[iai-discuss] IA motion to go through Cambridge University student union

Tue May 3 09:51:13 PDT 2005

After seven months of effort (these things seem to get endlessly 
delayed) it looks like we'll finally get an information accessibility 
motion through the Cambridge University University student union (CUSU) 
some time next week. I post the amended text below (it's not perfect but 
pretty reasonable particularly given that it drafted by an enthusiastic 
but non-expert union officer)

Regards,

Rufus

-------

Equal Opportunities and Digital Media

CUSU Notes
1. The high degree to which modern communication involves digital media, 
and the importance of universal accessibility in the digital age.

2. The role of digital media communication and organisation within the 
University of Cambridge, CUSU, the Departments and the colleges.

3. The work of “Information Accessibility Initiative” 
(http://www.okfn.org/iai/) in promoting awareness of open formats to 
ensure information is not needlessly hampered by technological barriers. 
It also contains clear definitions of open and closed formats as well as 
listing of which document formats are open and closed.

4. The Disabilities and Discrimination Act and the onus it puts on 
accessibility to public services, as well as the necessary commitment to 
providing documents in ‘accessible formats’ (e.g. large print and 
sans-serif fonts).

5. The importance of access to digital media, and the difficulties 
caused to some students by the use of 'closed' formats -- for example 
blind and partially sighted students may have difficulties using a 
screen reader with Microsoft Word Documents.

6. That, for example, Microsoft Word (.doc), Microsoft Excel (.xls), 
Microsoft Access (.mdb) and Adobe Photoshop (.psd) are ‘closed formats’, 
often causing accessibility problems for users. Moreover all of these 
programs support the saving or exporting of data in 'open' formats but 
are configured to use closed formats by default.

7. That serif fonts are used widely through the University, for example 
Times New Roman, and that this can make it harder for individuals with 
dyslexia to read text.

CUSU Believes

1.  Many students do not realise that digital access is just as 
important as physical access.

2. It has a role in promoting the use of open formats in its own work, 
and within the University.

3. The effect of ‘closed standards’ and formats, e.g. Microsoft 
Documents, is to reduce the social and physical accessibility of digital 
information. It  disadvantages students with disabilities and those who 
wish to exercise choice with respect to the software they use.

4. To make digital media accessible, we have an obligation to use open 
formats.

5. That all documents should be made available in open formats (this 
does not exclude the use of closed formats but requires that where a 
document is published in a closed format it must also be available in an 
open format version).

6. That all documents, whether for electronic or hard-copy distribution, 
should be written in sans-serif font, for example Arial and should be 
available wherever possible in a large print version.

CUSU Resolves

1.To work with, and provide documents that are in the following formats;
For simple text: plain text (TXT) or HTML
For formatted text: rich text format (RTF) or HTML
For complicated text and images (e.g. posters, presentations):
portable document format (PDF) or HTML
For spreadsheets: PDF, HTML, CSV (comma separated variables)
For photographs: JPEG or EPS
For diagrams: scaleable vector graphic (SVG) or portable network 
graphics (PNG)
For presentations: a PDF, a series of HTML pages or a series of 
JPEGs/PNGs can all be presented in slideshow form
For audio: Ideally OGG, or if not, MP3 or WAV
For video: Anything goes, but MPEG-2, DivX or XviD codecs preferred and 
MPEG or AVI containers preferred (Realplayer and Quicktime are a bit of 
a pain for a lot of people)
It is also noted that Open Office provides a set of open formats 
including those for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. 
The Open Office suite also provides programs to edit and create such 
documents.
2.To use sans-serif font in all it’s publications, emails and written work.

3.Wherever possible, to encourage the use of ‘open formats’ within the 
University, Departments and Colleges.

4.To encourage the use of ‘accessible’ fonts with the University, 
Departments and Colleges.

Proposed: Ed Shattock, CUSU Services Officer

Seconded: Rufus Pollock