21 attaining accessible web presence – our experiences

AEGIS 2nd International Conference

ATTAINING ACCESSIBLE WEB PRESENCE –
OUR EXPERIENCES
•Dhananjay Bhole

•Shrirang Sahasrabudhe

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 AEGIS- 2nd International Conference- Attaining accessible web
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presence our experiences

Scope

 Motivation

 Accessibility Issues at university of Pune

 Identifying solution for the issues

 Implementation of the solution

 Challenges

 Summery and conclusions

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 AEGIS- 2nd International Conference- Attaining accessible web presence our
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experiences

Motivation
 Providing quality education for all has become essential .

 Assistive technology a boon for students with disabilities

 Issues due to insufficient accessibility of educational
material and services

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experiences

Education Wise Population Distribution of
Visually Impaired in India – Census 2001

Sr.No Education Level Percentage

1 Non – Literate 68 %

2 Primary 19 %

3 Middle 6%

4 Secondary 4%

5 Higher Secondary 2%

6 Graduation + 1%

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experiences

Reasons for low enrolment of VI(s)
• Lack of awareness and sensitization amongst the university staff

• Inaccessible web interface to university facilities and services

• Inaccessibility of educational material

• Lack of awareness amongst the VI about learning opportunities

• Lack of acceptance of VI in the society

• Unfavorable economic condition of students

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experiences

Identifying solution for the issues 2 and 3

• Jot down the accessibility policy

• Have a quick accessibility review of the existing web
interface and educational material

• Define accessibility requirements

• Bridge the accessibility gaps

• Periodically Monitor the accessibility of the web
interface and educational material and take corrective
action

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experiences

Important points of the access policy

I. University of Pune is committed for eliminating the consequences
of discrimination against people with disabilities, so they may fully
and independently participate in the comprehensive scope of
campus programs, services, and activities;

II. Programs, policies, and procedures intended to enhance or
protect access by people with disabilities shall be consistent with;

III. All University of Pune faculty and staff share the responsibility for
being sensitive to and providing reasonable accommodations to
people with disabilities;

IV. University shall maintain effective procedures to resolve access
dilemmas on campus, including the assignment of campus staff
to resolve access problems.

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experiences

Define accessibility Requirements

• Several national and international standards
and guidelines are studied for defining
accessibility standard for the project.

• Considering the significant number of VI
students in the university visa – vi student's with
other disabilities, priority is given to WCAG2.0
AA success criteria that are relevant to visually
challenged.

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experiences

Bridging accessibility gaps:
• The development engineers fixed the issues in order of the page complexity.

• As a part of the retrofit activity, content was appropriately structured using structural
elements like headings and lists.

• Appropriate text alternative was provided for graphics and multimedia

• Forms were made accessible by adding labels for form fields

• Broken links were fixed or removed as appropriate.

• Content and formatting were separated by developing appropriate templates and style
sheets.

• Accessibility of each change was verified by the end users with disability

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experiences

Periodically Monitor the accessibility

• Adoption of accessibility is not a onetime exercise

• Usually the frequency of web-content updates is once in every
month.

• We ensure fair accessibility of the ongoing updates by:

1. Incorporating accessibility of new content right in design
phase itself

2. Monitoring the website for compliance to accessibility
standards

3. We have a dedicated team that carries out the accessibility
review of the website on regular basis

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experiences

Addressing Issues regarding Inaccessibility of
educational material

• Production of audio books in regional languages by recording with
the help of volunteer readers affiliated with the centre.

• Digitizing the course material through scanning hard copies.

• Retrofitting accessibility in electronic course material.

• Creation of tactile graphics using brail embossers available at the
centre.

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experiences

Challenges
• Website Complexity

• Copy right issues

• Paucity of resources in terms of manpower and
allocated funds

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experiences

Long term plan to address the Issue number 4
and 5

• Teacher preparation program for inclusive
education

• People Sencitisation program

• Accessibility research and outreach program

• Educational guidance and counsling for
Students.

• Establishment of digital library for PWDs

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experiences

CONCLUSION
• we undertook a project to make our university website
and study material accessible for all students including
the students with disabilities

• We formulated and implemented five step processes of
accessibility assessment and remediation

• Though we have come a long way still a lot more needs
to be done to me really implement inclusive education

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experiences

Questions?

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experiences

21 attaining accessible web presence – our experiences

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