Newsletter

Current edition (05-2024):
A standard for comprehensibility

With Domingos de Oliveira (netz-barrierefrei.de):

The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) has just published its standard for plain language. Plain language is a text format designed to make content understandable to the general public. While easy-to-read language is aimed at people with learning disabilities, plain language is intended to reach the wider public. A simplified standard, a "Spec," is planned for easy-to-read language, but its publication date is not yet known. This could give the topic of understandable language a new boost.

Without a uniform standard, commissioning and reviewing texts or developing supporting tools is difficult. Plain language, for example, is enshrined in the Accessibility Strengthening Act. It is likely that more and more services will gradually be required to use plain language. We are eager to see how this issue develops.

Good news of the month

We have a lot of good news this month:

We had the opportunity to be involved in a fantastic software project: the meeting tool.INCLUSIVA CallThis tool enables accessible online video meetings. It is GDPR-compliant and very data-efficient. The software was developed jointly with and for people with disabilities. The project is being implemented by the Rhineland-Palatinate State Association for Self-Help (LAG Selbsthilfe Rheinland-Pfalz) and funded by Aktion Mensch. The Mainz-based software agency Viermorgen handled the development.

Health devices are to become more accessible for blind and visually impaired people in the USA. We hope for similar legislation in the EU.
Medical Device Nonvisual Accessibility Act

Der Einsatz von Gebärdensprache in Zoom wird mit einer bestimmten Funktion einfacher.
GS-Funktion in Zoom

There are now also comics in simplified language.
Comics in simplified language

Interesting articles

For many people, usability, rather than absolute accessibility, is the decisive factor for success.
The challenge lies with those who are not tech-savvy.

Older people are an important target group for accessibility, as this article shows.
Design for every target group: The importance of digital accessibility for senior citizens.

How can you convince people in design and development of the importance of digital accessibility? Developer Anne Bovelett is exploring this question.
Bringing accessibility into the mainstream.

Bei allen Verdiensten haben uns die Veteran*Innen der digitalen Barrierefreiheit heute wenig Hilfreiches zu sagen, so dieser Beitrag.
Das Scheitern der Barrierefreiheits-Veteranen.

The SPD wants to make wheelchair ramps and aids mandatory.

Here is a short report from Zeit Online about it.

Die Fußball EM der Männer steht vor der Tür. Die Barrierefreiheit im Sport ist bis heute eine große Baustelle. Bei Sport1 wird Coca-Cola als Sponsor dazu befragt.

Moving on in English: Automatic accessibility testing tools can be helpful, but only if you know how to use them and can configure them effectively.
Beware – automatic tools over-report accessibility issues and steal your time.

Does the European Accessibility Act (AKA Accessibility Strengthening Act) restrict creative professionals in marketing? A clear no, as this article explains.
The European Accessibility Act: Will it help or hinder advertising creativity?

Does the European Accessibility Act (AKA Accessibility Strengthening Act) restrict creative professionals in marketing? A clear no, as this article explains.
The European Accessibility Act: Will it help or hinder advertising creativity?

This free handbook can be an interesting introduction for those responsible for digital accessibility.
Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning.

Das Unternehmen Evinced hat Guidelines für mobile Barrierefreiheit veröffentlicht.
Evinced Proposes Mobile Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.

This tool is quite useful if you want to demonstrate how many people can be affected by a measure to improve digital accessibility.
How many people?

More articles

Statistics of the month

The WebAIM Million is one of the best-known data sources on digital accessibility, but it is also quite problematic. First of all, it is purely a data collection; nothing is analyzed, nor is there any noteworthy methodology. Therefore, it shouldn't be called a "study" or "analysis." Since WebAIM doesn't provide the raw data, it's impossible to conduct your own analyses. For the survey, WebAIM commissions WAVE to check the one million homepages of the most visited websites annually; the most recent results were presented in March 2024. These results reportedly found errors on 96 percent of the websites.

Unfortunately, the figures are often misinterpreted; WebAIM itself only provides numbers, the statements come from others – who, incidentally, should know better. Data literacy is a valuable skill when citing statistics.

  • The figures do not mean that 96 percent of websites are unusable for people with disabilities, but at best that there might be problems for individuals or groups in certain areas. Conformity and usability for people with disabilities are not always synonymous.
  • The figures don't say that the other 4 percent are barrier-free, but at best that these websites have been optimized for WebAIM Wave. Whether these websites have improved as a result is an open question.
  • The number of errors found does not correspond to the impact on the user. A page can have 1000 errors and be perfectly usable, while ten errors can render the page unusable. Clearly, there is a relationship, but it's not as simple as WebAIM suggests.

Anyone who is interested in this,Domingos has explained this in detail here.