OREANDA-NEWS. On 29 July 2008 was announced, that Apeirons, which is an organisation for differently abled people and their friends, will begin monitoring 50 Internet homepages with the support of Lattelecom BPO, the aim being to study how accessible these homepages are to people with functional disorders related to sight and intellectual development. The study will be conducted by people who are experts in the area of E-accessibility. In July they completed training about international standards on Internet homepage accessibility.

Six experts will evaluate the Internet pages of all government ministries, as well as those of other government institutions, local governments in major cities, and the 10 most often visited homepages in Latvia. Conclusions will be drafted as to their compatibility with the so-called W3C standard that are defined in Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The specialists will look to see whether it is possible to increase the letter size on the basic page and secondary pages of each page, whether the information is available to vision-impaired people who use screen readers, whether there are subtitles for audio content, whether the homepage can be used by people who cannot use a mouse, whether the page has a map, whether the information is provided in an understandable way, and whether it satisfies other accessibility criteria, as well.

“All of these are very important requirements if we wish to expand the range of people who use the Internet,” says Apeirons board chairman Ivars Balodis. “When someone puts together a homepage, there have to be several questions that are asked: ‘What is the intended audience for this homepage? Do we want older people or people with vision problems to access it? Should the information on this homepage be available to vision-impaired and hearing-impaired people, as well as to people with light intellectual disorders?’ If we believe that such people should have access to the homepages of state and local government institutions, as well as companies, then authors of homepages must think about their capabilities and their needs.”

“There are often discussions in the public arena about the availability of public buildings for differently abled people, but given the rapid development of the Internet and its content, no less important is the accessibility of the virtual environment. Sadly, homepage programmers and designers often lack much knowledge about this issue, and that’s why we are supporting the Apeirons initiative of studying homepages so that consultations can be given to organisations and companies as to the improvements that are needed,” says Lattelecom BPO board chairwoman Ilze Zoltnere.

Apeirons and its trained experts have also offered recommendations for the homepage of the 1188 directory assistance service, www.1188.lv so that as wide a range of people as possible can make use of that resource. Lattelecom BPO will ensure those improvements.

Lattelecom BPO has worked with Apeirons for several years. Last year, as part of the “Open Doors” project, Lattelecom BPO supported a mobile computer classroom which travelled around Latvia. The company also organised several regional discussions about work opportunities for differently abled people. This year the company is sponsoring training for experts in the area of E-environment accessibility, as well as the aforementioned homepage monitoring project. Lattelecom BPO is an employer which actively seeks people with movement problems, including those who are in wheelchairs, who wish to apply for jobs.

Apeirons is a public organisation for differently abled people and their friends. The goal is to achieve greater integration in Latvian society. Apeirons has been active since 1994,k and since 1997 it has been officially registered as a public organisation. The essence of Apeirons is expressed in its name – the word “apeiron” is Greek and refers to the boundless extent of the universe and movement therein. Apeirons is always on the move, creating new ideas and helping to develop the desirable model for society.

Lattelecom is the leading provider of electronic communications services in Latvia. The company offers integrated electronic communications and IT services, as well as telecommunications, network design and installation services. Lattelecom also provides data transmission and IT infrastructure solutions, Internet and contact centre services, as well as outsourced business process services. The Lattelecom Group is made up of five companies – Lattelecom, Lattelecom Technology, Lattelecom BPO, Citrus Solutions and the Baltic Computer Academy.