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Internet for All
Internationalisation beyond English
 Accessibility for disabled

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Internet for All

Internet/Web should be available for
everyone, including
» People who don’t know English
» People with disabilities

Be aware of this when designing
websites and software!
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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International Internet
Character sets
 Localised web sites
 Computer translation

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Character Sets

ASCII – only English
» Standard in USA?
» Still used for Internet names

Latin1 – also other W Euro Latin alpha
» French, German, Swedish, …
» Accented chars, eg é ß å æ
» Other, eg £ ¿
» Standard in UK
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Unicode

Unicode
» Add support for Japanese, Chinese,
Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, …
– Also Linear B, Cherokee, hieroglyphics, …
– http://www.unicode.org/charts/

Unicode is just a character set, need to
install font as well
» Complete Unicode font came with Office
2003
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Unicode

In principle supported by all major
programming languages, web browsers,
operating systems, etc
» In my experience problems can arise,
though
» Java support for Unicode is not perfect
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Bidirectional texts
English written left-to-right
 Hebrew, Arabic written right-to-left

» But embedded English left-to-right
» Does strange things to page layout
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Java and Unicode

Notes for Java programmers
» Use Character methods
– isDigit, isLetter, etc
– Don’t assume letters between “a” and “z”!
» Don’t assume chars take one byte
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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International Domain Name

Internet software/standards assume
names are in ASCII
» www.abdn.ac.uk -- OK
» www.uquébec.ca -- not OK
– www.uquebec.ca instead

Unfair ….
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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International Domain Names

International Domain Names (IDN)
» Allow Unicode in names
» Based on encoding Unicode as ASCII

Spread is slow
» Standard now agreed, but not yet
universally implemented.
» ICANN will allow Unicode top-level
domains
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Localisation

Web sites “localised” for different places
» Language, currency, text direction, etc
– Spelling: eg, colour vs color
» Local news, offers
» Culturally differences
– Images: modestly dressed women for muslims
– Names: Icelanders don’t have last names
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Example

In-depth: office.microsoft.com
» Requires a lot of work!

Shallower: google.com
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Internationalisation

Making one web site (or Java app)
which is maximally useful worldwide
» Language: simple English
» Forms: allow Unicode, don’t assume
people have last names or postal codes
» Avoid images that might offend some
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Java again

Java Locale class specifies info about
local formats, char sets, etc
» Locale.UK , Locale.JAPAN

Use Locale-aware methods
» Collator for string comparisons
» NumberFormat for number input/output
» etc
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Translation

Ultimate goal is to let people read web
pages in other languages
» translate.google.co.uk
» Quality variable, (slowly) getting better
» Widely used by many non-English speakers
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Accessible Internet

Not everyone uses mouse and screen
to access the Internet!
» Visual, motor, cognitivie disabilities

How can we help such people use the
Internet?
» With a little bit of effort, developers can
really enhance accessibility
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Visual Disabilities

Colour- blind
» Developers: don’t assume people can see
when something is red!

Poor vision
» Need large fonts, screen magnifiers
» Developers: DO NOT HARD-CODE
FONTS IN WEB PAGES!!!
– It may “look nice” to you, but means someone
with poor vision cannot use it
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Visual Disabilities

Blind
» Screen readers: speak out web pages
» Braille displays: display text in braille
» Embossed printers: print braille

Screen readers most common
» Essentially scan through a web page
» Developers:
– Include ALT tags for images
– Remember that blind user will not “see” entire page!
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Motor Disabilities

Poor hand control
» Use keyboard instead of mouse
» Developers: allow keyboard control!!

No hand control (or no hands)
» Scanning interface, controlled by switch
– Head switch, sip/puff
» Need special interface
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Example: Scanning interface
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Cognitive Disability

General
» Keep things simple and clear

Dyslexia
» Avoid white backgrounds, don’t justify
texts, avoid italics
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Disabilities

Plenty of guidelines exist
» http://www-03.ibm.com/able/guidelines

Following them makes websites more
useful to disabled people, probably
helps normal people as well
» Helps mobile access in particular

Just need to make the effort!
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Legal Aspects

Increasing legal requirement that
websites be accessible to disabled
» Especially for (quasi-)govt sites, such as
Aberdeen University

Good business sense as well
» Biggest disabled group is elderly, and they
have lots of money to spend
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Internet For All

Developers (us) have moral duty to
make our products available to all
» People with limited English
» People with disabilities
Also legal duty, sensible business
 Tools exist, we need to use them!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Recap: Helping *Everyone*
Internet should benefit ***everyone***,
not just middle-class non-disabled
English-speaking Westerners
 Essential for true e-society!

Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Helping *Everyone*

How should Internet be used in thirdworld countries
» Bangladesh vs India vs Chile

How can Internet help people at “bottom
of heap” in UK
» Will growth of Internet hurt people who
cannot or will not use it?
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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Helping *Everyone*

How can we make websites universally
useful
» Non-English speakers
» disabled

How should the Internet be controlled
(governed)
» So that it helps everyone!
Dr. Ehud Reiter, Computing Science, University of Aberdeen
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