: [FV-Talk] RESOURCE: Accessible Google

[Guest guest]

From another listserv: This might be useful for people w/dyslexia

or people who need pages w/”fewer visual distractions”, too

Ihttp://labs.google.com/accessible/

Accessible

Search FAQ

What is

Google Accessible Search?

Accessible

Search is an early Google Labs product designed to identify and prioritize

search results that are more easily usable by blind and visually impaired

users. Regular Google search helps you find a set of documents that is most

relevant to your tasks. Accessible Search goes one step further by helping you

find the most accessible pages in that result set.

How

does Accessible Search work?

In its

current version, Google Accessible Search looks at a number of signals by examining

the HTML markup found on a web page. It tends to favor pages that degrade

gracefully --- pages with few visual distractions and pages that are likely to

render well with images turned off. Google Accessible Search is built on Google

Co-op's technology, which improves search results based on specialized

interests.

Why

is Google offering this?

Accessible

Search is a natural and important extension of Google's overall mission to

better organize the world's information and make it universally accessible.

Google Accessible Search is designed to help the visually challenged find the

most relevant, useful and comprehensive information, as quickly as possible.

In the

past, visually impaired Google users have often waded through a lot of

inaccessible websites and pages to find the required information. Our goal is

to provide a more useful and accessible web search experience for the blind and

visually impaired.

How

do you decide which sites are " accessible " and which are not?

Broadly,

Google defines accessible websites and pages as content that the blind and

visually challenged can use and consume using standard online technology, and

we've worked with a number of organizations to determine which websites and

pages meet those criteria. Our methods for identifying accessible pages and

content are always evolving; Currently we take into account several factors,

including a given page's simplicity, how much visual imagery it carries and

whether or not it's primary purpose is immediately viable with keyboard navigation.

How

can sites make their content more accessible to the blind?

Some of

the basic recommendations on how to make a website more useable and accessible

include keeping Web pages easy to read, avoiding visual clutter -- especially

extraneous content -- and ensuring that the primary purpose of the Web page is

immediately accessible with full keyboard navigation. There are many

organizations and online resources that offer Website owners and authors

guidance on how to make websites and pages more accessible for the blind and

visually impaired. The W3C publishes numerous guidelines including Web Content Access Guidelines that are

helpful for Website owners and authors. Broad adherence to these guidelines is

one way of ensuring that sites are universally accessible.