日本におけるウェブアクセシビリティの研究と改善の取り組み プレゼンテーション資料

Outline of this presentation

The purpose of this presentation is to report on development of web accessibility evaluation and repairing system to solve unique difficulties in Japan.

1. Background in J-WAS Project
2. Developing web accessibility evaluation and repairing system
3. Plan for J-WAS Project from now

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Web Contents Accessibility

Each individual who access to the web has equal access to information that is provided without any barrier caused by physical or mental condition.（Assurance in information convey）

In the US, arise of Rehabilitation Act Section 508 has put this issue under public attention.

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Web Contents Accessibility Guideline (WCAG)

WCAG1.0 was released by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) 's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Abstract information on WCAG1.0

• WCAG1.0 explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities.
• The guideline is intended for all Web content developers (page authors and site designers) and for developers of authoring tools.
  

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Background in J-WAS Project

• Almost all Japanese websites including national public sector websites are very poor in accessibility
• Japanese government has been discussing on policies or legislations to improve this situation
• J-WAS project was started under initiative of Soumu-syo Ministry. Because accessibility evaluation tool that is available to Japanese language did not exist.
  

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Assuring Accessibility of Japanese Website

The Results of Accessibility for major Japanese Websites

Count the number of obvious errors on WCAG1.0. Each number shows average errors on these top pages in September 2001.

Average errors on top pages

Categories	Priority-1	Priority-2	Priority-3
Government and National Public sectors (36 sites)	18.7	105.4	7.2
Local self-government bodies (14 sites)	45.0	104.3	19.5
Universities (10 sites)	15.4	57.5	8.6
Private Enterprises (94 sites)	51.4	147.4	11.2

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History of policies and legislations

1999: Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications and Ministry of Health and Welfare declared a guideline regarding web contents accessibility (almost the same content as WAI)

2000: November, the government demanded every ministry and national public sector to improve accessibility to its website

2001: March, Government IT Strategy Headquarters included a statement to enhance improvement of information accessibility in "e-japan Priority Policy Program"

2001-:

• Under influence of US Rehabilitation Act section 508, Japanese government is discussing the possibility of enforcing same sort of policy or legislation.
• JSA (Japanese Standards Association) is also in discussion in order to set JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) for web accessibility
  

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About J-WAS Project

The purposes of this project are…

1. To develop a tool that is available for Japanese websites to evaluate and repaire, and report the test result in Japanese
2. To spread the concept of web accessibility by using evaluation and repairing tool

• J-WAS project was started under initiative of Soumu-syo Ministry.
  Soumu-syo ministry:
  The Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications
• Allied Brains,Inc., supports this project mainly

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System requirements

1. Web-based tool
2. Validates the conformation of WAI guideline (WCAG1.0)
3. Provide easy repairing instruction (or repairing form) to introductory level users who are not familiar with HTML
4. Solve accessibility difficulties that are unique in Japanese language
5. Provide a function that instructs accessibility concept easily
6. Available for contents targeted for Web-phone

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Accessibility difficulties that are unique in Japanese language

1. It is very hard for speech sensor to pronounce Japanese web page contents correctly
2. It is hard to complete a sentence with characters that are pronouce-able to everyone
3. There are some WCAG criteria that does not apply well to Japanese writing system

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Cause of mis-pronounciation by speech sensor

• One KANJI (Chinese character) has multiple ways of pronunciation
  Ex) "方" can be pronounced "hou" and "kata", both are different meanings
• It is possible to change line even in the amidst of a word
  Speech sensor does not recognize a word when spacing or changing of line takes place in the amidst of a word
  

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Reason why it is hard to complete a sentence
with Kanji that are pronouce-able to everyone

• Japanese language consists of three different kind of characters
  Kanji(Chinese character), Katakana and Hiragana
• In Japan, KANJI (Chinese character) is ranked in difficulty level
  There is a standard for Kanji that is used in everyday life basis
  However, individual Kanji comprehension level varies due to age, generation and education

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An example of criterion that does not apply well
to Japanese writing system

Adjacent link need to be separated [WCAG checkpoint-10.5]

Until user agents render adjacent links distinctly, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent links. [Priority 3]

• In Japanese writing system, words are not separated by spacing
• Speech sensor does not pronounce correctly when space exists in a word

Link additional information of Non-text elements with "D" [HTML Techniques 7.2]

When a short text equivalent does not suffice to adequately convey the function or role of an image, provide additional information in a file designated by the "longdesc" attribute. For user agents that don't support "longdesc", provide a description link ( [D] )

• "D" stands for "Description," but it is not clear for Japanese people
• This needs to be revised in appropriate Japanese expression

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How to realize the system

Add following items to system in experiment

1. Show a warning sign when using non-daily life based Kanji
2. Show a list of replacing words for foreign words that are not easy to understand
3. Make the user check himself/ herself if there is any spacing or changing line
4. Revise part of WAI guideline in regard to Japanese writing system
   

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Ruby Annotation

There is possibility for XHTML "Ruby Annotation" technology to solve difficulties derives from Kanji

• Ruby Annotation can make anyone read Kanji, which has difficult pronounce
• However, very few people start to use this technology
• Need to discuss for the use of Ruby Annotation for Web accessibility
  

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J-WAS

http://www.jwas.gr.jp/ (Japanese Only)

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J-WAS Project schedule in timeline

Phase-1: From April 2001 to September 2001.
Developing J-WAS system
Development of system, which is adapted to Japanese accessibility difficulties.

Phase-2: From September 2001 to March 2002.
Testing Effectiveness of J-WAS System
Actual testing in usage by Web Authors. Currently, we are on this phase.

Phase-3: From March 2002 to around September 2002.
Function development, Present a complete system
Develop developable aspects that are found in actual testing in usage by Web authors.

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Crucial points from this presentation

The purpose of this presentation is to report on development of web accessibility evaluation and repairing system to solve unique difficulties in Japan

In order to spread the concept of web accessibility…

• Web is a media consisting of letters. Therefore, it needs to be localized according to language characteristics
• Internet using environment for people with disabilities varies greatly in each country. It is important to take local situation into account

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Electronic Imaging2002
Technical Conferenses:Internet Imaging III

21 January 2002
San Jose Convention Center
San Jose, California USA