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Are You Accessible?
Barrier-free?
Some Resources and
Tools of the Trade.
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 There are tools available to help ensure that digital media you design and develop are accessible to everyone.
Here, you will find some of those resources, including the original CurbCuts to the Information SuperHighway - http://WWW.UnderDog-Communications.Com/distlearn/curbcutscourse/©, "The OnLine Course to Barrier-Free Digital Design".
One of the most articulate and experienced persons on the digital accessibility wave is Michael G. Paciello.And, nowhere is this experience better represented than in his new book "Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities". But, what CurbCuts has found even more impressive is the 8 Part series from his book that WebReview published on its website.  The last article, in the right sidebar, contains a clickable list of all 8 articles: so start here and begin with the first article:
http://www.webreview.com:80/2001/04_27/webauthors/index04.shtml. To hear from him first hand, EASI - Equal Access to Software and Information - http://www.easi.cc/media/paciello.htm (See below) has an online interview with Paciello .
However, there is nothing like hands-on experience and it is highly
recommended that whenever possible that you take the time to learn the
ins and outs with experienced professionals. EASI,
Equal Access to Software and Information - http://www.rit.edu/~easi/,conducts
both on-site and online workshops on digital accessibility.
 One of the most impressive and comprehensive online resources is found at WebAble - http://www.webable.com/. WebAble is a leading provider of Web accessibility technology, consulting, and training.
Beyond these online references and resources, there are tools available you should probably investigate.
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, or SMIL (pronounced
"smile"), provides us with a means of delivering
streaming audio, audio/video and closed captioning. There are several online tutorials. Go To Jose Ramirez's site to "Learn SMIL with a SMILE" - http://www.empirenet.com/~joseram/index.html. Or, for an international flair, Go To Helio - http://www.helio.org. Its a quick click to France with tutorials in English and French.
Just like on your television set or VCR, the closed captioning is delivered through a SAP-like channel. It is an option you can select on some of the more sophisticated players like and .
 Most developers of Web- and CD-ROM-based multimedia need an authoring tool for making their materials accessible to persons with disabilities. So, the folks at the
CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) developed
MAGpie.Go To
http://www.wgbh.org/wgbh/pages/ncam/
webaccess/magindex.html.
 MAGpiestands for Media Access Generator. It's free. Using MAGpie, authors can add closed captioning and verbal descriptions to three multimedia formats: Apple's QuickTime, the World Wide Web Consortium's Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) and Microsoft's Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI) format.
There are a number of sites on the WWW through which you can run your web site and determine whether or not it is accessible.
Go To Bobby,
http://www.cast.org/bobby. The Bobby gives you both a description of the problem and direct links to the proper HTML code you'll need to remedy the problem.
Another excellent site is Information Architect and Web Usability Consultant Keith Instone's
Usable Web. This is the leading collection of links to Web usability resources. It is hosted by Argus Associates.Go To http://usableweb.com/index.html. Usable
Web's collection includes links to human factors, user interface
issues, and usable design specific to the World Wide Web. Go To The Tool Box - http://usableweb.com/items/tools.html for a set
of tools designed to help you work smarter and more effectively
when developing electronic information or software that includes
persons who are disabled as part of your audience.
There are many resources we can take
advantage of and sites on the WWW, which can further direct us in
creating barrier-free information and software. Go To http://www.washington.edu/doit, the DO-IT Program: Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology
The grand daddy of them all, though, is the Web Access Initiative (WAI). It is an effort on the part of the World Wide Web
Consortium, the group that governs the web, to ensure universal accessibility. Go To WAI - http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/
for the
full documentation.
The behemoths of the computer age,
Microsoft and Apple, have both made a serious commitment to
accessibility with regard to the software they are developing. Go To
Microsoft
&btnSearch=GO&so=RECCNT&boolean=PHRASE
&intCat=0&intCat=1&intCat=2&intCat=3
&intCat=4&intCat=5&intCat=6&intCat=7
&intCat=8&intCat=9&nq=NEW&p=1 for a
listing of the company's work and projects for persons with
disabilities. (Leave it to Microsoft to go URL-crazy.)
Then, Go To
Apple.com
http://www.apple.com/education/k12/disability/ to see
what Apple has been doing since1985, when it pioneered the
industry's first Disability Solutions Group.
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