Over the next few years, I realized that the Accessibility community largely focused on the US. Over the years, I have found my place & am part of the Accessibility community globally and in the US. The people have gone from being just names to friends and colleagues whether it is Lainey Feingold, Sharron Rush, Matt May, Jennison Asuncion, Axel Leblois, Mike Paciello and so many more.

But I think it is time to realize that Accessibility is a global issue. There are some amazing people around the world that are some of the most brilliant accessibility experts that I have met.

Australia — Andrew Arch

Andrew is the Principal Digital Accessibility and Inclusive Design Consultant at Intopia Digital. I met Andrew when he was a part of W3C and was focusing on increasing the accessibility of the Web for people with age-related accessibility needs as well as for people with disabilities. I think we have a lot to learn from him!

India — Yours Truly

I as in Shilpi , founded BarrierBreak & 247 Accessible Documents to deliver digital accessibility at scale and to prove a point that people with disabilities could be a part of the solution as we conduct accessibility testing and provide accessibility consulting services globally.

Japan — Makoto Ueki

Makoto is a Web Accessibility Consultant at Infoaxia (Tokyo, Japan) who provides a wide range of consulting services with full support for compliance with WCAG and JIS X 8341–3 (Japanese Industrial Standards). Makoto has been a part of formulating accessibility standards and that is where I first got to know of him.

Mexico — Mónica Duhem

Monica is the Founder of Hearcolors. She is an expert in access to telecommunications services and ICT. With HearColors, Monica created a unique model in Mexico to push for a more inclusive internet for persons with Disabilities.

Sweden — Susanna Laurin

Susanna is the Chief Research & Innovation Officer at Funka. She has more than 20 years of experience in working with disability-related issues. One of the key technical experts to EN 301 549 and a believer in harmonised standards. I met her through G3ICT and admire her wealth of knowledge.

So, broaden your network of the amazing accessibility people & the fantastic organizations globally focusing on accessibility.

The post Accessibility is Global — Accessibility Champions beyond the US appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.

In simple terms, it means providing information access in the format that is readable, usable and as per the needs of the person.

Some commonly used terms on accessible format are:

• Large Print – Text which is a minimum of 16 point size or larger based on the needs of the person.
• Braille – There are two types of Braille – Grade 1 and Grade 2. In Grade 1, each braille cell represents only one letter, number or punctuation sign. In Grade 2, a cell can represent a shortened form of a word. Many cell combinations have been created as contractions to represent common words.
• Audio – Using Audio formats like .wav or .mp3 formats often in human voice or synthesized text-to-speech voices. In addition, softwares like screen readers and reading writing tools, convert text to speech for the users.
• Easy Read – Simple and plain English is used. In addition, short sentences are used. Often, pictures are used to illustrate sentences.

It is important to also remember how the information is being delivered and the technology being used. So is the delivery format, print or electronic or both. Is the technology you are using to deliver, PDF, Word, PowerPoint, etc. Let’s discuss some scenarios to understand this better.

Scenario 1

For are an insurance company providing a brochure as a printed document & as PDF document on your website, the accessible formats that you could provide would be large print and braille for someone looking for the printed content. If someone wants the electronic version, then the PDF document needs to be accessible so it can be read with a screen reader or other assistive technology.

Scenario 2

If you are a book publisher, then the accessible format you would provide is the large print and braille. If you are also providing an e-book, then you would provide an accessible Epub 3 e-book.

Scenario 3

If you are a teacher providing lecture notes to your students as PowerPoint slides, you would ensure that the PowerPoint file is accessible.

Some references:

• Accessible E-books using EPUB3
• Make your word documents accessible
• Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible
• Make your PDFs accessible
• Creating braille resources
• Make your Word, Powerpoint and PDFs accessible 
• A tool for creating accessible formats

The post Is Braille the only accessible format? appeared first on Leader in Offshore Accessibility Testing | Section 508 Compliance | WCAG Conformance | BarrierBreak.