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WHO IS THIS "BOBBY" GUY ANYWAY?August 17, 1999The Internet is slowly but surely becoming more disability-friendly, thanks to the efforts of the Center for Applied Special Technology. CAST provides a web-based tool called "Bobby" to help web site developers analyze their sites for important criteria that make them easier for people with disabilities to use. Bobby takes into consideration not just people with minor sight limitations such as color blindness or difficulty seeing small fonts. The program also checks sites for their readability by computer programs that translate content displayed on computer screens into audio for blind people. Bobby has helped more than 650 sites become accessible since launching last year. The program, which tests more than 3 million web pages per month, was a finalist for the SAP/Stevie Wonder Vision Awards' Vision Pioneer of the Year and the 1999 Computerworld/Smithsonian Awards. The access evaluation tool identifies accessibility violations and provides suggestions for improving web pages. Though it cannot repair problems it detects, CAST and the University of Toronto Adaptive Technology Research Center are working on a new tool to walk web developers through a step-by-step process of repairing errors, CAST says. To become Bobby approved, a Web site must meet several requirements, including providing text equivalents for all images, animated elements, audio and video it displays. In addition, graphs and charts must include summaries in the source code to enable site reading computer programs to accurately describe the layout on the web page. Those developers that pass Bobby's tests are permitted to display a small "Bobby Approved" symbol on their sites. CAST also encourages developers to list their sites in a database on the Bobby site to "help others to understand that Web accessibility is an important initiative." Current "Bobby Approved" sites range from the obvious, like The Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group of New York City and the Council for Exceptional Children, to the unusual. An American living in Japan operates a "Bobby Approved" personal home page about Japanese Martial Arts, and the Tibetan Mastiff Web Site, providing information about the rare breed of dog, is also disability friendly. Save The Light Inc., a group trying to preserve the historic Morris Island Lighthouse in Charleston, S.C., made sure its site got Bobby's nod because it was the right thing to do, according to site developer Bob Chapman. "We have a goal of maximum accessibility," he said, noting the web site does not yet display the approval graphic because some pages still need some fine-tuning. "Once we do, you bet it will be displayed," Chapman said. Similarly, Special Education News is in the process of making changes to win Bobby's approval, though the site's front page, navigation bar and advertising banner have passed the test. Several site developers included Bobby's accessibility tests in the regimen of overall Internet-friendly test they put their sites through before launching. Barry Nordby, for example, says "I was looking for tools to check that my page design would work with all kinds of different browsers. I happened across 'Bobby' while I was looking at information at the HTML writers guild." Nordby, proprietor of the In Touch web site design company, said he does not use accessibility as a selling point for his services. Josh Meseke, a high school student who operates a chat room about his hometown of Vidalia, Ill., also found the Bobby test while looking for tools to check his site's computer code. "I doubt that many, if any, handicapped users will ever visit the site, but I simply wanted to make it accessible for everyone, with no exceptions," Meseke said. Bobby helped Jeremy Likness open his mind to disability issues he had never before considered. After reading about Bobby in a computer magazine, he said, " I realized how selfish it was to create a web page about myself and even my family, and then only restrict it to a certain class of people." Likness and his wife are expecting a baby daughter in January, which he said makes his increasing understanding of disability issues even more valuable. Though the baby appears healthy so far, he said, " I would like to think that regardless of her health and abilities, that she would get the same fair shot at life as everyone else. That is a strong motivation, because it really only takes a little extra time to add the minor touches that make the site more accessible."8 |
