#28246
An early definition of universal usability.
Schneiderman, Ben. Communications of the ACM (2000). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Universal Usability
#18436
Universal Usability: Introduction and Definition
The goal of universal access to information and communications services is compelling. Enthusiastic networking innovators, business leaders, and government policy makers see opportunities and benefits from widespread usage. But even if they succeed and the economies of scale bring low costs, computing researchers will still have much work to do. They will have to deal with the difficult question: How can information and communications services be made usable for every citizen? Designing for experienced frequent users is difficult enough, but designing for a broad audience of unskilled users is a far greater challenge. Scaling up from a listserv for 100 software engineers to 100,000 schoolteachers to 100,000,000 registered voters will take inspiration and perspiration.
Shneiderman, Ben. Universal Usability. Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Universal Usability
#19241
Usability and Accessibility of PDAs in Education
This report is targeted towards students, teachers and educational technology specialists in order to help them understand the practical issues of Personal Digital Assistants, also known as Palmtops or Handheld PCs.
Rainger, Peter. TechDis (2002). Articles>Education>Accessibility>Usability
#19044
Usable Interactive Voice Response Applications
An Interactive Voice Response (IVR) application is any telephone-based application which interactively takes input from callers and returns output in the form of a previously recorded human voice or other auditory information (Noonan). Cost and efficiency considerations means that IVR applications are fast becoming a common supplement, or indeed alternative, to direct contact with customer service representatives. The principles of User-Centred Design can be applied to make a more efficient and intuitive IVR applications. A solely auditory interface means that the user can hear only one thing at a time. The interface is sequential. With visual interfaces, like computer screens, it is possible to emphasise content through fonts or colour. The user can review any part of the screen at a glance. Therefore, the manner and order in which information is rendered on an IVR application is very important. The following are some guidelines for the design of an intuitive IVR application.
Gaine, Frank. Frontend Infocentre (2001). Articles>User Interface>Accessibility>Voice
#26853
Using an Access-Centered Design to Improve Accessibility: A Primer for Technical Communicators 
This article discusses accessibility barriers as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and provides a basic primer on how technical communicators can remove these barriers during their Web design process and test to ensure the barriers were removed. The article focuses on 10 common barriers to a meaningful experience for people with disabilities, barriers that a technical communicator can consider when designing online information. Working on accessibility issues before online information goes live will help to reduce re-work and re-design and can save a lot of headaches for a technical communicator.
Roberts, Linda Enders. Technical Communication Online (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility
#22968
Using Opera to Check for Accessibility
There are a lot of tools available to check your Web content for accessibility. Some tools are Web-based (such as WAVE 3.0). Other tools are stand-alone software products that you install on your hard drive. One tool that you may have overlooked is the Opera Web browser. Opera is not an accessibility validator—it's a Web browser—but it can act like an accessibility validator if you know how to use it that way. In fact, it's one of the best available. This article explains why.
WebAIM (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software
#30765
Visually Challenged Users and Need for a Universally Accessible Web Site
Visually impaired people suffer from no faults of their own. This is quite worthy of consideration that a little more efforts toward adoption of certain features in your web site can help them retrieve information in the desired manner. Their ease of accessibility to your web site will not go unrewarded; they can well augment your business interests by turning into your most valuable customers.
Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability
#25465
Voice-Enable Your Web Page with Multimodal 4.3.2
Become fluent in X+V, today's versatile Web markup language (WML). X+V, short for XHTML+Voice, is a Web markup language that is comprised of voice and visual elements used for developing multimodal applications. This article provides the novice developer of Multimodal X+V, Web pages, and handheld devices with a process for creating and testing an X+V application. This article uses the IBM® Multimodal Toolkit 4.3.2 running on WebSphere® Studio Site Developer (Site Developer) or on WebSphere Studio Application Developer (Application Developer) 5.1.2.
Celi, Miriam. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Audio
#31626
WCAG 2.0 Preview: So What's New?
This article reviews the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 and was published in SPIN Magazine. The article summaries the new guidelines and identifies key revisions and changes made to the original WCAG version 1.0.
Palmer, Mark. User Vision (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards
#31763
Brenda Huettner provides us with the basics for making our web sites accessible in this training podcast.
Huettner, Brenda P. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Podcasts
#27712
Web Accessibility for Section 508
The legislation referred to as "Section 508" is actually an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The amendment was signed into law by President Clinton on August 7, 1998. Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology that is developed by or purchased by the Federal Agencies be accessible by people with disabilities.
Thatcher, Jim. JimThatcher.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508
#21315
The Web Accessibility Initiative 
Gillen explains the Web Accessibility Initiative, a coalition of groups that work to advance the cause of accessibility on the Web.
Gillen, Lori. Intercom (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility
#28208
Many people find it difficult to read from a computer screen - especially visually impaired users, and those with reading difficulties such as dyslexia. Many people print pages out to read them later, which isn't very efficient in terms of time (as well as paper consumption). Unsurprisingly, a number of 'read aloud' applications are emerging for web sites.
O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Voice
#18836
Children who fail hearing tests but who function in educational settings are assumed to have only unimportant handicaps. These children learn to live with their problems, but a significant hearing impairment diminishes the information such children receive. Help is available for children, but also for adults who have not fully recognized their handicaps. This paper describes the problems of people with moderate hearing loss, and provides information on what can be done to ameliorate their problems.
Gillen, Lori. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Workplace>Accessibility>Audio
#22998
Why Accessibility? Motivating Learners To Bring About Change
There are many reasons why people choose to design with accessibility in mind. These motivations can be roughly categorized into the following: ethical motivations; legal and standards-based motivations; business motivations.
WebAIM (2001). Articles>Education>Accessibility
#28206
There are many reasons why you should strive to make your web site as accessible as possible: legal reasons; economic reasons; technical reasons.
O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility
#27142
The Web is not a panacea. If businesses, governments, and other organizations that publish information on the Web don't pay attention, the Web's promise of equal access for all could be fatally undermined by the rush to make Web sites technologically slick and visually exciting.
Garfinkel, Simson L. Boston Globe (1998). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Civic
#31632
Working to Improve the Civic Experience
What has UPA done to encourage more useable and accessible government? Quite a lot, it turns out. UPA supports efforts to improve the usability of elections, support plain language, and remove barriers to civic access for people with disabilities through an alphabet soup of projects and events.
Scott, Josephine. Usability Professionals Association (2008). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Government
#20061
Working with JAWS: Keystroke Quick Reference Chart
Using the JAWS screen reading software requires that the user know a large set of keystroke combinations to get the most from the application.
#18784
Writing for the Disadvantaged Reader
Technical communicators usually write professsionally for both technical people and the general public. Within both of these groups are disadvantaged readers. Disadvantaged readers include natives of countries where the primary language is other than English, prelingually deaf persons, and persons with alexia, aphasia, dyslexia and/or schizophrenia. This paper briefly reviews the syntax of English and recommends language strictures that will facilitate communication to the groups of people listed above, not visual impairment.
Malcolm, Andrew. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Writing>Accessibility
#24256
Persons who are born hearing-impaired or who become hearing-impaired during the critical early language learning years of life often have deficient vocabulary development and difficulty reading certain language structures. A panel of educators of the hearing-impaired will present their views on the needs of prelingually deaf and hard-of-hearing readers and the moderator will focus the discussion on writing techniques which technical communicators might use communicate to those with such language deficits.
Malcolm, Andrew and Carl Kirchner. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Accessibility
#20998
Writing Science for Children in an Age of Discovery
Writing a children's book is never easy. But the challenges are multiplied for children's books about science. It is all too common for the paramount importance of accuracy to conflict with the need to make a book enticing, or at least accessible.
Nagourney, Eric. New York Times, The (2003). Articles>Scientific Communication>Accessibility>Children
#19500
Year II and Growing: A Report from the STC Special Needs Committee: The Nature of Deafness
Deaf persons are not a monolithic group. Persons born deaf or who become deaf before learning the language of their environment (prelingual deafness) have a significant educational challenge as well as a communication challenge. Other deaf persons have a communication challenge. Deaf persons may be divided into five categories. For the purposes of this paper the categories are prelingual deafness, prelingual hard-of-hearing, postlingual deafness, postlingual hard-of-hearing, and presbyacusis. (oldage deafness) Each of these categories are discussed in detail including the characteristics of persons within the categories, and the nature of the problems they encounter.
Malcolm, Andrew. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Audio
#28460
経済的要因による格差は、たいした問題ではないが、ユーザビリティと活用性の格差は、膨大な数の人たちをインターネットの潜在的利益から引き離している。
Nielsen, Jakob. Usability.gr.jp (2006). Articles>Usability>Accessibility>Online
#32264
Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
This document is an appendix to the W3C "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". It provides a list of all checkpoints from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for Web content developers.
W3C (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards
