[WEB4LIB] Input sought for updating Accessible Web Workstation

[Andrew Cunningham]

HI Karen

other possibilities really depend on what type of disabilities you're
aiming for

in some of the work my supervisor has trialled in libraries:

the opera web browser is useful, its ability to engage/disengage images,
resize size are quite good, we've also  tested using high contrast css
stylesheets to override web sites .. to provide large text and use high
contrasting colours ... these stylesheets can be enabled/disable by
keyboard sequences

other issues: physical impairment and limited coordination ... hiiting
individual keys can be hard for soem people, its possible to get perspex
keyboard guards .. effectively a sheet of perspex fitted over the keyboard,
with holes in the perspex in order to type a key ... aloows people with
limited mobility/dexterity in their hands to rest on teh keyboard and type
a key, without the possibility of typing more than one key at the same
time, also useful for people with severe arthritis .. allows then to rest
hands on keyboard.

another suggestion is the  possibility of using a touch screen ... just an
idea ...

Andj


Andrew Cunningham
Multilingual Technical Project Officer
Accessibility and Evauluation Unit, Vicnet
State Library of Victoria
Australia

andrewc at vicnet.net.au

http://www.openroad.net.au/
http://go.to/andj/


At 11:34 AM 5/3/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Last October, with significant input from colleagues, I put together a
>budget for an Accessible Web Workstation.  I am pleased to say that when a
>local bank unexpectedly gave us a gift of $1,000, our director immediately
>thought of this project and told me to use the $1,000 toward making it
>happen.
>
>The current version of this budget is at
>http://www.shenpublib.org/accessibility
>
>If you have updated information (feedback on a software product, a new
>product to list, a version change to be aware of, etc.), please get back to
>me by Friday, May 11, 2001.  I will send out a message when I have
>incorporated all of the changes.
>
>I'm going to match the $1,000 by tweezing money from our own tech budget,
>but we aren't going to be able to get everything on the list.  We are
>beginning this project by targeting visually-challenged but sighted users
>(typical of our older users who attend our computer classes) and focusing on
>the workstation and extra-large monitor, the large-print keyboard overlays,
>the oversized trackball, and the very bright task light.  (We have a
>workstation table we can use.) If you have experience with Jaws, Zoomtext or
>IBM Home Page Reader, I'd be curious to hear what you had to say about usage
>and whether you would make any one of these a priority for our purchase.
>
>Karen G. Schneider kgs at bluehighways.com
>Assistant Director for Technology
>Shenendehowa Public Library www.shenpublib.org
>
>