IBM
IBM's new Web Adaptation Technology (WAT) software allows a
disabled internet user to configure web pages to be presented the
way he or she wants to see them, changing backgrounds, text,
colours and opting for speech, according to preference.
A user's preferences are stored on a server, and every time the
user logs in with his or her unique username and password, the web
is tailored to that user's needs.
Speaking to news site TheRegister.co.uk, Mark Wakefield, IBM's
corporate community affairs manager, said, "It turns the issue of
accessible web sites on its head".
He continued: "It will be many years before the majority of
sites are accessible. Rather than wait to get them converted, WAT
enables people to manipulate web pages now."
Home users and not-for-profit groups who can distribute the
service to elderly or disabled users can sign up to the service for
free. Disability charity AbilityNet is supporting IBM in
distributing the service throughout the UK.
The service does not change the legal obligation on
organisations to make their web sites accessible to the disabled
and IBM is not suggesting that the service is a silver bullet to
accessibility; but it is nonetheless a welcome development.
PDFs
Meanwhile, Open Access's EnablePDF service, which will be
available shortly, assists organisations in making their sites more
accessible.
This service deals with Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, which are
commonly used to publish documents on-line but which are often
inaccessible to disabled users.
Adobe has done a lot of work in recent years to address this
issue and the provision of tagging functionality means that
correctly formatted and tagged documents will adhere to
accessibility guidelines.
The issue for organisations is one of creating the documents
with the correct tags. This requires software programs and staff
with the relevant training and, even with these resources, it can
be a time consuming and costly task.
To address this problem, Open Access is developing a web based
service whereby companies will be able to upload their PDF
documents and have them returned to them with the relevant
accessible features added.
For an organisation that has large volumes of inaccessible PDFs
available on-line, services like EnablePDF could make it more
difficult to argue that it cannot justify the work necessary in
making the information accessible.
