Creating HTML5 Techniques for WCAG 2.0
Written by Joshue O Connor Wednesday, 01 February 2012
Creating an inclusive Future Internet: Web 2.0 applications for all
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Press release: 26th October 2011
A consortium of researchers and user organizations from across Europe is investigating the accessibility of Web 2.0 applications for disabled and older people. The group will then create new tools to help developers produce applications that are more accessible to these groups.
Read more: Creating an inclusive Future Internet: Web 2.0 applications for all
CFIT at Include 2011
Written by Antoinette Fennell Thursday, 09 June 2011
At the end of April, CFIT’s Antoinette Fennell attended Include 2011 in London’s Royal College of Art Helen Hamlyn Centre as presenter and session chair for one of Europe’s leading inclusive design conferences. The conference, as always, was packed to the brim with exciting inclusive design developments and was attended by over 200 delegates from 29 countries.
The theme of Include 2011 was ‘Inclusive Design Making Social Innovation Happen’. So rather than focusing on how inclusive design needs to adapt to keep up with emerging design trends, this year’s conference explored how inclusive design itself can in fact lead to innovative concepts and design approaches. The theme intended not only to take the focus of inclusive design out of the specific and into the mainstream, but also to demonstrate how (or if) the mainstream has been influenced by inclusive design.
Notes from #CSUN11
Written by Joshue O Connor Thursday, 31 March 2011
I recently attended the 26th International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference in San Diego, CA. CSUN (or #csun11 if you do Twitter) has long been one of the worlds biggest and best Assistive Technology conferences attracting many diverse groups with interests such as the Web, AT, who come together to share research findings.
Many hot topics were discussed like HTML 5, new development tools were discovered old friends met and new friends made!
Inclusive Teaching of Inclusive Design
Written by Antoinette Fennell Monday, 17 January 2011
CFIT’s Antoinette Fennell and Mark Magennis were both involved in the National Disability Authority (NDA) Centre for Excellence in Universal Design’s 24 Hour Universal Design Challenge 2010 on 26th and 27th November.
We're Recruiting for a Part-Time ICT Accessibility Researcher
Written by CFIT Jobs Thursday, 14 October 2010
We're currently recruiting for a part-time ICT Accessibility Researcher to work on our European research projects. The work concerns how to address the needs of older people and people with disabilities in the design of digital Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as Web 2.0 applications, IPTV and mobile devices and services. User testing is a major part of the job.
This is a part time post, 17.5 hours per week, on a 30 month fixed term contract starting in January 2011. Deadline for applications is Friday 5th November.
Read more: We're Recruiting for a Part-Time ICT Accessibility Researcher
Does the knowledge society include people?
Written by Mark Magennis Wednesday, 29 September 2010
On Monday I attended the conference on Delivering the Digital Agenda in Ireland and Europe.
It was all about Ireland's and Europe's plans for growing the European digital economy and combating the digital divide. In short, about creating an effective knowledge society that works for all of us.
However, the concept of the knowledge society (or information society as it used to be called) seems lately to have been diluted down or repackaged as the digital economy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the current economic crisis, all the talk concerning digital technologies is about using them for growth, economic performance and jobs. These things are very important of course, but if we think they're are all that matters we're in danger of missing something or damaging something. That something is society and the ability to participate in it. All the things, other than jobs, that this entails for the 4.2 million men, women and children of Ireland.
Longdesc is dead! Long live Longdesc!
Written by Joshue O Connor Friday, 20 August 2010
The future of an important mechanism allowing the creation of accessible images using HTML5 hangs in the balance after a working group decision to remove it from the specification - despite the recommendations of their own expert working group to keep it.
Have Your Say on the New Public Services Smart Card
Written by Antoinette Fennell Friday, 06 August 2010
The Department of Social Protection (formerly the Department of Social and Family Affairs) is currently developing a new Public Services Card, available to all Irish citizens, which will contain smart card technology.
One potential role of the proposed public service card is to provide more secure access to welfare benefits and to reduce the amount of benefit fraud. It is also proposed that the free travel pass, for those people who are entitled to free public transport, will be incorporated into the card.
NCBI is preparing a guideline document to pass on to the Department, aiming to improve the accessibility of the card and its related services. We would like to hear your experiences, both positive and negative, relating to smart cards and smart card services.
Read more: Have Your Say on the New Public Services Smart Card
Ideas for student projects in accessible ICT design
Written by CFIT Projects Tuesday, 06 July 2010
Students in ICT & Design are always looking for exciting and worthwhile subjects for MSc or undergraduate projects. People with vision impairments have come to us with some great ideas for projects that are cutting edge, socially useful and which NCBI CFIT would be able to support with advice, expertise and practical asistance.
A lot of these make use of new mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad which, in many ways, are ideal for vision impaired and older people. All are achievable and we hope some of them will appeal to bright students who can turn them into solid conceptual designs or working applications.
Read more: Ideas for student projects in accessible ICT design
Encouraging disabled web users to demand accessibility
Written by Mark Magennis Friday, 25 June 2010
People with disabilities in many countries have a legal right to access information and services on the web. Legislation such as the Disability Act 2005 and the Equal Status Act 2000 here in Ireland, the Disability Discrimination Act in the UK and the Americans with Disabilities Act in the United States mandate accessibility of services delivered to the general public. This right often extends to services delivered online. Although the web is rarely mentioned explicitly in such broad-based disability legislation, supplementary codes of practice and court decisions often confirm that the legislation does encompass services delivered through the web.
The problem is that these legal rights are often denied and doing something about it can be a daunting and difficult task. To make it easier for people with vision impairments in Ireland, NCBI has created an easy to read guide to exercising your right of access to information and services. Much of this guidance applies equally to persons with any disability.
Read more: Encouraging disabled web users to demand accessibility
Do you want accessible Bus time Information on your mobile phone? Then get involved and take our survey!
Written by Joshue O Connor Tuesday, 22 June 2010
As you may have seen in our recent article, NCBI Centre For Inclusive Technology are working with Dublin City Council (DCC) to find out what mobile devices and platforms blind and vision impaired people (VIPs) are currently using to access the web and how easy it is for the web to be used to find Bus times and other travel information.
So please take the our Internet and Mobile Phone Survey and let us know what kind of mobile phones you are using and your experiences. We need to hear from you to make this happen!
Accessible Public Transport and Wayfinding For Vision Impaired Users
Written by Joshue O Connor, Fiona Kelty and Hilary Casey Friday, 11 June 2010
The issue of accessible public transport is one that is very important to blind and vision impaired users, and to us in the
Read more: Accessible Public Transport and Wayfinding For Vision Impaired Users
Research Proposal: Accessibility Support for Non-HTML Web Technologies
Written by Mark Magennis Monday, 22 February 2010
This proposal is for research into the state of 'accessibility support' for key web technologies that present significant barriers for web users with disabilities. Examples include PDF and Flash. We're looking to do something significant in this area, either alone in Ireland or in collaboration with others internationally. We are particularly interested in assisting a student who wishes to do an MSc by research and is looking for a challenging, interesting and socially important research project. We are also keen to share with others within the international accessibility community who are working on this issue and who would like to combine knowledge, trade opinions and perhaps work together to further refine our proposed approach.
Read more: Research Proposal: Accessibility Support for Non-HTML Web Technologies
We're Recruiting for an ICT Accessibility Researcher
Written by CFIT Jobs Thursday, 21 January 2010
We're currently recruiting for an ICT Accessibility Researcher to work on the VICON project. VICON (Virtual User Concept for Inclusive Design of Consumer Products and User Interfaces) will address the needs of people with age-related sensory and physical impairments in the design of mobile phones, white goods and other Information and Communication Technologies. This is a 27 month fixed term contract starting in April 2010.
NOTE: Application call for this position is now closed.
Read more: We're Recruiting for an ICT Accessibility Researcher
Are PDFs More Important Than Web Accessibility?
Written by Mark Magennis Friday, 04 September 2009
We recently did an audit of a website where probably close to 99% of all the information it contained was in downloadable documents, mostly PDFs. These documents contained a lot of the stuff you'd usually find on a website – structured text, data tables, application forms, complex diagrams, graphs and other images. None of those we looked at were accessible. We wondered what we should advise the client to do about it.
WAI-ARIA finally added to HTML5
Written by Joshue O Connor Friday, 28 August 2009
WAI-ARIA is an incredibly powerful technology that allows developers to easily describe the purpose, state and other functionality of visually rich user interfaces - in a way that can be understood by Assistive Technology.
WAI-ARIA has finally been integrated into the current working draft of the HTML 5 specification.
XHTML is dead - Viva HTML5?
Written by Joshue O Connor Friday, 17 July 2009
Recently the
The Future of @summary in HTML 5
Written by Joshue O Connor Wednesday, 15 July 2009
There will soon be an HTML 5 working group vote on whether the summary attribute (@summary) should be reinstated in HTML 5. Joshue O Connor of NCBI CFIT is writing the first draft of the text that will be reviewed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). It is currently obsolete. Our view (and that of others with experience of accessibility in the HTML 5 WG) is that @summary should be re-instated. It is true that there are potentially better solutions for what @summary does, but currently what @summary does - it does well.
Where is the business case for accessibility?
Written by Mark Magennis Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Working in digital accessibility often feels similar to technical writing, where you can spend months writing user manuals that nobody ever reads. Accessibility practitioners can feel similarly ignored. What we say seems self-evident to us – that all products should be made accessible to the widest audience. It's so obviously a good idea, it benefits everyone. But the world at large just doesn’t seem to get it. Why is it that so many new products are still inaccessible and why does there seem to be so little evidence of commitment to accessibility among manufacturers and service providers? A research report has just been published which sheds light on some of the main reasons. And the main one seems to be the lack of a convincing business case.
NCBI CFIT publishes research on digital exclusion
Written by Mark Magennis Wednesday, 24 June 2009
According to recent research commissioned by NCBI CFIT, people with disabilities and older people in Ireland are on the wrong side of a growing 'digital divide', potentially leading to widespread social exclusion. One of the causes of this is the inaccessibility of many mainstream information and communication technologies, particularly websites and other internet-based technologies. This has major negative implications for businesses and government, as well as for the excluded individuals themselves who will find it more and more difficult to communicate and access services in an increasingly digital world.
Read more: NCBI CFIT publishes research on digital exclusion
Can accessibility be left to the marketplace?
Written by Mark Magennis Friday, 19 June 2009
Our recent experiences lobbying for the accessibility of Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) after analogue switch-off in 2012 have raised questions of who is responsible for ensuring digital accessibility and digital inclusion. These questions have implications beyond DTT, for e-government, education and the information society as a whole.