Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit Making maps accessibl

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Posted by: Sarah Bourne, Director of Assistive Technological innovation & Mass.gov Chief Technologies Strategist, Information Technologies DivisionWith most things there are formulaic answers to the question, "How do I make that accessible?" For this feature of a web page, do this. For a text box in a form, use a label. For a data table, provide a summary and heading information. The W3C collects and publishes these techniques; if they are not easy to remember, they are easy to look up.But some things don't boil down to a simple formula,Office 2007 Standard Activation Key, and that's where designers and developers need to apply their imagination and analysis skills. The classic example s a map.People like maps because they present information in a way that is easy for them to use and understand. We are visually- and spatially-oriented and maps are elegant ways to cater to that. They are problematic, however, for people who can't see or can't see well. How could you describe everything in a map in alternative text? Is it reasonable to try, and would it even be useful if you did?But those are the wrong questions. What's really important is the information; the map is just a vehicle for presenting it. And that is the key to determining what to provide for accessibility.Online maps are generated from Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A GIS is a database that uses physical location as the key to the data it stores, with powerful analysis and reporting capabilities. If a piece of information can be tied to a particular place, you can put it in a GIS. Maps are delivered based on searches. Those maps can be overlaid with images from aerial photography and other sources,Office Professional Plus 2010 Activation Key, but to the GIS application, those images are just another set of data. Everything else is generated by the GIS on the fly. This means that it can use data to make an online map,Office 2010 Pro Plus Serial Key, and it can also present data in text.Instead of asking,Office Standard 2007, "How can I make a map accessible?" you need to ask a series of questions.    * What is the purpose of this map: showing where things are located? their proximity to other things? how to get someplace?    * What kind of information is it showing?    * What other ways are there of presenting that information?You need to be sure the text you provide accomplishes the same thing. You don't need to worry as much about things that may appear on the map but aren't relevant for this particular purpose. For instance, you don't need to list every street that appears, unless the purpose is to show all the streets that are in a particular area.An example of how to "make a map accessible" is AAA's TripTix or Google Maps directions. A map is provided showing the start and end points and marking the route, but they also provide a list of step-by-step directions in text. If you were trying to show the closest pharmacies, you might provide a list with street addresses, phone numbers, and how many miles away they are.The solutions may not always be easy to figure out,Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, or the obvious solutions may not be the correct ones. The more complex the application, the more important is it to solicit input from the people who will benefit the most from your efforts. Don't be surprised if their input helps you make your "map" work better for everyone!