Vera Files published by veteran Filipino journalists taking a deeper look into current Philippine issues, created a video-documentary on web accessibility initiatives in the Philippines.
Dubbed “Making The Web Accessible to Pinoy PWDs”, the documentary video emphasized on the other aspect of accessibility, not just commonly thought of things like buildings, vehicles and schools. The video highlights access to information especially on online user experience.
In the 8-minute docu-video reported by Regina Enriquez, prominent web accessibility advocates and members of the Philippine Web Accessibility Group led by Rene Orense of ATRIEV School for the Blind and Julius Charles Serrano of Even Grounds gave their powerful insights. They enumerated various access barriers a PWD experiences in accessing the web. They also provided remedies and recommendations on how to remove those barriers.
Orense also explained the functions of PWAG and the volunteer work of its members in validating and monitoring websites in order to comply with the Web Design Accessibility Recommendations set by PWAG. To know more about Vera Files, visit their official website or their Official Facebook Page.
The Philippine Web Accessibility Group releases its Official List of Accessible Websites in the Philippines as of October 2012.
These are the sites that were evaluated and passed PWAG’s Web Design Accessibility Recommendation and at the same time maintained its accessibility within the required time frame of more than three years.
As a government-mandated organization of web designers tasked to monitor and evaluated accessibility of websites, PWAG is duty-bound to publish and update the public about the status of government and non-government websites. PWAG is also tasked to monitor the compliance of websites previously evaluated as accessible.
The Complete List with clickable links is posted on the left sidebar of this official page. The list is divided according to the following categories:
List of Accessible Websites – further categorized as Government and Non-government Websites;
Delisted Sites – sites that were previously evaluated as accessible but recent revisions/overhaul made their sites fail in accessibility tests;
Sites Already Shut Down – sites previously evaluated but are already taken down by their owners
Based on the list, there are nine government websites and twelve non-government sites which passed the web accessibility guidelines. Five sites failed in accessibility testing while two sites were discontinued by their owners. PWAG will try its best to update the list every two months.
Site owners are encouraged to copy and paste the Accessibility Seal on their websites to indicate that their sites passed PWAG’s Web Accessibility Recommendation. The logos can be downloaded here.
More than twenty employees and staff of the Provincial Capitol of Batangas attended the Web Accessibility orientation last September 25.
The whole day activity was sponsored by Sir Ronnel Del Rio, a visually impaired officer under the staff of Batangas Governor Vilma Santos. Training was conducted by Philippine Web Accessibility Group in partnership with MCCID College of Technology, National Council on Disability Affairs (Government) and National Computer Institute (NCI) under sub-committee on ICT.
Web accessibility training team were led by NCDA Chief Nelia De Jesus
The staff of Batangas provincial capitol promised to make either complete overhaul of the site or simply renovate their existing site in order to comply with web accessibility requirements.
Mr. Ronel Del Rio, visually impaired advocate and staff of Batangas Governor gives his welcome address.Batangas Capitol Staff pose their I-love-you sign.
PWAG Board Member Lourdes Borgonia demonstrates an experience of a screen reader user.ATRIEV School for the Blind President Tony Llanes gives his welcome remarks.
The National Computer Institute – Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO) conducted a one-day soft launch of HTML Training with Basic Web Accessibility Guide at NCC last July 20 at NCC-ADOC Computer Laboratory in Diliman, Quezon City.
The training was conducted by Philippine Web Accessibility Group President Jojo Esposa and Board Member Lourdes Borgonia. ATRIEV Executive Director Tony Llanes also provided lectures on how a screen reader user views a website. Borgonia and Esposa also gave on-site web accessibility evaluation of web designers who attended the soft launch.
Department of Justice Web Developer explains the web accessibility improvements of their site.
The seminar-soft launch was attended by more than 20 participants from various government agencies. These includes Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, PhilHealth Insurance Corporation, Government Service Insurance Corporation, National Statistics Office and Bureau of Internal Revenue.
HTML Training is one of the programs offered by NCI. This time, through the joint initiative of Philippine Web Accessibility Group (PWAG) and National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA), web accessibility became a integrated component of the program.
Jojo Esposa explains PWAG's history.
NCC-ADOC Coordinator Ms. Angelita Nicolas spearheads this activity together with NCI Training Course Officer Caljer Caldo. This activity is part of National Computer Center’s (NCC) contribution to the annual National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week Celebration which is already on its 34th year. NCC is one of the council members of the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA). Ma’am Nicolas is the chairperson of NCDA’s Sub-committee on Information and Communications Technology.
Sir Jojo discusses the accessibility issues of DILG website.
Philippine Web Accessibility President Jojo I. Esposa conducted a web accessibility seminar to information technology staff and officials of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) last June 19, 2012 at their office in EDSA, Quezon City.
The half-day activity was part of the department’s thrust in providing unhampered access to information even for those who are physically challenged. Ma’am Maria Elena Robosa, Officer In-charge, Electronic and Data Processing Division of DILG spearheaded the event and personally invited Esposa to conduct the seminar. Ma’am Robosa is also one of the regular attendees of National Council on Disability Affairs Sub-committee on Information and Communications Technology representing DILG.
DILG and PIA participants do the "I Love you" hand sign.
Aside from DILG, some IT officials of Philippine Information Agency also participated in the seminar. Robosa hoped that their website would soon pass the web accessibility recommendations of PWAG. DILG’s website developers and content managers also expect the site would be accessible in time for the National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation week celebration this third week of July.
DILG is the top level government agency tasked to supervise all local government units (lgu) from the provinces down to barangay level. It also advises the Philippine President all promulgation of policies, rules, regulations and other issuances on the general supervision over local governments and on public order and safety.
“Making DILG website accessible would serve as a good model for all LGUs to follow and duplicate.”, Ma’am Robosa said. For his visual evaluation, Esposa said that the DILG website has already complied with most of the accessibility recommendations except for the ALT text which is considered as a single most important aspect.
PWAG President Esposa explains the criteria in selecting awardees.
What better way to announce the new award name than to actually give the award itself.
Thus, the “Award Recognizing Accessible Websites” or simply called ARAW Awards were given to top-level government agencies that complied with the minimum web accessibility recommended standards last July 17 coinciding with the nationwide celebration of 34th National Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation Week held at OSCH Auditorium in Quezon City.
After the Catholic Mass and announcing of call for nomination of the Mabini Awards, PWAG President and MCCID Training Director Jojo Esposa Jr. gave a brief presentation on the history of web accessibility initiatives of the Philippines as well as how the awarding was conceptualized. He explained that prior to PWAG, it was National Computer Center Team who evaluated the accessibility compliance of websites. Then, they created a recognition scheme and named it as “Disabled Friendly Website” awards. The House of Representatives Official website received the first award in 2004 followed by ATRIEV School for the Blind in 2005 and MCCID in 2006.
DOH Awardees pose together with PWAG, NCC and NCDA Officials.COMELEC Awardees pose together with PWAG, NCC and NCDA Officials.DILG Awardees pose together with PWAG, NCC and NCDA Officials.
For her part, NCDA Division Chief Nelia De Jesus introduced this year’s of awardees. She explained that after careful and meticulous evaluation of PWAG web designers and manual validation of one of it’s visually impaired member, Lourdes Borgonia, three government websites passed the minimum web design criteria. They are:
www.doh.gov.ph – Official Website of the Department of Health
www.dilg.gov.ph – Official Website of the Department of Local Government
The awards were part of the approach set by the National Computer Center (NCC) and National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) encouraging government agencies to design their websites making it accessible to everyone especially the Persons With Disabilities. Through NCDA Board Resolution No. 13 Series of 2008 and NCDA-NCC Joint Circular No. 1 Series of 2010, they deputized the Philippine Web Accessibility Group (PWAG) to conduct web accessibility trainings, monitor compliance and recommend sites which passed their set of standards.
During PWAG’s time, thirteen more websites both from the government and the private sector received the awards. The last awardee was the Department of Social Welfare and Development Website in 2011.
However, during the last ICT Sub-committee meeting, a better awarding system was developed focusing mainly on web’s access to everyone as a whole and not just for concerns of Persons With Disabilities. Thus the ARAW Awards were conceived.
Newly appointed executive director Carmen Zubiaga explains about disability concerns.
Ma’am Nelia reiterated that the awarding will be an continuing activity. The team will also constantly monitor the websites of those awarded to see if they are still complying with the recommended standards set.
NCDA-Technical Cooperation Division Chief Nelia de Jesus thanked IFES Coordinator Mae Butoy for sponsoring the training that gave momentum to COMELEC’s initial efforts to bolster registration of voters with disabilities. This year, the Council will hold similar workshops for other GOs and selected LGUs, to expand web accessibility of citizens with disabilities to government’s programs and services.
Sir Leo congratulates the organizers of the event for continuing his advocacy of accessibility to everybody including PWDs.
Guess what? No less than web accessibility guru, the person who started it all, Mr. Leo Valdes, graced the first Information and Communications Technology Jobs Fair for Persons with Disabilities and Skills Demonstration last June 14 at SM City North EDSA in Quezon City.
Ma’am Nelia De Jesus of the National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA) personally invited Sir Leo, a Canadian citizen, who was here in the Philippines for a brief period. She wants to present to him the success of the advocacy which he started. She showcased many accessible websites and the increasing support of government agencies including the aggressive campaign of Information and Communications Technology Office – Department of Science and Technology (formerly Communications and Information Communications Technology).
For her part, Ms. Angelita Nicolas of ICTO informed Sir Leo about the inclusion of web accessibility as part of their curriculum. She hopes that the jobs fair would be a permanent event of the agency.
(From left:) PWAG President Jojo Esposa, Deaf ICT Skills Demonstrators Janine Zurita and Moises Libot, MCCID Deaf Coordinator Ervin Reyes, Sir Leo and NCDA’s Nelia De Jesus
Sir Leo thanked the advocates most specially the members of Philippine Web Accessibility Group in continuing the legacy which he started nearly a decade ago. He was the resource speaker during the first web accessibility conference held in 2003 in the Philippines which was participated in by thirteen countries.
PWAG President Jojo Esposa expressed his gratitude for enlightening the web designers by making accessibility their first priority in designing websites. MCCID Deaf Coordinator Ervin Reyes gave his personal story on how he became a convert by changing his web designs from flash intensive one into web standards and accessibility compliant.
Stage tarpaulin which includes MCCID and PWAG logo
ICT Jobs Fair for PWD and Skills Demo of PWDs was a project of ICTO-DOST in cooperation with NCDA, PWAG, Resources for the Blind, MCCID College of Technology, National Computer Center, ATRIEV School for the Blind and SM City North EDSA administration.
