New UK Disability Rights Commission Campaign - Open 4 All

Hot off the press from the DRC:

New DRC campaign: Open 4 All

On the 3rd of October the Disability Rights Commission is launching a year-long campaign to raise awareness of new duties under the Disability Discrimination Act that come into force on the 1st of October 2004. These duties will mean service providers such as pubs, clubs, gyms and swimming pools, hospitals, restaurants and shops will all have to make ?reasonable adjustments? to their premises or the way they provide their services to ensure they are not unreasonably difficult for disabled people.

The launch of this campaign will see:
- publication of research illustrating the experiences of disabled people in accessing services in England, Scotland and Wales, targeted at national media;
- a series of photos of disabled celebrities appearing in consumer media, taken by celebrity photographer James Gooding, aimed at raising awareness of the issues disabled people face when trying to access buildings;
- ?Inside Out? PR stunts aimed at regional media in Manchester, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Cardiff, which will transplant poor access scenarios (such as a visit to the dentist or restaurant) onto the street
- the launch of a new "Open 4 All" microsite, www.open4all.org, giving service providers and disabled people information about the law and practical information on how services providers can meet their duties.

The DRC will undertake a range of activities aimed at local authorities, the health, leisure and retail sectors over the next six months. From April next year, with six months to go before the legislation comes into force, we will focus on raising disabled people?s awareness of their new rights.

To find out about other campaign activities going on, please visit the Open 4 All microsite soon.

To order the Code of Practice, which set out the legal position for these new duties, contact the Stationary Office by:

Telephone: 0870 600 5533
Email: book.orders@tso.co.uk

For practical advice and information targeted at different kinds of service provider, visit the microsite, www.open4all.org or contact the Disability Rights Commission?s Helpline:
Telephone: 08457 622 633
Textphone: 08457 622 644
Fax: 08457 778 878
Email: enquiry@drc-gb.org.

The List-o-Saga

First there was the unordered list. And it was good. But soon people got bored of it. "I know," said one enlightened follower of CSS, "Let's sex it up a bit". And lo, soon there were many lists and very sexy they were too, but they were much dispersed and needed to find their own place where they could all be happy little CSS lists together. Along came Listamatic and everyone was happy. For a while.

But soon it came to pass that the Listamatic was not-a-matic, and so List-O-Matic was created. It was Automatic. For the People.

Then, just because he could, JZ threw down a gauntlet: "Let he who is without sloppy code craft the first Dreamweaver extension." A one-time tarot card reader from the East stepped into the fray and picked up the gauntlet and asked one of his servants to do his bidding. It was good and the people celebrated the third coming of of the tool now known as List-o-rama.

The end? I'm waiting for the List-O-Ramifier-Omatic to come along :D

New List-Making Tool for Your Pleasure

Well, in all the excitement of sending the URL to other people for initial feedback, and the feedback and links back being nothing short of brilliant, I almost forgot to mention on this page a new tool that I put live:

List-O-Matic - A tool for generating list-based navigation styled with CSS

That pretty much sums up what the tool does, but feel free to play around with it for yourself. The styles there at the moment are based entirely on Listamatic's interpretations/re-workings of existing sites, but it would be easy to add in new styles. If you want to suggest a CSS file, drop us a line using the contact us page and we'll check it out. If it's good, it'll be added to the tool with a credit/link back to yourself.

Update: Expect a Dreamweaver Extension that does something VERY similar in the next couple of days ... watch this space for a link

AccessifyForum partnered with e-access bulletin

I'm pleased to announce that the forum is now partnered with e-access bulletin.

This means when you sign up to the forum you are also offered the opportunity to sign up to the bulletin by ticking the box on the form.

If you're already regsitered and want to sign up please visit your profile, check the box, and submit the form.

Open Source Accessibility Validation

Tim Roberts is in the early stages of developing an Open Source accessibility validation tool, currently planned to validate against WCAG 1.0 and in future Section 508 and WCAG 2 when it arrives.

For more information please see the thread on the forum. Please get involved in the development if you can spare some time.

DRC Strategic Review - Final Reminder

Just got this from the UK Disability Rights Commision:

The Disability Right's Commission's 3-month consultation on how we should focus our work over the next 3 years closes on 19th September.

We want to hear the views of as many stakeholders as possible - including disabled people, organisations of and for disabled people, employers, educationalists and service providers, trade unions and central and local government.

To view "Focus on Change" (the background information document) and complete the online questionnaire please follow this link:

http://www.drc.org.uk/campaigns/strategicplanconsult.asp

Microsoft IE Patent Court Case Update

"A federal judge 'rejected Microsoft's post-trial claim that Eolas had misrepresented the facts in the patent case, which claimed the software giant had stolen browser technology relating to plug-ins. The ruling came after a $521 million verdict against the software giant last month, and ends Microsoft's first attempt to challenge the result.'"

Spotted by Zeldman, or jump straight to the ful story.

Discussion of: Microsoft IE Patent Court Case Update

The Guardian covers website accessibility and the DDA

Following on from Jack Schofield's scathing rant in The Guardian in late July against ignorant "Decorators with keyboards" who produce inaccessible, nonstandards-compliant websites as the norm ("I would love to see a few designers thrown in jail..."), Cliff Joseph has written an excellent non-technical overview of the implications of the DDA for owners of corporate websites:

Access all sights
If your company has a public website, it needs to be accessible - and that's the law.

Companies running websites that throw up barriers to disabled users could soon receive a startling reminder of their responsibilities - in the form of a lawsuit demanding they defend their designs in court.

(Read the full article)

Yet another wake-up call for site owners and developers alike. And yet more ammunition for those of us who struggle to get "the message" across in a tough commercial climate -- which really means presenting a compelling and robust business case for accessibility and standards-compliance as a specific goal. Evidence in print like this should help.

Nigel comments: Nice one Dennis, good stuff.

Discussion of: The Guardian covers website accessibility

Macromedia and HiSoftware, Flash Accessibility

HiSoftware just announced Hi-Caption SE:

"HiSoftware, Inc. today announced the release of Hi-Caption SE and AccRepair for Macromedia Flash MX 2004. These solutions provide developers worldwide with the first comprehensive tools for managing captioning and the accessibility of their Flash projects...."

HiSoftware Announcement

Hisoftware are also involved in the new controls in Flash MX 2004.

RNIB Web Accessibility Seminars

Lis Angle just announced this on the forum..

"RNIB is running Web access seminars across the UK in October and November, in conjunction with AbilityNet. The seminars are aimed at web designers of all levels. They will include presentations, demonstrations and discussion groups. We will demonstrate that the inclusive approach to web design is both practical and achievable. More information and an online registration form can be found at http://www.rnib.org.uk/webseminars. The seminars are sponsored by Standard Life, and places are charged at the subsidised rate of £50 per delegate."

AccessifyForum: RNIB Web Accessibility Seminars

More accessible beauties ...

As a follow-on from the piece about attractive and accessible sites, I decided to start a running list here of any new submissions. No screen shots, no fancy write-ups, and it's really only here on the front page for update-anywhere convenience (thank you Blogger). So, the additional list begins [newest first]:

• Lee Jeans [Finally, a biggie corporate type!]
• Pardons [large non-profit organization in Canada]
• Designory [UK web agency]

I will add to this list as I get more submissions - please bookmark the link for this post and visit later.

Note: please don't bother submitting anything unless you have validated your markup (HTML or XHTML) and CSS and have made the necessary accessibility checks. Also note that a table-free layout alone or valid XHTML does not automatically make your site accessible.

Discussion of: More accessible beauties ....

Visionary Design Awards - Your Nominations Wanted

The UK's National Library for the Blind (NLB) will be staging the 2nd Visionary Design Awards ceremony in London on 2nd December 2003. The Awards celebrate best practice in accessible web design for visually impaired people.

NLB is calling for nominations of websites which demonstrate best practice for an Award. Anyone can nominate a website, including the owner and designer of the site as well as site users. You can nominate as many sites as you want, provided the content of the site is written for a UK-based audience.

Prizes will be awarded to the website owners in the following categories:

• News/Information: i.e. media outlets or information services like train timetables etc.
• Youth: Websites designed for children or teenagers
• Government: national, devolved or local government
• Voluntary Sector: not for profit organisations
• Commercial Sector: Any commercial business offering services over a website

The achievement of the designers of each site will also be recognised.

Details of last year's winners are on-line at http://visdesign.nlbuk.org.

Please include in your nomination the name of the organisation or a contact name, the website address and any comments you have about the site to support the nomination.

All nominations must be received by 4pm on Friday 10 October 2003. Nominations can be sent by email to visionary-design-nominations@nlbuk.org, by phoning +44 161 355 2000 or by writing (print, Braille or audio) to NLB, Far Cromwell Road, Bredbury, Stockport, SK6 2SG United Kingdom.

RNIB Accessibility Resources

Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) in the UK has launched a set of new accessibility information pages on its site today....

Full Story: RNIB Accessibility Resources

Discussion of: RNIB Accessibility Resources