Formal Accessibility Investigation Kicks off with Open Meeting

The Disability Rights Commission has announced its initial meeting to launch collaboration with the industry in its a Formal Investigation into Web site accessibility.

The Centre for Human-Computer Interaction at City University London has been appointed to conduct a programme of research to support this Formal Investigation and Helen Petrie, Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at City University, London will be heading the research team to undertake this work.

As one of the first steps in the research, the team is contacting those involved in web site design who might be interested in the issues surrounding web accessibility. They invite you to come to an initial meeting to brief you about the Investigation and the research being undertaken and to elicit your views on designing for the web with accessibility in mind. 'We are particularly keen to make recommendations to support web developers in designing accessible sites, so we are interested in hearing about the problems you encounter in developing accessible sites and ideas for what kinds of additional support might be useful,' says Petrie.

The researchers are holding a series of meetings and issue regular bulletins about the research, to keep you informed and seek your views at different key points during the research process. It will be completed by the end of September 2003 and the Disability Rights Commission will issue their report on the Formal Investigation by the end of 2003.

For details of the meeting see the events section of Usability News (Initial Briefing). If you are unable to attend the initial meeting, but would like to be kept informed about the Investigation, mail drc-info@soi.city.ac.uk

Associated Link: More details of the Investigation

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