IBM
IBM's new Web Adaptation Technology (WAT) software allows a disabled internet user to configure web pages to be presented the way he or she wants to see them, changing backgrounds, text, colours and opting for speech, according to preference.
A user's preferences are stored on a server, and every time the user logs in with his or her unique username and password, the web is tailored to that user's needs.
Speaking to news site TheRegister.co.uk, Mark Wakefield, IBM's corporate community affairs manager, said, "It turns the issue of accessible web sites on its head".
He continued: "It will be many years before the majority of sites are accessible. Rather than wait to get them converted, WAT enables people to manipulate web pages now."
Home users and not-for-profit groups who can distribute the service to elderly or disabled users can sign up to the service for free. Disability charity AbilityNet is supporting IBM in distributing the service throughout the UK.
The service does not change the legal obligation on organisations to make their web sites accessible to the disabled and IBM is not suggesting that the service is a silver bullet to accessibility; but it is nonetheless a welcome development.
PDFs
Meanwhile, Open Access's EnablePDF service, which will be available shortly, assists organisations in making their sites more accessible.
This service deals with Adobe Acrobat PDF documents, which are commonly used to publish documents on-line but which are often inaccessible to disabled users.
Adobe has done a lot of work in recent years to address this issue and the provision of tagging functionality means that correctly formatted and tagged documents will adhere to accessibility guidelines.
The issue for organisations is one of creating the documents with the correct tags. This requires software programs and staff with the relevant training and, even with these resources, it can be a time consuming and costly task.
To address this problem, Open Access is developing a web based service whereby companies will be able to upload their PDF documents and have them returned to them with the relevant accessible features added.
For an organisation that has large volumes of inaccessible PDFs available on-line, services like EnablePDF could make it more difficult to argue that it cannot justify the work necessary in making the information accessible.