Disability Design Helps Web Users
From: Inter@ctive Week - November 2, 1998 - page 300
By: James E. Gaskin

IBM Corp. made a small news splash this month with the announcement of its
upcoming Home Page Reader, a new kind of browser based on Big Blue's ViaVoice
OutLoud software speech synthesizer and Netscape Communications Corp.'s
Navigator client software. 

The browser, which IBM (http://www.ibm.com) says will be out in January 1999
for a price of $149, aims to "close the gap" between sighted and visually
impaired Web users. 

But many designers believe taking visually impaired Web users into account
from the beginning of every Web page design helps all users. Home Page Reader
recognizes HyperText Markup Language (HTML) tags, or nondisplayed fields
inside the Web page description language, to accurately translate text,
tables, and graphic descriptions into speech. 

"Even within the IBM environment, many people turn the graphics off on their
Web browser because they just want the information, not the graphics display"
says Paul Luther, marketing programs manager at IBM's Special Needs Systems
unit. "It's extremely important for Webmasters to provide descriptions and an
alternative text version of the Web site information."  

Bruce Alexander, chairman of the Web Accessibility Special Interest Group for
the National Association of Webmasters, blind himself, says that Webmasters
are excited by gadgets, such as flashing banners that can cause epileptic
seizures and audio clips that the hearing impaired can't hear. 

According to Alexander, roughly 20 percent of the US population is disabled
in some way, and businesses need to remember this when creating Web sites.
"Why put barriers in the way of potential customers?" asks Alexander, who
runs a successful e-commerce retailing site (http://www.bbalexander.com).  

"Companies selling overseas should remember that many users don't have
Windows or the bandwidth to support lots of graphics, so accessibility really
helps them, too," he adds. 

IBM's Luther is proud of the work his company has done to encourage
accessibility. IBM offers guidelines for building accessibility into home
pages on its Special Need Services Web site (http://www.ibm.com/sns). 

"It's not harder to design an accessible Web site if you have the tools and
information."  Alexander says. 

The World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org) also is behind the effort.
The W3C created the Web Accessibility Initiative more than a year ago. The
group's Web site includes developing guidelines for Webmasters and designers.
Those guidelines include text description of all graphics and straight
navigation paths through the sites. 

"Global Web standards would avoid problems like the different TV standards in
the US and Europe," Alexander says.