[Chapter-delegates] Happy new year!

[Gunela Astbrink]

Happy New Year everyone,

As I've done for years, I support improved accessibility.

Thank you to Klaus for updating us on the accessibility status of ISOC's 
website.

I do note that some of the alt tags on the home page are empty while 
many images are well-described. However, there are a number of other 
accessibility issues including the need to caption videos.

I think that ISOC made an effort a few years to make its website 
accessible. The problem is that if there isn't an embedded principle of 
accessibility within ISOC's communication policy and practice (including 
guides and templates), as the website changes accessibility may be 
forgotten. This also relates to the level of staff awareness of 
accessibility.

I remain hopeful that ISOC's website will meet and then retain W3C's 
WCAG 2.0 Level AA.

I know some staff support accessibility especially in Chapters including 
the Community Grants program of which the Australian Chapter has been 
successful in running capacity-building and awareness training in the 
Asia-Pacific region.

However, the central work of ISOC HQ is vital. This goes beyond web 
accessibility. Further details are in the paper I wrote for ISOC: 
"Internet Accessibility: Internet use by persons with disabilities: 
Moving Forward" 
<http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-accessibility-internet-use-persons-disabilities-moving-forward>

It is useful to see that organisations such as ICANN, ITU and IGF are 
all working on accessibility in different ways.

ICANN - RFP for web accessibility analysis
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-12-23-en

ITU - a number of actions including Resolution 175 (rev) from the 2014 
Plenipotentiary, internal accessibility, incorporating accessibility in 
standards development and encouraging Member States to improve ICT 
accessibility.
https://itu4u.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/renewing-itus-mandate-to-promote-ict-accessibility/

IGF - Dynamic Coalition on Accessibility and Disability. Its latest 
output is a guide to accessible meetings.
http://www.intgovforum.org/cms/documents/dynamic-coalitions/dynamic-coalition-on-accessibility-and-disability/258-igf-2014-dcad-accessibility-guidelines-final-v5/file 


I look forward to working with ISOC on accessibility in 2015. We may see 
good things happening.

Regards,
Gunela


Klaus Birkenbihl said the following on 8/01/15 20:17 :
> Happy new year to everybody!
>
> Following Kathy's Onto 2015! HNY
> <https://twitter.com/KathrynCBrown/status/552942319238799360>! I ended
> up on this page:
> http://www.internetsociety.org/internet-society-numbers.
>
> Wow a lot of info, a lot of figures, some meaningless but some
> impressive. And a great artwork.
>
>  From there I payed a visit to our home page
> <http://www.internetsociety.org/> . New layout
> big images, not too much text ...
>
>  From there I checked weather we still think accessibility is
> important. Yes we do "Internet Accessibility: Internet use by
> persons with disabilities: Moving Forward"
> <http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-accessibility-internet-use-persons-disabilities-moving-forward>
> is still out there.
>
> There is an ongoing promise since the last relaunch of our
> precious home site that we at ISOC will follow the principles
> we published in the before mentioned document.
>
> The most simple, famous and first rule to achieve accessibility
> is "Provide text alternatives for any non-text content so that
> <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/#text-equiv>
> it can be changed into other forms people need, such as
> large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language.
> <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/#text-equiv>"
> HTML, the source language of Web pages provides easy
> means to do so.
>
> After so many years of discussion, delay, lip prayers one
> has to learn things are getting worse. Nearly all alternative
> texts for pictures on "http://www.internetsociety.org/" are
> "" (nullstring, nothing, nix nada!). You might argue, that the
> images are decorative only. Hm, they cover 80% of the
> page - so even this should be explained.
>
> But on the top of the tops you find
> http://www.internetsociety.org/internet-society-numbers.
> All info in a pixle (png) file no alt text no underlying link,
> and all text within the graph in a small - even for somebody
> who is not visually impaired - nearly unreadable print.
>
> This wonderful artwork would have been the case for
> a wonderful technology - part of HTML5 and processed by
> all modern browsers - called SVG! With at least the
> following advantages:
>
>    * provides better accessibility
>    * provides searchability
>    * can be infinitely scaled (without breaking apart into pixle squares)
>
> I wish you all a usable and accessible 2015 - at least outside ISOC,
>
> Klaus
>
> PS.: In case you want to read the contents of
> http://www.internetsociety.org/doc/internet-society-numbers
> I recommend
> http://www.internetsociety.org/sites/default/files/Internet%20Society%20By%20The%20Numbers.pdf
>
>
>
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-- 
Gunela Astbrink
GSA InfoComm
PO Box 600
Ballina NSW 2478
Australia
Mobile: +61 417 715738
Email: g.astbrink at gsa.com.au
www.gsa.com.au