Short description of Blind Friendly Web project

Reasons for production

so-far non-existent legislative regulations on barrier-free web accessibility in the Czech Republic
our experience gained during our courses of IT for visually-impaired users shows that it is necessary to adapt websites for needs of visually impaired users
so-far non-existent Czech language methodology on accessible web pages design

All reasons aim at one goal - to encourage webmasters to make their sites accessible (at best not only) to visually-impaired users.

Brief description of the project

The Project provides a source of information (in Czech) for expert public and other stakeholders on web access conditions, particularly applicable to Czech visually-impaired Internet users.

Parts of Project

methodology guidelines for web designers
a portal leading to websites accessible to visually-impaired users
links to other resources dealing with this topic
a check-list form to test any website for accessibility to visually impaired people
e-mail conference bfw@konference.braillnet.cz
e-mail address info@blindfriendly.cz for consultations and questions on this topic

Detailed description of the project

The Project provides a source of information (in Czech) for expert public and other stakeholders on web access prerequisites particularly applicable to Czech visually-impaired Internet users. The Project responds to the lack of legislative regulations governing barrier-free web accessibility in the Czech Republic. By providing a gateway to accessible websites, the Project allows visually-impaired users to take advantage of at least those sites that comply with the blind-friendliness criteria.

The main document of our project is called Materials on principles of web accessibility for users with severe visual impairments and is intended for webmasters who want to create accessible web pages. This documentation can be obtained from http://www.blindfriendly.cz/doc/bfw23en.zip (zipped doc; 153 kB). Czech web accessibility guidelines which have been created according to the Act No. 365/2000 on information systems of government bodies, are also already available.

Target groups:

to visually-impaired Internet users we offer:
- a portal of Czech web sites which meet the criteria of web accessibility for visually-impaired people (http://www.blindfriendly.cz/katalog/)
- e-mail conference bfw@konference.braillnet.cz, where visually impaired users discuss their experience gained during browsing web pages. This discussion list is also used for consultations and advice.
to professional community we offer:
- methodology guidelines for web designers
- section of interesting links where we collect information about websites that deal with creating barrier-free web within Czech internet
- a check-list form to test any website for accessibility to visually impaired people
- e-mail adress info@blindfriendly.cz for consultations and questions on this topic

In the section called "Recent developments" we inform about our activities connected with this project. This section contains articles in newspapers or magazines and information about our attendance at conferences. We traditionally attend a conference named "Internet ve státní správě a samosprávě" (Internet in Public and Local Administration). The Project has been very well received particularly in this sector, i.e. public and local administration web pages.

The Project can also be used by webmasters from Slovakia, because Czech and Slovak are very similar languages.

Back to the Czech version