of usability for people with disabilities. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), in coordination with other organizations, is pursuing accessibility of the Web through five primary areas of work: technology, guidelines, tools, education & outreach, and research & development.
6. Best Viewed With Any Browser: Campaign for a Non-Browser Specific WWW. - A private campaign, although not particularly addressing the needs of disabled users, covers a lot of the issues by calling for accessible site design.
7. Designing a More Usable World. - Designing a More Usable World provides not only basic information about concepts like universal and flexible design, but also many related guidelines, standards, tools and ideas. This section of the site is a cooperative venture hosted by the Trace Center and is a repository for universal design materials created by individuals, companies, disability groups and others from all over the country and the world. Designing a More Usable World contains sections on individual types of technologies and how to make them more usable as well as general guidelines and standards which apply to many different types of technologies.
8. Adaptive Technology Resource Centre - ATRC at the University of Toronto. The ATRC is both a services and a research & development centre that focuses on solutions for persons with disabilities and universal design.
9. The Alliance for Technology Access. - The Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) is a network of United States community-based resource centers dedicated to providing information and support services to children and adults with disabilities, and increasing their use of standard, assisstive, and information technologies.
10. The Accessibility Guidelines Implementation Project. - From the HTML Writers Guild this project is designed as a way of "beta testing", in actual use on the "front lines" of web design, the WAI page author recommendations from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Software/Hardware

1. Assistive Technology Sources - Also listed under Pages with Links this site includes an excellent list links to Assistive Technology Companies.
2. Welcome to Access at Adobe - Access.Adobe.Com is a tool that allows blind and visually impaired users to read any document in Adobe PDF format. The tool converts PDF documents into simple HTML or ASCII text which can then be read by a number of common screen reading programs that synthesize the HTML as audible speech.
3. Microsoft's Accessibility Home Page aims to "provide information and tools that can help remove barriers and make the world more accessible." Microsoft have a charitable outreach program called Equal Access.
4. Sun Microsystems' Enabling Technologies Program. - Enabling Technologies is responsible for developing architectural strategies and solutions to benefit users with disabilities. An "enabling technology" is one which improves system access, system control, and overall task productivity for ALL users. The current focus is on building an accessibility architecture for Java.
5. IBM Special Needs Home Page. - IBM has developed a number of assistive devices and software tools that make the computer more accessible and friendly to people who have vision, hearing, speech, mobility, and attention/memory disabilities. These products include everything from interactive speech and cognitive therapy tools, to screen reader software and keyboard access utilities, to screen enlargement programs.

Web Page Design

Guides/Guidlines

1. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. - These guidelines (the guidelines) explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines are intended for all Web content developers (page authors and site designers) and for developers of authoring tools. The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. This document is part of a series of accessibility guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative. The basics can be taken from the WAI Quick Tips Reference Card.
2. The Web Design Group: Accessibility. - Includes Why Write Accessible Web Pages? Accessibility Tips: What you can do to improve the accessibility of your site and Accessibility Myths: Common myths and strawman arguments against accessibility.
3. Use of ALT texts in IMGs. - An article by The Web Design Group which was founded to promote the creation of non-browser specific, non-resolution specific, creative and informative sites that are accessible to all users worldwide.
4. Guide to Writing Accessible HTML - By Jan Richards of ATRC, University of Toronto.
5. Inclusive Web Design - How to Create Accessible Web Pages - Presented by Kevin Nguyen and Jutta Treviranus at the Seventh Annual World Wide Web Conference, Brisbane Australia, April 14th, 1998. Includes links to further readings and references.
6. Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design - Jakob Nielsen's assessment of the implications for the usability of a website today if the mistake was made frequently on the site.
7. Article at About.com What do the Accessibility Guidelines Mean to Me? and a page of links about Creating Accessible Web Pages.

Services

1. Bobby - Bobby will analyze single web pages for their accessibility to people with disabilities. Bobby will also examine a page's HTML to see if it is compatible with various web browsers or HTML specifications.
2. Web-Savvy: Inclusive Web Design. - By the Centre for Academic and Adaptive Technology at University of Toronto. This is an example of a commercial service.
3. Web Page Purifier - Checks your HTML to published standards.
4. Lynx Viewer - This service allows web authors to see what their pages will look like (sort of) when viewed with Lynx, a text-mode web browser.

Institutions

1. RNIB - Web site for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, United Kingdom.
2. American Council of the Blind
3. The American Foundation for the Blind
4. The National Federation of the Blind

Pages with Links

1. WAI Reference List on Web Accessibility - The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) addresses accessibility on many levels, in partnership with the many other organizations around the world which are committed to ensuring that this new technology is accessible to all.  This WAI Reference List on Web Accessibility highlights the work of many organizations around the world in improving accessibility for people with disabilities.
2. Accessibility Guidelines Implementation Project - Links Page - These links are adapted from the W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative's resources links. They mainly link to documents and guidelines for accessible web page authoring.
3. WebABLE! - Claims to be the authoritative Web directory for disability-related internet resources. Their accessibility database lists hundreds of internet based resources on accessibility.
4. Assistive Technology Sources - Includes an excellent list links to Assistive Technology Companies and a number of internet Disability Resources.
5. Links to Guidelines for Developing Accessible Software - Part of the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media research into enhancing the accessibility of CD-ROMs for students who are blind or visually impaired.
6. Web resources and Interesting Links - a comprehensive, but dated (last updated June 13th, 1997) list from IBM Special Needs.
7. Web Resources - By the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto. From this page you can branch off to several categories of web related resources on adaptive technology.
8. Blindness Resource Center This page is an index for a variety of pages linking sites dealing with area's of interest such as Access to the Internet and Web, Low Vision Resources and Research and Innovation.
9. Deafblind Link - This site gives excellent insight into the problems faced by Deafblind people when using computers and the internet. It provides links to a variety of information. An article by the site author James Gallagher, appears under Papers/Reports.
10. National Center to Improve Practice. - A varied set of links, with a strong USA bias.
11. The Accessible Web Page Design list from disABILITY Information and Resources.