508 E-Learning

Texas Department of Information Resources Accessibllity and Usability Resources

The Texas Department of Information Resources has put together an excellent page with general resources for accessibility and usability.  Furthermore, they have specific links to law and guidelines that apply to Texas government websites.

http://www.dir.state.tx.us/general_info/accessibility.htm

Additional information about accessibility programs in Texas is available from the Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities at http://www.governor.state.tx.us/disabilities/.

Color Blind Web Page Filter

This is a useful tool that lets you see how your web page will look for someone with different types of color blindness.  Simple to use, just enter your web page address and it shows it to you through a filter.

http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

Christine Rigden of BT.com has a very informative public service site, Safe Web Colours for Colour Deficient Vision.

Linearity

Linearity
Sighted persons interact with a page as a two-dimension
surface, allowing them to correctly interpret a wide range
of layouts without difficulty. By definition, a person
reading a page with a voice browser will encounter the
page contents linearly as a one-dimensional stream of
words. The goal of accessible design is to have an
approach that gives reasonable freedom for 2D layout,
yet is intelligible when read linearly.

One aspect of linearity is the tendency of page designs to
put large obstacles, such as a table of contents repeated
on every page, between the beginning of each page and
its contents. Systematic use of “Skip to Main Content”
links at the beginning of the page is one approach to
solving this problem.

Via http://staff.washington.edu/rells/stc2005/

OMB launches e-guide for Section 508 compliance

The General Services Administration has developed an electronic guide to help agencies comply with Section 508 requirements to make electronic data accessible to federal employees and members of the public with disabilities.

Agencies must follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation for Section 508, including adhering to standards for accessibility by persons with disabilities when purchasing electronic and IT products and services.

GSA’s wizard, available at www.buyaccessible.gov, can determine if Section 508 applies to an acquisition, identify which standards apply, develop wording for a procurement solicitation and document the compliance.

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard

NIMAS is the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard contained in Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). 

The U.S. Department of Education has endorsed the NIMAS as the preferred approach for publishers to provide accessible curricular materials to students in grades K-12.   Essentially, NIMAS is "a standard of guidelines for the production of digital source files for print-based materials based on XML and the DAISY Consortium's ANSI/NISO 239.86 file format standard, the purpose of which is to enable publishers and others to provide standardized source files of their content from which a variety of outputs can be produced.

NIMAS Resource Page

The goal of NIMAS is to have content reside in central repository (NIMAC) where authorized personnel can access it. 

Furthermore, Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings has announced the final regulations to implement Part B the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA). An official copy of the final Part B regulations of the IDEA will be published in the Federal Register on August 14, 2006.  NCDAE has collected the items that pertain to NIMAS

1. A summary of changes to NIMAS
2. The Department of Education’s analysis of comments and change
3. The final regulation, including the technical standard

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template

What is the Voluntary Product Accessiblity Template (VPAT)? 

VPAT is a document created by the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). to assist Federal contracting officials and other buyers in making preliminary assessments regarding the availability of commercial "Electronic and Information Technology" products and services with features that support accessibility.   Today, a number of electronic & information technology (E&IT) companies now routinely produce VPATs^TM, post them on their company web sites, and link them to GSA's "Buy Accessible" web site. 

Sample Software VPAT's

• Adobe
• Microsoft

Fact Sheets for E-Learning Technologies

The National Center on Disability and Access to Education has fact sheets on a number of commonly used E-learning tools including:

• Macromedia Breeze
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Microsoft Word
• Adobe Acrobat
• Common Content Management Systems

NCDAE also has a series of archived webcasts on accessibility:

• April 26, 2006 - Mobile Education and Access for Students with Disabilities
• February 28, 2006 - NIMAS in IDEA, What You Need To Know Now
• November 30, 2005 - Student Information Systems and Individuals with Disabilities
• September 14, 2005 - Electronic Accessibility in Library and Information Services
• June 22, 2005 - Accessible Distance Education Technologies and Techniques
• April 20, 2005 - Computer-based Assessment and Testing: Access or Accommodation
• February 17, 2005 - Electronic Accessibility in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
• December 1, 2004 - Research and Development of Accessible Technologies
• October 26, 2004 - Accessible Education Policy: Points of Possible Influence

BSI Guide to Commissioning Accessible Websites

The 63 page guide from the British Standards Institution to help companies commission accessible websites is now free of charge. 

http://www.drc-gb.org/library/website_accessibility_guidance/pas_78.aspx

It is a good reference for setting up specifications for outside vendors who are developing your E-Learning or your website.  The legal references are to British law--the rest is universal. 

Via NCDAE

STEP508

The General Services Administration has released a software tool that prioritizes repair of accessibility errors on agency Web sites.

The Simple Tool for Error Prioritization, or STEP508, prioritizes the results that come out of other applications that test Web sites for violation of Section 508 of the 1998 Rehabilitation Act Amendments. Such apps include Bobby 5.0 from Watchfire Corp. of Waltham, Mass., and WebKing from Parasoft Corp. of Monrovia, Calif.

STEP508 compares the results from multiple testing apps and identifies the ones that are most critical for compliance. It also tracks an agency’s performance in meeting Web accessibility goals. . STEP508 (Simple Tool for Error Prioritization for Section 508 compliance) is available as a free download.

STEP508 uses the output of accessibility evaluation tools (such as Bobby, LIFT, WebKing etc.) and

• Compares the results of these evaluations (how your site performed on Bobby vs. LIFT, WebKing, etc.)
• Prioritizes the errors/accessibility problems that were identified (identifies the errors that are most critical to fix to make your site accessible)
• Tracks the progress of your accessibility repair efforts over time (gives you a baseline "score" and provides metrics to quantitatively monitor/report your improvements)

Accessifyforum.com - An interactive accessibility community

Accessifyforum.com is a forum based community where you can discuss topics such as Accessibility in Practice, Legal Issues and Standards, News and Resources and even get your site critiqued. 

http://www.accessifyforum.com/