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WATA Bulletin: Winter 2003

Contents:

New Chat Application Includes Accessibility Features for Users of Screen Readers and Screen Magnifiers

Dagmar Amtmann, Ph. D., Assistant Director, UW Center for Technology and Disability Studies
Debbie Cook, Director, Washington Assistive Technology Alliance

Chat is a popular Internet based application that allows participants to communicate instantly, similar to talking on the phone. Chat participants typically exchange messages by typing text using a keyboard. The messages are exchanged instantly, allowing for real-time, synchronous communication using computer networks instead of telephones.

If you think that chat is mainly used by teenagers to exchange gossip, you may be surprised to learn that instant communication is increasingly used for corporate communications. Market research analysts estimate that by 2004 over 5.5 million instant messages will be sent over the Internet by corporate users.

With the popularity of chat applications steadily increasing, accessibility of these tools becomes very important to users with disabilities. In addition to popular use of the chat applications by themselves, all distance learning packages commonly used by educational institutions, government, and corporations include a chat feature that allows instructors to communicate with students, trainees and other participants in real-time.

From the accessibility point of view, chat presents one of the more difficult challenges for users of screen readers and magnifiers. How accessible chat applications are for users of screen readers depends in part on how they were developed. Screen readers are able to handle some HTML-based chat applications, but most chat programs use the programming language Java to create an updateable region of the screen that can be used for chatting with other users. Developers using Java typically pay little or no attention to the application's accessibility to users with disabilities. As a result, most applications do not allow the user to control how and when new messages are displayed. Typically, the window refreshes automatically, displaying new messages as soon as they arrive, and making the environment very confusing for the users of screen readers.

The good news is that the Special Needs Opportunity Windows (SNOW) Project based in Toronto, Canada developed and recently released A-Chat, a chat application with accessible features.

A-Chat, designed for blind and low vision users, is both keyboard accessible and screen reader friendly. For example, the user controls how often messages are refreshed and can even set this feature to manual so that the screen will not refresh while it is being read. The user can choose to receive an audible alert each time a new message is received. Layout of received messages can be set in ascending or descending order allowing the user to read messages in the order they were sent or to read the latest one first. The user selects whether all messages or only new messages are displayed and that helps reduce clutter on the screen. Users also have control the type and size of the font,and the color combination for the display, making it easier to read for low vision users.

The text and voice chat features of instant messaging programs like MSN Messenger are generally accessible and are well supported by assistive technologies, but are mostly used for personal communication with friends and family.

Voice chat products are also becoming increasingly popular and allow users to chat orally through their computer's microphone and speakers, but these applications may present a challenge to users with speech impairments and those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

For educational, corporate, and government communications, A-chat provides an accessible alternative and a viable model of accessibility for other text chat applications. It is currently available free of charge to non-profit groups and educational organizations as a freeware beta and can be downloaded from http://snow.utoronto.ca/chat.html.


Accessible Websites and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Sherrie Brown, J.D., Ed.D., Policy Specialist, UW Center for Technology and Disability Studies

Two recent court decisions have ruled on the issue of whether the ADA requires that websites be accessible for people with disabilities. These are the first decisions to really address the question and are, therefore, of interest to individuals who use assistive technology to access the Internet.

In Martin v. MARTA, the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was sued under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The list of complaints included the lack of scheduling and route information available in alternative formats. MARTA had a website with this information and a policy to make it available by telephone or in Braille if requested. However, the plaintiffs argued that the website was inaccessible and the alternative formats policy often not implemented.

There has been no trial in this case but the court did issue a preliminary injunction in October 2002. The judge ruled that MARTA violated the ADA by not making effective Braille, phone, and web information available. He did not say that the inaccessible website was per se a violation; rather that the denial of access to the information was a violation. He ordered the parties to agree on appropriate remedies.

Shortly after MARTA, a federal district court in Florida ruled on a case alleging that Southwest Airlines' website was not accessible in violation of Title III of the ADA. Title III is the part of the ADA that protects individuals from discrimination by "place(s) of public accommodation." The law covers 12 different categories- all of which describe physical places such as restaurants or grocery stores. In this case, Access Now, Inc. v. Southwest Airlines, the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence that the website was "connected" to a place of public accommodation. Therefore, ADA did not cover the website and there was no violation.

What do these court decisions mean for individuals with disabilities and their rights to accessible websites? It is important to remember that these two cases fall under different titles of ADA-Title II and Title III. The rights of individuals with disabilities are somewhat different under these Titles. But most importantly, neither judge ruled that websites MUST be accessible under ADA or that websites DO NOT HAVE to be accessible.

In MARTA, the court says that the information must be accessible and the methods available to access the information must be effective. One way to do so would be to make the website accessible; another way that seemed to be acceptable to the court would be to ensure that the alternative methods (phone or Braille) were actually available.

In Southwest, the judge was simply following earlier decisions defining which entities were "public accommodations." She never answered the question of whether - if the website had been covered by ADA - Southwest must provide an accessible website. There will undoubtedly be more activity in the courts regarding web accessibility and other opportunities for judges to apply the ADA to specific complaints of discrimination by users of assistive technology. Stay tuned.


Calendar of Events

Technology and Persons With Disabilities
March 17-22, Los Angeles
 CSUN's 18th Annual International Conference on Technology and Persons with Disabilities is the longest-running and largest annual university-sponsored conference of its kind. It is a major training venue for professionals involved in the field of disability and technology. Keynote speaker is Ray Kurzweil, a leading inventor. A brochure will be available in early January. For more information: Center On Disabilities, California State University, Northridge, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge, CA 91330-8340, 818-677-2578 or www.csun.edu/cod/.

Power Up 2003
April 7 - 8, Columbia, Missouri
Power Up 2002 Conference and Exposition, sponsored by the Missouri Assistive Technology Advisory Council, has a mission of strengthening the capacity of people with disabilities, educators, health professionals, IT technicians, librarians & media specialists, and service providers. For more information, contact Brenda Whitlock, by email: bwhitlock@swbell.net; phone: (816) 350-5288; (in Missouri) TTY: 800-647-8558; voice: 800-647-8557. Write: Conference Coordinator, Missouri Assistive Technology, 4731 S. Cochise, Suite 114, Independence, MO 64055.

RESNA 2003: 26th International Conference on Technology & Disability: Research, Design, Practice & Policy
June 19 - 23, Atlanta
RESNA 2003, sponsored by the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America, brings together people who use, develop, manufacture and deliver assistive and rehabilitative technologies. Information: RESNA, 1700 N. Moore Street, Suite 1540, Arlington, VA 22209-1903, 703-524-6686, info@resna.org or www.resna.org/.


For calendar updates, visit the Web at:
http://wata.org/calendar.htm
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The WATA Bulletin is supported by grant H224A3006 from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education, to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Olympia, WA.

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