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Thread: municipality web sites & people with disabilities

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From: catherine
Date: Wed, Sep 23 2009 12:45PM
Subject: municipality web sites & people with disabilities
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Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had some pointers towards studies or
initiatives of cities' and towns' use of web technologies as it relates
to interacting with their citizens with disabilities. This could be
anything from studies of how municipalities fare with regards to
accessibility in general to specific initiatives to make Web based
information more accessible to certain types of disabilities (such as
the City of Montreal's controversial portal for people with cognitive
limitations[1]).

Any information would be appreciated.


Catherine

[1]
<http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2496,3086647&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL>




--
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net

From: Peter Krantz
Date: Wed, Sep 23 2009 1:05PM
Subject: Re: municipality web sites & people with disabilities
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On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 20:45, catherine < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
>
> I was wondering if anyone had some pointers towards studies or
> initiatives of cities' and towns' use of web technologies as it relates
> to interacting with their citizens with disabilities. This could be
> anything from studies of how municipalities fare with regards to
> accessibility in general to specific initiatives to make Web based
> information more accessible to certain types of disabilities (such as
> the City of Montreal's controversial portal for people with cognitive
> limitations[1]).

The city of Stockholm, Sweden (http://www.stockholm.se/) has recently
launched a website where accessibility has been an integral part of
the design process. Some features include:

1. designing e-government services to be accessible with AT,
2. having basic information available in easy-to-read swedish,
3. including a text to speech function to cater for people with
reading difficulties,
4. providing certain information in sign language (click "Teckenspråk"
on this page http://bit.ly/DR0BU for an example).

On a side note (not directly related to web accessibility) is the
involvement of the city in the e-adept project
(http://www.eadept.se/). This project is designing a navigation
solution for visually impaired people with much greater resolution
than GPS, based on more detailed maps, to enable visually impaired
persons to travel around the city on their own more easily.

Regards,

Peter

From: catherine
Date: Wed, Sep 23 2009 1:25PM
Subject: Re: municipality web sites & people with disabilities
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Hi Peter,

Peter Krantz wrote:

> The city of Stockholm, Sweden (http://www.stockholm.se/) has recently
> launched a website where accessibility has been an integral part of
> the design process. Some features include:
>
> 1. designing e-government services to be accessible with AT,
> 2. having basic information available in easy-to-read swedish,
> 3. including a text to speech function to cater for people with
> reading difficulties,
> 4. providing certain information in sign language (click "Teckenspråk"
> on this page http://bit.ly/DR0BU for an example).
>
> On a side note (not directly related to web accessibility) is the
> involvement of the city in the e-adept project
> (http://www.eadept.se/). This project is designing a navigation
> solution for visually impaired people with much greater resolution
> than GPS, based on more detailed maps, to enable visually impaired
> persons to travel around the city on their own more easily.

Thanks for the information. And yes, I had heard of this initiative and,
during Rehabilitation International 2008 World Congress in Québec City
last year, I attended a workshop where Mr. Jan-Ingvar Lindström
presented the e-Adept project, which I wrote about here [1] (and I do
think this is also a relevant example of municipal initiatives so thanks
for bringing it up :)


Catherine

[1] http://www.catherine-roy.net/blog/2008/09/14/ri-2008-report-2/


--
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net

From: Moore,Michael
Date: Thu, Sep 24 2009 12:45PM
Subject: Re: municipality web sites & people with disabilities
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Here is a brief summary of what the City of Austin, Texas is doing.


1. Last week my boss met with City Web staff to give input on their development of a formal City Web Accessibility policy. He provided them with the DARS (Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services) policy development training and HHS (Health and Human Services) policy model. DARS policy development training was developed with Web AIM principals.
2. The City of Austin is currently using JAWS and other single page tools to test the City Connection Web pages. Austin Energy is using Watchfire for an enterprise level testing tool.
3. Last year, the City doubled its budget for closed captioning of video and multimedia content. Currently all City Council meetings and Mayor's Committee meetings are closed captioned.
4. City staff attend AIR Austin and Access-U training and receive individual training on making accessible PDF documents and reports.

Mike Moore

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of catherine
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:45 PM
To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Subject: [WebAIM] municipality web sites & people with disabilities

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had some pointers towards studies or
initiatives of cities' and towns' use of web technologies as it relates
to interacting with their citizens with disabilities. This could be
anything from studies of how municipalities fare with regards to
accessibility in general to specific initiatives to make Web based
information more accessible to certain types of disabilities (such as
the City of Montreal's controversial portal for people with cognitive
limitations[1]).

Any information would be appreciated.


Catherine

[1]
<http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2496,3086647&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL>




--
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net

From: catherine
Date: Thu, Sep 24 2009 1:05PM
Subject: Re: municipality web sites & people with disabilities
← Previous message | No next message

Thanks Micheal for this information. Seems like Austin is doing good :)

Best regards,


Catherine



Moore,Michael wrote:
> Here is a brief summary of what the City of Austin, Texas is doing.
>
>
> 1. Last week my boss met with City Web staff to give input on their development of a formal City Web Accessibility policy. He provided them with the DARS (Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services) policy development training and HHS (Health and Human Services) policy model. DARS policy development training was developed with Web AIM principals.
> 2. The City of Austin is currently using JAWS and other single page tools to test the City Connection Web pages. Austin Energy is using Watchfire for an enterprise level testing tool.
> 3. Last year, the City doubled its budget for closed captioning of video and multimedia content. Currently all City Council meetings and Mayor's Committee meetings are closed captioned.
> 4. City staff attend AIR Austin and Access-U training and receive individual training on making accessible PDF documents and reports.
>
> Mike Moore
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of catherine
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:45 PM
> To: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
> Subject: [WebAIM] municipality web sites & people with disabilities
>
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if anyone had some pointers towards studies or
> initiatives of cities' and towns' use of web technologies as it relates
> to interacting with their citizens with disabilities. This could be
> anything from studies of how municipalities fare with regards to
> accessibility in general to specific initiatives to make Web based
> information more accessible to certain types of disabilities (such as
> the City of Montreal's controversial portal for people with cognitive
> limitations[1]).
>
> Any information would be appreciated.
>
>
> Catherine
>
> [1]
> <http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=2496,3086647&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL>
>
>
>
>


--
Catherine Roy
http://www.catherine-roy.net