2 |2 | Overview of the presentation What is disability? What is the global situation for persons with disabilities? What is accessibility? What is ICT and why is it important ? What is accessibility in a web context?

3 |3 | What is disability? Disability is a difficulty in functioning, as experienced by an individual with a health condition in interaction with contextual factors.

4 |4 | Persons with Disabilities 650 million people live with disabilities 200 million children 80 per cent of persons with disabilities live in developing countries.

5 |5 |  lower rates of education  higher rates of illiteracy  lower rates of economic activity

6 |6 | Guiding Documents ●UN Standard Rules on the Equalization of Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities ●UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ●Resolution WHA58.23 on Disability, including prevention, management and rehabilitation

7 |7 | Accessibility To enable persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life. Physical environment, Transportation, Information and communications, including information and communications technologies and systems, Services

8 |8 | What is ICT ? “ICT” - a generic term for information and communication technology – for example, software applications such as management information systems, student/ staff/ patient/ client record systems, word processing systems, systems, virtual or managed learning environments; web sites and web based applications; intranets; audio and videoconferencing facilities; and assistive technologies. The term also covers digital information in its many various formats.

9 |9 | What is it important? ICT provision and support –technology must be a tool to allow staff, students and others to do their jobs, receive education or other services. Digital information creation and publication – the nature of the information produced by ICTs, must be accessible to staff, students and the broader public. ICT in learning and teaching –ICT must support individuals staff and students in an educational context.

10 | What must ICT do ? Facilitate the use of sign languages, Braille, augmentative and alternative communication and all other accessible means, modes and formats of communication

11 | What must we do ? Promote equality of opportunity  Avoid exclusion i.e. job advertisements  Provide additional dedicated services i.e. specific training  Positive attitudes  Involve users i.e. choice, impact etc

12 | Internet utilization Source: (accessed 11 October 2007)

13 | What is accessibility in a web context? For visually and hearing impaired Can you read the text on the screen? Is it clear what is clickable? Can screen readers interpret pages? For mobility impaired users Are clickable items easy to 'grab'? For mental disabilities Is the writing clear and understandable? Are the texts short and jargon free?

14 | A specific example - WHO site

15 | Accessibility on What Focus on visual, mobility, hearing and mental disabilities Tested against best practice guidelines including W3C standards Why WHO aims to be inclusive, allowing access to information for all We provide information as a public good – to all the public UN treaty implicating us

16 | Accessibility assessment results WHO site offered reasonable accessibility Where there were problems, tended to be the same throughout (i.e. wrong but consistent) Some recurring problems were very simple to correct Content available in the 6 languages increases accessibility; screen readers available in many languages including Arabic

17 | Results – what we fixed Ensure all images have helpful, descriptive alternative texts Problem because screen readers can't interpret properly Woman lying on a sofa

18 | Results – what we have fixed More meaningful link texts (i.e. not 'click here') Problem because screen readers often read them in an order different to the one we see on the screen.

19 | Results – what we have fixed Some code changes so the html is rendering correctly for screen readers (header tags, content groupings) Transcripts of podcasts are posted with audio files for hearing impaired users. Training materials have been updated to reflect these issues Guidance is being prepared –Presentation of audio/Flash files to ensure accessibility –Preparation of pdf files to ensure accessibility

20 | Good news - related benefits Most changes for accessibility correspond to good web practice. Changes for accessibility will normally improve your findability by search engines such as Google. User feedback has confirmed the benefits of the changes made. It will be to persons with disabilities that we will turn for ongoing feedback.

21 | Thank you