Breaking Barriers to a Read/Write Web that Empowers All

Steve Bratt, World Wide Web Foundation

Since conceived by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the Web has grown from 1 user to more than 1.7 billion. The Web offers its users the potential to create and consume information, communicate and collaborate across the globe, and develop (and dramatically alter) businesses and business models. Despite the Web's capabilities and growth, 75% of the world's people are not using the Internet and the Web. Some argue that connecting those who are currently unconnected to the Internet could help alleviate the world's greatest tragedies, such as poverty, hunger, disease, violence, corruption, lack of education, etc. Perhaps so, but a number of challenges -- beyond simple connections to the Internet -- must be addressed to realize the true value that the Web can provide for people in need.

More than 4.7 billion people now have, through their mobile phones, entry-level, electronic access to some information and services. To date, most stories of the use of mobile phones for development center around voice and text messaging services. For example, in the Indian fishing sector of Kerala, an in-depth economic study [1] has shown that voice access to market information (demand, prices, locations) allows fishermen to optimize how and where they sell fish, has increased the income of fishermen by 9% (accounting for the cost of mobile phones and subscriptions), while reducing the overall price of fish by 4% for consumers (due to the elimination of unsold and therefore wasted catches). Similar results have been demonstrated for other products and regions (see e.g. grain market in Niger [2]).

At the global level, the number of services like these and people benefiting from them are very low. Major contributors to this deficiency include barriers that inhibit people from developing and deploying locally-relevant content, information and services, as well as barriers that inhibit people from accessing and using services once they are deployed. This keynote will examine barriers to content development and access affecting people from underprivileged communities, with focus on people with low-reading skills, speaking lesser-known languages, without computer experience, and with disabilities. We will also introduce the different programs of the Web Foundation, a new international non-profit launched by Tim Berners-Lee in November 2009 [3]. The Foundation's programs aim to pool the talents of the Web community to break down these barriers such that more people can more effectively leverage the power of the Web to improve lives and communities.

1. R. Jensen, "The Digital Provide: Information (technology), Market, Performance, and Welfare in the south Indian Fisheries Sector", The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. CXXII August 2007 Issue 3, http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/qjec.122.3.879
2. J.C Aker, "Does Digital Divide or Provide? The Impact of Mobile Phones on Grain Markets in Niger", University of California, Berkeley, January 2008, http://www.cgdev.org/doc/events/2.12.08/Aker_Job_Market_Paper_15jan08_2.pdf
3. World Wide Web Foundation, http://www.webfoundation.org

Building National Public Infrastructures on our way to a Global Inclusive Infrastructure

Gregg Vanderheiden, Trace Center

Broadband technologies are rapidly becoming integral to education, commerce, employment, community participation, health and safety Yet there remain multiple barriers to effective and affordable access by people with disabilities, elder, or those with low literacy creating an increasing digital divide. There are assistive technologies that can provide access for some. However it is not available for all disabilities, not affordable by many, and lags mainstream developments and deployments. Even when the latest AT is close to the latest IT, few people have the latest version. The cost of keeping up with mainstream technologies reduces resources available for innovation in assistive technologies and new directions in broadband technologies will require an already strapped AT industry to retool and re-architect their products. We are moving to an ICT environment with a profusion of hardware models (desktop, laptop, netbook, smartphone, tablet, set top box, game systems, players), multiple operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Maemo (Nokia), Bada (Samsung), WebOS, etc.), hundreds of software applications that embed another universe of widgets, plug-ins, and players, and a networked information environment that adheres to no standard and mutates far beyond the initial conception of the Web. Our current access technologies and infrastructure cannot handle this; the assistive technologies that now exist do not address all disabilities well, particularly cognitive, language, and learning disabilities, deaf-blindness and the mixed problems faced by elders; current assistive technologies often add, rather than reduce, complexity; finally, but importantly, people are not aware of what is possible, see it as complicated, and do not have any easy way to determine that there is something that can help them

A coalition of academic, industry and non-governmental organizations and individuals are coming together to promote the creation of a National Public Inclusive Infrastructure (NPII) to address these problems. The purpose is to ensure that everyone who faces accessibility barriers due to disability, literacy or aging, regardless of economic status, can access and use the Internet and all its information, communities, and services for education, employment, daily living, civic participation, health and safety.

An NPII would provide key software enhancements to the physical infrastructure to allow lower cost accessibility that could be invoked on any computer, anywhere. Its key components would be a cloud based delivery system that would allow anywhere, any computer access, a personal preference system to allow systems to automatically configure themselves to users, a system of wizards to make creation of a preference profile simple even when a professional is not available, a metadata server to allow users to find accessible media or captions or descriptions for inaccessible media, a trusted source for malware free solutions, a rich development environment with common building blocks, and an awareness program to make more people aware of what is possible for them. All of the NPII components are being designed to support both commercial assistive technologies and free, built-in access features (universal design). The NPII will include a delivery system, personalization profiles and a rich development system and common modules. In addition to lowering development costs and increasing the number of solutions for different disabilities, the NPII can also enable new types of assistive technologies and services, including assistance-on-demand services that allow consumers to invoke computer or human assistance whenever and wherever they need it. The goal is a richer set of access options that it is less expensive to create and distribute and that can address the needs of a wider range of disabilities than is possible today. And a model infrastructure that can be replicated internationally and bring this wide variety of access options and the lower cost delivery system for both commercial and free access features to countries world-wide.

After Dinner Speech - Dogfooding

William Loughborough... would have been our Honoured After Dinner Speaker. However, as you may know William sadly, and recently, passed away. So liked within the community was he, that we will be showing a 15 minute film / interview with him put together by Wendy Chisholm; and announcing details of the William Loughborough Memorial Address

"Eat your own dog food" is sometimes used to encourage listeners to "practice what they preach." Because we are all members of one another, all in the same boat, etc. it should be obvious that to be effective in evangelizing for Web Accessibility for "All" we must recognize that it's not just for crips any more. We are compelled to practice "universal design" or something as close to it as we can. Some examples of our own failure to "dogfood" are: We have had, little to do with the Deaf community and only pay lip service to addressing the needs of people with so-called "learning disabilities" or "cognitive impairments". This is a call to action for all of us to do what we know works best: "each one teach one (or more)" as a routine part of our effort. I call on all of us to begin making this evangelism flourish. We cannot stand idly by as the human rights of our clients / associates / colleagues are violated.