could you please explain how to subscribe to zieglar magazine?
thanks in anticipation
Padmanabham Muppa.
----- Original Message -----
From: "K. Nageswaraiah" <nageswara1...@gmail.com>
To: <blindc...@yahoogroups.com>; <accessindia@accessindia.org.in>;
<sayeveryth...@sayeverything.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 9:25 PM
Subject: [AI] Two articles from the Ziegler Magazine.
Feature Writer John Christie - Tools for a More Accessible Internet
A website in England is attempting to fix the web for the disabled and
elderly. In order to assist in fixing the web, you can actually sign
up and help them out by going to their website,
http://www.fixtheweb.net/ and become a volunteer or a reporter.
In order to give feedback on fixing the web, you can also go to the
Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web consortium on its website
at http://www.w3.org/wai/. This web site documents problems the
disabled have with various web sites.
Many of us are well aware that there is a serious accessibility issue
with most websites. While there are a few who are paving the way and
making accessibility a crucial element of their design, there is much
work to be done. It must be said, though, that it doesn't seem that
the problem lies in an unwillingness to create accessible material as
much as there is a misunderstanding about what it means to have an
accessible site.
That's where the importance of these new groups comes into play. By
educating website designers about how to make their sites
accessible--and involving the people who require accessible websites
to evaluate them--they're helping to change the fundamental way in
which websites are designed from the ground up. For those designers
who may be curious to know if their site is as accessible as it should
be, there are also organizations who provide testing services to help
them reach their accessibility goals.
Thankfully, there are multiple resources available to website
designers. The World Wide Web Consortium offers quick tips for
designers who may have questions. Their web site is
http://www.w3.org/wai/references/quicktips and serves as a quick
reference card for making sites accessible.
Another resource that can help in assisting to make sites accessible
to the disabled is the Bobby Accessibility Checker. The Bobby software
can generate a report on a website's overall accessibility. This is a
good site to use if designers want to see whether their site has
either a few or a lot of accessibility issues to contend with. The web
address is http://www.cast.org/bobby.
A great publication that can assist in designing web sites is
http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web/. This publication is published by the
Trace Center from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin.
IBM also has a list of accessibility guidelines that is available at
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/guidelines/web/accessweb.html.
All of these resources that are available to web designers are great
news for the visually impaired community. By creating a standard for
accessibility and offering education, the future internet will no
longer be a place of frustration and barriers, and instead will become
something that is built, from the ground up, to serve all of its users
equally.
Health and Lifestyle - VI Fit: Bringing Active Video Games to the
Blind
It's a well-known fact that maintaining a sedentary lifestyle is not
conducive to good health. Lack of physical activity has been linked to
heart disease, obesity, and even cancer. It's also true that
individuals who are visually impaired tend to have fewer opportunities
to engage in physical activities that promote good health and provide
enough stimulation to maintain proper fitness. This is especially true
in visually impaired children, and results in lower performance motor
skills, reduced physical fitness, and an increased chance of obesity.
Ever since the release of the Nintendo Wii, a video game system
designed around physical interactions with the video games, people
have been heralding the design for its ability to not only entertain,
but to actually serve as a way to improve physical fitness and motor
skills--so much so, that they're even used in rehabilitation centers.
These types of games have been called "exergames" since the player
must be physically involved in order to play.
Now, a group called VI Fit has devised a way to use the Nintendo Wii
platform to create games that can benefit the visually impaired. Up
until now, these games required the user to be sighted. However, with
programming tweaks, they've developed multiple games that can utilize
the audio and vibration functions built into the motion sensing
controller to make these types of games accessible.
One of the games offered is a take on the classic "Whack-a-Mole" game.
Called, Pet-n-Punch, the player helps a farmer get rid of varmints by
bopping them on the head, while at the same time avoiding the cats
that pop up from time to time as well. While it may not seem like
something that will cause you to break a sweat, this game is VI Fit's
most physical offering and it gives the player a much higher workout
than the other two that they feature.
A second game is a take on the popular Wii Bowling game. By using
vibration feedback in the controllers, the player can find the
direction they need to throw their ball while receiving audio and
speech effects giving the result of each throw. After evaluating the
type of physical exertion needed to play this game, they found that
the player's activity was comparable to walking. Two players can play
at a time.
Their third offering is a take on Wii Tennis. The controller offers
vibration and audio feedback to let the player know when to serve and
when to return the ball. As with the bowling, this game can be played
alone or with a friend. They tested this game at Camp Abilities with
13 blind children and found that the amount of physical activity
needed to play the game was enough to maintain proper physical
fitness.
By offering accessible versions of these new exergames, VI Fit has
given blind children a huge opportunity to stay active, stay healthy,
and have fun in their homes with their family and friends. What's even
better is that you don't actually need to own a Nintendo Wii game
system to play the games. All that is required is a $30 Nintendo Wii
controller and a Windows PC with Bluetooth (or a $15 USB Bluetooth
dongle) to connect the controller wirelessly. The games mentioned
above can all be downloaded from their website for free at
http://vifit.org/.
Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at:
http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm
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Register for AccessIndia convention 2011(November 12-13) at:
http://www.accessindia.org.in/harish/convention.htm
Search for old postings at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/
To unsubscribe send a message to
accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in
with the subject unsubscribe.
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