Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen1 Internet for All l Internationalisation beyond English l Accessibility for disabled

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen2 Internet for All l Internet/Web should be available for everyone, including »People who dont know English »People with disabilities l Be aware of this when designing websites and software!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen3 International Internet l Character sets l Localised web sites l Computer translation

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen4 Character Sets l ASCII – only English »Standard in USA? »Still used for Internet names l Latin1 – also other W Euro Latin alpha »French, German, Swedish, … »Accented chars, eg é ß å æ »Other, eg £ ¿ »Standard in UK

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen5 Unicode l Unicode »Add support for Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, … –Also Linear B, Cherokee, hieroglyphics, … – l Unicode is just a character set, need to install font as well »Complete Unicode font came with Office 2003

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen6 Unicode l In principle supported by all major programming languages, web browsers, operating systems, etc »In my experience problems can arise, though »Java support for Unicode is not perfect

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen7 Bidirectional texts l English written left-to-right l Hebrew, Arabic written right-to-left »But embedded English left-to-right »Does strange things to page layout

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen8 Java and Unicode l Notes for Java programmers »Use Character methods –isDigit, isLetter, etc –Dont assume letters between a and z! »Dont assume chars take one byte

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen9 International Domain Name l Internet software/standards assume names are in ASCII » -- OKabdn.ac.uk » -- not OKwww.uquébec.ca – insteadwww.uquebec.ca l Unfair ….

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen10 International Domain Names l International Domain Names (IDN) »Allow Unicode in names »Based on encoding Unicode as ASCII l Spread is slow »Standard now agreed, but not yet universally implemented. »ICANN will allow Unicode top-level domains

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen11 Localisation l Web sites localised for different places »Language, currency, text direction, etc –Spelling: eg, colour vs color »Local news, offers »Culturally differences –Images: modestly dressed women for muslims –Names: Icelanders dont have last names

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen12 Example l In-depth: office.microsoft.com »Requires a lot of work! l Shallower: google.com

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen13 Internationalisation l Making one web site (or Java app) which is maximally useful worldwide »Language: simple English »Forms: allow Unicode, dont assume people have last names or postal codes »Avoid images that might offend some

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen14 Java again l Java Locale class specifies info about local formats, char sets, etc »Locale.UK, Locale.JAPAN l Use Locale-aware methods »Collator for string comparisons »NumberFormat for number input/output »etc

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen15 Translation l Ultimate goal is to let people read web pages in other languages »translate.google.co.uk »Quality variable, (slowly) getting better »Widely used by many non-English speakers

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen16 Accessible Internet l Not everyone uses mouse and screen to access the Internet! »Visual, motor, cognitivie disabilities l How can we help such people use the Internet? »With a little bit of effort, developers can really enhance accessibility

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen17 Visual Disabilities l Colour- blind »Developers: dont assume people can see when something is red! l Poor vision »Need large fonts, screen magnifiers »Developers: DO NOT HARD-CODE FONTS IN WEB PAGES!!! –It may look nice to you, but means someone with poor vision cannot use it

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen18 Visual Disabilities l Blind »Screen readers: speak out web pages »Braille displays: display text in braille »Embossed printers: print braille l Screen readers most common »Essentially scan through a web page »Developers: –Include ALT tags for images –Remember that blind user will not see entire page!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen19 Motor Disabilities l Poor hand control »Use keyboard instead of mouse »Developers: allow keyboard control!! l No hand control (or no hands) »Scanning interface, controlled by switch –Head switch, sip/puff »Need special interface

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen20 Example: Scanning interface

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen21 Cognitive Disability l General »Keep things simple and clear l Dyslexia »Avoid white backgrounds, dont justify texts, avoid italics

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen22 Disabilities l Plenty of guidelines exist » l Following them makes websites more useful to disabled people, probably helps normal people as well »Helps mobile access in particular l Just need to make the effort!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen23 Legal Aspects l Increasing legal requirement that websites be accessible to disabled »Especially for (quasi-)govt sites, such as Aberdeen University l Good business sense as well »Biggest disabled group is elderly, and they have lots of money to spend

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen24 Internet For All l Developers (us) have moral duty to make our products available to all »People with limited English »People with disabilities l Also legal duty, sensible business l Tools exist, we need to use them!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen25 Recap: Helping *Everyone* l Internet should benefit ***everyone***, not just middle-class non-disabled English-speaking Westerners l Essential for true e-society!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen26 Helping *Everyone* l How should Internet be used in third- world countries »Bangladesh vs India vs Chile l How can Internet help people at bottom of heap in UK »Will growth of Internet hurt people who cannot or will not use it?

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen27 Helping *Everyone* l How can we make websites universally useful »Non-English speakers »disabled l How should the Internet be controlled (governed) »So that it helps everyone!