Appendix E: Resources

Informational Resources

456 Berea St: (http://www.456bereastreet.com) “Articles and news on web standards, accessibility and usability” authored by Roger Johansson, a Swedish web developer.

Accessify.com: (http://www.accessify.com) This site features “Tools, wizards, articles and tutorials on Web Accessibility for the conscientious web developer.”

Adobe Accessibility Blog: (http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/) This blog is maintained by Andrew Kirkpatrick at Adobe and features “Information and news about accessibility for people with disabilities in Adobe products.”

ACM Special Interest Group on Accessibility: (http://www.acm.org/sigaccess/) A membership-based special interest group in which “topics on advanced technologies, assistive technologies, and design form the core of the research topics.”

A List Apart: (http://www.alistapart.com/topics/userscience/accessibility/) Accessibility and usability topics, among many other issues relevant to web development, are explored through contributed articles.

Blether: (http://www.blether.com/) A blog published by Dan Champion in the United Kingdom; it is dedicated to “web standards, accessibility & e-government.”

Standards schmandards: (http://www.standards-schmandards.com/) This informative blog is published by Peter Krantz, a Swedish web developer who takes “a pragmatic approach to web accessibility.”

Useit.com: (http://www.useit.com/) News, reports and columns published by usability guru Jakob Nielsen.

Web Accessibility for All: (http://www.cew.wisc.edu/accessibility/) Instructional resources and news articles published by the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

WebAIM: (http://www.webaim.org/) Many resources are available for developing web sites with “Web Accessibility in Mind” including training and evaluation guides, tutorials, a Section 508 checklist, a very active discussion list and forum in addition to a blog and newsletter. This would be among one of the first places to look for current news, events, services and support related to access issues online. This web resource is sponsored by the Center for Persons with Disabilities (CPD) and Utah State University.

Web Standards Project: (http://www.webstandards.org/) “A grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.”



Organizations

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST):(http://www.cast.org/) “CAST is a nonprofit organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.”

Knowbility: (http://www.knowbility.org/) A not-for-profit organization that provides training programs and consulting services “to support the independence of children and adults with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology.”

National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM): (http://ncam.wgbh.org/) A research and development facility “dedicated to achieving media access equality for people with disabilities.” NCAM is part of the Media Access Group at WGBH in Boston and has created free tools for captioning videos including MAGpie and CC for Flash.

Trace Research and Development Center: (http://trace.wisc.edu/) “Research to make technologies accessible & usable,” a part of the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and a “pioneer in the field of technology and disability.”

United States Access Board: (http://www.access-board.gov/) This federal agency is “committed to accessible design” and publishes guidelines and standards for facilities, transportation and communications.



Services and Tools

Adobe Flash 8 Accessibility: (http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/flash8/) Design guides, techniques and best practices for providing accessibility in Flash 8.

Automatic Sync Technologies: (http://www.automaticsync.com/caption) A provider of an automated web-based service for captioning and audio/video search for webcasts, DVDs, video and podcasts.

Captionate: (http://www.buraks.com/captionate/) Software for incorporating captions within Adobe Flash.

Fangs: (https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/402/) An extension to Firefox browser that emulates screen reader output by providing a text-based representation to help developers identify accessibility issues quickly.

Web Accessibility Toolbar: (http://www.visionaustralia.org.au/info.aspx?page=614) Vision Australia provides this useful toolbar for use in Internet Explorer to aid in accessibility testing.

Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C): (http://www.wat-c.org/) “The consortium is a collaboration of some of the world’s leading accessibility practitioners, founded by Accessible Information Solutions (Australia), Infoaxia (Japan), The Paciello Group (USA), Wrong HTML (Japan), and Juicy Studio (UK).”