Dear Sue, I think Ann did mention a cut and paste workaround for opening the link. But I have included the text of the Accessibility article below (with a wry, apologetic smile to acknowledge the irony of the fact that this article on accessibility was not easily accesible). All good things, Pavi Accessibility Tips From Bookshare Volunteers By Pavi Mehta Bookshare's growing library owes a great deal to its virtual community of over 1400 volunteers. Logging in from remote locations all over the country, these dedicated individuals scan and proofread books for the collection. Since many Bookshare volunteers have print disabilities themselves, we asked them to help us come up with five key accessibility challenges that they commonly encounter on websites. The Bookshare library has incorporated many of these features and suggestions into its new design. The perspectives of our volunteers are deeply informed by their personal experience. Below are their observations and suggestions. 5 Key Website Accessibility Challenges 1. A lack of alt text attributes for images: Alt text are meaningful labels for the images that appear on the website. They allow individuals with visual disabilities to identify what's on the page, and where links lead to. E-book reader software tools can either read this text in a page, read the alt attribute on images, or drop back to reading file names if it can't find text. For instance, if a reader hears "navbtn01_off" instead of "navigation bar" chances are she won't have a clue where that link leads. 2. Form label placement: E-book readers, by default, look for form labels either to the left or above where the information is to be entered. If labels are placed elsewhere, this poses an accessibility problem for users. Adobe Flash &/or PDF content: Flash and PDF content on a site need not be an obstacle to accessibility. But it is often found on websites where the creators have not built their content with accessibility in mind. The Adobe website has lots of information about making both Flash & PDF documents accessible. 3. Sight-dependent captcha puzzles: Captcha is meant to lock out spammers, but often also prevents people who can?t see the images from using the site too. Worse yet, if a site uses inaccessible captcha on its contact form, you can?t write to the site owner for help. 4. Using color to designate meaning: Sometimes colors are used to designate meaning, e.g., red means contains x or y, etc. The problem is that as much as 10% of the world's population has some form of color-blindness and the website may not be interpreted by these individuals as its designers intended. 5. The World Accessibility Initiative develops guidelines widely regarded as the international standard for Web accessibility. Visit their website to learn more: www.w3.org/WAI/ We would like to thank Bookshare volunteers Jackie McBride, Monica Willyard, Monica Svopa, Rick Roderick and Elizabeth Aldworth for contributing to this story. -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of siss52 Sent: Fri 3/27/2009 12:12 PM To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare Bulletin RE: [bksvol-discuss] Bookshare BulletinPavi, How are we to read this article if we cannot access it? Sue S. ----- Original Message ----- From: Pavi Mehta To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; Volunteers, Bookshare Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 2:02 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: Bookshare Bulletin Hi Ann, Thanks for letting us know about this. I will forward your mail to our Communications Director so that we can take this into account for all future mailings. In case some of you haven't seen it yet, there is an article in the Bulletin regarding accessibility that credits several of our volunteers. (It was written based on input some of you sent in awhile ago). Congratulations to the contributors on that! Warm regards, Pavi -----Original Message----- From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx on behalf of Ann Parsons Sent: Fri 3/27/2009 10:22 AM To: Volunteers, Bookshare Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Bookshare Bulletin Hi all, Just a quick comment about the Bookshare Bulletin. I got it today in email. Nice articles. However, one warning, the URL's which are cited in the email have a ']' at the end of the URL's. This make's it impossible for one to activate the link from within the email. You get an error. You have to cut and paste the URL into your browser and be sure that you leave off the ']' symbol. In case some of you have your punctuation turned off, I'm speaking of the right bracket symbol. Articles are fine, just inaccessible unless you know what's what. Ann P. Ann P. -- AAnn K. Parsons Portal Tutoring Email: akp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Web Site: http://www.portaltutoring.info blog: http://www.samobile.net/users/akp Skype: Putertutor "All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx put the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.0.238 / Virus Database: 270.11.30/2026 - Release Date: 03/27/09 07:13:00