Access For All

The review examined four major LMSes: Blackboard Learn version 9.1 Service Pack 6 and 8, Desire2Learn version 10, Moodle version 2.3, and Sakai version 2.8. Each of these organizations runs an interest group to guide improvements in accessibility of their products. They were also part of previous evaluations done by the same group in 2010 and 2012.

The disabilities tested for encompassed visual, mobility, learning, and cognitive. Testing and evaluation categories covered functional accessibility in nine broad areas:

• Testing and evaluation;
• Login, configuration, and compatibility testing;
• Personalization and customization;
• Navigation;
• Forms;
• Help and documentation;
• Common student-facing modules and tools such as announcements and discussions;
• Authoring tools and content creation, such as the gradebook and multimedia content handling; and
• Features unique to each LMS that affect accessibility.

A G3ict Report Assessing the Degree of Compliance of States Parties with the ICT Accessibility Provisions of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been released by G3ict.
The 2012 CRPD Progress Report (PDF Version (3.8 MB) | Second edition 2012) includes the latest data on 52 countries representing 77.4 percent of the World Population. The report offers disability advocates, governments, civil society and international organizations — monitoring the progress of the implementation of the Convention by States Parties — a unique benchmarking tool that collects data on country laws, policies, and programs pertaining to accessible and assistive Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) around the globe. All results are available cross-tabulated by region, level of income per capita of Human Development Index to facilitate benchmarking by advocates and policy makers.
Source: G3ict

Interview with Karel Van Isacker on the need for basic ICT and AT training for people with disabilities. This is made possible through the free outcomes of the ViPi (www.vipi-project.eu) and the ATLEC (www.atlec-project.eu) projects.

This video was made by the Web 2LLP project (http://web2llp.eu).

The AbleGamers Foundation is pleased to announce the unveiling of Includification – a 48 page, fully illustrated how-to guide for videogame developers and publishers road-mapping the exact solutions needed to design an accessible game.
“For nearly a decade, our organization has been reaching out to developers convincing them they need to include accessibility for gamers with disabilities,” said Mark Barlet, President and Founder of the AbleGamers Foundation. “As that message has been increasingly accepted in the video game industry, the question has slowly turned into “Okay, we need to make our games accessible, but how?””
“We believe this document and its companion website www.includification.com will serve to answer any questions a developer might have about the solutions needed to make their games accessible to the disability community,” continued Mr. Barlet. “What thrills me the most is that our recommendations can be updated via the website as new technology and information arises. The videogame industry is a living breathing entity and we need to treat it as such by updating information as it comes in.”
“Words cannot express how extremely proud I am of this document, this organization and everyone who helped bring this together. This is the culmination of the hard work and dedication everyone at our nonprofit has put in over the last 8 years,” said Steve Spohn, Editor-in-Chief of AbleGamers.com “It is my sincerest wish that a copy of this document sits on the desk of every developer, in the resource area of every library and with every major publisher across the world. It’s time game accessibility leaped to the next level and these guidelines show developers exactly how to enable gamers with disabilities in the easiest, most efficient and cost-effective manner possible.”

The AbleGamers publication, Includification, includes numerous detailed explanations of common problems for gamers with disabilities, solutions for those problems, printable checklists, developer exercises and personal letters from industry insiders to the game industry.
Download Includification for free.

ICCHP 2012 (13th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs) just launched its official ICCHP 2012 Tweetwall. To post, use #icchp2012.

The BRAID Project is developing a holistic roadmap that covers all areas of a person’s life. The roadmap is focused on four different perspectives, the “Life Settings”: Independent Living; Health and Care in Life; Occupation in Life; and Recreation in Life.

These settings correspond to the main areas of life of a person in general, and will need to be supported as we are ageing. The settings stand for priorities in life, and are not location-based or mutually exclusive. In principle, not all elderly citizens may need equal support in all of the above areas. However, the significance of defining these four settings is that they comprehensively cover the main aspects related to active ageing and well being of the elderly.

This booklet presents a collection of illustrative scenarios for the different life settings.