Access Tourism NZ TOURISM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, SENIORS, AND AGEING BOOMERS IN NEW ZEALAND AND WORLDWIDE

Guest blog: Chris Lona

Chris Lona of CL Design, visually disabled from a brain tumour 22 years ago, is designing and developing innovative web presentations that provide better accessibility to people with visual, audio and physical disabilities. Each site is a multimedia presentation that complies with and surpasses US standards for accessibility online.   No assistive technology such as a screen reader is required and each presentation provides innovative benefits for people with disabilities (and everyone else!). These include:

• Human voice narration and audio

• Audio menu for the blind and visually disabled

• Mouse, keyboard and touch screen controls

• Full screen view

• Large, optional text

• Augmentation, rather than replacement, of an existing web presence

This approach is creative and innovative because it incorporates the interactivity and information of a website with the motion and audio of video, all as a full-screen presentation with multiple controls (mouse, keyboard, touch screen). The presentations are transforming the tourism, travel, hospitality, leisure and healthcare industries by beginning a customer’s experience not when they arrive at their destination, but rather when they visit the organization’s website. This commitment to customers’ experiences begins to build loyalty from first contact and definitively differentiates organizations that use these presentations from others in their industry.

Lona started designing brands and websites after a brain tumour in his final year of Architecture school caused double vision and an ensuing auto-immune condition made it impractical for him to pursue a normal career. Now his intent is to create the “curb ramps of the internet”.

“When a person in a wheelchair comes to a curb, they’re not expected to bring their own ramp. Why should a visually disabled person, for example, be required to have a screen reader when they come to a website? Besides, have you ever heard the inhumane computer voice of a screen reader? People don’t speak to other people like that. Also a majority of sites these days look like they all used the same template for the design and then filled it with a lot of data for the search engines. I am trying to bring humanity and experiences to the web.” says Lona.

For samples of these online presentations, turn on your sound and visit:

www.cldesign.biz/resortriviera (hospitality)  and  www.sitellites.com/seattle (tourism/travel)

Contact: Chris Lona • Principal Designer • CL Design 425.462.7824  info@cldesignonline.com