International accessibility news roundup

Image: Christopher Michel

At ALHAUS, we understand how important website content for connecting people. That is why we believe so strongly in the cause of universal design and inclusivity.

“Website accessibility ensures that everyone has equal access to your great content.”

With new exciting new developments in technology happening every day, we like to keep all of our readers up to date on the latest and greatest news.

So every month we collect a curated selection of the best website accessibility news from across the globe. Here are the most important stories for this month: 

W3C invites implementations of WCAG 2.1 (W3C)

On January 30, 2018, with the completion of the WCAG 2.1 standards, W3C the leading consortium for website standards has invited developers to begin implementing the new accessibility standards. These standards will improve website accessibility for people across the globe on a number of devices.

Yale to ensure universal website accessibility (Yale Daily News)

Adelaide Feibel 

In an announcement last week, Yale University Provost Ben Polak announced a new website accessibility policy to ensure all websites and applications are fully accessible. The new policy will go into effect on March 1, 2018. The policy is part of a larger strategy to make the entire university more accessible to students both online and physically on campus.  

Indian government working towards making 917 state government websites accessible for the disabled (Open Gov)

Priyankar Bhunia

The Indian government launched a new program called Accessible India Campaign in mid-January to ensure all their state government websites are fully accessible based on WCAG guidelines. To date, there are around 100 government websites that are fully accessible and the plan is to implement the same standards for every government website in India. The program established three levels of accessibility in order to grade each website and recommend changes.

OrCam technology empowers kiwis with reading disability (Scoop Sci-Tech)

OrCam has announced the development of MyEye 2.0, a lightweight wearable that instantly reads text on paper and screens, offers facial recognition, and helps identify consumer products. MyEye is completely hands-free and does not require a connection to WiFi or another device. MyEye will help individuals who are blind, partially sighted, and have reading difficulties achieve independence.

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