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Accessibility improvements on Twitter

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Social media tool Twitter has announced its efforts to make its website twitter.com more accessible to people with disabilities.

Their first blog, released yesterday, outlines improvements they have made to keyboard navigation on the website. According to the Twitter blog, pressing the K or J keys will now allow you to navigate between tweets. While using the Tab and Shift +Tab key will allow you to move between links within a tweet. Keyboard shortcuts allow people with mobility impairments to navigate the website through a button, providing an alternative to using mouse navigation.

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General

Web

Digital media and technology:

Twitter

Social media

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Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

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Round-up of the M-Enabling Australasia 2013 Conference

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Experts in mobile technology, accessibility, industry representatives, government and disability and consumer advocacy groups last week came together to discuss challenges and trends in mobile technology and accessibility at the M-Enabling Australasia 2013 Conference. Held at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney, the conference was organised by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) in joint partnership with Telstra.

International speakers including Karen Peltz Strauss, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US, and President and Executive Director of The Global Initiative for Inclusive ICT (G3ict) Axel Leblois, discussed how accessibility is currently driving innovation in legislation and mobile technology.

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Digital media and technology:

National Transition Strategy

WCAG

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Deaf/hearing impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Blind/vision impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Research & Policy news

Practical Web Accessibility news

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ACCAN calls for new access legislation

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The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) has called for new legislation to ensure the accessibility of online content and digital technology.

The new legislation would be based America’s 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), which was passed in 2010. The most comprehensive access legislation in the world, it makes it mandatory for programs captioned for television broadcast to be captioned when distributed over the internet. Digital television receivers, smartphones, tablets and other devices must also be able to receive captions and play audio description.

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General

Australian policy and legislation

Captions

ACCAN, Australian Communications Consumer Action Network

Deaf or hearing impaired

Digital media and technology:

Policy

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Deaf/hearing impaired Digital Technology & Online Media news

Research & Policy news

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Australia falling behind in video on demand captioning

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Media Access Australia today released a report, Captioning on Video on Demand: It’s Time for Australia to Catch Up, which shows that most video on demand and catch up TV providers are failing to make their content accessible for Deaf and hearing impaired viewers.

“Consumers are increasingly watching TV programs and movies online, on a variety of devices,” said the author of the report, MAA’s TV Project Manager, Chris Mikul. “In Australia, the only networks which provide captioning on their catch up services are the ABC and SBS. The only Australian video on demand service to offer captioning on some content is iTunes.”

Taxonomy:

Deaf or hearing impaired

Web

News

News alert taxonomy:

Blind/vision impaired TV, DVD, Cinema & the Arts news

Research & Policy news