#accessibility (449 links)
Usually, objections to this plan [requiring JavaScript] do not equate to predictions that we’re going to screw that up or that it won’t be sufficient; rather, they represent an opinion that requiring Javascript for a web application is an automatic accessibility violation. This might be partly a historical feeling, as some older accessibility standards contained language that said (or could be taken to imply) that in order to be accessible, a site had to work with Javascript turned off. I don’t know what motivated the inclusion of those clauses at the time, but would note that most modern accessibility standards merely say that one’s site must be accessible (regardless of whether or not it uses or requires client-side scripting).
- QuirksBlog: The iPhone obsession quirksmode.org
"The iPhone has become an obsession. If we don’t pay attention, we’ll have a mobile web that only works on the iPhone. And then we’ll have the real mobile web that wasn’t made by us and doesn’t give a shit about web standards and best practices." Overstating things somewhat but still a useful reminder.
- How to Use Link TITLE Attribute Correctly | Search Engine Journal searchenginejournal.com
Useful one to point clients at. "A couple of years ago, Googlers confirmed they did not use TITLE attribute in the algorithm because it was used too seldom. This has changes since then but I still failed to spot any evidence that link TITLE attribute somehow influenced the rankings."
- We are Colorblind » Patterns for the Color Blind wearecolorblind.com
About 8% of the male population has some sort of color blindness. The color blind have the inability to clearly distinguish different colors of the spectrum, they tend to see colors in a limited range of hues.
- NoSquint :: Add-ons for Firefox addons.mozilla.org
Allows you to adjust the text-only and full-page (both text and images) zoom levels as well as color settings both globally (for all sites) and per site.
- qa-style-sheet - Project Hosting on Google Code code.google.com
The QA style sheet highlights specific HTML problems like use of deprecated elements, inaccessible images, layout tables, empty elements, or styling-related maintenance issues. Theoretically, it is “unobtrusive” in a sense that when everything’s fine it won’t cause any visible changes.
- Festival cstr.ed.ac.uk
Offers a general framework for building speech synthesis systems as well as including examples of various modules. As a whole it offers full text to speech through a number APIs: from shell level, though a Scheme command interpreter, as a C++ library, from Java, and an Emacs interface. Festival is multi-lingual (currently English (British and American), and Spanish) though English is the most advanced.
- Homepage - Defacto defacto-cms.com
Hosted, accessible CMS solution from Nomensa.
- we are all screen readers now (tecznotes) mike.teczno.com
At some point during the dot-com bust it turned out that the written word was the payload, and regular people started using alternative browsing devices to access text from the web. Arguments about device-independent, semantic markup and graceful degradation suddenly have an additional halo of legitimacy because they affect everyone.
- Web Usability - Accessible Forms using WCAG 2.0 usability.com.au
""Accessible Forms using WCAG 2.0" is the first of a series of documents to help web professionals use the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Version 2.0 to develop accessible websites."
- Colour Contrast Analyser :: Firefox Add-ons addons.mozilla.org
Still experimental "A colour contrast analyser that examines the foreground and background colours of text nodes, and provides a report to see if they are correct according to AERT and WCAG's luminosity colour contrast algorithm."
- Usable Accessibility: Making Web Sites Work Well for People with Disabilities :: UXmatters uxmatters.com
The concept of usability often seems to exclude people with disabilities, as though just access is all they are entitled to. What about creating a good user experience for people with disabilities—going beyond making a Web site merely accessible to make it truly usable for them?
- Ending the Great H1 Debate | Web Design Blog: Web Design & Innovation in web standards : Viget Labs viget.com
According to Cutts, more than one h1 is fine as long as you don't go crazy. Pretty much as expected.
- NVDA – a free, open source screen reader | 456 Berea Street 456bereastreet.com
Hadn't come across this one.
- Color Oracle colororacle.cartography.ch
Takes the guesswork out of designing for color blindness by showing you in real time what people with common color vision impairments will see.
- Accessibility Tips accessibilitytips.com
Yahoo folk providing accessibility info.
While a lot of Tabs-Scripts claim to be accessible it turns out, most of them are really not.
- MMF - Mobile Accessibility mobileaccessibility.info
The Global Accessibility Reporting Initiative (GARI) project was developed to provide a central information source to learn about accessibility in mobile devices.
- IE 8 still does not resize text sized in pixels | 456 Berea Street 456bereastreet.com
"Yes, there is full page zoom (which works much better in IE 8 than in IE 7), but the controls for resizing text only are still there, and they still do not work when pixels or an absolute unit has been used." Still? Doh.
- Disability Rights Advocates Case: NFB v. Target dralegal.org
Summary of the Target class action and outcomes.
- Local W3C validator on OSX | AlastairC alastairc.ac
You can install it as a local ’service’, essentially a web application running on Apache on your local machine. That means you can adjust the Web Developers Toolbar for Firefox to use you local version.
Good analysis of the recent WebAIM screen reader survey. Use <Hn> tags, think hard about accesskeys, use skip links, know your audience.
Includes estimates by age group.
- WebAIM: Screen Reader Survey Results webaim.org
In December 2008 through January 2009, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen reader users. We received 1121 valid responses to the screen reader survey, which was conducted Dec. 2008 - Jan. 2009. The response was amazing.
- WebAIM: WCAG 2.0 Checklist webaim.org
A simple checklist that presents the principles and techniques of WCAG 2.0 in a more user-friendly, understandable format. The language has been significantly changed and simplified from the official WCAG 2.0 specification to make it more easily tested and verified for web pages.
This site details all standards & guidelines for developing and delivering products and services for BBC online (bbc.co.uk).
"Some tips on how to configure your development environment for screen reader testing." Although getting a dev to play with a screenreader can lead to a false sense of security; no substitute for proper testing.
"Why we advise against using justified text, with some links to useful background information on this issue." Amazing how many account/pm/client types ask for justified text.
- Plugins | jQuery Plugins plugins.jquery.com
For Ajax-driven pages to have back/forward navigation and to allow bookmarking.
- Vitamin Features » Accessibility In Suit And Tie thinkvitamin.com
This article is for the suits who care: if you can’t use cutting-edge tools, technologies or techniques, what can you do to ensure that you’re doing all you can for all of your users?
- [DRAFT] Shared Web Experiences: Barriers Common to Mobile Device Users and People with Disabilities w3.org
People with disabilities (using desktop or laptop computers) and people without disabilities who are using mobile devices have similar interaction limitations and they experience similar barriers when interacting with Web sites. There is also significant overlap between the design solutions for both.
- Strange sIFR / screen-reader bug | AlastairC alastairc.ac
When I got to the sIFR method (scalable Inman Flash Replacement), the Windows based screen readers read out the heading twice.
- views from space: Faust: Flash Augmenting Standards blog.space150.com
In Faust, content for Flash is a single source of data: the HTML. You don’t need a new XML structure. The same lists, images, and links you display for users without Flash are consumed for users with Flash.
The new guidelines for UK public sector bodies on ‘Delivering inclusive websites’ are a bewildering blend of the vague with the Draconian.
Some of the guidelines [the RNIB] work to in-house when commissioning accessible advertising.
- hAccessibility redux? - The Web Standards Project webstandards.org
The developers at BBC Radio Labs announced today that they’ll be removing the hCalendar microformat from their programmes listing pages, pending further accessibility testing or the establishment of a more accessible alternative.
- The JavaScript Manifesto - The Web Standards Project webstandards.org
This sums things up quite nicely.
- Where SEO and accessibility collide | AlastairC alastairc.ac
The cheat sheet is from seomoz.org [...] Some of the advice directly contributes to an accessible site (which is something many have noted before), but a couple of items will impact on the experience for people using particular technologies.
Another miseducated SEO rears their ugly head and slanders a well-known development technique as well as a high-profile SEO, accusing both of being spam. Better yet [...] Image Replacement has been dubbed “poor man’s cloaking”.
- Stop using Ajax! - Opera Developer Community dev.opera.com
Or, at least, think more carefully about when and how you use it.
- WebAnywhere - A screen reader on the go webinsight.cs.washington.edu
A web-based screen reader. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card.
- Access Matters » Blog Archive » “Off left” banned by Google? access-matters.com
Short answer is no. Thank goodness. "Yes, Google was right. Spam was stuffed into hidden text on my site. They were not complaining about my accessibility technique."
- Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Webmaster tips for creating accessible, crawlable sites googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com
This article is a proof of concept for visualizing HTML table data with the canvas element.
Ranty but potentially useful basis for discussing the issues faced with all-Flash sites.
The 10th annual ‘Better connected’ review of every UK council website from the local government Society of IT Management (Socitm), published this month, has revealed an alarming picture of falling standards.
- Float-less CSS layout tjkdesign.com
"A CSS layout that does not use DIV, FLOAT, CLEAR nor structural HACK!" It uses OLs. This is probably a horrible thing to do in terms of accessibility and semantics. Avoid.