Jinfo: Newsletter No. 14

Newsletter No. 14

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                             Free Pint
          Helping you find quality information on the Web

ISSN 1460-7239                                        14 May 1998 #14
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                           IN THIS ISSUE

                             EDITORIAL

                        TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
                "Six Opinions on Internet World UK"
                      gleaned by William Hann

                          FEATURE ARTICLE
                   "Deafblind access to the Web"
                        by James Gallagher

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               Welcome to Free Pint Number Fourteen!

We start this issue with the opinions on this week's Internet World 
exhibition in London from six influential UK Internet professionals.
Was the show exciting, enthralling and eventful?  Find out what the
professionals thought.

This is then followed by a fascinating article about how Deafblind
users access and use the Web.  The article contains tips on how 
Web site developers can make their sites more accessible, with 
a surprising list of sites which are totally unusable!

How many people have you told about Free Pint?  The newsletter can
only remain free with your help to spread the word.  If you find it
useful and interesting then please tell the world by forwarding 
copies to colleagues, friends and especially journalists!

May I now invite you to read on and enjoy your fourteenth Free Pint!

Kind regards,
William Hann
Managing Editor
william@freepint.co.uk

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                        TIPS AND TECHNIQUES
                "Six Opinions on Internet World UK"
                      gleaned by William Hann

Mecklermedia's Internet World UK Spring '98 is at London's Olympia
this week, and even though the show has yet to finish we
are showing off the timeliness of electronic publishing by providing 
you with the views of a group of six of the best known UK Internet
professionals.  We asked this influential group four questions about
the show this year and have reproduced their answers here. The group 
consisted of Ivan Pope, CEO of NetNames International, Gail Robinson, 
Editor of Internet Magazine, Nick Gilbert, Business Development 
Director of NewsNow Publishing, Mark Cross, Producer of the 
UKdirectory (printed edition), Mark Stevenson, Technical Director at 
Gnash Communications, and Tim Dunton, Managing Director of Global 
Gold Internet Services.


1) In your opinion, what was the best product on show?
======================================================

MARK S: "I'll pick two if I may. Given the 'new seriousness' then
it's got to be Broadvision's One-to-One product set. It really does 
deliver some great functionality for web-enabling organisation (both 
outwards and inwards) - harnessing the power of the web for business.
For pure 'cool' then I'll go for the Superscape's VRT version 5.0 for
building VR web-sites. Not least because the file sizes they're 
talking about look sensible for transport over the net. A VR site now
looks like a real possibility for a lot of companies."

IVAN: "Possibly Globalink's server side translation software - 
assuming it works!"

GAIL: "MediaSurface - Good Web publishing tool from Webdevelopment"

NICK: "Macromedia Director 6.5. and Flash 3"

MARK C: "Conference Center by Telepost - http://www.telepost.net/ -
the product is described as 'A Web-initiated conference calling 
service that gives you complete control over initiating and managing
audio and document conference calls from virtually anywhere in the
world.'"

TIM: "NetNames domain name registration and management."


2) Did you notice any significant trends?
=========================================

Generally accepted trends included:

TIM: "Web advertising"

NICK: "Telephony products"

Whilst more businesses seem to be making money:

MARK S: "Business is now the dominant force on the Internet - the
show was dominated by vendors pushing serious business messages and
solutions. Basically most people appear to be 'getting serious' (at
last)."

MARK C: "Encryption & E-Commerce stands"

However, not all of the identified trends are good ones:

IVAN: "The show seems to be getting smaller. It certainly hasn't
grown since last year. Considering the rate at which Internet
business is expanding, this seems very strange."

GAIL: "The trend towards using empty stand space as handy picnic
areas."


3) Which was your favourite stand?  Why?
========================================

One company won hands-down in this category, which just goes to show
that you must get a gut reaction from people passing your stand: it
doesn't matter whether its good or bad (people may hate your stand)
but as long as they remember it then that's all that really matters:

IVAN: "Intelligent Environments - Year after year Intelligent
Environments have doggedly stuck with the banana theme. Near naked men
and women painted green keep everyone supplied with bananas. The
stand is decked out like a jungle. Why? Who knows. It may be the
dumbest stand concept ever known, but you can always direct people to
your stand by saying  '... and turn left at the Banana stand'. It's
like a small jungle in a desert of blandness."

MARK C: "Intelligent Environments - they made an effort to be
different and their stand certainly was: a Virtual jungle stand
recreated in Olympia, they didn't have to simulate the humidity and
heat - everybody's stand had that!"

Tim also went for "The forest place", and noted that now the online
bookstore Amazon.com are coming to the UK, perhaps Intelligent
Environments will have some stand theme competition next year!

Other stand favourites:

MARK S: "The Muscat stand - nice clean lines, spacious and stylish -
and no blokes in loin cloths."

NICK: "Intel - you've got to hand it to them. The sheer brashness of
it made people forget the obvious question: What has Intel got to do
with the Net?"

GAIL: "Internet Magazine stand - Because we're selling lots of
subscriptions there."


4) Were there any surprises at the show?
========================================

I'm afraid that every answer to this question gave negative feedback:

IVAN: "The main surprise is the absence of surprises! I'd almost say
dull, dull, dull."

GAIL: "The lack of growth and money spent in the UK Internet market."

NICK: "That Key IT vendors including Microsoft, Netscape, and HP were
noticeable in their absence from the show floor."

MARK S: "Well, how small the show was, how uninventive a lot of it was
and how few women there appear to be in the business. Given that the
web is now beginning to make serious money for a lot of vendors you
would think the show would reflect this. Symptomatic of this seemed
to be the complete disinterest from some stands in talking to anyone
- notable offenders - Progressive Networks and Mistral Internet - you
would have thought I looked like John Merrick or something."

MARK C: "Very few ISPs present. No telcos present. No high end
database vendors. No Microsoft/Netscape/Commercial Apache stand.
InternetWorld? hhhmm"

TIM: "Surprises: Intel were there. Netscape weren't."

Conclusion
==========

The show for the group definitely lacked sparkle and visitors with
high expectations would have been disappointed. Rather than the
single floor offering of Internet World, I would strongly recommend
making time to visit the three or more floors of Learned
Information's "Online 98" being held this year at Olympia from 8 -
10th December (http://www.learned.co.uk/).

One highlight though was the NetNames party on the first night ...
from which the industry is only just recovering.  Nice one!

William

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I would like to thank the group for their opinions, and would ask
that if you went to the show, or indeed are visiting one of the other
shows in the Internet World Global Tour, then why not post your
comments and feedback to the Free Pint Forum, available to all at
http://www.freepint.co.uk/eforum.htm

Please find here contact details for the winners and the contributors.

The Winners
===========

Broadvision (UK) Ltd
   http://www.broadvision.com/
Globalink - The Translation Company
   http://www.globalink-europe.com/
Intelligent Environments Group plc
   http://www.legacytoweb.com/
Internet Magazine
   http://www.internet-magazine.com/
Intel
   http://www.intel.com/Europe
Macromedia
   http://www.macromedia.com/
Muscat
   http://www.muscat.com/
NetNames International
   http://www.netnames.com/
Superscape
   http://www.superscape.com/
TelePost
   http://www.telepost.net/
Webdevelopment Ltd
   http://www.webdev.co.uk/

The Contributors
================

Ivan Pope
   CEO
   NetNames International
   ivan@netnames.com
   http://www.netnames.co.uk/

Gail Robinson
   Editor
   Internet Magazine
   gailr@internet.emap.com
   http://www.internet-magazine.com/

Nick Gilbert
   Business Development Director
   NewsNow Publishing
   info@newsnow.co.uk
   http://www.newsnow.co.uk/

Mark Stevenson
   Technical Director
   Gnash Communications
   Telephone 0181 563 9946

Mark Cross
   Producer of the printed edition
   UKdirectory
   http://www.UKdirectory.co.uk/

Tim Dunton
   Managing Director
   Global Gold Internet Services
   http://www.globalgoldnetwork.co.uk/

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William Hann is the founder of the information consultancy Willco -
providers of Web site consultancy and Internet training.

   Web:   http://www.willco.co.uk/
   Email: info@willco.co.uk
   Tel:   +44 (0)1784 455 435
   Fax:   +44 (0)1784 455 436

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                          FEATURE ARTICLE
                   "Deafblind access to the Web"
                        by James Gallagher

      The technology age has arrived for all. And I mean ALL.

This is a saying which I believe in totally. Why do I say this? Well
right now you are sitting reading this article in the Free Pint
newsletter on your computer monitor or on paper.  I cannot use either
of these formats to access this information.  I am a Deafblind
computer user, a totally blind and almost profoundly deaf person. But
I can almost access the same information which you can receive on the
Net.

For people like myself of whom there are many of us on the Net - more
than you probably think there are, we even have our own mailing list.
But this is very much U.S. based. Many of us have our own Web pages.
Some people have problems accepting this.  How can people like myself
have access to the Internet? Well I will try and explain how this can
be achieved.  And perhaps even try and help you to be more aware of
us, and how to keep the Internet accessible for us all and not just
for the sighted hearing world, which we all live in. 

The Internet is my gateway to the outside world.  And not just a
means of entertainment as you may use it. I am very enthusiastic
about technology, if it wasn't for the latest advances then I
wouldn't be able to access the computer and thereby the Net and you
wouldn't be able to read this article.  So this may explain to you
why I am so intrigued by technology, it's my only way to access the
real world of information.

Now how can this be? I will try to explain how this is possible. For
you the sighted hearing Net user, information is at your fingertips
and this isn't just a figure of speech.  Many Deafblind people can
access a computer and thereby the Internet by using a device called a
Refreshable Braille Display. You will probably be reading this
article by sight, or if there are blind readers of Free Pint they
will be hearing it on their speech synthesiser. 


I will try to give you some basics about how a Refreshable Braille
Display is designed to work with a computer. In contrast to a
computer's 24-line by 80-column screen, most Refreshable Braille
Displays are designed to allow you to read the screen on one line
display with 20 to 80 cells (a cell for every character), depending
on what Braille display the person is using.  In order to navigate
around the screen, we press four directional buttons on the Braille
display that are similar to the arrow keys on the computer keyboard.
This is how Deafblind people can access the Net by using a Braille
display. These devices sit under the keyboard and each character,
which you see on the monitor, we can also feel the same character on
our Braille displays. OK it may take some time to read certain
articles and web pages but we have access to the information which
you take for granted sometimes. But at the end of it we can access
this information, which may be interesting Web sites or online
magazines.

Because we cannot use paper editions of magazines and newspapers I
myself like to try and access their web edition but this can bring
many problems, especially now that framed web pages are becoming more
popular with computer magazines and Net publications. Also many major
newspapers are now making their pages totally inaccessible for people
like myself. This can be very irritating because this is the only way
that I can find out what is happening in the world and to have this
information denied to me by a Web page layout is very frustrating.  

Everyone seems to want frames on their pages and plenty of graphics. 
These  are the things that seem to bring in sighted hearing people to
their Web pages. But this denies us access.  There are lots of
examples of this. Many leading British news and media companies are
preferring to have large and inaccessible Web pages.  It really
doesn't take much to make pages accessible for all and not just the
tiny minority. If large companies and organisations have a framed Web
page it wouldn't take much to have a purely text based page available
as well. The hyperlink to this edition would be very close to the top
of the page so that the Deafblind or blind person can find this link
immediately and thereby have full access to this organisation's
information and services. I will not continue with this line of
discussion here but at the end of the article I will give some useful
suggestions on how to make Web pages accessible, and what makes pages
inaccessible.

I have been on the Net for over two years now but for the first
twelve months I was just able to send and read email letters and of
course newsgroups. But last year I moved to Windows 95 so I am
probably using the same system as you are.  This is Microsoft Windows
95 and Internet Explorer 4.0, with Outlook Express to read email and
newsgroups but the browser which I prefer is called Opera. This is an
incredible little browser which can be easily configured to become
completely accessible by all, including people like myself. This is
how I travel on the World Wide Web.

I spend a great deal of time on the Internet, helping other Deafblind
people to find useful information, which they are searching for, and
also helping them to access the Web.  I also do voluntary work for
Deafblind UK which is one of Britain's biggest and oldest
organisations for Deafblind people. I do workshops for them, and
sometimes on behalf of Deafblind UK I attend local Council meetings.
I am trying to make people aware of what we are capable and how we
can use computers. These workshops can certainly be interesting. Some
of the questions the public asks can honestly be hilarious, but with
some gentle enlightening we can help them to understand how it is
possible.


There's an old saying, which I like. It is 'Never judge a book by its
cover'. Many people see a person's disability but never the person
within it. Strength comes from within. The heart and soul of the
person is what matters not the looks, this is just skin deep.

I have a web site called Deafblind Link, the URL is
http://www.s55wilma.demon.co.uk/. At this site I try to help other
Deafblind people on the Net and the parents of a Deafblind child.
This site also provides information and many resources on the Net
about this condition. At my site you will also find out how people
like myself communicate with the outside world, using the Deafblind
Manual Alphabet.
 
I have also just recently started to build another web site called
A-Z to Deafblindness on the Net, the URL for the site is
http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/greenwood/476 
 
These sites have been completely made by myself, I am proud of this
little fact - it shows people what we are capable of, if just given a
chance.

Now here are just some suggestions on how to make you're pages
accessible to all.

A quick accessibility test: view each page with the images turned
off. Can you get to all the linked pages without using the images?
Does every image have descriptive ALT text? Good Alt text
descriptions reflect the function of the graphic. Remember you are
using images to relay information about your site. That information
may be subtle, as in the images you choose to decorate your site, or
it may be direct, as in charts and graphs. If a graphic conveys
important information that cannot be summed up in Alt text, include a
D link to a page that describes the image. My site uses D links for
all graphics the first time they appear on a page. 

Avoid using frames or provide a No-Frames alternative. Make sure the
No-Frames link is the first link in the frame with the initial focus.
Avoid columns and some tables. Try style sheets to position graphics
and text instead.

Use descriptive text links that will make sense if read out of
context. Very often a Deafblind or blind computer user will simply
use a keystroke that moves the focus from link to link, especially
when the text is in columns or formatted in such a way that makes the
information confusing. Can you determine where a link will take you
when you look just at the linked text?


Some totally inaccessible British sites.

Number 10 Downing Street Web Site http://www.number-10.gov.uk/
Well they promised us open government, but that was when they were
after our votes. Their new Web site is one of the worst I have come
across, and doesn't say much for their open government policy when
their Web page is only available to sighted hearing people.

Independent Television News ITN http://www.itn.co.uk/  
This is totally inaccessible.


Some well designed and accessible British sites.

BBC News Online: Front Page. http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/text_only.htm/.
This is an excellent site, which I use regularly. This is the text
only version of the BBC News Online site. Perhaps ITN can learn some
things from the BBC about making pages accessible.

Royal National Institute for the Blind. http://www.rnib.org.uk/


Well I hope you have found this article interesting and enjoyed
reading it. Perhaps you will consider learning more about Deafblind
Internet users. If you are responsible for a Web site then please
also note some of my suggestions for accessible Web site design so
that everyone can use and enjoy your site.

James

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James Gallagher
Deafblind Link
http://www.s55wilma.demon.co.uk

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                   Want to write for Free Pint?
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                              ANAGRAM

                      This issue's anagram of
                         "Willco Free Pint"
                                 is
                        "Well rife con tip"!

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                        FREE PINT FEEDBACK

Following the InSite Pro review in issue 13 we had a number of 
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We have included here the annual prices based on a one concurrent
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PROMT - 3500
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As you probably know, the Free Pint team were at Internet World, 
sporting our flashy new "Free Pint" polo shirts. Indeed these caused
so much interest (especially at the NetNames party) that various new 
subscribers have subsequently been sending the office messages like:

"I'm at Internet World and a chap has just walked by with 'Free Pint' 
written on his T-shirt - that's got to be worth looking at!"

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Hi William

Thanks for mentioning the Tim Berners-Lee presentation in the latest 
Free Pint. Actually, what a pity I didn't realise you were 
covering corporate intranets in the same issue, as the next item in 
our Meetings Hall's contents listing after the Berners-Lee talk is a 
recent Corporate Intranets colloquium. The papers are available in 
audio-visual form - see the slides synchronised to Real Audio
soundtracks.

Anyway, thanks again - I look forward to reading the next issue of 
Free Pint.

Best regards

David Rossall
Project Manager, The Computer Forum
IEE Publishing and Information Services
Web: http://forum.iee.org.uk/

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Send your letters, questions and anagrams to letters@freepint.co.uk
Please note, if you write to us we will not publish your letter if
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Letters may be edited for content and length, and we will withhold 
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Well, we hoped you enjoyed this feature packed issue. If so then 
please spread the word. Remember to visit the Web site and post
a message on the Free Pint Forum at http://www.freepint.co.uk/

                      See you in two weeks!

                           Kind regards,
                   William Hann, Managing Editor
                      william@freepint.co.uk

(c) Willco 1998
http://www.willco.co.uk/

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                        CONTACT INFORMATION

William Hann, Managing Editor
  Email:   william@freepint.co.uk
  Tel:     +44 (0)1784 455 435
  Fax:     +44 (0)1784 455 436

Rex Cooke, Editor
  Email:   rex@freepint.co.uk
  Tel/Fax: +44 (0)171 681 1653

Alison Scammell, Account Director
  Email:   alison@freepint.co.uk
  Tel:     +44 (0)181 460 5850

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Free Pint (ISSN 1460-7239) is a free email newsletter for anyone who
uses the Internet to get information for their work in any business
or organisation. The newsletter is written by professionals who share 
how they find quality and reliable information on the Internet.

More details about subscribing, contributing or advertising can be
found at http://www.freepint.co.uk/ or call +44 (0)1784 455 435

Please note: The newsletter is published by the information
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This publication may be freely copied and/or distributed in its
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All rights reserved.

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