The BBC reports that organizers for the 2004 Athens Summer Games are unveiling what they say is the first Web site in the Olympic family to meet international standards for disabled access.
According to the BBC, the main web presence for the 2004 Games has undergone a period of intense re-engineering since launching last year, in order to make it accessible to the largest possible audience.
Athens 2004 head of interactive, Dimitris Paneras said, “everything you fix opens up new audiences, if you do it right it’s open to more browsers to get the information they want”.
The BBC reports that while most people online rely on either Microsoft or Netscape software to navigate, there are more than 25 alternative browsers for people with hearing, visual, physical or cognitive impairment. Using a wide range of alternative approaches to the traditional point and click interface, such as Braille screens and synthetic speech, these browsers can make the Web accessible to all.
Paneras said, “clarity, ease of use and intuitive navigation – if you build with these aims in mind it makes the site more fun and more usable for everyone”.
Before the Sydney Games, a private citizen sued Sydney organizers for their Olympics site and won $20,000 (Aus) in damages after a ruling that the Olympics portal caused “unjustifiable hardship” in failing to meet accessibility standards.
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that while they will be able to surf Athens Web site with ease, disabled spectators attending the Games will find that Athens presents “a formidable array of obstacles to the disabled many of which will have to be overcome if the Athens Paralympics that will follow the main summer Games is to be a success”.
Public transport, “chaotic” pavements and aging venues will need a major overhaul to cope.
