Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 1

Internet for All

Internationalisation beyond English

Accessibility for disabled

Access as a necessity, not a luxury.

Computing Science, University of Aberdeen 2

Internet for All

Internet/Web should be available for everyone, including» People who don’t know English» People with disabilities

Be aware of this when designing websites and software!

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International Internet

Character sets Localised web sites Computer translation

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Character Sets

ASCII – only English» Standard in USA?» Still used for Internet names

Latin1 – also other W Euro Latin alpha» French, German, Swedish, …» Accented chars, eg é ß å æ» Other, eg £ ¿» Standard in UK

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Unicode

Unicode» Add support for Japanese, Chinese,

Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, …– Also Linear B, Cherokee, hieroglyphics, …– http://www.unicode.org/charts/

Unicode is just a character set, need to install font as well» Complete Unicode font came with Office

2003

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Unicode

In principle supported by all major programming languages, web browsers, operating systems, etc.» Problems can arise, though» Java support for Unicode is not perfect

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Bidirectional texts

English written left-to-right Hebrew, Arabic written right-to-left

» But embedded English left-to-right» Does strange things to page layout

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Touchscreen Input

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International Domain Name

Internet software/standards assume names are in ASCII» www.abdn.ac.uk -- OK» www.uquébec.ca -- not OK

– www.uquebec.ca instead

Unfair ….

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International Domain Names

International Domain Names (IDN)» Allow Unicode in names» Based on encoding Unicode as ASCII

Spread is slow» Standard now agreed, but not yet

universally implemented.» ICANN will allow Unicode top-level

domains

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Localisation

Web sites “localised” for different places» Language, currency, text direction, etc

– Spelling: eg, colour vs color

» Local news, offers» Culturally differences

– Images: modestly dressed women for muslims– Names: Icelanders don’t have last names

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Example

In-depth: office.microsoft.com» Requires a lot of work!

Shallower: google.com

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Internationalisation

Making one web site (or Java app) which is maximally useful worldwide» Language: simple English» Forms: allow Unicode, don’t assume

people have last names or postal codes» Avoid images that might offend some

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Translation

Ultimate goal is to let people read web pages in other languages» translate.google.co.uk» Quality variable, (slowly) getting better» Widely used by many non-English speakers

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Accessible Internet Not everyone uses mouse and (touch)screen

to access the Internet! Web accessibility should address their needs,

including: » Visual, motor, auditory, cognitive

disabilities and those affected by seizures. How to help such people use the Internet?

» With a little bit of effort, developers can really enhance accessibility.

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Visual Disabilities

Colour-blind» Developers: don’t assume people can see

when something is red! Poor vision

» Need large fonts and screen magnifiers» Developers: DO NOT HARD-CODE

FONTS IN WEB PAGES!!!– It may “look nice” to you, but means someone

with poor vision cannot use it

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Visual Disabilities

Blind» Screen readers: speak out web pages» Braille displays: display text in braille» Embossed printers: print braille

Screen readers most common» Essentially scan through a web page» Developers:

– Include ALT tags for images– Remember that blind user will not “see” entire page!

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Motor Disabilities

Poor hand control» Use keyboard instead of mouse» Developers: allow keyboard control!!

No hand control (or no hands)» scanning interface, controlled by switch

– Assistive tech., head switch, sip/puff– Maybe Eye tracking.

» Need special interface» Often expensive

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Example: Scanning interface

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Auditory

If sound or spoken word is used, may need to find alternative ways to convey content to deaf or hard of hearing users.

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Cognitive Disability

General» Keep things simple and clear

Dyslexia» Avoid white backgrounds, » don’t justify texts (stretch to fit column), » avoid italics

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Seizures

Be aware that photoepileptic seizures can be caused by flashing flights, particularly repeated strobe effects.

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Disabilities

Plenty of guidelines exist» http://www-03.ibm.com/able/guidelines

Following them makes websites more useful to disabled people, probably helps normal people as well» Helps mobile access in particular

Just need to make the effort!

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Accessibility Guidelines

The W3C has provided a set of web content accessibility guidelines

Now accepted as ISO/IEC 40500:2012.

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Legal Aspects

Increasing legal requirement that websites be accessible to disabled» Especially for (quasi-)government sites,

such as Aberdeen University» E.g., the Jodhan decision in Canada.

Good business sense as well» Biggest disabled group is elderly, and they

have lots of money to spend

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Legal Aspects (UK) UK Equality Act. E.G. The RNIB says it may be unlawful for a

website to: » ``have links on that are not accessible to a screen reader » have application forms (for instance, for bank accounts or job

application forms) in a PDF format that cannot be read by a screen reader

» have core service information (for instance, timetables on a public transport website) that is not in a format accessible to screen readers.

» use text, colour contrasting and formatting that make the website inaccessible to a partially sighted service user

» change security procedures (for instance, on an e-commerce website) without considering the impact of blind and partially sighted customers that use screen readers.’’

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Internet For All

Developers (us) have moral duty to make our products available to all» People with limited English» People with disabilities

Also legal duty, sensible business Tools exist, we need to use them!

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Recap: Helping Everyone

Internet should benefit everyone.

Essential for fair society!

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Helping Everyone

How should Internet be used in third-world countries?» Bangladesh vs India vs Chile» Much use via mobile devices now.

How can Internet help people at “bottom of heap” in UK?» Will growth of Internet hurt people who

cannot or will not use it?

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Helping Everyone

How can we make websites universally useful?» Non-English speakers» disabled

How should the Internet be controlled (governed)?» So that it helps everyone!