Accessibility :

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• Accessibility
• Assisting the Print Disabled Community

28 January 2009
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Agenda

• Introduction
• The Digital Inclusion
• Accessibility
• Legislation
• Users with Problems Using ICT
• Dyslexia, Phonological Processing, Literacy
  Levels, English as 2nd Language
• Technicalities of Browsealoud
• Conclusion
• Questions Answers

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Introduction

• When technology delivers basic needs,
• user experience dominates
• - Donald Norman

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Digital Inclusion

• The power of the web is in its universality.
  Access by everyone regardless of disability is an
  essential aspect.
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee W3C Director and Inventor of
  World Wide Web
• Digital Inclusion aims to make digital and online
  technology an integral and beneficial part of
  everyones lives

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Digital Inclusion

• In the UK
• Over 2 million people are blind or partially
  sighted
• Over 8 million people have literacy problems/
  learning difficulties
• Over 10 million people are registered with a
  disability
• Source Guidelines for UK Government Websites,
  The Cabinet Office
• Source Guidelines for UK Government Websites,
  The Cabinet Office

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Reducing the Digital Divide

• ICT has become a central part of everyones
  lives, and presents significant opportunities
• However, low levels of inclusion in the
  information society increased fears of social
  marginalisation for disadvantaged groups
• On-going initiatives by British Government to
  ensure inequalities become less significant and
  prevent further widening of a digital divide.

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Digital Inclusion

• Scottish Executives Digital Inclusion Strategy
  is aiming to make digital technology in Scotland
  an integral and beneficial part of everyones
  lives.
• In Scotland
• Significant group with poor literacy skills
• Of that, significant group are not aware of
  assistive technology
• Those who need it most cannot afford it!!
• Evidence shows that certain disadvantaged groups
  such as disabled people, older people and those
  living in deprived areas, remain digitally
  excluded.
• Digital Inclusion Strategy 2006 Scottish
  Executive

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Accessibility

• PAS 782006
• Publicly Available Specification 8 Mar 2006
• ability of people with disabilities to
  perceive, understand, navigate and interact with
  websites

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Meaning of Disability

• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Disability
• - Meaning of disability and disabled person
• a person has a disability for the purposes of
  this Act if he has a physical or mental
  impairment which has a substantial and long-term
  adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal
  day-to-day activities.

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Disability Equality Duty (DED)

• Disability Rights Commission
• (DRC) has written produced a
• Code of Practice on the disability
• equality duty for the public sector.
• This new duty was introduced in the
• Disability Discrimination Act 2005
• came into force in December 2006
• in Scotland.

www.dotheduty.org
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Which organisations are subject to the general
duty?

• 1.22 The Act states that the general duty applies
  to public authorities. The general duty will
  therefore apply for example to
• Scottish Ministers, Scottish Executive
  departments and executive agencies (such as the
  Education department and its executive agency HM
  Inspectorate of Education, or the Justice
  Department and the Scottish Court Service)
• local authorities
• governing bodies of higher education
  institutions, colleges and universities
• education authorities
• NHS boards
• Chief Officers of Police, Police Authorities, the
  Independent Police Complaints Authority, the
  Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
• The Crown Office
• courts and tribunals (for exceptions in relation
  to courts and tribunals see paragraph
  5.10)inspection and audit bodies such as Audit
  Scotland
• certain publicly-funded museums.

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• It now places a duty on all public authorities,
  when carrying out their functions, to have due
  regard to the need to
• promote equality of opportunity between disabled
  persons and other persons
• eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under
  the 2005 Act
• eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is
  related to their disabilities
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled
  persons
• encourage participation by disabled persons in
  public life and
• take steps to take account of disabled persons
  disabilities, even where that involves treating
  disabled persons more favourably than other
  persons.

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Users with Problems using ICT

• Dyslexic
• Intellectually Impaired
• Deaf
• Hard of Hearing
• Blind
• Low Visual Impairments

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Browsealoud

• Browsealoud is text to speech software designed
  to assist the print disabled community, for
  whom literacy levels or sight problems prevent
  on-line inclusion.

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Browsealoud

• Legislation Guidelines
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 2005
• W3C Guidelines
• To meet PAS 782006
• Disability Equality Duty (Dec 2006)

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Browsealoud will assist

• Dyslexia and other literacy and learning
  difficulties
• Limited English Proficiency
• English is not a native language
• Mild Visual Impairments

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Dyslexia?

• Many definitions e.g.
• A specific difficulty with information processing
  and the speed of processing information
• Language Based Specific Learning difficulty -
  problems with phonics, short-term memory,
  sequencing and organisation
• Dyslexia comes from the Greek language meaning
  'difficulty with words'.

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Dyslexia

• People with dyslexia and related reading
  disorders find it difficult, time consuming and
  intimidating to read online content
• It is estimated that 10 of people in the UK have
  Dyslexia to some degree and up to 4 are severely
  Dyslexic (over 2 million people) British
  Dyslexia Association 2007
• The Dyslexia Institute estimates that Dyslexia
  costs the UK economy 1 billion per annum.

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Symptoms of dyslexia
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Reading Speed

• The problem
• Those with dyslexia tend to read slowly, so they
  may have forgotten a sentence before it is
  decoded.
• Research shows that dyslexic readers improve
  reading comprehension if they are made to read
  faster than their own pace (Breznitz 1991)

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Visual Difficulties

• The problem
• People with dyslexia experience visual
  difficulties.
• These may cause subtle destabilisation of visual
  perception that interferes with ordering letters.
• This may not be detected by a standard optician's
  assessment, which only assesses focussing.

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Visual Difficulties

• The solution
• There is evidence that using yellow or blue
  coloured overlays or glasses or exercises
  designed to steady eye control can greatly help
  individuals with their reading (Dyslexia Research
  Trust)
• Weve shown that about one third of children
  with visual reading problems can be helped
  greatly by cheap yellow, negative blue,
  filters. Yellow cuts out the blue end of the
  spectrum and thus bolsters the visual
  magnocellular system that controls the focus and
  movements of the eyes.

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Phonological Processing

• Phonological processing, decoding the words and
  allowing the reader to concentrate on
  assimilating words and meaning.
• Text-to-Speech
• Highlights words as they are read

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Literacy Levels

• Over 7 million people have literacy problems
• Literacy levels are lower in populations with
  poorer socio-economic backgrounds.
• Nearly 4 out of 10 adults in some parts of the UK
  cannot read or write properly or do simple sums
• (Source National Needs and Impact Survey of
  Literacy, Numeracy and ICT Skills, DfES, October
  2003)

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English as a Second Language

• Digital Inclusion Strategy states there is a
  need for exploring the role and potential of ICT
  learning in support of teaching English for
  speakers of other languages (ESOL)
• People who speak English as a second language are
  better able to understand English when it is
  spoken rather than reading it themselves
• 3 million people in the UK were born in countries
  where English is not the national language

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Mild Visual Impairments

• LONDON (Reuters) - Retired people are starting
  to prefer browsing the Internet to more
  traditional pastimes such as gardening, travel
  and DIY. Their top Internet activity was
  e-mailing and looking for information .
• Research shows older generation are in danger of
  becoming digitally excluded
• Eighty per cent of people with sight problems in
  the UK are 65 or over. Their eyesight is effected
  by conditions such as macular degeneration or
  cataracts.
• (Source RNIB)
• Silver surfers Reuters Feb 2007

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Person with Cataract Problems reading page
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Browsealoud Technicalities

• Increases digital inclusion and improves the
  accessibility and usability of your website for
  visitors with literacy difficulties or visual
  impairments.. How?
• With Browsealoud your website content is
  delivered on an additional two levels
• Audio . Positioned Sound
• Visual .. Positioned Highlighting

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Browsealoud - Colour Highlighting

• Feature
• Dual Colour Highlighting.
• Sentence Highlighting
• Synchronised word highlighting with speech
• Users can select colours to suit requirements.
• Benefit
• Dual Colour Highlighting while speech enabling
  content is a proven means of improving
  comprehension, studies show an increase in
  reading grades.

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Colour Highlighting - Website

• Browsealoud performs the task of phonological
  processing, decoding the words and allowing the
  reader to concentrate on assimilating words and
  meaning.
• Text-to-Speech
• Highlights words as they are read

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Browsealoud Dictionary, MP3 and Magnification

• Assistive Learning through Talking Dictionary
  helping those with English as a second language
  Learning and Literacy difficulties
• Conversion to MP3 PDF HTML text saved to a
  sound file - saving time money.
• Learning on the move can be helpful in
  sequencing text. The listener can visualise parts
  of the text when they are in a relaxed
  environment.
• Magnification of text especially useful for
  those with mild visual impairments

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Conclusion

• Onus on Public Bodies to be more pro-active and
  not re-active to disability issues.
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995 makes it
  unlawful for a service provider to discriminate
  against a disabled person. They must make
  reasonable adjustments for disabled people,
  such as providing extra help or making changes to
  the way they provide their services.

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• Disability Equality Duty 2006 requires all
  public bodies to actively look at ways of
  ensuring that disabled people are treated
  equally.

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• THANK YOU
• Questions?
• www.browsealoud.com
  p.griffiths_at_browsealoud.com

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Who uses Browsealoud?

• Community of websites
• 380 Government websites availing of the service
  in UK and Ireland
• 1000 enabled websites
• 2 million downloads of the Browsealoud plug-in
  from UK and Ireland citizens

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Features

• Free download for end-user
• Customisable settings
• Choice of High Quality Voices
• Text Magnification Display Option - ticker tape
  display
• Dictionary definition facility
• Ability to change pronunciations
• Converts text to MP3
• Client-side technology, no effort for webmaster!

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What can Browsealoud read?

• HTML
• Alt Tags behind pictures
• Hyperlinks
• https (credit card sites)
• MS Word Docs
• Intranets and Extranets
• PDF documents

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Colour Highlighting PDF
Browsealoud will read by word, sentence,
paragraph or continually. The speed can also be
adjusted. The reader can focus on the task with
less danger of distraction. Browsealoud appeals
to multi-sensory learning. The user can hear and
see the text as they follow it.
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Subscription process

• To have Browsealoud on your website.
• Subscribe to service.
• Place download link on your homepage.
• Works on all pages hosted by your URL
• Works with Static and Dynamic (fed by a Content
  Management System) Websites
• We handle all the end-user support

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UK Sites
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Summary

• Browsealoud helps the print disabled community
  (20 population) access on-line information
• Improves accessibility of your website
• Zero effort for Webmasters/Web Managers
• Free technology to website users
• Any website speech enabled in 15 minutes
• Aim to build a Community of Websites

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www.browsealoud.comp.griffiths_at_browsealoud.com