Weblogs: Web Accessibility Links
Captioning Sucks, by Joe Clark -- An exposure of what's wrong in the world of program captioning. The excuses of technical issues, the legal loopholes, the politics that prevent deaf people from gaining equivalent access to motion pictures both online and offline. The biggest problem - the lack of a standard. Joe offers a solution.
Making YouTube easier and more accessible -- Following on from Antonia Hyde's insight into the accessibility barriers hampering people with learning disabilities, Christian has taken the YouTube video player and added in a new JavaScript interface to take these needs into consideration. Its a simplified interface to YouTube video.
jQuery Accessible Tabs - How to make tabs REALLY accessible -- Dirk Ginader dissects the techniques of making genuinely accessible tabs. He delivers a working tabbed widget (with Artur Ortega) that has been extensively tested in screen readers. Other tab widgets solve the robust and operability barriers, and Dirk's also solves the perceivability and understandability barriers.
Circumventing Hegemony in the HTML WG -- Steve Faulkner lays out a clear path to raising issues and proposals for the HTML 5 specification, and describes the process for how accessibility issues are dealt with, including an 'escalation' to the Protocols and Formats working group, a group 'consensus seeking' discussion, and finally a vote. This is useful to know, and hopefully this will result in accessibility issues being dealt with more appropriately and with real consideration.
Yahoo acknowledges inaccessible content, yet still fails to innovate -- 'I just find it disgusting that people like the developers who make these products that can be designed with accessibility from the beginning, choose not to even attempt this.'
Fun with multiple submit buttons -- Stuart outlines an approach to multiple submit buttons and dealing with the case when Return is used to trigger a form submission. Couple on interesting techniques in the comments. For Legal & General we opted to have an offscreen submit button as the first form element, but this creates confusion for screen reader users for what use is a form if the first element is a submit button?
Screen Readers lack emphasis -- Steve Faulkner tests JAWS and Windows Eyes to see whether they support emphasis, strong emphasis, bold, italics, ins and del. The short answer is that by default, screen readers treat these no different to plain text, as if it just ignores the elements.
Comparing Tagged PDFs from Office and Acrobat -- Alastair tests the accessibility of PDFs created by Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat and finds that Word does a better job. But both tools do miles better than Open Office.
JavaScript, abbr and Internet Explorer -- As a follow-on to his previous investigation into acronym and abbreviation support in screen readers, Jon Gibbins tests whether the createElement hack actually works on abbr in Internet Explorer. It does!
Screen readers and abbreviations -- Jon Gibbins discusses how abbreviations and acronyms are handled by screen readers, and what screen reader support for these features really means. Good all round advice and common sense. More great investigative work from accessibility experts.
Is Chat Room Addiction Real? You’d Better Believe It! -- Yahoo Live, a social video chat application, is having a surprising and life-enhancing experience for deaf people. Its probably not a planned use case, but another inspiring example of how a small idea can have such a positive impact on a community.
alt in HTML5 Required? - to be or not to be -- Steve Faulkner comments on the formal response from W3C's Protocols and Formats Working Group regarding making the alt attribute optional in HTML 5. They classify this omission as a bug.
Assistive Technology: a video tour of accessibility -- Jon Gibbins pulls together a range of videos about assistive technologies and how people with disabilities use the web. This includes co-worker Victor Tsaran's videos for the YUI Theatre, and material from AbilityNet.
Keyboard Navigation and Internet Explorer -- Gez Lemon has an indepth article that describes the keyboard focusing problem in Internet Explorer 7. This has more seriousness now that IE7 is a permanent fixture in Windows.
Microsoft versioning: accessibility implications -- Since Microsoft's IE8 meta-tagging means that IE7 is guaranteed to be default rendering engine forever more, the keyboard accessibility problem in IE7 will persist too, which is a severe accessibility barrier.
Lawsuit over web site accessibility for the blind becomes class action -- The National Federation of the Blind's long running campaign against Target is raised another notch - a class action. Considering the NFB's agreement with Amazon (which powers Target.com), I'm surprised this legal challenge is continuing. I wonder if Target has an exit strategy?
Transcript of Shawn Lawton Henry's talk -- The RNIB organised a talk by Shawn Lawton Henry back in June 2007 about WCAG where we are and where we are going. The talk was exceptional, covered a number of interesting topics including an eyeopening discussion about what is considered an authoring agent (not just Dreamweaver, but CMS, blogs, and Web applications like Flickr).
Investigating the proposed alt attribute recommendations in HTML 5 -- Steve Faulkner, of the Paciello Group, does some screen reader testing that refutes the HTML 5 Working Group argument that removing the alt attribute from an image will not have an adverse effect on the accessibility of images.
WebAIM: User Test Cases for HTML 5 -- Jared Smith has put together a bundle of videos on the various accessibility features of HTML as experienced by a screen reader power-user. This is offered as a way of encouraging the HTML 5 Working Group to better understand the implications of changing or removing accessibility-related HTML attributes and structure.
Real World Accessibility -- Dan Champion and friends host an accessibility workshop in London on the 8th of August. Real World Accessibility has talks from experienced web accessibility practitioners: Bruce Lawson, Ann McMeekin, Patrick Lauke, Grant Broome, Ian Lloyd and Dan himself. An excellent line up and good sessions. If you want to learn about accessibility, why not give this workshop a look-in.
Yahoo!'s Accessibility Improvement petition -- A petition calling for the accessibility improvement of CAPTCHAs on Yahoo's services. The accessible alternative to the image isn't working well, it seems. If you are having similar problems with our CAPTCHAs please contribute your voice and sign the petition. (Disclaimer: I work for Yahoo, but do not represent them or their views.)
Yahoo!: Shawn Lawton Henry on WCAG 2.0 -- Through quick work from Tom Hughes-Croucher, we were lucky enough to bring Shawn Lawton Henry into our London offices after @media 2007 to talk to us about WCAG 2.0. It was an interesting talk about WCAG 2.0 and where it fits into web accessibility. Shawn also allowed us to record the talk for the YUI theatre, and here it is.
When accessibility is not your problem -- The first word of Joe's title is When, this is important. Joe's notes deal with edge cases where writers of content shouldn't have to deal with certain problems that are better handled in the browser or assistive technologies. He covers font-resizing, foreground and background colours, abbreviations and cognitive disabilities. Pragmatic advice all round.
How the Color Deficient Person -- A practical demonstration of how various forms of colour-blindness affect how colours are seen. Interesting side-by-side analysis to be read in conjunction with Joe Clark's online book Building Accessible Websites
WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 -- Joe Clark's secretive WCAG Samurai publish their first (and perhaps only) draft of their errata to WCAG1.0. There's a ton of common sense changes to reflect modern web development. I feel some parts are more forward-looking than a practical assessment as to what works now. But it is a good healthy update to a recommendation that's showing its old age.
WCAG Samurai Errata Review -- Alastair Campbell, from Nomensa, has been invited to critique and review the WCAG Samurai Errata, produced by Joe Clark and his secret team. His review is overall positive, with a few concerns, and a good overview of the document.
Shawn Henry from WAI presents 'What's new, WCAG 2.0, and current issues' Tuesday June 5th, London -- RNIB hosting a free talk by the W3C's Shawn Lawton Henry about current issues and recent developments in web accessibility, including WCAG 2.0, ARIA, ATAG and UAAG.
Screenreaders and javascript -- Looks like in the race between JAWS and Window Eyes, Dolphin's HAL, which is 3x popular in the UK than Window Eyes, is further behind both of them in virtual buffer updating.
Grande consultation sur l'accessibilité et les sites web publics -- In 2005 France passed a law that government websites are to be accessible. Now there's a consultancy going on to outline what this means and how it is to be achieved (based on WCAG guidelines). This will come into force in September 2007, and companies found to be in breach have 3 years to get into compliance or perhaps face sanctions.
Amazon.com to enhance its accessibility -- Bruce Lawson notes that Amazon have announced they are taking steps to make their websites accessible (at the moment its just for blind people). This is directly related to the NFB's legal suit against the Target website, which is powered by Amazon. This is welcome news.
The Ajax/Flash continuum -- Jeremy Keith: 'It saddens me to see people take such a knee-jerk anti-Flash stance without first investigating the facts (particularly the accessibility issues).'
SOCITM: Better Connected 2007 -- Donna Smilie, from the RNIB Web Access Centre expresses her concern about people who interpret the Better Connected report as saying anything less than Double A (as per WCAG 1.0) is inaccessible. This is the wrong view, since accessibility is a continiumm - based on the abilities of people. Single A is used as a 'pass' threshold for accessibility, with sites encouraged to go as far as they can.
Usability benefits of Web accessibility -- Joe Clark: 'Why are accessible sites usable to everyone? Presumably because, by and large, only the best-informed and most mature developers work on accessible sites. They are pretty much incapable of producing an unusable site. Plus their HTML is way better.'
Better Connected & web accessibility -- Dan Champion: 'The question that I keeping coming back to is this - what does the Better Connected reporting of web accessibility achieve? Last year it painted a fairly depressing picture, and this year that picture is almost identical. If SOCITM wants to be an agent for change it needs to do more than just reporting a problem exists, and start putting its members' best interests first by helping them to address the problem.'
Accessibility vs Universality - implications -- Alastair Campbell: 'I do also work in 'universality' as a daily part of my job in web development and consultancy. But, I don't confuse the two. Any accessibility advice is given in the context of who it would affect (e.g. that type of layout will cause problems for people with screen magnifiers).'
Joe Clark's WCAG Samurai -- There's a news update! '2007.02.23: As announced onstage at Web Directions North 2007, WCAG Samurai will publish its errata in time for @media 2007 San Francisco, May 2007.'
Accessible Flash @ Web Standards Group in London -- Niqui Merret will be speaking at the London WSG's Accessibility evening talking about accessible Flash. It will be an interesting session for web developers as well as seasoned Flash developers - both groups can learn and share from this particular discussion.
WSG London Accessibility Meetup -- Stuart Colville has organised another free WSG event in London, this time on the topic of accessibility. Its on Wednesday the 28th February 2007. I'm privileged to be speaking alongside Ann McMeekin and Niqui Merret - two well respected accessibility experts. Limited to 200 people.
Pipe me up, Scotty -- Shelley Powers on Yahoo! Pipes: 'The major area of failure with this example is it utilizes a graphical interface when it doesn't require a graphical interface. The ability to create a pipe between applications could be managed using traditional forms or even a text editor. Expanding the interface would enable this application to be open to all people, rather than just those with scripting turned on and working eyes, working arms, fingers to push mouse buttons, and so on. We have to separate the concept from the 'coolness' of the UI: if we marry the two, we're heading down the wrong path.'
Letter to Tim Berners-Lee: Time to cancel WCAG 2 -- Joe Clark makes a considered appeal to Tim Berners Lee to cancel the WCAG2.0 project. His points are well founded, and essentially that the W3C - through its corporate bias - has lost touch with the web development community it purports to lead. The culture of web accessibility has grown and thrived despite the W3C's lack of attention.
The importance of link highlighting -- Grant Broome talks about why the dotted link focus rectangle is necessary visitors, pushing back on workarounds to hide it. He also raises the issue that the link focus is not as obvious as it could be, and suggests changing background colours on focused links
Accessibility helping business: the case of Legal & General in United Kingdom -- Dave Wilton, the Web Manager of Legal & General, and Julie Howell (now with Fortune Cookie) gave a presentation yesterday in the BrailleNet conference in Paris. They talked about the real world benefits and significant improvement in online business as a result of making the website accessible. That's been an incredible chapter in my life, and I'm please to see how much of a success its creating.
Net Magazine: The Accessibility Test -- Alastair Campbell writes a regular column in net magazine assessing the accessibility of various websites. Alastair works for Nomensa, one of the top accessibility consultancies in the UK. I've had the pleasure of interesting discussions with him over the last year, and he's definitely one of the passionate experts the web accessibility community need more of.
DTI website: response from National Audit Office -- Bruce Lawson approaches the National Audit Office over whether the DTI have been properly careful with our public money (pertaining to the accessibility fiasco of their website redesign). The answer coming back from the NAO is a clear and definitive no. So yes, the DTI did piss our money down a drain, and conceeded the fact that the project was unsuccessfully managed by themselves.
Improving Ajax applications for JAWS users -- Gez Lemon and Steve Faulkner engineer a practical and pragmatic way of getting Ajax based applications playing nicely with JAWS 7.1. One of the advantages Gez and Steve have is access to experienced screen-reader users for testing purposes - that assures their findings are accurate and relevant in the real world. Awesome work guys!
AOL Ability: Joe Clark - An Interview -- Steve Faulkner interviews Joe Clark about his Open & Closed project, a project that's well worth supporting - creating a standard that covers captioning, subtitling, audio description and dubbing. Joe also talks about WCAG 2 and the need for it to be abandoned.
Judge rules paper money unfair to blind -- I'm surprised that US currencies don't have different sized notes for each denominations like other countries. The solution is relatively straightforward: 'The American Council for the Blind has submitted several alternatives, including embossing, holes punched in the paper or using different-sized bills for different denominations.' (via Chris Heilmann)
What's new in JAWS 8.0 -- Steve Faulkner reports on some new features in Jaws 8.0, and highlights his favourite, as he explains 'Better support for dynamic changes in web pages! In JAWS 8.0, the position of the Virtual Cursor is retained when the page is updated, so that you no longer have to move back to the text you were reading. This useful feature means that Web pages with frequently updated content are more accessible to JAWS users and less frustrating to read. For me, this means an important step towards accessible AJAX applications.'
Needs of the disabled spark inventions - why not in web design? -- Christian digs around and finds some good examples of assistive / adaptive technologies that found their way into general use by the world. Examples include the work of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, the talking VCR, technology leaps in mobile phones, and the ubiquitous OCR scanning.
Wikipedia: Thomas Edison -- 'Partially deaf since adolescence, he became a telegraph operator after he saved Jimmie Mackenzie from being struck by a runaway train. Jimmie's father, station agent J.U. Mackenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan, was so grateful that he took Edison under his wing and trained him as a telegraph operator. Edison's deafness aided him as it blocked out noises and prevented Edison from hearing the telegrapher sitting next to him.'
Web 2.0: A step backwards for accessibility? -- 'But there are other important commercial advantages. For example, Legal & General experienced a 95 percent increase in online sales following its revamp, which cost a comparatively meagre ¥200,000. This revenue boost, combined with reduced maintenance fees, meant that the financial services giant achieved a return on investment in only five months compared with the 12 months it had expected.'
JK Rowling Flash website - Case study - Web Access Centre -- The RNIB's case study into JK Rowlings' use of accessible Flash. It covers some of the accessibility features on offer, including disabling background sounds, magnifying text, labelled resources, keyboard navigation, and inbuilt adaptions for when a screenreader is detected.
Designing a more accessible web -- Leonie Watson says: 'Flash is a very interesting topic in terms of web accessibility. It's actually capable of being very accessible indeed. It has means for building in captioning for people who are hearing impaired; it allows soundtracks to be imported very easily so that audio description can be provided for people with visual impairments; it has a lot of very easy ways to build in accessibility, providing the developer sets out to do that from the beginning.' (via dotjay)
Trying to Define Web Accessibility -- Its posts like this that give me hope that there is a future for web accessibility - a thoughtful, reflective post that cements understanding, empathy and pragmatism.
Mozilla Accessibility Summit 2006 -- Mark Pilgrim's notes which covers topics like XUL accessibility guidelines (based on WCAG 2.0), Firefox integration with Apple's VoiceOver, and the much talked about DHTML accessibility. An interesting insight to the direction accessibility is going.
Wired: Flash News Flash: It's Accessible -- A story written way back in 2002 around the time of Flash MX: 'To make the site accessible to deaf children, he invented a groundbreaking Flash captioning tool that has subsequently been purchased by Macromedia. Soon, the whole Flash community will be able to use the tool, because Macromedia plans to release it as a free downloadable extension on the Flash exchange within a month.'
Creating an Accessible Flash Game for the RNIB -- A multimedia look at building an interactive and accessible Blind Date game in Flash. Looks at the background, the decisions, the results as well as a demonstration of the game in JAWS. Also a discussion on the accessibility improvements of Flash. An interesting collaboration between the RNIB and Nomensa.
WebAIM: Creating Accessible Macromedia Flash Content -- Flash offers accessibility above and beyond HTML and CSS, for example: Multiple ways of presentation, scalability, keyboard accessibility, engaging, self-voicing. It puts the multi into multimedia.
catherine roy: accessibility - prise deux -- 'I also have a problem with the fact that accessibility, which is related to core issues of discrimination and fundamental conditions with regards to equal rights for persons with disabilities, becomes conditional to what is convenient for mobile device users or search engines robots, etc., and this, even in places where accessibility is mandated by law.' - zara says it far better than I.
More On Dyslexia -- Mel discusses dyslexia in depth and how it relates to colour-contrast. An essential and interesting read.
An Alternative Colour Contrast Analyser -- Mel comes up with a colour contrast analyser that focuses on the problem of there being too much contrast, thus making it more difficult for people with dyslexia to read. Still some empiricial work needed to determine an accurate upper limit.
Does W3C get it's contrasts wrong? -- Mel Pedley raised an interesting accessibility issue. The W3C's colour contrast tests (to ensure sufficient contrast between foreground and background colours) caters for visual impaired people can actually create a barrier for people suffering with dyslexia. What is not a barrier to one, is a barrier to the other. A possible solution is to offer a low-contrast stylesheet that looks to consistently break this one particular test. Interesting reality check.
Accessibility improvements in Firefox 2 -- Mark Pilgrim compiles a list of accessibility fixes and improvements in Firefox 2.0 (as per their bugzilla reports). Good to see it being taken seriously.
Catherine Roy: on accessibility -- 'The other part of it, the most important reason why this kind of thing gets me riled up is that, unlike some people who seem to see this as a sign that persons with disabilities are being magically mainstreamed, their needs being considered on the same footing as other needs and hence, their status miraculously transitioning to that of true equality, I see this as just one more reason for people to get it wrong. To not really understand what accessibility is and therefore not adequately meet the needs of persons with disabilities.'
RNIB Accessibility Champion Moves to Fortune Cookie -- Julie Howell, the big name in web accessibility in the UK, is leaving the RNIB and joining Fortune Cookie! (Fortune Cookie is a London based web design agency with a strong track-record of delivering RNIB 'See-it-Right' accredited websites. I worked with them in delivering Legal & General's accessible website).
Text-Resize in the browser sets the scale of SWF -- From Lawrence Carvalho's and Christian Heilmann's A List Apart article about detecting font-resizing, Niqui Merret has taken the idea a step further to notify a Flash Object of a resize. Increasing the font-size in the browser now gets noticed by Flash. Excellent. Another step forward in Flash accessibility!
Deaf to 'hear' PA system on phone -- After a user has signed up for the service, public address announcements will be delivered to their handset in their chosen format. This would often be a text message, but could also be an image or a vibrating alert.
Werewolves of London -- Jeremy Keith's roundup of BarCamp London, particularly interesting was the accessible Flash discussions, with Jeremy commenting: 'Both Aral and Niqui are doing great work from within the Flash community and it’s important that the accessibility community can reach out to liaise with them.' Absolutely.
Visit with the RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) -- Two Flash developers, Niqui Merret and Aral Balkan visit the RNIB to see first hand how vision impaired people use the web. I'm encouraged by their positive attitude - something that's really needed in the Flash community. Met both of these excellent people in BarCamp - and that's been a catalyst for my growing interest in Flash as an accessible platform for Rich Internet Applications.
Let's talk about accessibility -- Jeff Croft has managed to attract - and successfully expose - some of the worst of the web accessibility community. Sometimes the self-proclaimed accessibility experts need to be reminded what accessibility is or isn't. The B-List provides that reminder. Read it. Objectively consider it. Consider whether you have the disabled community at heart.
Joe Clark: Precedent -- 'It was later revealed on the Blind Canadians mailing list that two people have filed a human-rights complaint against Ticketmaster because of its inaccessible site. This will be a Canadian first. Such an action had been mentioned many months ago; I had warned them to proceed with caution.'
Hello Private Eye readers! -- Bruce blogs the article that appears in the current issue of Private Eye which suitably ridicules the DTI for squandering £175,000 on a redesign but won't invest the claimed £600 to identify what went horribly wrong.
Private Eye for the DTI -- Bruce and Dan's torch-shining on the DTI has made the pages of the Private Eye publication. Here's an update from Dan on the current situation.
Beyond guidelines: advanced accessibility techniques -- Some useful tips and guidelines for improving the accessibility of a website. Hidden text, good link text, focus state.
Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance -- Bruce Lawson gives the low-down on who was involved in this eagerly awaited follow-up to the classic 'Accessible Web Sites'. What remains to be seen is whether it can give Joe Clark's masterpiece a run for its money.
Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance -- Same book, but different sample chapter - this time one of Jim Thatcher's chapters on making content accessible.
Understanding Web Accessibility -- A sample chapter from the forthcoming 'Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance', authored by, amongst others, Patrick Lauke and Bruce Lawson (with Gez Lemon as a technical editor). I'm looking forward to seeing this book on the shelves, its essentially a second edition of 'Accessible Web Sites' - the original edition was what kickstarted my journey towards web accessibility enlightenment.
DTI update - FOI shenanigans -- The UK Department of Trade and Industry avoids answering questions over the inaccessibility of its supposedly accessible website by claiming that to answer the questions raised would cost over 600 pounds. Strange time to simulate a conscience over squandering tax-payers money?
WAB Cluster -- Developing an 'EU-harmonised assessment methodology for Web accessibility'. Please commit to using WCAG 1.0 as a basis (and the corrections from the WCAG Samurai) - don't rewrite or create an alternative. We don't need another set of guidelines - Europeans are no different to the rest of the world.
RNIB: PAS 78 is now free! -- The Guide to Commissioning Accessible Websites, PAS 78 (a Publicly Available Standard) published by the Disability Rights Commission and the British Standards Institution is now available for free. Its a good summary of the sort of requirements organisations need to be giving to their web design agencies. This opens the door for its use by charaties, voluteer organisations, interested web designers, the accessibility community, web design agencies, and Andy Mabbett.
Crying Foul on Accessibility Claims -- 'For me, a Segala 'Trustmark' is now associated with misleading propaganda – probably not the result they were after.'
Da Vinci Code Trail - not big or clever -- Dan Champion finds an astonishing secret to web accessibility in the Da Vince Code Trail: According to the combined wit of Segala, O2 and Sony Ericsson, one can pass Checkpoint 6.3 (accessible alternatives to scripts and programmatic objects) in Flash by storing it on a different web server (Sony Ericsson's servers). Unfortunately this is not a laughing matter.
Fresh01's redesign: more questions for the DTI -- Bruce Lawson and Dan Champion take the DTI to task for squandering over £200,000 of tax-payers money on an accessible site that isn't accessible. Under the Freedom of Information Act they are taking up their rights to ask the DTI some very tough questions to uncover what went so badly wrong. Great work so far lads!
Joe Clark: Whither WAI and WCAG? -- 'To reiterate: WCAG 1 was OK and could use a new coat of paint, but the entire modus operandi of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has been rejected by people who know, and actually love, the Web. As such, any credibility the Working Group has is hanging by a thread in the best case and is a figment of the Working Group's imagination in the worst. You had a good run for a while there, but is it time to close up shop?'
David Berlind on Web Accessibility -- 'Unless society changes significantly, there will always be technologies available which are not 'accessible' - does this mean we should therefore never require accessibility? Does not being ready therefore exonerate our responsibilities? I can't accept that - instead, we should require accessibility and expect that technologies will not be accepted for mainstream use until an accessible use paradigm has been developed.'
@media Day 1 - WCAG2.0 Panel -- Pixeldiva: On scoping, the overwhelming message was: 'Scoping is not a get out clause.'
The DTI Responds -- Regarding accessibility: 'Why did the DTI pay £200,000 to private companies for a website which didn't even come close to meeting one of the key objectives of their website rebuild project?'
Stupid government websites -- Bruce Lawson: 'Catriona; the DTI doesn't have any money. The money you have flushed down the toilet on this website is the taxpayers'. You are using money taken from my salary to build a website that actively discriminates against people with disabilities.'
RNIB's Web Access Centre Blog -- The RNIB's accessibility consultancy wing has a blog - fantastic!
Andy Budd: Accessibility Interview -- In a recent .net interview Andy Budd has some clear explanations and great answers about web accessibility.
Accessibility Lifecycle -- Alistair Campbell assesses when automated tools can and should be used in the lifecycle of a website development. Essentially accessibility should be integrated into each step and not left to the end. It should be used to focus development rather than report what is wrong after the site is live.
Joe Clark: Fixing the latest errors -- Joe takes David Berlind apart for spreading disinformation, and shovelling bullshit about web accessibility (in connection with the Target inaccessible website lawsuit).
Levels of Accessibility Knowledge -- I guess I'm a level 4, except for the parts 'but thinks I'm a twat nonetheless. Has his (sic) own podcast on iTunes'. Some level 5 traits, typically the snarky ones.
Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance -- The book that got me kickstarted into accessibility finally has a second edition on the horizon. Thank you Friends of Ed for rescuing this Glasshaus published title. Publish date 26th June 2006.
To Hell with WCAG2.0 -- Joe Clark sums up the sorry tale of WCAG 2.0. One of the benefits of WCAG1.0 is that its (almost) firmly grounded in technologies we use today. WCAG2.0 left that path when the PDF and JavaScript techniques document were decoupled. WCAG2.0 is now too abstract for daily use. 'Understanding WCAG 2.0' seems to be where the useful information is hidden.
Making Ajax Work with Screen Readers -- Gez, in collaboration with Steve Faulkner dig into how screen readers work, detailing the workings of a screen reader's virtual buffer mode. This is an encouraging step towards getting Ajax applications working with screen readers. Its a recommended read for web developers. The crux is that the onreadystatechange event needs to be supported by screen readers.
An update on the Target accessibility lawsuit -- Joe Dolson covers an extensive article in ComputerWeek about the upcoming Target web accessibility court case.
All aboard the PAS 78 gravy train -- BrowseAloud caught red-handed claiming PAS 78 endorses or recommends their products. Previously BrowseAloud were caught astroturfing their products on discussion forums. In my opinion, this company should be avoided.
SiteMorse accessibility outings -- 'One of our long term clients, for whom we act as usability and accessibility consultants, recently came to us with a SiteMorse report. Basically thay had spammed about 20 people within the organisation. Yet another accessibility league table, the result of running various targeted sites through their self-developed automated testing tool. Surely they learnt their lesson the last time.' - I guess not.
Massachusetts OpenDocument plans questioned by disabled -- 'IBM also is accelerating development of a screen reader and a screen magnifier for Linux. And Sun is working on a combined open-source screen reader and magnifier called Orca. But those efforts are still in the early stages of development, officials said.' - This is welcome news. Windows has a massive advantage because of JAWS and Window Eyes.
Nearly 75 percent of FTSE 100 company websites fail to meet minimum accessibility requirements -- Nomensa carry out a manual check of 99 of the 100 FTSE 100 companies. Fair to say that the number of largely inaccessible sites, although still high at 75%, is slowly dropping.
BBC: Government sites fail web tests -- 'Organisers of a leading conference, WWW2006, have called on webmasters from UK local authority and central government to increase their understanding of the latest web standards.'
Guardian: Why size doesn't matter in setting web standards -- Dan Champion: I'm a team of one, supported by a graphic designer, and have a four-figure annual budget. From this you'd be right to conclude that many of the issues considered in Better Connected, including accessibility, usability and currency, are not n
Joe Clark: Fisking PAS 78 -- 'However, I believe the authors have succeeded about 85% in achieving a document that teaches untrained people how to manage developers and user testing to arrive at an accessible Web site.'
Google Accounts: I'm visually impaired and I can't see the word verification image. -- Google is providing a way past the CAPTCHA accessibility barrier. That's a good start. Thanks Google!
PAS 78: a new standard in Web accessibility -- 'A presentation by a representative of Legal and General ... [provided] statistics so powerful in illustrating the benefits of accessible Web design that they are likely to be quoted for many years.'
Guidance on development of user-friendly websites launched -- Shaw Trust, a pan disability organisation offering web accessibility testing, welcomes PAS 78.
out-law: How to commission an accessible website -- 'Website commissioners saw [accessibility] as a technical issue for developers,' he said, 'but developers had an uninformed tick-box approach to the guidelines. So we established an accountability framework.'
New standards for website access -- 'Although not legally binding, the guidance could well be used in a court case in which someone is seeking to force an organisation to improve the accessibility of its website.'
Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea -- 'From our correspondence with SOCITM it became clear very quickly that SOCITM don't know much about how SiteMorse tests either - as evidenced above there has been blind acceptance of the explanations given by the company and no independent expert view sou
Interview with Derek Featherstone -- 'My biggest challenge is to help make Web 2.0 applications more accessible.'
Gez: DOM and Screenreaders -- Providing Client-side form validation using DOM, and still be accessible.
out-law: Target sued over web accessibility -- The California Disabled Persons Act requires any 'public place' to be accessible – and the Act's list of relevant places ends with the words 'and other places to which the public are invited.' He argues that Target.com is such a place.
Blind patrons sue Target for site inaccessibility -- 'The NFB wrote to Target in May, asking it to make the site more accessible, according to the plaintiffs. Negotiations broke down in January, which led to the filing of the lawsuit, the organization said.'
Taking Aim at Target(.com) -- Derek Featherstone points out that Target.com has had at least ten months to correct the accessibility issues raised. And they seem to have done nothing. And he notes an interesting mouse-barrier posed by image submit buttons.
Accessify: Easy Target -- The Target chain of superstores is ending up in court over having an inaccessible website. Ian reckons this could be a notable quotable.
Joe Clark: ATAG assessment of WordPress -- ATAG makes a lot more sense when someone is measuring a known application against it.
Seven Accessibility Mistakes (Part 2) -- CAPTCHA - 'sharing problems with the visitor'
Seven Accessibility Mistakes (Part 1) -- Includes 'believing in products without putting them to the test first'
Disability Rights Chairman left stranded at London Rail Station -- 'Though Mr Massie was unhappy at the attitude of the staff, he blames Network Rail management for understaffing the station and using untrained security staff to assist disabled people. Usually he receives a good service from Network Rail staff at Euston.
out-law: Does your website overstate its accessibility? -- 'Of the 500 sites, 40 (8%) had an accessibility statement or logo. However, when 20 of these sites were inspected further, only six were found to be accurately stating their accessibility.'
@media 2006 -- Two tracks, interesting sessions, excellent list of speakers. (Wot, not Joe Clark??) Lots of Dom Scripting speakers. Looks to be another top-notch event.
ODF subpar for the disabled? Not so fast says Google researcher -- TV Raman weighs in on the Massachussets ODF accessibility debate. ODF leverages existing web accessibility features - e.g. XForms which makes it less of a barrier than the Microsoft Office formats.
All you need for learning, building, validating and publishing accessible web sites -- Rich collection of links about web accessibility
Expanding on Usability -- An interview with Kim Krause Berg, chock-a-block with resources and pointers about usability
Legal advice from automated testing tools? -- If automated tools are going to insult users by making legal threats, at the very least get the facts right first. Redux finds SilkTide fear mongering amusing.
Zoom layouts -- A repository of links and resources about Zoom Layouts, popularised by Joe Clark
Text-only pages are possibly not so bad -- Joe hits the bulls eye: 'Of course text-only pages will be preferable to an inaccessible page; the text-only version is less inaccessible.'
Accessible PDF: A Strategic Review -- Interesting to see a juxtaposition between this April 2004 piece and Joe Clark's thorough article on the same subject at AlistApart.
Implementing a holistic approach to e-learning accessibility -- 'The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)'s Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has developed guidelines that help to ensure that Web resources can be accessed by people with disabilities. However, this paper argues that there is a need for a more sophisticated
Shaw Trust Prologue -- Dan Champion talks about the work done before the Shaw Trust audit took place. An interesting look at accessibility inside local government.
Clacksweb Accessible to All -- Clackmannanshire is the first local authority to receive the Shaw Trust accessibility accreditation. Shaw Trust is a pan-disability organisation, testing with a range of different disabilities.
An Open Letter to Disney Store UK -- Disney UK botches up their website design, degenerating from valid and accessible site back to an old-skool development practices of a decade ago.
UK Resources for Web Accessibility and the Law -- Joe Clark: 'Martin Sloan’s site with *exhaustive* listings of Web-accessibility legislation' (via Joe Clark's del.icio.us feed)
out-law: Travel sites fail to deliver on web accessibility -- 'There is a commercial incentive to open travel websites to all internet users. According to Government figures, UK residents made over 61 million trips abroad in 2003, spending over 28 billion pounds. And in the first quarter of 2005, 58% of adults in th
Shaw Trust User Testing -- Dan Champion gives us an insight to the pan-disability accessibility test as carried out by the Shaw Trust.
Lists and Screen Readers -- Mel does some screen reader user testing of ordered lists and reaches the conclusion: 'Use ordered lists by all means but please stay away from roman numerals. No matter how attractive they may appear within a graphical browser, they will almost certainly
Form Help without Popups -- Gez introduces a method of presenting form help information inside of a form. Using footnotes as a solid foundation and using unobtrusive JavaScript to reposition the field help immediately after the text field.
Four different ways to test Web accessibility -- Joe Clark summarises a comparative study in accessibility testing: Expert web developers with screen readers caught the highest number of accessibility errors.
I'm terribly sorry, but that's not my problem -- Joe Clark lists the screenreader problems a web developer shouldn't have to worry about. These are most certainly problems screen reader manufacturers should be addressing.
Ten questions for Patrick Lauke -- Redux runs the gauntlet, talking about his zen garden entries and his role within the WaSP Accessibility Task Force.
Line length and readability -- Roger Johansson rounds-up the new information about line lengths.
Line lengths when reading from a screen -- Joe Clark talks about a Dyson report that suggests long line-lengths may not be as bad as we thought.
RNID wins Site of the Month, September 2005! -- RNID shows the rest of the UK how to make an accessible site, and wins a GAWDS Site of the Month for its efforts. Great work!
Accessibility, why can't we all just get along -- James Craig's transcript and audio (mp3) of this SXSW 2005 session
Joe Clark: Staying positive about tabindex -- Mozilla and IBM promoting invalid HTML for accessibility. Joe questions the need for a negative tab index.
Facts and Opinions About PDF Accessibility -- Joe Clark explodes a number of myths and misconceptions about the accessibility of PDFs. Yes, PDFs can be made accessible, in the same way HTML can be made accessible.
BBC: Phone sites fail disabled surfers -- Robin Christopherson, AbilityNet's web consultancy manager and author of the report, was 'delighted' with the four-star results of two telecommunication companies, OneTel and Kingston Communications.
Accessibility and the value of user testing -- An objective evaluation of user testing, expert testing and automated testing. A combined approach is most practical and efficient.
out-law: Improving usability for screen reader users -- The basics of clear and descriptive text
Accessibility: It's just about customers -- A round-table discussion about accessibility. Tackling perceptions. 'At O2 we won't engage with an agency if they won't respond to our interpretation of the accessibility guidelines.'
Communicating error messages accessibly -- Sensible and logical method of presenting validation errors to a visitor.
SiteMorse Dropped from Public Sector Forums -- PSF receive overwhelmingly positive support for dropping 'misleading' SiteMorse league tables.
Debenhams faces disability discrimination claim -- Although not a web accessiiblity challenge, it is a legal test of part 3 of the DDA, the part that applies to accessible websites. via: Ian Lloyd
Evaluating web sites for accessibility with Firefox -- An indepth article by redux about accessibility testing using Firefox's Web Developer toolbar. Excellent work!
Automated Accessibility Testing -- 'Software is stupid. It is as thick as two short planks. If you encourage it to be too sensitive, it will flag up so many false positives that your testing workload might actually be increased'
Influence of valid code on screen readers -- 'The developer who handles the HTML code states that valid HTML is very important for screen readers as working around it is one of our greatest hassles.'
Screen-reader usability study -- 'It's open to question why a leading screen reader, retailing for up to $1,732, would understand basic HTML and CSS only in a fifth full version release. Even so, Participant B's failure can be chalked up to inadequate HTML and CSS support in his adaptive
Semantics, Standards, Accessibility - the three legs of the Stool of Truth -- Bruce Lawson, of the ATF, has a good overview of the need for Semantics, Structure and accessibility. Please note, XHTML has been deprecated in favour of Sinclair ZX81 Basic - thanks redux!
Accessible Data Tables -- 'At this stage, it appears that id and headers are the most effective way to make complex data tables accessible. Although id and headers are slightly more difficult to code than scope, the apparent poor screen reader support for scope means that this is
Web accessibility for screen magnifier users -- Avoid image text, use structure, headings, good link text
How to save the world, part 1 -- Matt May on the ATF: 'In order to cause a fundamental shift in the minds of content producers, we need to do something to take their minds off of running automated tools, and get them to focus on the real issues involved.'
Screen Readers and CSS Layout -- 'Today's screen readers speak the content in the order it is written in the HTML. Knowing this, you can give documents the structure you want.'
Eric Meyer: Don't Read; Speak! -- Screen readers work around the problem of tables layout by using doctype switching
Julie Howell: PAS update -- Guidance for website commissioners, written by a Steering Committe of eight people.
ATF: Not 'Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms' -- Joe Clark on the problems the WaSP Accessibility Task force should tackle.
The day the movies died -- Joe Clark's ongoing troubles with Famous Players ends in victory, but at a heavy cost.
The Web Standards Project announces the WaSP Accessibility Task Force -- Involving feather, redux, Bruce Lawson, Gez, Ian Lloyd, Matt May, and Marlarkey
Validity and Accessibility -- Gez summarises the ongoing WCAG 2 Working Group argument over valid markup.
A principled argument -- Matt May on his understanding of why valid markup should not be a Priority 1.
Accessibility and the Law -- Andy Budd: DDA is necessary to overcome greed and social ignorace
The role of government in web accessibility -- Andy Clarke on the role of government: Positive action it can take - incentives for training
Gez: Zoom for Low Vision -- Gez completes his homework assignment - low vision stylesheet
Semantics -- Joe Clark's eternal-looking battle to get WCAG2 Working Group to see sense.
GAWDS participate in British Standards Steering Group to improve web access -- This is the DRC and BSI initiative to create guidelines for web site owners about making their websites accessible. Good luck Mel!
Colours and Contrast -- Tommy Olsson's Colour Contrast Analyser - uses the same calculation as Juicy Studio's
Ten questions for Joe Clark -- The common sense approach to accessibility. And not afraid to call on 'established experts'
BSI wants your views on web site accessibility -- 'we [presumably the RNIB] would be happy to receive your thoughts'
How much do you really care about accessibility? -- 'Accessibility is a serious issue. Don't have your resume claim you mastered it only because you know how to separate style from content.'
How to avoid screen reader 'noise pollution' -- Basic accessibility guidance for alternative text, along with a good spice of common sense
PDFs don't have to be an Internet blight -- 5 minimum requirements for PDF authoring
out-law: new guidance from BSI and DRC -- 'Beesley reckons the final document will run to about 30 pages. It may or may not recommend a particular level of accessibility on the WCAG scale – which is something the DRC has always resisted to date.'
Skip Links -- Gez overviews techniques and approaches to skip links.
out-law: Labour wins on web accessibility -- 'Labour achieved a four-star rating – the first time that any site featured in AbilityNet's on-going survey series has gained such a high score.'
GAWDS announce an exclusive partnership with Shaw Trust -- Technical people partnering (and working) with disability experts - its a good thing for accessibility.
Accessible Forms - tabular form data -- Jim Thatcher on the use of title attributes to make tabular forms more accessible
FAQ: How JAWS treats markup and CSS -- JAWS reads out hidden text explicitly associated with an input field.
Net surfing for those unable to see -- '[Amazon.com] 'Imagemaplinkrefequals!' it barked. And, 'blankblankblank!''
MPs under fire over web access -- 'major online survey discovered only 45% of the politicians’ personal websites offered basic levels of accessibility for all users.'
Matt May's SXSW 2005 coverage -- Accessibility - how to use the guidelines, and Ian Lloyd's session
Joe Clark's coverage of SXSW 2005 -- Excellent write-ups of the sessions. Accessibility and accessible Flash
IBM to Demonstrate Portfolio of Accessibility Technologies -- Home Page Reader, aDesigner, Easy Web Browsing, Web Adapt 2 Me, Beyond Compliance
Accessible forms -- labels and tables layout for more accessible forms
A webmasters guide to accessibility -- clean easy-to-understand guide to WAI, along with modern web development techniques
Disabled users search web for traps -- Testing UK financial websites
Website Accessibility - UK and US Developments -- 'Following recent regulatory investigations into the accessibility of individual operators' websites in both the UK and the US, this alert provides an overview of developments in the laws affecting website accessibility in those jurisdictions.'
UK banking accessibility review -- Interesting accessibility analysis of the UK Financial sector. Better quality of analysis than SiteMorse.
Flash Accessibility -- Bob Regan: 'Patrick [Lauke] points out that we should use the accessibility features of Flash and other technologies but at the same time provide alternatives to help support those with older browsers, plugins and assistive technologies. I could not agree
Accessibility charlatans -- Sweden's continuing problem with snake-oil salesmen. I thought Funka Nu was bad enough.
Accessibility From The Ground Up -- 'Use no words at all to describe spacers. It sounds like a funny request, until you’ve heard a dozen sites repeating 'this image is for visual layout only' a hundred or so times.'
Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Web Sites: Observing Users Who Work With Screen Readers -- A guide to the typical problems screenreaders face (via Mike Davidson)
UK Bloggers: Write to your MP -- 'For this to become a reality the Government must be encouraged to back initiatives that alert businesses, large and small, to the vital importance of accessible web design.'
@media 2005 -- London web standards and accessibility conference - 9th and 10th June. Seriously excellent list of speakers and sessions
Big, Stark & Chunky -- Alternative css styles that cater for low vision people. Backed up by usability tests
Time to call bullshit on Six Apart -- Blogging tools called on their lack of accessibility as Authoring Tools
Podcasting's transcription dilemma -- 'It's true that commuters and joggers don't need or want podcast transcripts, but it's disingenuous to suggest that nobody does.'
Guerilla Accessibility Reviews -- Passionate and knowledgeable Canadian accessibility expert available for hire
Chapters hides itself from the validator -- Chapters bookstore hiding from W3C validators which will report 1500+ validation errors.
Worst redesign of the year -- 'Corporate Web professionals labour under the delusion that they can stay insulated from trends in Web development.' So true.
A few tips for using Lynx -- Configuring and setting up Lynx for accessibility testing
UK Government accesskeys standard -- scroll down to 2.4.4 for the list
The secret benefit of accessibility Part 2: A higher search engine ranking -- 'The more accessible it is to search engines, the more accurately they can predict what the site is about'
The secret benefit of accessibility Part 1: Increased usability -- 'can increase the sales/conversion rate of a website by 100 per cent and traffic by 150 per cent'
Accessible & usable forms: Guidelines, examples and JavaScript tricks. -- Comprehensive resource about HTML forms
Google is a deaf user -- Podcasting creates accessibility barriers
PDF and Accessibility -- Is PDF accessibility still an issue? The short answer is YES
WaiZilla -- Mozilla extension for WAI testing - by Tim Roberts
Root causes -- 'The fixed format - every page looks the same everywhere - mentality is one of the reasons the Web has become so inaccessible'
Don't fake your markup: Accessibility issues for CSS -- structureless markup is just a blob of text
Accessibility: it's not just a good idea, it's the law -- Mark Pilgrim: '[section] 508 regulations have been in effect and enforceable since June 21, 2001'
Accessibility tools -- echoes 'It is important to note that no set of automated tools alone can ensure that a web page is fully compliant'
Nothing but dots -- red/green colourblindness
CSS does not guarantee accessibility -- Mark Pilgrim: 'good document structure is only the first step towards true accessibility'
CSS and Universal Design -- Its the separation of style and content that allows a page to be more accessible
Football clubs fail on web accessibility -- new AbilityNet state of the e-nation. all premier league teams in the accessibility relegation zone
Proper use of the label tag -- the for attribute, accessibility and usability bonuses
out-law: Disabled access to buildings: law in force today -- 'businesses on 80% of Britain's biggest high streets are ill-prepared'
BBC: Mobiles get magnifier software -- Called Mobile Magnifier, the software is designed to be used on Series 60 handsets running the Symbian operating system.
Separate text-only version? No thanks! -- 'so according to the W3C, a separate accessible site is OK, but they do use some pretty strong language to suggest that this should be avoided wherever possible.'
New rights for disabled people -- 'Small businesses have to make reasonable adjustments and the law recognises that it is not reasonable for a business with a turnover of £50,000 to fit a £20,000 lift.'
FTSE 100 firms ignoring disabled web access -- 'And in the last three years only 14 per cent of FTSE 100 companies have taken steps to ensure website accessibility for users with disabilities, the study found.'
ZDNet: New site technology for visually impaired surfers -- A story about a Queensland web design agency who've recently discovered CSS. Bizarre!
ADA Web appeal knocked back again -- 'And why should it take a lawsuit for companies like Southwest to understand the inherent usefulness of providing Web accessibility?'
ADA doesn't extend to the Internet -- Appeals court have upheld the SouthWest Airlines misruling. A step backwards for equality.
Getting Designers to do Flash accessibility -- Bob Regan: 'I tell them that if they want the contract with me, they MUST use the screen reader for 30 minutes a day and it can not be on this project. It has to be on web content or email.'
Silicon: Odeon accused of breaching website disability laws -- Odeon: 'Odeon takes its obligations under the DDA very seriously, and has been working with its IT developers and DDA consultants regarding implementation of compliance and good practice standards to meet the DDA as it comes into force.' - clueless!
Odeon reels out accessibility excuses -- The Usability Company described the Odeon site as 'one of the worst sites for accessibility I have ever seen by a British company'
Odious Cinemas get it (sort of) -- 'that looks like a lawyer’s idea of buying time just in case any of their pissed-off ex-customers decide that it would be fun to make an example of them by bringing a DDA case' - talking about Odeon's 'Accessibility statment'
Web publishers seek more clarity in accessibility rules -- 'We want clarification on what the DRC thinks is reasonable.'
Times: Cinema chain forces end of website that helped disabled -- 'Mr Somerville claims, that Odeon’s official website is so difficult to use that it breaches the Disability Discrimination Act. Odeon denies this.'
Visual v Structural -- 'it is much easier to comply with the requirements for accessibility if you start with the structure and then apply the design to that'
Why we are so zealous -- 'Accessibility is about making as many potential users as possible able to use your site'
Accessibility for all : Linux resources -- Linux, Gnome and KDE accessibility resources
Disabled people unable to act as consultants to Accessible Web Designers -- Council support discourages employment for disabled
ZDNet: Take a longer look at accessibility -- 'Accessibility is not about political correctness, but it is about economics. Maybe when we're all older we'll finally get it'
Computing tips for seniors -- 'Play Solitaire, send email'
Disabilities act improved access to work, school, social events -- Sears did an interesting study where they looked at 436 accommodations they created in all their stores. They discovered that 69 percent of them cost nothing to do, 28 percent cost less than $1,000 and the other 3 percent cost more than $1,000.
FOP Output Options -- Note that FOP does not currently support 'tagged pdf'
Adobe Acrobat Accessibility Techniques -- If you're serious about making PDF files accessible, you'll need to do two things:
outlaw: Travel sites settle New York accessibility investigation -- 'Spitzer's view is consistent with a Congressional hearing of 2000'
Open-source developers focus on accessibility -- 'He also demonstrated KDE working with the text-to-speech screen reader Gnopernicus'
Web accessibility litigation: it's not what we want -- Matt: Priceline's culture of haggling served them well. They avoid having to conform to three Priority 1 checkpoints, along with some twenty-one Priority 2 checkpoints.
Travel sites to be more accessible to blind -- ADA applies to websites. A precedent is set.
Spitzer agreement to make web sites accessible to the blind and visually impaired -- Priceline and Ramada settle and agree to make website accessible.
Web Standards: User Interface Makeovers -- Accessible remakes of Nokia and Vodaphone by Trevor Morris
The future of Accesskeys -- XHTML 2.0 abandons accesskey for a much more powerful and flexible access attribute
Screen Break -- 'The sad thing is that the Odeon site remains just as unusable.'
Right of reply? -- 'Odeon has sold a million tickets through his site [Somerville's Accessible version], which he says now accounts for 5 per cent of its cinema admissions.'
Tell the disabled they can shove it -- ' to build a site that will wow the likes of the Odeon as a client (but not their customers, up to a third of whom may have preferred the Accessible Odeon site the Odeon was so keen to shut down)'
Warning on web site -- More clueless accessibility consultants and 'October deadlines' for websites.
Skip Navigation Links -- Jim Thatcher's study on the methods of using skip navigation links
Benefits of an accessible website - Part 1: Increase in reach -- stats about UK disabilities
Benefits Of Making Your Website Accessible To Disabled Users – Part 2: The Business Case -- Accessible websites will make you money and save you money.
IT Directors Accessibility channel -- Watching an online publication as it becomes aware of accessibility and starts to accessify its own sites.
New web accessibility technologies -- IBM's Web Adaption Technology and accessible PDFs
Web Accessibility: 500 Million and Growing -- 2001: it's hard to believe that more than 500 million people make up what has always been viewed by mainstream industry as a small niche market
Landmark judgments for disabled workers -- out-law: decision by the Court of Appeal means that any employer refusing to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees is risking thousands of claims for constructive dismissal
Lateral's client list -- The company behind the Odeon's 'design'. Where's my bargepole?
Changing the Face of Web Surfing -- Odeon spokeswoman Kim Greenston said the official site gets over 800,000 monthly visitors
Assessing the accessibility of fifty United States government Web pages: Using Bobby to check on Uncle Sam by Jim Ellison -- Bobby check, accessibility problems just in the report. Wade through later.
The Odeon Web Site -- The RNIB have also followed up to Odeon about their inaccessible website
Some marketing departments prefer inaccessibility to uncontrolled experience -- Odeon's Marketing Director Luke Vetere would prefer a significant percentage of his potential customer base seeing nothing at all rather than an accessible version of his Web site that they do not control.
Message to Odeon - fire your marketing director -- the bulk of businesses are in the grips of control freaks populating their PR and marketing departments
Bugzilla report for the Odeon website -- 'The ODEON website is due for a face-lift at the beginning of the new year' - that would be beginning of 2003!
Building a web fit for all -- Last October the Copyright (Visually Impaired Persons) Act 2002 came into force. It lets people with a visual impairment make their own accessible versions of printed copyright material, and allows schools and not-for-profit bodies to make multiple copies
Ten places to find out more about Accessibility -- Known, recognisable and trustable resources
Web accessibility and the law in the UK: Is your website legal? -- Quoting relevant parts of the UK Disability Discrimination Act
Desperately seeking clue -- if Odeon has received a significant number of complaints then a significant number of people have chosen an accessible, x-browser site over the mess of nested tables, invalid markup, alt-less images and only-works-in-IE/Win JavaScript that is the official
Odeon rolls credits on copycat website -- Odeon Cinema initially welcomed the site - as did many disabled people who could access the site for the first time
Inaccessible Odeon Website -- Odeon themselves are getting upset with the fact that '...a number of' [how many is a number?] potential customers are getting upset with THEM for not having a usable website!
Spend money on accessibility, not lawyers -- But the story about loss of ticket revenue is disingenuous at best.
Odeon Cinemas: The most useless, clueless bastards on the face of the earth. -- Odeon seemed happy. Odeon told national newspapers that they were happy.
Fanatical about Film, Fatuous About Websites -- I'm also somewhat surprised that you have not seen fit to improve your own site during the time that Mr Somerville's has been active, given the publicity it has attracted and the presumption that your resources greatly outweigh his.
Today's Dumb Lawsuit -- Odeon don't seem to be in a hurry to redesign a site that is broken in about five different ways, and they've crushed somebody who was helping them get business. Bravo!
Times you wish you could have been wrong #143 -- isn't it just good business sense, and downright grown-up to put aside the 'not-invented-heres' and the legal doubletalk, and admit when someone has done you a whacking big favour?
My polite letter to the Odeon's marketing director -- drew attention to the deficiencies in your web service and the solution offered by Mr Somerville as worst and best practices on the web in terms of e-commerce and design
Accessible Odeon -- I contacted you well over a year ago about this accessibility problem and was told you were working on a solution. Unfortunately this solution has yet to be realised.
Odeon to Accessible Odeon: Eat My Shorts -- it seems that there are many corporations who have yet to jump on the Cluetrain
Odeon uses lawyers to fight accessibility -- Maybe Odeon will get round to providing a site that's actually usable
Accessibility hacker facing lawsuit for improving Odeon's site -- Matthew Somerville is a public-spirited UK geek who specialises in hacking badly designed websites into accessible websites
Inaccessible Odeon & Accessibility Proxies -- when the organisation is not only inaccessible, but actively denies accessibility even when aware of the issues, action needs to be taken
Inaccessible Odeon -- Odeon’s cinemas are too full and they’re looking for ways to cut down on attendance levels
Accessible Od*on -- Odeon threaten legal action against accessible version of their website!
Access Versions -- Comparing the two [Apartheid and access versions of websites] is vastly over-aggressive and inflammatory
Flash Accessibility Whitepaper -- Bob Regan updates based on recent work
Trimming Form Fields -- Simplifying forms by hiding optional fields. Interesting, and well implemented
BBC Online: You're in trouble -- Joe Clark on BBC rationalisation of sites - no mention of accessibility considerations.
Accessibility implications of digital rights management -- Joe Clark: accessibility features are derivative works
BrailleNote PK -- Braille PDA! (via Boing Boing)
WCAG 2.0 Scripting group -- Accessible Javascript and best practices. via WebStandards.org
Zeldman on drop down menus -- When I see a drop-down menu, I know that a committee sat around a table, unwilling to think through the organization of the site's material into a user-focused structure
Ensuring your Web pages are accessible to all -- Short primer on HTML accessibility features
Supermarket sites criticised over accessibility -- Tesco gradually migrating website toward their accessible one
Simon Willison: Separate but equal? -- separate web applications? Matt May responds
out-law: Accessibility of top UK company web sites improving -- 37% meet level A compliance
Matt May: On "separate but equal" design -- The very point of segregation is to ensure the quality of the services provided to one group, at the expense of the other.
10 accessibility blunders of the big players -- structure, alts, link text, invalid markup...
5 questions to ask your web development team -- website owner advice. (via panopticdesign)
Manchester United: top of the web accessibility league? -- The accessibility failure of a recognised disability-friendly site
CNN: Should Web-only businesses be required to be disabled-accessible? -- November 2002: analysing the flawed SoutWest ruling
Accessible HTML/XHTML Forms -- Excellent series of articles on accessible forms. Authored by Ian Lloyd
Matt May: JavaScript and accessibility -- Scripting for WCAG V2.0
W3C: Making Visualizations of Complex Information Accessible -- a teleconference. From the subject it looks to cover cognitive disabilities
CSUN conference on technology and persons with disabilities -- Peter Korn on accessibility (via Tim Bray)
Gez: Chunking Information -- accessifying for learning disabilities
A few items on Web accessibility -- Recent accessibility bookmarks from Joe Clark
Guild for Accessible Web Designers launches -- accessibility as the cornerstone and guiding principle of their profession
The sad state of accessibility on municipal websites -- 91% of Californian municipal websites fail section 508
Matt May: Web Accessibility: A 'Broader' View -- If you were hoping IBM fixed it for you, its really you who needs to take a 'broader view.'
E-gov Web sites fail accessibility test -- I sense a trend
Why practice accessibility? -- A simplified explanation for web designers.
I care about accessibility -- Veen sound bite worse than the bark
Joe Clark: WAI self-examination -- progress: usability study commissioned on WAI website
Understanding experiences of users with disabilities -- useful links to resources
Google can enforce Web Standards -- Bonus points to accessible websites.
ALA: What is web accessibility? -- Breaking accessibility requirements into disability groups
User Responsibility for Web Accessibility -- accessibility is about removing barriers vistiors can't remove themselves, not a replacement for laziness and ignorance
Gez: Accessible Search Engine Optimisation Techniques -- Why search engines like accessible content
Notes on some tools for checking and improving Web page accessibility (Bobby and A-Prompt) -- automated checking cannot spot all accessibility problems
Designing websites for people with learning disabilities -- Guidelines for accessibility towards an often overlooked disability group
Voice: The DRC blew it -- egg yolked and attacked the very guidelines necessary, no naming and shaming
Gez: Seven Design Avenue -- abusing accessibility to spam search engines
Ethical Media: Disability organisations fail to meet challenge on accessibility -- Disability organisations: part of the problem, or part of the solution?
FCW: Accessible doesn't mean usable -- Section 508 stops short of usable websites.
CNet: Sites for the disabled flunk access tests -- Ethical Media report: Do as I say, not as I do.
Web usability checking for blind and vision impaired -- A checklist used by Australian Royal Blind Society consultancy
Silicon: Websites for the disabled fail accessibility test -- UK websites for disabled people are mainly inaccessible!
RNIB speaks out following DRC Report -- strongly endorses establishment of a code of practice for accesible site development
BBC: Macs get their voices back -- Speech technology part of the operating system - not as an expensive extra
Gmail's not turning a blind eye. -- Google are taking Mark Pilgrim's accessibility criticism aboard. Their approach is MVC.
GMail accessibility -- Mark highlights some serious accessibility and unweblike qualities of Google web email
Web Accessibility and UK Law: Telling it like it is -- debunking myths of the DDA. The deadline for web accessibility has long passed.
Search engine optimisation and accessibility -- Accessibility as an SEO tool. Interesting paper.
Sitepoint: How to sell accessibility -- there's benefits to be had, you know.
Govt forces web rules -- New Zealand government sets deadline of 1 Jan 2006 for accessibility compliance for government sites.
NCD: Application of the ADA to the Internet and the Worldwide Web -- Conclusion - ADA does apply to websites.
AIIM meeting sets PDF/Access standard in motion -- About bridging the gap between PDFs and assistive technologies
Top UK web sites ignore accessibility for disabled people uncovers SciVisum study -- More damning reports about UK ignorance
Techniques for Accessible HTML Tables -- Mammoth guide to constructing tables accessibly
Gez: Accessible PDF Documents -- Jim Byrne creates an ebook on making accessible PDF documents.
Web User Education Guidelines -- Educating users about their browsers makes the web more accessible
Roadblocks To Web Accessibility -- The five sins of web designers
ZDNet: Most UK Web sites break accessibility laws -- The art of stating the obvious is indeed alive and well
diveintomark: Spoken Interface -- Apple Macs finally getting a decent screen reader (we hope)
waxpraxis: Accessibility rant -- The delusion of accessible Flash exposed
Jeffery Veen: I don't care about accessibility. -- Create for the web solves many accessibility problems
CookieCrook: User responsibility for web accessibility -- Users must meet us halfway
Digital Web: Optimizing your chances with accessibility -- SEO benefits of accessibility
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