Annex VIII

Web Accessibility^[156]

Presented by CHONG Chan-yau
Vice-chairperson
Joint Council for the Physically and Mentally Disabled
President, Hong Kong Blind Union

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

As we are approaching the new Millennium, we are easily tempted to conclude with optimism that the information age is dawning with limitless opportunities and possibilities for every aspect of human endeavour. Education, research, employment, business, entertainment and government are being revolutionised.Yet we have to be vigilant if we are to avoid the information divide, which comes with the information age. The gap between the haves and have-nots will take a new form. Access to information determines social inclusion or social exclusion.

Technologies make visually impaired "SEE"

People with visual impairment have long been facing the hard reality that printed matters were alien and the paper-form filling task was simply an insurmountable hurdle. Thanks to information technology, speech synthesizers, refreshable Braille display, together with optical character recognition technology, and smart screen reader software, have all made it possible for people with visual impairment to work with computers and crack these barriers. In the past few decades, information technology has opened up new opportunities for people with visual impairment in employment, education and daily living in an ever-increasing speed.

The invention of the WWW [World Wide Web] has further provided an exciting possibility of closing the information gap between people with visual impairment and their sighted counterparts. E-information and e-services can literally be accessible right at their fingertips.

However, the threat of social exclusion comes in the form of designs that do not take into account of users with a disability in mind. Web site designs with accessibility in mind do not mean higher costs or sacrificing efficiency or quality.

Examples of providing fully accessible Web pages

To let people with visual impairments enjoy the fruits of Information Technology, some design guidelines have been development. The major problems are graphics, pictures, images and tables, which are not readable by the speech or Braille software and hardware employed by the users. The following are some examples of design guidelines, which speak for themselves as good design practices and not as special measures required by a minority group.

Tips on accessible Web design

Below are some suggestions on how to make a Web site more accessible.

Since users of screen readers and voice browsers would have difficulty accessing non-text elements, accessibility problems can be reduced by providing text equivalents, meaning text descriptions.
For graphs, charts and other graphical objects such as graphical text, bullets, buttons and symbols, the HTML tags "ALT" [Alternative text] and "LONGDESC" [Long descriptive text] can be used to supply the text.
For sounds (played with or without user interaction), audio files and video captioning and transcripts can be used.
In case scripts, [Java] applets or plug-ins are used to implement effects such as moving and scrolling text, alternate content can be provided on separate pages so that no important information is lost when those features are unsupported or turned off.
If image maps (a graphic containing several links) are included in the design, a list of links separated by vertical bars can be used to facilitate navigation of the site by people with visual impairments.
If tables need to be used, efforts should be made to ensure that line-by-line (not only cell- by-cell) reading is sensible.
With respect to colour, designers should use colour with sufficient contrast to cater to users with colour deficits or black and white screens. Designers should also ensure that all information conveyed with colour could be understood without colour.
If a form is used, designers are advised to provide instructions so that a viewer can supply data by telephone, facsimile, mail, or e-mail.

Good design discourages excessive use of images and pictures, which are irrelevant to the context of information search. Accessibility for people with visual impairments will also benefit people who access the Web through text-based browsers, slow computers and common dial-up Internet accounts. Accessible designs are adopted by Web sites with the highest visitor rates in the world.

No one loses and everyone gains in following good designs. Accessibility guidelines are well documented and reviewed by the W3C group [World-Wide-Web Consortium] (www.w3c.org/wai).

Current situation in Hong Kong

In Hong Kong (SAR), there is not yet any official code of practice or policy that protects the equal access to information right. The awareness of Web accessibility is low in the community, both in public and private sectors. The majority of the Hong Kong Web sites, including those of our Government, are inaccessible by VI [visually impaired persons]. There is a brighter side of the picture. In response to the request by organizations such as the Hong Kong Blind Union and the Equal Opportunities Commission, several Government departments have taken the initiative in improving their Web accessibility (e.g. HAB, ITSD. ISD). These examples show how a “friendly-to-all” Web site can be easily achieved with little extra effort.

Electronic services delivery

Making advantage of the Internet for information dissemination is only a start. It is envisaged that more and more services, such as banking, ticket booking, auctioning etc. will be delivered through the Internet or other electronic means. As a major step towards the goal of making Hong Kong a leader in the application of IT [information technologies], the Government is vigorously working on projects to deliver public service electronically. All this will have profound impact on our daily lives. We are concerned that these projects should be conducted with accessibility in mind.

Equal opportunities

Web accessibility is an equal opportunity issue.

Some countries have begun to provide codes of practices as well as introduce policies to protect equity of access to information technologies. For instances, in Australia, Canada and the United States, access to certain kinds of information by disabled persons is a civil right. In Portugal and Thailand, there are efforts to introduce legislation directly requiring Web accessibility.

In Hong Kong (SAR), the Disability Discrimination Ordinance contains provisions on equitable access to goods and services, which may be applicable to the areas of Web access and access to e-services.

To safeguard people with a disability, we urge the Government to introduce mandatory policies to protect the equal access rights to all for the public services and information delivered through electronic means.

We also call upon Internet service providers, Web designers, business and public bodies to take up the challenge of Web accessibility. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

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