resources: access & technology

Email Newsletter on Technology & Visual Impairment

The E-Access Bulletin is a new email newsletter on technology issues for people with visual impairment and blindness.

It can be read at: www.e-accessibility.com

It is sponsored by the Royal National Institute for the Blind (www.rnib.org.uk), the National Library for the Blind (www.nlbuk.org), and the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (www.gdba.org.uk).

Subscribe by emailing eab-subs@headstar.com with 'subscribe eab' in the subject header.

Below are a few sample items from the February issue.

SAMSUNG DEVELOPS DIGITAL GUIDE DOG HARNESS

The Korean electronics giant Samsung has developed a prototype digital guide dog harness which combines the use of the GPS global satellite positioning system with the ability to record vocal notes.

The harness works in tandem with a wrist-mounted device, and together the system will help guide dog owners achieve even greater independence and track new routes, according to a report in this week's Electronics Weekly magazine (web site www.electronicsweekly.co.uk - although the story only appears in the printed version, cover date 16 Feb).

Since 1992 Samsung has funded Korea's only guide dog school. See: www.samsung.com/community/animal/ani01.html

resources: access & technology

CALIFORNIA DREAMING ABOUT INDEPENDENT BANKING
By Kristof Burek

It was a trip to California that led one woman to decide last year that enough was enough for visually impaired bank users in the UK.

Monica Davie has a visually impaired father, and had observed with increasing frustration the difficulties he routinely encountered in accessing the UK banking system. Inspired by finding Braille symbols on cash dispenser machines on a visit to California, on her return she began to raise interest among blind and partially sighted people in the UK in forming a group of consumers to talk to the banks about making their services accessible.

The fruit of this work was the Visionary Banking Project, set up in May last year to push for independent, confidential banking for visually impaired people.

The project is urging banks to realise the potential of various technologies that research shows can benefit visually impaired customers and others.

Many of the major UK banks have offered some level of provision for their visually impaired customers for a number of years, such as bank statements in Braille or large print, or instruction booklets on how to operate their cash machines in a limited way. Many also offer telephone banking services, which can be ideal for visually impaired customers.

However, there is little consistency between the banks, or even within banks. And as many building societies became banks, the proportion of banks offering any kind of accessible services has dwindled.

In October 1999, part three of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act came into force in the UK. This makes it unlawful for anyone offering services directly to the public to discriminate against people with disabilities in offering the service, unless any such discrimination can be shown to be "reasonable".

However, although the banks' reaction has generally been positive, they have also sometimes appeared complacent. They are still not establishing as a matter of course whether their customers have any special needs, and nor has the consistency in the levels of service offered by different banks improved. There seems to be much resistance in making automated facilities such as cash point machines and kiosk services accessible to visually impaired customers.

The project has built up a contact list of about 50 visually impaired people and many relevant organisations including the RNIB, the NFB and the British Bankers' Association, and is establishing a firm basis to be a credible consumer group to feed ideas to the banks, influence research and measure whether the banks are providing acceptable levels of accessible services.

Among its short term goals are to ensure all banks improve the lighting near cash machines; mark all machines with clear embossed symbols; and distribute comprehensive tactile instruction booklets on their operation. It is also urging banks to create an easily accessible and widely-known point of contact for all disability issues.

In the longer term the project feels it is realistic to expect widespread availability of accessible cash machines, kiosks, and other delivery channels such as Internet and mobile phone banking.

END NOTE: If you wish to express your support for this project or can help in any way, please contact Monica Davie on Monica.Davie@dial.pipex.com or telephone: 01483 502426; or Kristof Burek on Kristof.Burek@dial.pipex.com, telephone: 020 7700 0568.

resources: access & technology

E-EUROPE TARGETS 'DISAPPOINTINGLY WEAK'

The Royal National Institute for the Blind has attacked "disappointingly weak" proposals from the European Commission's eEurope initiative for improving accessibility for all to the information society.

While welcoming the general aims of eEurope, the RNIB said in its official response that "the targets and objectives with regard to blind and partially sighted people are far below what might have been expected".

In particular it said that the needs of disabled people should have been considered throughout the document, and not just in their own section. "A major failing of the communication is the 'ghettoisation' of the access needs of disabled people in section seven . . . the theme of access should run throughout the areas of action . . . Indeed, the targets in the other sections could not be successfully met without the incorporation of disabled people".

Thus for example the programme's targets for employment; the cost of accessing the internet; and access to healthcare online should all take into account the importance of accessibility to blind and visually impaired people, the RNIB said.

The most extreme criticism was reserved for the commission's "inexcusable" blunder of releasing the eEurope document only in an online format - pdf - that is not itself accessible. The RNIB said it was "extremely disappointed to find that, ironically, a document with a significant section on accessibility for disabled people, was not in fact accessible to blind and partially sighted people".

The RNIB said that the accessibility targets which were set in section seven were too distant. "By the time they come into effect they will be meaningless. The targets are also unnecessarily weak, with too much emphasis on commitments and not enough on actions".

Thus for example the commission has proposed a target by the end of 2001 that: "The commission and member states should commit themselves to making the design and content of all public web sites accessible to people with disabilities". The RNIB says this target should specify full adherence, not just "commitment".

Further revised and additional targets suggested by the RNIB include:

"By end April 2000: The European Commission and member states should adopt the standards of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in relation to the design of web sites, web authoring tools and agents.

"By end April 2001: All for-profit and public sector web sites must adhere to WAI standards to ensure full participation.

"By end 2001: Development of a piece of browser software that people with disabilities can use to browse the web, that is written to WAI standards and that can read web sites that are written to WAI standards. This software should be distributed to disabled net users at no cost."

The full RNIB response is at:
http://www.rnib.org.uk/digital/eeurope.htm

And the eEurope home page is at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/information_society/eeurope/index_en.htm
 

CSUN 2000 Papers
The California Technology and Disability Conference attracts thousands to its March annual event. CSUN papers can be read on line at:  www.csun.edu/cod/

resources: access & technology

NEW, IMPROVED BETSIE

BBC Online, the most popular web service in Europe, has released an improved version of BETSIE, the web-based system which translates its web pages into plain text without frames. The new version allows visually impaired users to alter the settings however they wish, changing the colour scheme or font size for best visibility.

BBC software developer Wayne Myers estimates that BETSIE is used to view around half a million BBC web pages every month. As well as the blind and visually impaired, he says users of BETSIE include an ever-growing number of people with portable handheld web access devices, who also require plain text output.

The BETSIE home page is at:
www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/