Universal Information Access on the WWW

Paul Fontaine
Center for Information Technology Accommodation
General Services Administration
Paul.Fontaine@GSA.GOV

1. Introduction
2. What is the WWW ?
3. What is HTML ?
4. Implementing accessibility on the WWW
5. Guidelines
6. Policy / Legislation
7. Tools and resources
8. Examples of Accessible servers

Introduction

The 1934 Telecommunications Act defined the concept of "Universal Service" for Telephones. The intent was to provide widespread availability of basic communication services at affordable rates. Telephone service would be available to everyone, even those in remote areas. Sixty years later a new revolution is occurring in telecommunications - The National Information Infrastructure.

The "National Information Infrastructure: Agenda for Action" is the Federal government's blueprint for the development of the NII. The "Agenda for Action" clearly defines the principals by which the NII will be designed. It states:

A major objective in developing the NII will be to extend the Universal Service concept to the information needs of the American people in the 21st century. As a matter of fundamental fairness, this nation cannot accept a division of our people among telecommunications or information 'Haves' and 'have-nots'. The administration is committed to developing a broad, modern concept of Universal Service - one that would emphasize giving all Americans who desire it easy, affordable access to advanced communications and information services, regardless of income, disability or location.

This new, expanded "universal Service" I will call "Universal Access". The Clinton administration is committed to redefining and expanding the "Universal Service" concept to ensure "universal access" to a world of information.

Unquestionably, the fastest growing aspect of the NII is the World Wide Web otherwise known as WWW, W3 or just the Web. This unprecedented growth of the WWW is due to many factors including its power, flexibility, elegance, and simplicity. The good news is that the WWW is very accessible for persons with disabilities. This paper presents an overview, for information providers and users of the WWW, of how it can be used to achieve "Universal Access" to the electronic information of the 21st century.

What is the WWW ?

To understand why the WWW is so accessible, it is important to understand what the WWW is. The WWW is a network of information servers throughout the world, all interconnected via the Internet network.

Information providers format the information in files according to a specific format (HTML), and organize the information on a system called a server. To access the information, one uses a program called a browser or viewer. Examples of browsers are Lynx, Mosaic (which are both free) and numerous commercial products.

The Internet connects the user to all WWW servers throughout the world using a communications protocol called HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol).

Server <---> Internet <---> Browser
HTML         HTTP       Mosaic/Lynx

Everything you ever wanted to know about the WWW is available from the World Wide Web Consortium.

What is HTML ?

Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML (2) is the formal language used for formatting documents on the WWW. The term HyperText Markup Language consists of two very important concepts: HyperText and Markup Language.

HyperText is a method of expanding on the information in a document by jumping (hyperlinking) to another place in the document or to another document. For example, a document about the White House might be hyperlinked to another document about the President. The document about the President might in turn be hyperlinked to other documents, potentially, anywhere on the Internet. The user selects the desired links to traverse the Web.

A markup language is a system used for designating (tagging) the structural elements of a document. For example, the Title in a particular document would be marked with a <TITLE> tag. Other tags include paragraph <P>, Heading <H1>, etc. HTML is a subset of Standard Generalized Mark up language (SGML), which is an international (ISO) standard for document description (ISO 8879). Because WWW documents are stored in this standardized, structural format, they can be translated to Braille using standard Braille translation tools.

The most important accessibility feature of the WWW is that HTML files are stored in ASCII format. Almost every computer architecture, Operating system and input/output device can work effectively with ASCII documents.

Complete HTML information is available from the WWW Consortium.

Implementing accessibility on the WWW

Because of the structured nature of HTML, the WWW provides tremendous power and flexibility in presenting information in multiple formats (text, audio, video, graphic, etc.). However, the features that provide power and elegance for some users present potential barriers for users with sensory impairments. The indiscriminate use of graphic images and video restrict access for users with visual impairments. Use of audio and non-captioned video restrict access for users with hearing impairments.

A secondary problem is alternate file formats. Some WWW providers are beginning to store some documents in inaccessible file formats such as PDF from Adobe Systems (3).

The level of accessibility of the information on the WWW is dependent on the format of the information, the transmission media, and the display system. Many of the issues related to the transmission media and the display system cannot be affected by the general user and, as such, are beyond the scope of this paper. However, anyone creating WWW information for a Web server has complete control of the accessibility of her/his information. Careful design and coding of information will provide access to all users without compromising the power and elegance of the WWW.

The primary way to assure the accessibility of a WWW document is to provide all graphic and audio information in alternate formats.

Some general guidelines are as follows:

• In-line graphics or icons should have a short textual description included in the "ALT=" attribute of the "IMG" element.
• ISMAPs which are essentially a graphic representation of a menu, should have equivalent text menus. The White House Home Page is a good example of an ISMAP. The accessible version looks like this.
• Audio files should have associated text transcriptions or text descriptions.
• Include comments in JPEG files. Here is a good example of a JPEG file with a comment included.
• Make link text descriptive but brief.
• All HTML documents should strictly follow published specifications. Proprietary extensions should be avoided.
• Alternate file formats should be used only as alternatives to rather than replacements for ASCII files.
• If on-line forms are used, there should be an alternate method for accomplishing the same functions.

More detailed guidelines are available in a separate paper.

Policy / Legislation

Select here for information about laws and policies that relate to Information Access on the WWW.

Tools and Resources

There are numerous tools and resources which impact accessibility of the WWW. Some of which include:

• The Center for Information Technology Accommodation (formerly the Clearinghouse on Computer Accommodation) at the General Services Administration , works with Federal agencies to ensure the accessibility of their WWW servers. COCA also is involved with the development of and implementation of Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) and Federal Information Resource Management Regulations to ensure optimal accessibility of information systems within the Federal government. Contact Paul Fontaine Paul.Fontaine@GSA.GOV
• ICADD - The International Committee on Accessible Document Design is chartered "to develop and encourage the document transformations that print disabled persons are working toward. Members of this committee are working to ensure that the emerging HTML standards include enhanced accessibility for print disabled users. Contact Tom Wesley, Department of Computing, University of Bradford wesley@bradford.ac.uk
• Mosaic Access Project - The developers of Mosaic, at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, under funding from the National Science Foundation, have formed a project team to promote enhancements to Mosaic which enhance the accessibility of Mosaic and the Web. Contact: Drew Browning, University of Illinois, drew@uic.edu
• Jeff Suttor at UCLA has developed and made available a free, on-line, free, service for translation of on-line HTML documents to ICADD format. This facilitates the translation of any properly formatted document to Braille. To use the service, connect to http://www.ucla.edu/ICADD/html2icadd-form.html Contact: Jeff Suttor at JSuttor@Library.UCLA.Edu
• Lynx and DOS Lynx are character based viewers. The programs were created by and are available free from the University of Kansas. They allow a user to connect to the WWW using a dial-up connection. Both Lynx (for UNIX) and DOS Lynx (for DOS) systems work well with speech and Braille interfaces. Lynx is available for FTP at ftp://ftp2.cc.ukans.edu/pub/www/

Examples of Accessible servers

• The WWW server at the White House in Washington, DC has implemented many of the guidelines in this paper.
• The WWW server at the Center for IT Accommodation has good stuff about the NII.

This paper is constantly being updated. The Latest version of the guidelines can be accessed from our Web server.

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Last modified on June 2, 1995.