Christophe Strobbe

The Unified Web Evaluation Methodology (UWEM) 1.2 for WCAG 1.0

Checking of web accessibility can be carried out in several ways along the same international standards. The evaluation methodologies used by evaluation and certification organizations in several European countries (such as AccessiWeb in France, Technosite in Spain and AnySurfer in Belgium) are different in subtle but meaningful ways, even though they are usually based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0). The Unified Web Evaluation Methodology (UWEM) is developed by European expert organisations and offers test descriptions to evaluate WCAG 1.0 conformance covering level AA, a clear sampling scheme, several reporting options, including score cards and other instruments to help communicate the results of evaluations. The aim is to establish the UWEM as the basis for web accessibility evaluation, policy support and possible certification in Europe.

A unified web evaluation methodology using WCAG

Checking of web accessibility can be carried out in several ways along the same international standards and depending on the scale, the quality, availability of tools and the interpretation method that is followed. The Unified Web Evaluation Methodology is developed by European expert organizations and offers test descriptions to evaluate WCAG 1.0 conformance covering level AA, a clear sampling scheme, improved aggregations supporting confidence levels, Score cards and other instruments to help communicate the results of evaluations clearer and on more levels. The aim is to establish the UWEM as the basis for web accessibility evaluation, policy support and possible certification in Europe.

Test case description language (TCDL): test case metadata for conformance evaluation

Automatic benchmarking of evaluation and repair tools (ERT) has been recently the subject of several studies as there is a growing interest because of legal and commercial issues on Web compliance with different criteria and standards. This paper addresses the development of a description language targeted to formally represent test case metadata. This language was used to develop a WCAG 2.0 test suite that will support the benchmarking of ERT with regard to the aforementioned W3C recommendation

An accessibility checker for libreoffice and openoffice.org writer

OpenOffice.org Writer and LibreOffice Writer both implement the OpenDocument Format (ODF) and support output formats such as PDF and XHTML. Through the extensions odt2daisy and odt2braille (developed in the context of the AEGIS project) Writer can also export to DAISY (audio books) and Braille. In order to output usable DAISY or Braille, authors first need to create an accessible source document. The objective of AccessODF, the accessibility checker developed in the context of the European AEGIS project, is to support authors in creating accessible ODF documents and to prepare these documents for conversion to DAISY and/or Braille. The paper discusses the user interface options that were explored, describes how authors can repair errors and warnings, gives examples of automatic and semi-automatic repairs supported by the checker, and describes which errors and warnings are implemented.

Generating DAISY books from OpenOffice.org

odt2daisy is an open-source extension for OpenOffice.org Writer that converts word processing files into digital talking books in the DAISY format (ANSI/NISO Z39.86). odt2daisy produces Full DAISY 3 (text synchronised with audio), DAISY 3 XML (text without audio) and Full DAISY 2.02 (for compatibility with older DAISY players). The extension also supports mathematical content (MathML). odt2daisy works on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris. For the production of audio, odt2daisy relies on the DAISY Pipeline Lite, an open-source software developed by the DAISY Consortium, the LAME MP3 encoding technology, and the operating systems text-to-speech (TTS) engine(s). The supported languages depend on the TTS engines available on the users system. On Unix-based systems odt2daisy relies on the open-source eSpeak TTS engine, which supports 27 languages. odt2daisy enables the production of DAISY books with only open-source software. Vincent Spiewak started working on odt2daisy at the Universite Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris, France) and continued the work at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) in the framework of AEGIS, a research and development project co-financed by the European Commissions 7th Framework Programme.

Accessibility issues in two specifications for e-learning tests: IMS QTI 1.2 and IMS QTI 2.0

The IMS Global Learning Consortium developed the QTI (Question and Test Interoperability) specification to allow the exchange of question and test data, and their corresponding result reports, between learning systems. QTI 1.2 had some accessibility issues, as the VISUAL project discovered when transforming QTI tests into accessible HTML and voice user interfaces. Some problems were due to an insufficient mechanism to specify alternative text, other problems were due to the ambiguity of the intent of certain interaction types. QTI 2.0 solved the issue of alternative text, but the ambiguity with regard to the intent of interaction types was not sufficiently addressed

Generating Braille from OpenOffice.org

Odt2Braille is an open-source extension to OpenOffice.org with the goal to generate Braille from an office suite. It is powered by liblouisxml, a library intended to provide complete Braille transcription services for XML documents. Odt2Braille will enable authors to print their document to an embosser or to export a Braille file. The output is well-formatted and highly customizable. The work is part of the European R&D project AEGIS.

The BenToWeb Test Case Suites for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

This paper presents work carried out under the umbrella of the EU-funded project BenToWeb to develop XHTML test case suites for three drafts of WCAG 2.0 (June 2005, April 2006, May 2007). These suites of test cases demonstrate pass and failure examples for WCAG 2.0 and its accompanying Techniques document. The test cases were validated during the BenToWeb project and are currently being migrated to the WAI Test Sample Development Task Force, where the work will be continued.

IDCnet: Inclusive Design Curriculum Network – First Results

This paper presents the preliminary results of the IDCnet Thematic Network in regard to the development of curriculum recommendations for Higher Education institutions in the area of ICT that include Design for All. These recommendations are based upon discussion with relevant actors in industry and academia to identify core knowledge sets and skills.

Accessibility evaluation for open source word processors

In parallel with the products of Microsofts Office suite, two open source word processors are gaining popularity. OpenOffice.org Writer and its more recent alternative (or “fork”) LibreOffice Writer both implement as their default storage format the OpenDocument Text format (ODT, a subset of ODF) and support various output formats including the Portable Document Format (PDF) and XHTML. Through the extensions “odt2daisy” and “odt2braille”, developed within the European AEGIS project, both Writers can also export ODT documents to DAISY (audio books, talking books) and to printable Braille, taking into account its language and country dependent formatting rules. This contribution focuses on the accessibility evaluation software that was developed in the same European AEGIS project, intended to support authors in creating accessible ODT documents that can be converted error-free into DAISY and/or Braille.