Clear Helper Project Updates: On with the Development Work!

I’m taking a moment now to publish a few updates on the Clear Helper project.  My original goal remains: to develop a Web site using best practices of accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities.  I realized recently that my actual development work has slowed due to the significant amount of time I have been putting into related research.  In the next couple of weeks, I am going to renew my work on an experimental site design.

• Simon Evans, of Cognable.com, has graciously set up an account for me to try his Speeka text-to-speech for Web sites.  I will create some tests, and will publish the results.
• I will set up within the next several weeks a Web site that will use one or more commercial technologies designed to make Web sites more accessible to people with cognitive disabilities.  I will blog about my efforts to make this happen. Trying out these technologies on this new Web site will help me decide which to use on the Clear Helper Web site.
• Within the next month, I will meet with a ten-person focus group of people with intellectual disabilities.  To my good fortune, they have agreed to work with me to develop and to evaluate the Clear Helper Web site.
• I have been asked to help WebAIM evaluate some recent work in its wonderful project to advance the development of accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities.  I am honored to play even the tiniest of roles in this effort.
• Finally, I can report a little accessibility-advocacy success.  I decided to blog with WordPress because its accessibility was commended and my evaluation showed it was good.  However, it has had an accessibility problem to which I had no access to fix: a missing label for the input fields of its e-mail subscription- and blog search tools. With a small amount of persistent prodding, WordPress technical support did fix the e-mail subscription form.  I am informed it will soon do the same for the other.