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“CLiFf Says” Provides Cost-Free
Educational Resource for Web Site
Accessibility Testing and Government of
Canada Common Look and Feel Compliance
Wats.Ca and
HiSoftware Company collaborate to
provide cost-free educational resource
for Web Site accessibility testing
Ottawa, ON Canada and Concord, NH USA –
December 2, 2003 - HiSoftware, Inc. and
WATS.ca, today announced the launch of a
new service, CLiFf Says™, that will
provide testing of Web sites for
compliance with Government of Canada (GoC)
Common Look and Feel (CLF) Standards,
including accessibility requirements as
designated in the W3C web content
accessibility guidelines (WCAG –
Priority 1 & 2). CLiFf Says™ will test
Web Sites and report both CLF and
Accessibility issues immediately through
simple and easy-to-understand Web
browser based reports. HiSoftware
Company’s AccMonitor Server powers CLiFf
Says™.
By separating the WCAG Accessibility
requirements from the other CLF
Standards, CLiFf Says™ will help
developers of not only GoC web sites but
also non-governmental sites to ensure
that their Web sites have the
functionality needed for a diverse
population of user needs and
preferences, including people with
disabilities. With the emergence of
accessibility legislation in countries
around the world, Web accessibility for
people with disabilities is on the minds
of CIO’s at many Canadian corporations
and organizations, and is already
mandated at many Federal, Provincial and
municipal government agencies in Canada.
The CLiFf Says™ portal testing service
allows users to quickly receive an
immediate ”pass/fail” of their Web site
accessibility along with direct links to
the technical rule passed/violated.
Accessibility issues are detected within
web sites from Web-based applications,
dynamic pages, or static HTML pages.
CLiFf Says™ utilizes HiSoftware
AccMonitor Server technology and deploys
USER Agents (crawlers/scanners) to
collect individual page or dynamic page
accessibility data. This information is
then sent to the central server where
actual accessibility verification is
performed. The output of the
Accessibility verification results in
easy to read reports that can then be
viewed securely over the Internet
through the users own Web browser.
“CLiFf Says™
provides an ideal solution for Canadian
organizations to educate themselves
regarding accessibility issues on their
Web sites," said
Robert B.
Yonaitis, HiSoftware Company CEO.
“We are extremely pleased to provide
this resource based on our software to
assist in a project with the underlying
goal of education and advocacy.
HiSoftware solutions empower users to
develop, implement and maintain a
strategy for delivering pervasive
accessibility within their
organizations.”
“The scalability of
HiSoftware’s technology allowed us to
partner with them and develop custom
checks for Common Look and Feel
Standards, including but not limited to
accessibility issues,” said
John Foliot..., co-founder of
WATS.ca. “While the reports produced
address specific CLF requirements
(including privacy policy compliance,
Official languages act, etc.), the
Priority 1 and 2 WCAG guidelines
highlight accessibility requirements for
any and all businesses or organizations
with a presence on the internet, making
the CLiFf Says™ portal valuable not only
to GoC web developers, but to any
serious developer seeking to work
towards these accessibility guidelines.”
More information
about the CLiFf Says™ project and the
beta test site is available on the Web
at:
http://www.hisoftware.com/cliffsays/
About WATS.Ca
WATS.ca work with both public and
private sector clients to create web
sites that are universally accessible,
fast, focused and easy to use. Their
diverse experience in development,
training, auditing and web site planning
affords them the ability to assist
clients in every stage of their web
development cycle. As technical
consultants to the Canadian Treasury
Board Secretariat’s Website
Accessibility Testing Service, the
principals of WATS.ca evaluated and
assessed over 200 Government of Canada
websites. They are intimately aware and
experienced with both international
Accessibility requirements as well as
Government of Canada Common Look and
Feel standards. The WATS.ca team
provides Web Accessibility and CLF
testing, audits, assessments, and
consulting, as well as Accessible and
CLF compliant Web development services,
hands-on training and informational
seminars. Their client list includes
Communication Canada, The National
Research Council, The Canadian Space
Agency, Human Resources Development
Canada, Industry Canada - International
Business Branch, as well as educational
institutions and private companies in
both Canada and the United States. Based
in Ottawa, Ontario, more information
about WATS.ca may be found at their
website:
http://www.wats.ca/
###
ABOUT HISOFTWARE
HiSoftware Company, the leader in
enterprise content quality management
solutions, provides innovative products
that empower quality assurance teams,
content developers, Web site architects,
and company executives to work
collaboratively on their efforts to
create and manage corporate Web
standards for Accessibility, Privacy,
Searchability, Usability and custom
guidelines and policies. HiSoftware’s
integrated, full lifecycle solutions
dramatically reduce the time required to
test, manage and deploy e-business Web
sites.
HiSoftware works closely with industry
leaders and visionaries to provide
solutions for today's information
accessibility, content quality, search
and retrieval needs. HiSoftware’s
customers represent Fortune 500
companies, and many of the largest
e-commerce, government, and educational
sites in North America and around the
world and include ChevronTexaco,
Commerce One, Mercury Interactive, and
Microsoft Government.
Founded in 1998, HiSoftware Company
maintains North American corporate
headquarters in Concord, New Hampshire.
Further information about HiSoftware can
be found online at
www.hisoftware.com
-###-
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