Accessibility

Music for All with Open Source Software

Katherine Druckman — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 21:42:43 +0000

I am embarrassed to admit that I have never in my life considered the struggle of blind musicians to find Braille music scores. I did not realize until last week that only about 1% of sheet music is available in an accessible format, but my friend Robert Douglass is hoping to change that with his Open Well-Tempered Clavier - Ba©h to Bach project on Kickstarter.com.

To get a better idea of what the lack of Braille music scores means to an actual musician, see Eunah Choi's video below.

The Open Well-Tempered Clavier Kickstarter project began with the goal of creating a public domain score and recording of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, with the intention of making Bach's work, a cultural treasure, accessible to all without the burden of copyright. Along the way, Robert and the others behind this project discovered that full accessibility is a much greater challenge. While a public domain score and recording tears down a few walls, other walls remain for those can't see the score. To that end, the project's goal has now been extended to include a Braille version of the Bach score, and with enough funding, a means to convert tens of thousands of scores into Braille thanks to open source software.

The underlying issue is about creating a process whereby existing open source music tools can be made to work together properly, and then be used to generate Braille scores, as no open source tools yet exist for creating Braille music. The specific technical challenge will be to complete work on an open source Braille converter for the MusicXML format, which would then allow the 50,000 scores on MuseScore.com, and any future additions, to be downloaded as a Braille file that is then readable with a Braille terminal. MuseScore.com is a web service that facilitates creating, sharing, and storing sheet music using MuseScore's open source music notation software. As an interesting sidenote, MuseScore's popularity is on the rise compared to its proprietary equivalents (see the illustration of Google trends below), so score another point for team open source and for music educators as well.

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Book Excerpt: Drupal User's Guide: Building and Administering a Successful Drupal-Powered Web Site

emmajane — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:12:28 +0000

by emmajane

Chapter 17: Accessibility

Creating Accessible Content

Building an accessible site is a lot easier when you know the qualities of an accessible site and how these qualities help different kinds of site visitors. Sometimes it’s hard to “see” where the problems are if you don’t have problems seeing. To make it easier to evaluate your site without having to be an expert in accessibility, there are a number of automated testing tools you can use on your site. Some things, such as the clarity of the language on your site, will still need to be checked “by hand.”

There are two main sets of Web accessibility guidelines: Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines and, in the United States, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Although these two sets of guidelines are not mutually exclusive, building a site that complies with the highest level of accessibility using the WAI guidelines will often create a Section 508–compliant site.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in the WCAG address the four principles of accessibility.

Can the information be easily perceived (or “seen”)?
Can the software (Web site) be easily operated (or “navigated”)?
Is it easy to understand the content?
Is the content robust enough to be interpreted by a wide range of browsers and assistive technologies?

Appendix F includes the points for each of the accessibility guidelines.

Once you’ve built your site (ideally while you’re building your site), you will need to check to see whether you have met all the guidelines required to declare your site “accessible.” You can check every point by hand using the checklists for each set of guidelines, but there are also a number of automated tests that will make testing a lot easier and a lot more accurate. Ultimately, you will need to conduct user testing with assistive devices to guarantee you have created an accessible site. Using the check lists and at least two automated test suites will find most of the problems in your site.

Accessibility Check Lists

Check lists make the world a lot easier. They allow you to quickly review the work you have done and confirm it is complete. Completing a check list does not prove conformance with Section 508 or the WCAG guidelines, but it will help you to make sure you have considered each of the points.

Accessibility Guidelines for Drupal 7: WCAG 2.0 and ATAG 1.0 (http://groups.drupal.org/node/18595)
WCAG 1.0 Checklist (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html)

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Are You Accessible?

Katherine Druckman — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:03:21 +0000

by Katherine Druckman

Accessibility to people with disabilities is an important issue in web and software development, and the folks at Knowbility, Inc. would like your input about how to better educate people about accessible technology.

Knowbility is a non-profit organization whose mission is to support the independence of children and adults with disabilities by promoting the use and improving the availability of accessible information technology. They do this through education and outreach, and the more information they have from those of us working in the IT industry, the better they are able to continue their mission.

So if you have a few minutes, please share your feedback via their online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/RU_accessible

Knowbility, a nonprofit advocate, trainer and consultant since 1999 for technology access for people with disabilities, and MicroAssist Inc, a leading software training center since 1988, are seeking input on questions of IT accessibility. Our industry has seen legal mandates for accessibility expanding every year; technical standards from the W3C are in place and updated as technology evolves; and yet access to technology remains unequal. We have had many inquiries about why the state of accessibility remains so dismal. We welcome your input and if we have left something out, please send email to knowbility at knowbility dot org.

P.S. You can enter to win two Southwest Airlines tickets by answering the survey.

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