Web accessibility news – October 2020

October 28, 2020
Leon Op de Beek
3 minutes

Poster on pole in street saying Good News is Coming

People write a lot about web accessibility. We try to collect as many of these items from The Netherlands and abroad. The most striking and interesting we share on our blog every month. This way you do not have to search yourself and you are always aware of what is going on! Therefore here is the web accessibility news of October 2020!

A more readable font for free

Visually challenged people sometimes have difficulty reading certain fonts. The Braille Institute in America has developed a new font that is very legible for the visually challenged. The Atkinson Hyperlegible font is named after the founder of the Braille Institute, J. Robert Atkinson. The font is more usable for partially sighted people than other fonts, because the design takes into account that letter shapes deviate from each other as much as possible. This makes characters easier to recognize and therefore easier to read.

Read the article on Kotke.org

Government websites are still poorly accessible

Since September 23, governments must indicate how accessible their website is. In October, the Register of Accessibility Statements included approximately 1,800 statements. That is slightly more than a quarter of the 7,000 existing government sites. Only 5% of the published statements have a “fully compliant” status, but Capgemini research indicates that nearly half of those websites are not compliant. In October, D66 and PvdA raised quenstions in the House of Representatives about the lack of statements from government sites. The reason for this was a study that Jules Ernst and Ron Beenen carried out on the status of accessibility of government websites.

Read the article on Capgemini.com
Read the article by Ron Beenen

Corona has a major impact on the quality of life for blind and partially sighted people

Most of us experience daily that corona has major social, societal and economic consequences. For blind and partially sighted people, the consequences have a much greater impact, as keeping a distance or following aisles in a store often requires good vision. ZonMW has subsidized a study that Saxion University of Applied Sciences will carry out in collaboration with Bartoméus, Oogvereniging and Koninklijke Visio, among others. This study will, together with visually and visually challenged people, examine which solutions can ensure that the 1.5 meter society remains accessible and inclusive for these target groups. The AFB, the American institute for the blind, also published a report in that describes the consequences of corona for these groups for accessibility to public transport, health care, education, food supply, employment and polling stations.

Read the assignment on ZonMW
Read the PR Newswire article

New bill in America to improve accessibility of commercial websites and apps

Democratic and Republican Representatives introduced a bill called the Online Accessibility Act in Congress on October 1st. This is in addition to the already existing Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This supplement stipulates that commercial websites and apps must be accessible to people with a disability. Until now, the ADA has limited itself to commercial physical public spaces. When Congress adopts this proposal, it could lead to a significant increase in lawsuits and fines.

Read the Converge Accessibility article

In action against low literacy among young people

More and more young people are leaving school with a language deficiency. The lack of basic skills, such as reading, can lead to low literacy. The Leescoalitie, a collaboration between organizations involved in the promotion of language and reading nationwide, is sounding the alarm and advocating an ambitious reading offensive in politics, where reading pleasure comes first. They have drawn up a manifesto for this purpose.

Read the Manifesto of the Leescoalitie