Richard Scott Schwerdtfeger

From assistive technology to a web accessibility service

This paper considers different ways to enhance access to the World Wide Web for persons with sensory, cognitive, or motor limitations. Paradoxically, while complex Web architectures may seem to have inhibited accessibility, they have broadened the range of points where we can try to improve it. This paper identifies these points and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of each. In particular, it describes a project to develop a strategy to enhance access that can be distributed across multiple control points and implemented as an aggregation of Web services.

DHTML accessibility: solving the JavaScript accessibility problem

This project demonstrates fully keyboard accessible components on a web page working with a screen reader. By adding the appropriate semantic data to web components and having user agents translate this to the platform accessibility application programming interfaces, the user interface of a web site can be made fully accessible to keyboard only and vision impaired users. In addition, the web component interface will operate in the same manner as client application components.

PGA: Preferences for Global Access

This paper highlights the research for year one of the Preferences for Global Access (PGA) project whose long term goal is to define a cross-platform preference acquisition system to acquire a user’s needs and preferences for accessing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as part of a cloud-based Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII).