BELLEVUE, Wash., Oct. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Expedia today
announced details around site enhancements as part of an ongoing
relationship with the National Federation of the Blind. It's
estimated more than 48.9 million people live with disabilities in
the US1, including more than 7 million with a visual
disability2. Expedia's dedicated UX designers, as well
as product and software engineers, are actively engaged in ensuring
travelers with disabilities have excellent experiences when
visiting sites like Expedia.com and Travelocity.com.
The Expedia Accessibility Technology Team consists of front-end
developers and testers who use a variety of methods to design and
test site improvements that make the Expedia.com and
Travelocity.com websites as inclusive as possible. Screen readers
(software applications that read out a webpage's text content and
convey visual cues) for example, are commonly used amongst the
blind community. To make it easier for these readers to relay
information, Expedia engineers have attached text to pictures and
structured the code in a way that allows users of assistive
technology to efficiently navigate the product pages. The National
Federation of the Blind has provided insights, feedback, and
testing on the implementation of these accessibility components to
help ensure a great user experience.
Expedia continuously assesses its products, utilizing industry
standards that address not only blind users who use assistive tech
but also those who need captioning for video or audio, who do not
use a mouse, or who have other differences that make these features
worthwhile. In fact, Expedia has found that these enhancements
improve the user experience for all travelers, not just those with
unique needs. While recent activity has been focused on the current
site, Expedia is also working to educate and train all of its
engineers to design and develop their products, mobile and desktop,
from the ground up with accessibility in mind.
"Blind people must have equal access to websites like Expedia to
live the lives we want, independently," said Mark Riccobono, President of the National
Federation of the Blind. "Expedia is a distinguished partner in
supporting our mission of ensuring that blind people have equal
access to goods and services online and continues to champion
accessibility overall through its product offerings. We are
extremely pleased with the progress we have made in our
relationship. We know that every user benefits from the
enhancements we have worked on together."
"At Expedia, our goal is to help people go places, and our
efforts in improving website accessibility for the blind are
helping a community of people that previously experienced
difficulties in navigating online travel booking paths," said Aman
Bhutani, President, Brand Expedia Group. "Through our
relationship with the National Federation of the Blind, we've
expanded our duty to bring travel to everyone and are encouraged
and excited by our progress in this space."
1US Census Data
2National Federation of the Blind
About Expedia.com
Expedia.com® is one of the world's largest full service travel
sites, helping millions of travelers per month easily plan and book
travel. Expedia.com (https://www.expedia.com/, 1-800-EXPEDIA) aims
to provide the latest technology and the widest selection of top
vacation destinations, affordable airfare, hotel deals, car
rentals, destination weddings, cruise deals and in-destination
activities, attractions, services and travel apps.
© 2017 Expedia, Inc. All rights reserved. Expedia and the
Airplane logo are either trademarks or registered trademarks of
Expedia, Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other product and
company names mentioned herein may be the property of their
respective owners CST # 2029030-50.
Visit our web site https://www.expedia.com/ or use our mobile
app to book cheap flights and hotels.
About the National Federation of the Blind
The
National Federation of the Blind (NFB), headquartered in
Baltimore, is the oldest and
largest nationwide organization of blind Americans. Founded in
1940, the NFB consists of affiliates, chapters, and divisions in
the fifty states, Washington DC,
and Puerto Rico. The NFB defends
the rights of blind people of all ages and provides information and
support to families with blind children, older Americans who are
losing vision, and more. We believe in the hopes and dreams of
blind people and work together to transform them into reality.
Learn more about our many programs and initiatives at
www.nfb.org.
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SOURCE Expedia.com