PLACES - A Web Platform for Accessibility

Abstract

How many times a person does not understand a video because cannot access its sound? How often persons have wondered about how interesting it would be to have a certain book in audio format, to continue reading while doing other activities? With the exponential growth of digitization of information in contemporary society, it is essential to adopt accessibility policies to technologies and information systems. The provided information should be considered for different users and different usage contexts. The more versatile or flexible the format is, the more useful and effective it can be for everyone. Aiming to contribute to an increasingly universal design, an online platform with tutorials that provide guidelines for creating accessible digital documents formatted in Word, PowerPoint and HTML was implemented. In addition, two experimental tools were provided: one for reading mathematical formulas written in MathML and the other to convert to text and speech simple SVG images, allowing the user to navigate through the description. The challenge is, on one hand, to give users knowledge about tools that already offer resources to create accessibility, and that due to general lack of information are simply just not used; on the other hand, as done in the following chapter on HTML, to review the usefulness of fundamental aspects and some strategies to create and provide information.