translated from Spanish: They launch the web with a new universal accessibility tool

It looks similar to other websites. But by logging into inclusión.uc.cl and clicking on the overlapping two-handed icons, it is possible to deploy a video capsule with Chilean Sign Language aimed at deaf people, which allows you to better understand the content displayed as text and images on the page.
This innovative element is in addition to others that the UC Inclusion Directorate incorporated into its new website, guided by the international recommendations of the World Wide Web Consortium, and also integrating the browsing experiences of users with visual and hearing impairments, who were actively involved in the creation of the site.
For example, to assist in reading and understanding content, the texts on the page were written following web readability recommendations, using short sentences, more connectors, simple words, and avoiding passive voices and extended paragraphs. 
On the other hand, the site is optimized so that visually impaired people can access the information through the use of screen readers that play the written content hearingfully. For its proper functioning, alternative text was added to the images, a functionality that allows access through descriptions to the visual content.
“I think these tools are useful to me as a student and as a person. They are useful because they allow us to access the content easily and quickly, and be more autonomous. We cannot always depend on another, we must be autonomous, and that UC is working for it in its professional and personal role, it is super important,” said Javier Ancavil, a visually impaired student who participated in the process of interviewing users for the development of the website.
The platform is also responsive, that is, it adapts to the size of the screen, being able to enlarge the letter of the content, which helps to minimize the barriers to access to information of people with low vision.
“Making community on an equal footing and equal opportunity” 
Along with the launch of its new website, the UC Inclusion Directorate introduced the Lazarillo app, which is currently available on the San Joaquin campus and can be used once face-to-face classes are resumed. This tool allows visually impaired people to orient themselves within campuses through their phone through geolocation and audible instructions about buildings and services close to the user or user.
“In Chile there is still very low the number of young people with some kind of special educational need that enters universities, and we know that there are specific aspects that hinder their inclusion in the form of tangible barriers in the areas of infrastructure, pedagogical, communication and also reception areas of the different units,” commented UC Rector Ignacio Sánchez , at the launch of the site.
“We believe that this website and the application we are presenting today are important advances in this path that we have set out to make community in conditions of equity and equal opportunities for those with different educational needs,” he added.
For his part, UC Academic Vice-Chancellor Fernando Purcell highlighted the tangible nature of the progress presented by the Inclusion Directorate: “Today we take a significant step in terms of the relevance we give to universal access from an information perspective. This is yet another example of how the university has progressively transformed statements of ideas and dreams, turning them into action.” 
Based on these achievements, the Vice-Chancellor invited the entire UC to adopt universal accessibility tools. “We need to remember that we have an Inclusion Directorate that leads the way in these matters and is visionary in terms of contributing to inclusion in an integral way in the opportunities we give to students. But it’s also important to understand that it’s the challenge of the university as a whole to add up,” he said.
Learn more about the universal access tools of inclusion.uc.cl in this video.

Original source in Spanish

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