Many legal documents have been placed on the INTERNET in the past 10 years. Most have been marked up for presentation only, and that has been done at a very basic level. Several of the technologies listed below have been available for the past 5 years. Judicious use of the markup rules for HTML, XHTML, CSS1 and CSS2, can allow one to exercise control over the screen and print presentation of legal texts and impart semantic meaning to the items within the texts. Documents prepared with concern for these standards and advanced metadata schemas, such as the Dublin Core, enhance the value of the INTERNET by improving resource discovery. Naturally, attention to these details improves the impact of the documents.
Using appropriate technology from HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, XML, XSL, XSL-T, XSL-FO, CSS1, CSS2 for presentation, and METADATA to add semantic intelligence to legal texts -- court opinions, briefs, law review articles, treatises, etc. -- IQ-Ubed can assist you in repurposing your legal text for use on the INTERNET.
Web site accessibility has become an issue as the web transformed from a text format to more interactive animated formats. As more and more web sites incorporated images and animations, these sites became less usable by persons with disabilities. The W3C began the Web Accessibility Initiative to formulate standards to insure the accessibility of web content for disabled users.
The United States government has also developed a set of web site accessibility standards based partially on the WAI standards. This is Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. In addition, several states have also adopted WAI or Section 508 standards as noted on this page from the State of Connecticut, Web Site Accessibility Committee.
Center for Computer Assisted Legal Instruction Annual Conference Presentations:
IQ-Ubed can assist you with accessibility audits and recommendations to improve your compliance with the WAI or Section 508 standards.
Contact me to discuss your legal text transformation or accessibility requirements.
Steven C. Perkinsvox:973-494-0936;
fax:973-547-2749
email:SCPerkins@gmail.com