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The Blind and Target.com
Target and the National Federation of the Blind
Many of us probably don’t think of the blind and the Internet in the same sentence, but there are tools available to the blind and others with vision disabilities so that they can visit, read, and shop online.
This fact was made clear to Target just last month as they settled a class action lawsuit with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) for the amount of $6 million.The monies will be placed in an interest-bearing account, and members of the case brought against Target in California can make claims.
PAC Mate
Target has until Feb. 28, 2009 to make their web site more accessible to the blind, particularly for those who use “screen-reading software” which reads aloud the text content of a web site. Some popular programs for screen reading include JAWS for Windows and the PAC Mate portable Braille reader, both from Freedom Scientific.
The class action suit was centered on the Americans With Disabilities Act, a law enacted in 1990 that requires retailers and other public places to be accessible to people with disabilities. Target tried to make the case that law only covered “physical spaces” such as their stores and offices.
Most people would interpret that the same way, but in 2000 the law was amended to apply to governmental and other institutional web sites also.
Over next few months, the NFB will work with Target to make their web site more accessible.
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Subscribe to the comments for this postInternet Explorer 8 Coming Up!
Back in October 2006, IE7 was released. Chances are your reading this page with it right now. (Maybe, maybe not, you know who you are). It had been 5 years since IE6 was released in August 2001 just two months prior to Windows XP’s release in October of that year.
It won’t be long before IE8 becomes available. Just yesterday, August 27, 2008, Microsoft made the second test version (Beta 2) available to the public. Please note this is still a test version. The purpose for releasing it is to get it out of the lab so people can try it in the real world and help Microsoft “shake out the bugs”. This is common practice in the computer and software industry. These test or non-final versions are called “Beta” versions. For example, Google Mail (Gmail) has been in Beta for over 4 years now, and still is today. See for yourself.
IE8s Accelerators
IE8 looks pretty much the same as IE7, but they smoothed its looks a bit, and put some new items under the hood. My favorite tool, the right-click. And if you ever wondered what that key is just to the right of the spacebar and ALT, you know, the one that looks like a tower with an arrow on it? That’s the right-click key. It does the same thing as the right mouse button. It brings up a shortcut menu.
Here’s a list of some of the new features in IE8.
Accelerators: Common everyday tasks can be performed faster and hassle free with the new Accelerators feature. For example, you’re looking at the address of a restaurant you’d like to go to, and you want to see a map of the location, just highlight the address and an arrow will popup over the highlighting. Click the arrow and choose the “Map” option to see a map of the location. Or you could choose the “Email” option to send it to a friend. Choose “Search the NY Times” to see if they’ve reviewed the restaurant. You’ll even be able to use accelerators with social networking sites such as Facebook. More accelerators will become available after IE8’s release. Visit the Accelerator’s Gallery for more information.
Instant Search
Instant Search: IE8 is linking with top search sites such as Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Amazon, Google, The NY Times and others. With Instant Search a list of suggested or similar searches will appear as you type. If a search suggestion matches what you were going to type, you can click on that suggestion to execute the search without having to finish typing. The results come from your chosen search provider and are influenced by your browsing history. Images will appear along with your search results, too.
Favorites, The Links Bar, and Web Slices: The Favorites and the Links bar has been a common feature on Internet Explorer for many years now. This is the row of buttons just under the address bar that list the names of web sites. Currently you can click “grab” the icon to the left of an address in the address bar and drab and drop it to the links bar. A little arrow will appear on the Links bar wherever you can drop it. That enables you to click the name associated with that web site to quickly jump to that site.
Web Slice
IE8 adds a new quick use feature to the Links bar. It’s called the “Web Slice”. If the page associated with that Link bar button gets updated, the button will become highlighted. Now you can click the button and a drop down window will appear revealing the “slice” of the page that has been updated. See the picture at right. (Read more about web slices at the IE8 Beta site.)
InPrivate Browsing: Ever wanted to erase your browsing history or cookies? With InPrivate browsing in IE8 all traces of your browsing activity can be erased just by closing the Internet Explorer window. Or you can set the Internet options (under Tools) to determine what information you’d like InPrivate browsing to control or conceal for you. I suppose parents will be able to disable this feature when their kids use the computer so you can keep tabs on how your children use the Internet.
Smart Screen
SmartScreen filters: Fake or spoofed web sites, phishing schemes, and other attempts to trick the unwary will continue on the web, but IE8 has added features to protect you and make your browsing experience safer. One feature is called “Domain Highlighting”. This feature will apply boldface or highlighting to the main address (also known as an URL or domain name) of the site in the address bar. So if you think you’re looking at a Yahoo site, you can check the address bar to see if that’s true. The page might look like Yahoo, but does the address bar say Yahoo? (After all, my living room may be covered in copies of the Wall Street Journal, but that doesn’t mean I live in one of their offices.)
Other safety features include phishing and malware filters that block documented scams or infected sites. Microsoft’s update service will automatically update your browsers list of danger sites. This isn’t a substitute for antivirus software, and it’s not meant to be.
Compatibility mode: The internet is changing fast, and not even the web designers can keep up with it. SOme web sites might not work well with IE* as a result. With compatibility mode you can switch to IE7 mode to see the site as it would appear in the earlier version of Internet Explorer.
Video Demos
Microsoft has a series of video demonstrating the new features of IE8. Here’s a list of some of the avaiable videos you can view online.
Read more about IE8 at the IE8 Beta Home page from Microsoft.
Post Comments or Questions with the link below. Keep up-to-date with Skylarking: By Email or RSS Newsfeed or on Twitter. You can also send questions with my email form. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Microsoft Updates (Aug. 12, 2008)
Windows Update Logo
Microsoft issued its largest batch of updates in 18 months. I thought the Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1 update packs were big, but yesterday Microsoft released at least 14 updates for various Windows and Microsoft Office products. Included among the fixes were the Word 2002 “zero-day” bug I reported on July 11, 2008, and the Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer flaw that I reported on July 8, 2008.
The patches released included:
- Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer vulnerability (Important for business and professional users)
- Microsoft Office Word 2002 vulnerability
- 2 x Windows Vista security patch
- Microsoft Office Excel 2007 security patch
- Daylight Savings Time revisions for Windows Vista
- Malicious Software Removal tool (A monthly fix from Microsoft)
- Microsoft Office 2007 security patch
- Internet Explorer 7 security patch
- Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 security patch
- Windows Mail Junk E-mail (Spam) filter update
- 2 x Windows Vista updates
- Windows Vista ActiveX security update
- Windows Mail security update for Vista
- Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 security update
Most of these patches affect business users, as most home users with a computer over a year old don’t have Windows Vista or Microsoft Office 2007. Also, if the programs mentioned aren’t familiar to you, then they most likely aren’t a risk.
If you aren’t up to date on your Windows Updates you can always go to http://update.microsoft.com for the lastest fixes from Microsoft. They are made available for free download and installation every Tuesday evening.
Check out Skylark NetWorks weekly Apple versus Microsoft Weekly Vulnerability Index compiled from the SANS Institute for past patches.
If anyone has a question, please email them to me using the Contact link, or, if it relates to today’s message, please use the Comment and Question link below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
