The Case for the Use of Plain English to Increase Web Accessibility

1

• The Case for the Use of Plain English to Increase
  Web Accessibility
• Cornelia Boldyreff, Liz Burd, Joanna Donkin, and
  Sarah Marshall

2
Overview

• TCS Project Background
• Accessibility needs of deaf people
• Importance of Accessibility
• The Role of Text as Basis for Translation to
  Speech and other languages, e.g. Sign language
• The Current Situation
• Employing Readability Measures
• The Plain English Campaign
• Benefits for All

3
The Company

• The Council for the Advancement of Communication
  with Deaf People (CACDP)
• Develop National Standards in various methods of
  communication with deaf people
• Market examinations in Sign Language, Deaf
  Awareness and Deafblind Awareness
• Produce products and tutor packs to aid in the
  teaching of these courses

4
The University

• University of Durham
• Mainly in the Computer Science Department
• Research in Software Engineering (RISE) Group
• Expertise in Web Development, Process
  Improvement, Internet Technologies, Software
  Reuse etc

5
The Project

• CACDP wish to
• extend their current market share by offering
  Deaf Awareness and Deafblind awareness
  examinations online.
• offer an online version of their Directory of
  Sign Language Interpreters.
• develop expertise within CACDP in web
  technologies and development.
• identify the potential market for future
  web-based products and services.

6
Progress so far

• 14 months into 2 year project
• 4 work products to be completed
• Deaf Awareness Online Teaching Package
• Online Directory of Sign Language Interpreters
• Deafblind Awareness Online Teaching Package
• Deaf Community and Culture Online Teaching Package

7
Transfer of Knowledge

• From University to Business
• Process improvement
• Web development expertise
• Software development
• From Business to University
• Practical experience
• Business processes
• To the Associate from both parties
• Work experience
• Development experience
• Research experience

8
Accessibility needs of the deaf

• 20 of surveyed potential users of the CACDP web
  site use BSL as the first or preferred language.
• Many deaf people who use SL have difficulties
  with both spoken and written English and they
  tend to dismiss as jargon any unfamiliar English
  words.
• The W3C Accessibility Guidelines recognise the
  particular needs of people who communicate
  primarily in sign language for clear and simple
  language.

9
Barriers to Access

• Deaf people in general do not need specific
  assistive technology to improve their access to
  the web although the increased use of audio is
  becoming problematic.
• The textual content of web may pose a barrier
  where it has not been rendered in plain language.
  
• The quality of alternative text transcripts if
  these exist makes these a poor substitute for the
  corresponding audio/visual content.

10
Text Translators

• Although there are many text-to-speech
  translators/browsers, the widespread realisation
  of text-to-sign translators has yet to be
  achieved.
• Although text-to-sign is more challenging than
  text-to-speech, it is the ultimate goal to
  achieve equal access for SL users.
• The structure of BSL means that sign-for-word is
  not possible in general.
• Plain language is obviously easier to translate.

11
The Current Situation

• The Visicast project is combining 3D avatar
  animation, advanced computer linguistics, novel
  discourse notation and innovative transmission
  methods to offer deaf people parallel access to
  broadcast, internet and retail transaction
  services enjoyed by the hearing community.
• Research at the Trace RD Center by Zimmermann
  and Vanderheiden is addressing the concept of
  "translation on demand" providing a network-based
  translation service available anytime and
  anywhere that may be human or computer based (or
  both).

12
Tessa
Tessa is a virtual human who communicates in BSL.
She is controlled by speech. (from the UEA web
site demo - UEA are a partner in Visicast)

13
Employing Readability Measures

• Readability measures provide an indicator of just
  how simple and clear a text is.
• Readability analysis of texts from both the
  CACDPs current web site and some of deaf
  awareness course content produced surprising
  results!
• None of the measures is specifically aimed at how
  measuring readability for people whose first
  language is not English, or for SL users.
• These measures would be more useful if they were
  directly related to the web page under
  development, and authors were given more specific
  help in their interpretation.

14
The Plain English Campaign

• There have been many campaigns to simplify
  everyday language in common use.
• The Plain English Campaign, has targeted both
  public and corporate documents aiming to fight
  for crystal-clear language and against jargon,
  gobbledygook and other confusing language.
• In recent year, the PEC has turned its attention
  to the web, addressing not only the text content
  but also layout and navigation.
• There is a lack of automated tool support for
  checking the text content of a site.

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Benefits for All

• Although English is the predominant language
  used on the web, it is not the first language of
  the major of Web users, including Sign Language
  users.
• Plain language avoiding slang and jargon aids
  comprehension and avoids cultural basis.
• Dyslexics and those with learning difficulties or
  simply limited literacy find simpler vocabulary
  and grammar easier to handle.
• Text-based translators can handle plain language
  more easily than complex language.

16
Bobbys Advice

• Using clear and simple language promotes
  effective communication. Access to written
  information can be difficult to impossible for
  people who have cognitive disabilities, learning
  disabilities, or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
  This consideration also applies to many people
  whose first language differs from that of the web
  page. Thus, plain language is a basic
  requirement for almost all web developments.

17
Future Considerations

• We need to find effective ways to determine
  whether or not the language content of a web site
  is clear and simple.
• Readability measures can provide an indicator,
  but more research is required.
• Partially automated analysis and manual repair is
  the current state of play.
• The specific requirements of translation need
  further consideration.