Just want to help spread the word about this effort. Here is what it is all about (from their Facebook page):

About

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a community-driven effort whose goal is to focus one day to raise the profile of digital (web, software, mobile app/device, touch screen kiosk, etc.) accessibility and people with different disabilities.

Description

The idea started with a single blog post written by a Los Angeles-based developer, Joe Devon . On May 9, 2012 people in communities around the world are encouraged to hold a talk/meetup, organize hands-on demos, or plan another activity that brings attention to some aspect of digital accessibility. You can make it big or small, formal, or less so. You can arrange something at work/school, or open it up to your local community.

In addition to events, for an hour on May 9, we will invite and encourage people to unplug their mice, turn off their screens, and/or turn off their speakers and use their computers. We will provide a place for people to blog about their experiences.

This event is community-driven, that means by you! Like this page to express interest and to stay updated as the day takes shape. Post your thoughts on the idea of a Global Accessibility Awareness Day on the Wall and/or express interest in helping to organize an event in your city. We are going to need people who speak other languages to help us spread word about the day to truly make it global. Follow @GblA11yDay on Twitter and use the #gaad hashtag in your own tweets. E-mail globala11yawarenessday at gmail.com with any questions/thoughts.

Ultimately, the goal is to use one day, May 9, to raise the profile of and expand the conversation on digital accessibility beyond the converted. It is not meant in any way to replace other efforts.

Let’s see if we can do this, and have some fun at the same time.

Feel free to help spread the word by “liking” and following them on Facebook. Maybe someday even Facebook will be accessible!

Apparently it’s no bull….Makes you wonder.

Just about all of the “tools” in GAFE can be used by anyone using the “public” version by opening a free Google account. In other words, anyone can create a Google account and instantly have accessed to many if not most of these free tools. The tools include:

• Gmail – the e-mail system, including mail servers, storage and archiving.
• Google Docs – a series of three “office suite” applications including word processor, spreadsheet and presentation applications.
• Google Sites – a web page hosting and page maker utility.
• Google Groups – an application service that creates custom mailing distribution lists.
• Google Calendar – an application that allows users to create multiple calendars and share them with other users.

What makes GAFE different from the public form of Google Apps is that for an annual domain license fee of $10, an educational institution can control all of these services within one domain name, manage their users’ access and control access to the content. Like the public form of Google Apps, all of these services are provided through the use of a browser (or special Google application for mobile devices) and server-based software in the so called “Cloud.” Apart from the annual fee, schools only need computers and access to the internet to be able to use this service.

Many schools and institutions of higher education around the country have signed up for GAFE as it can provide a tremendous savings to the organization. With the GAFE services, the institution may no longer have to maintain their own servers for web and mail services and may also no longer have to purchase and support desktop office suite applications like Microsoft Office. GAFE is operating system agnostic meaning it can run on any computer linked to the internet.

So what’s the problem?

The major problem comes in the form of issues related to the accessibility of GAFE by students with disabilities and the accessibility of content created by GAFE tools.

In a research study conducted by the Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN) Google Apps Accessibility Interest Group published in October 2011, a comprehensive functional assessment was made of the Google Docs tools in GAFE by a cadre of people using a variety of common assistive technologies (AT) (ATHEN, 2011). In the executive summary, they state:

“These tests show that many people with disabilities are currently unable to successfully use these applications. No assistive technology tested was able to fully perform every function within these applications, and the level of support for assistive technologies ranged from being able to perform many, but not all of the functions to not being able to use the applications at all. Some of the major problems include:

• Speech recognition software users cannot dictate text into, or interact with the application.
• Keyboard-only users often cannot access the application menu, and thus, much of the functionality of the application.
• High contrast users cannot see many of the toolbar buttons and other user interface elements.
• Screen reader users cannot interact with the application reliably and effectively, reach and perform the desired functions, and cannot always determine what is being asked in “popup” windows.

Because of these and many other problems, which prevent entire populations of people from fully or sometimes even partially using the software, Documents and the Document List cannot be considered accessible.”

Some additional highlights from the initial ATHEN report were:

• The keyboard focus is not always visible.
• There is inconsistent implementation across browsers.
• There is no ability to apply established web accessibility standards when generating content.
• There is no ability to save user preferences for AT.

In a subsequent report published in February 2012 [PDF], ATHEN reviewed the results of a comprehensive functional assessment of two additional GAFE tools: Gmail and Google Calendar. The findings of that assessment suggest that Google had made some advancement in both the GAFE product and its documentation but it concluded that “there were still significant problems.” The authors concluded: “Google could easily do much more to make the entire interface more accessible. Significant work still needs to be done for visually impaired users, especially screen reader users. Many of the problems encountered in this report could have been solved if standard user interface elements had been used in ways specified by the W3C through the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).”

In a March 20, 2012 webinar hosted by EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information and presented by Greg Kraus and Scott Williams, two members of the ATHEN Google Apps Accessibility Interest Group, the following was learned:

• Despite an ongoing “conversation” with representatives at Google, progress to resolve the accessibility issues with GAFE has been slow in coming.
• Google appears most interested in pursuing a way to get GAFE to work with its own browser and text-to-speech plugin (ChromeVox), rather than working to ensure GAFE works with all browsers and all popular screen reader AT.
• For users of screen reader AT, there were issues with the large number and over-dependency on the use of “hot keys” (access keys) to complete common activities and the occasional conflict of the GAFE access keys with those used by other screen readers.
• Documentation on the use of the accessibility features of GAFE, while extensive, is not complete or easy to understand.
• Google Docs, the content-generating, office suite tools in GAFE were particularly difficult to use with AT including with ChromeVox which often crashed while using Google docs. (Note: This behavior was also observed by this author during a subsequent test of ChromeVox on a MacBookPro using OSX Lion.)

Conclusions

Again in citing the ATHEN report, it is important to note that GAFE is a relatively new product which has grown considerably in popularity and in functionality. Google has expressed some willingness to achieve success in terms of accessibility of the product and continues to work in that direction.

However, this consultant agrees with the final conclusions stated in the report:

“Google has made significant improvements for screen reader users when using Documents and the Document List, but these tests show that support for screen reader users is still poor and the needs of people with other types of disabilities have not been met. Considerable work still needs to be done to ensure that people with all types of disabilities can fully use the Google Application suite.” (ATHEN, 2011, p. 12) [PDF]

References

Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN). Report on the accessibility of Google document. October 18, 2011.

Access Technology Higher Education Network (ATHEN). ATHEN Report on the Accessibility of GMail and Google Calendar. February 29, 2012. [PDF]

Kraus, G. & Williams, S. Report on the Accessibility of Google Apps (from the CSUN Conference), EASI Webinar: How Accessible Are Google Apps? Presented on March 20, 2012.

However students with disabilities who utilize Assistive Technology (AT) often have difficulty with CAT because the systems are not accessible to AT. They have, in particular, presented major challenges to students with print disabilities who use screen readers and/or Braille.

A recent article in Education Week describes what may appear to be a solution to this problem. Developed by the Oregon Department of Education along with help from the American Institutes for Research, the new adaptive test can be use with refreshable Braille displays and, if necessary, sections can be printed out by Braille embossers in the school.

It looks like it probably took a lot of time and money to accomplish this, but kudos to Oregon for leading the way.

Read the whole article on Education Week.

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Photo credit: Image licensed by Creative Commons by Sebastien.delorme

Another reference I want to share is regarding new federal laws and rules related to videos and captions. Because our friends at Automatic Sync Technologies (AST) have already done the work, I will share an excerpt from their recent AST Education Newsletter.

A mandate for Internet Protocol (IP)-Video captioning rules began in 2010, when the FCC established the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee (VPAAC) as required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA).

The CVAA mandates that television content distributed on the Internet be captioned with at least the same quality as the television version. The VPAAC meetings are focused on how this will be achieved and the implementation schedule.

On January 13, 2012 the FCC announced adoption of a Report and Order establishing the scope of rules and the implementation timeline, based upon recommendations from VPACC, and its Advisory Work Groups and Committees.

On April 9, reports of all VPAAC Working Groups will be provided to the full VPAAC, which will then deliver its final report to the FCC to determine the rules to be added to the federal register of requirements later this year.

Once rules are entered into the register, the timeline for content owners to implement the new requirements will be:

• 6 months: Prerecorded programming that is not edited for Internet distribution.
• 12 months: Live and near live programming that was recorded within 24 hours of broadcast on television.
• 18 months: Prerecorded programming that is edited for Internet distribution.
• 24 months: Archival programming.

Anticipated to have a wide impact on protocols for all video programming, new FCC rules would govern TV stations, cable systems, broadcast and cable networks and virtually every video program producer who is now, or will in the future be making programming available for Internet access.

Read the rest of this article in the AST Education Newsletter.

We are seeking your comments on what has been proposed, encouraging you to propose broad management strategies, tactics, and actions than can ultimately help Federal agencies better comply with Section 508. Select this link for more information about the goals for this dialogue and the next steps to be completed when this dialogue ends on April 9, 2012.

In this community you can submit an idea, vote on existing ideas or add your comments.

Read the entire request and provide your comments.

Thank you to @jennison for the heads up on this!

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Photo credit: Image licensed through Creative Commons by dbaron

• Emma’s Family Farm, Windsor, Maine
• Maine Statewide Independent Living Council (Maine SILC), Augusta
• Maine State Rehabilitation Council (Maine SRC), Augusta
• Green Day Cleaning Services, San Jose, California

See more information about text/typographical layout issues and accessibility on the WebAIM website.

Keep the following guidelines in mind for displaying text:

• Avoid very small text. This not only impacts some users with low vision, but many users with cognitive disabilities as well.
• While serif fonts (e.g., Times) are more readable when printed, both serif and sans-serif fonts are appropriate when displaying body text onscreen, as long as the font is clean and readable.
• Underlined text should be avoided, except to designate links.
• Minimize the number of different fonts used on a page. Two to three fonts is optimal.
• ALL CAPS should be used minimally. It is more difficult to read and is often interpreted as “shouting.” Additionally, screen readers may read all-caps text letter by letter (like an acronym) rather than as full words.

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Photo credit: Image licensed through Creative Commons by .reid

Individuals who are blind or visually impaired can download hundreds of the most popular federal tax forms and publications from IRS.gov.  These products range from accessible PDFs to e-Braille formats and are accessible using screen reading software and refreshable Braille displays. Visit the IRS Accessibility page to download these forms and publications. Also, view a video that highlights IRS products and services available for people with disabilities.

Free Tax Return preparation help is also available

People who are unable to complete their tax return because of a disability may get assistance from a local IRS Tax Assistance Center or through a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly site (VITA or TCE). To find a Tax Assistance Center near you, click on contact IRS, on IRS.gov and then select contact your local IRS office. You can also find a nearby VITA or TCE location by calling 1-800-906-9887 or at irs.treasury.gov/freetaxprep for VITA and aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide for TCE. The IRS sponsors VITA and TCE.  Publication 907, Tax Highlights for Persons with Disabilities, explains the tax implications of certain disability benefits and other issues, and is available at IRS.gov.

Visit IRS.gov and enter “accessibility” in the Search box for more information.

In the correspondence that followed, my colleague noted that the mobile version of Facebook was “usable” with screen readers but we both agreed that there were a number of things that you could not do on Facebook using the mobile interface or even the iPad/iPod Facebook app.

I wish I had read a December 8th posting from Marco’s Accessibility Blog because he had done all of the work for me, detailing extensively the issues related to the two big social networking sites as well as several more – some of which I’d never heard of before. Marco’s “Social Networking and Accessibility: A rather sad picture” blog does give a pretty comprehensive, sad and up-to-date (he revised the blog several days later with new information) picture of the topic so I highly recommend reading it in its entirety. I like the fact they he did not stop with screen reader AT but also mentioned issues for folks with mobility issues and the requirement to use a mouse/pointing device to access content and perform functions with many of these services.

So, if you are looking here for a good, reliable and accurate review of the major social networking services and their lack of accessibility, head on over to Marco’s and check it out. I will be adding him to my blogroll.

Happy New Year – Let’s hope there are new and good things in store for accessible web design in 2012.