Web Access Centre Blog

We’re very excited to release a beta version of our Surf Right Toolbar. The Surf Right Toolbar is designed to make adjusting certain options within Internet Explorer quicker and easier, using either the mouse or keyboard. Developed by RNIB and the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C) the Accessibility Toolbar is a free download and currently in beta version. We’d love to hear what you think of it and any ideas for additions that you’d like to see by emailing us at webaccess@rnib.org.uk.

Download the Surf Right Toolbar (Beta)

Who the toolbar is for

The Surf Right Toolbar is really for anyone who wants to adjust the way they view content on the web to make it easier to read. This could include people with mild disabilities, the elderly, people with reading problems, cognitive problems, using dial-up, photosensitivity and so on.

Toolbar features

Most of the functions that the Surf Right Toolbar offer are available via the Internet options tab in the browser however many people don’t always know that they exist or how to find them. What we wanted to do was group these into a toolbar giving easy access.

• JavaScript On/Off button: this allows people to enable and disable JavaScript for security reasons or to stop a page updating content automatically.
• Styles: this buttons switches off styles so the visual formatting off a webpage disappears and looks much simpler.
• Images On / Off button: switching images off may be useful if you are using a screen reader or screen magnifier or if you are using a slow internet connection. Removing animated images also protects people with epilepsy or photosensitivity from seizures.
• Flash On / Off button: people may wish to turn Flash movies and animations off if they find them distracting whilst trying to read the text content of a page
• Text resize options: smallest, small, medium, large and largest options are available.
• Custom styles: nine different style sheet are available for people to try out and choose from.
• Options: allow people to configure general options for Internet Explorer including setting the home page and adjusting font and colour preferences. This screen also allows people to set your security and connection options.

Benefits

The toolbar is designed to make people’s surfing experience easier and give them more control over web content. Specific benefits include:

• Large clickable buttons: give clear information as to if they are “On” or “Off” as they have green ticks for “On” and red crosses for “Off”.
• Keyboard short cuts: are available for all options in the toolbar
• Keyboard accessibility: all options can be accessed either using a mouse, pointing device or by keyboard only.
• Saved preferences: once options have been set these remain for all pages you look at and not just the page you are currently on.
• Cross purpose: the toolbar can help anyone when accessing the web and is not restricted to people with sight loss.

Download

Download the Surf Right Toolbar (Beta) from the RNIB site.

Feedback and future development

The Surf Right Toolbar is still a work in progress or “beta” version. As such, we’re interested in receiving feedback on it including any bugs you may find during use. Please email any feedback you have to webaccess@rnib.org.uk with the subject “RNIB Accessibility Toolbar - Feedback”.

Help and resources

Full instructions on how to use the toolbar, install and uninstall it are available on the Surf Right Toolbar help pages. If you’re looking for more information on how to browse the web then the following may be useful:

• Using the Internet: RNIB advice on browsing the web, access technologies and customising browser settings.
• BBC My Web My Way: explains the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible for you.
• Ability Net: is a national charity helping disabled adults and children use computers and the internet by adapting and adjusting their technology.

At W4A today there was a demo given of WebAnywhere which is a free screen reader that can be accessed from any PC anywhere. Produced as part of the University of Washington and the WebInSight project from the Univeristy of Washington the software will be fully available in MAy 2008.

WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card.

All you need to do is switch a PC on, plug in your headphones, execute a couple of keyboard commands so that you open up the WebAnywhere home page, switch it on and away you go. What sets WebAnywhere apart from other text-to-speech software, free or otherwise, is that it can be used on any website rather than only sites where that software is installed.

This is fantastic on so many levels:

• Enables people who can’t afford costly screen readers to access the web
• Enables people with slight sight problems who don’t yet use a screen reader but may want audio support to have it
• You can use it on other PC’s and laptops if you’re traveling or unable to access your own i.e in libraries, schools and colleges
• Enables people with reading problems to get reading and audio support
• People browsing in a second language can use it to help understand written text
• Is an additional tool in the web developers toolbox when testing websites for accessibility

The software is also open source which is a huge bonus.

Visit their site to see WebAnywhere being demo’ed.

Today I attended a presentation at CSUN on Creating Blogs, Podcasts and Use of Social Media Tools with Screen Readers presented by Mika Pyyhkala from the Association of Blind Citizens.

The focus of the session was to walk blind and partially sighted users through how to blog using Wordpress, use Twitter, Facebook and what poscasting tools there were out there. It was a really well thought out presentation which was written up in a Wordpress blog together with tools, resources and links. This was made all the better as everyone was sat at a laptop or PC all of which had a screen reader running.

Twitter was the area Mika seemed most excited about and talked the most in depth about. In fact his enthusiasm was such that when he asked how many people in the room used Twitter only two said yes. By the end of the session people were signing up and following his feed.

Most social networking sites have a way to go to make them truly accessible to all users with disabilities but it is great to see people taking advantage of these tools as far as they canm and Mika’s resources are a great place to start if you want to get into it. I’m a true believer in signing up to Facebook, Twitter and blogging in order to spread the word about web accessibility as well as keep up to date with what is going on.

Join us on Facebook and Twitter and follow news soundbites as well as updates on what we are up to.

With the help of Barrier Break Technologies we have pulled together a list of Jaws and WindowEyes keystrokes for Flash and PDF. These are based on certain versions of each screen reader, Flash and PDF. Most of these are standard keystrokes but useful to flag within the context of using or testing accessible Flash and PDF. Also included are some useful links.

We’d be interested to hear your feedback, how you get on with the keystrokes, or if you have any more tips and advice that others may find useful.

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At Techshare 2007 I had the honour of being allowed to speak on one of my hot topics within the field of web accessibility. The presentation, on how to avoid some of the hidden barriers that make web sites difficult for disabled people who don’t have the benefit of screen readers was well received, (phew), and I promised to make it available as a download..

So for those of you who have been expecting it, and anyone else who’s curious, download
Avoid the hidden barriers to accessibility (zip file) 495KB.

Please note: Use Internet Explorer to view the presentation. It refers to issues that don’t affect other browsers. Thanks to Sheena for pointing out that I hadn’t given enough emphasis to this point.

Lastly, many thanks to all of you who attended Techshare 2007, perhaps had no homes to go to, and stayed for my presentation, which was in the last time slot of the last day of the conference.

We talk a lot about making PDF’s accessible and how we should present them on the web but rarely do we touch on making PowerPoint accessible. As with PDF the bottom line is that if the content of the PowerPoint can not be made accessible then an accessible alternative should be given.

Accessibility is about access to information for all types of people regardless of ability or disability including people with hearing cognitive, mobility and sight impairments. For the purposes of this article however we’re looking at how people with screen readers can both access PowerPoint to read and also use when delivering presentations.

The general consensus is that PowerPoint files are not as accessible as HTML pages, and that, while there are ways to improve on the accessibility of slides, it is advisable to provide a Text or HTML alternative.

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Victor Tsaran, Accessibility Program Manager over at Yahoo! is filmed here explaining what screen readers are and how people interact with them. As he carries out tasks such as navigating his desktop and browsing the web he describes what he is doing and how e uses the keyboard to navigate. This is a great video and introduction to screen readers.

View Victor’s screen reader demo