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Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility with the Firefox Web Developer Toolbar
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/articles/evaluatingwithfirefox
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: Patrick H. Lauke outlines how Mozilla Firefox can be used in conjunction with the Web Developer Toolbar to carry out a preliminary accessibility review. This article comes as a most welcome sequel to Patrick's article in Issue 42.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:30:14 GMT.
Text/Typographical Layout
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/textlayout/
From WebAIM - Web Accessibility in Mind: This excerpt from the WebAIM Web Accessibility Suite, offers suggestions and advice on making text alignment, margins, column width and text decorations accessible for the web.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:29:30 GMT.
Key Articles In Draft Disability Treaty Approved At UN Meeting
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=15392&Cr=disabilit&
Marking another step forward for persons with disabilities, the United Nations panel negotiating an international treaty codifying their rights has wrapped up its sixth session having agreed on draft articles on such issues as education and children's disabilities, as well as accessibility and personal mobility. The rights to health and rehabilitation, the right to work, social security and adequate standards of living, as well as participation in political, public and cultural life and in recreation, leisure and sport, were among the other articles negotiated during the current session of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral Convention to Promote and Protect the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities, which has been meeting at UN Headquarters in New York since 1 August.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:28:30 GMT.
OMB Reminds Agencies To Comply With Section 508
http://www.gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/36687-1.html
The General Services Administration has developed an electronic guide to help agencies comply with Section 508 requirements to make electronic data accessible to federal employees and members of the public with disabilities. The Office of Management and Budget highlighted GSA's Buy Accessible Wizard in a memo to CIOs and chief acquisition officers that reiterates the importance of complying with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and directing agencies to technical assistance. Agencies must follow the Federal Acquisition Regulation for Section 508, including adhering to standards for accessibility by persons with disabilities when purchasing electronic and IT products and services.
Contributed on Fri, 16 Sep 2005 22:26:27 GMT.
Flash and 508 Compliance
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=11632
For the uninitiated, Section 508 compliance is the government requirement that all Federal agencies' electronic and information technologies be accessible to people with disabilities. In 1998, Congress amended the REhabilitation Act to include these requirements. The guidelines themselves are comprised of a fairly comprehensive list of standards, ranging from providing control of software in a textual format to ensuring webpages's scripting languages can be read by assistive technologies. Macromedia's Flash MX 2004 currently provides limited compliance for Section 508. The hurdles of creating a version of Flash that functions properly with screenreading technologies are monumental. The visual nature of Flash, as well as the "timeline" features of the application, are virtually impossible to recreate textually. And yet, Macromedia has made significant efforts to meet these requirements.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:58:12 GMT.
Accessibility Fora
http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=12870
Over the last few weeks I have been following accessifyforum.com, a set of fora discussing accessibility issues. The contributors are a committed group of practitioners involved in ensuring websites and other IT solutions are accessible. It is an extremely useful place to go to get an informed set of opinions on accessibility issues. I have been reading and researching two related issues through the forum. Firstly, how to commission accessible web sites and, secondly, how to use automated testing tools.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:57:16 GMT.
Site Offers Tips for Disabled
http://www.rednova.com/news/technology/206979/site_offers_tips_for_disabled/
The state Department of Transportation has a new Web site to assist people with disabilities for emergency preparedness. The site contains information to help ensure safe and secure transportation for persons with disabilities in the event of a disaster or emergency. It also includes advice on emergency preparedness, transportation accessibility and evacuation methods for certain modes of transportation, such as rail and transit systems.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:56:22 GMT.
IE7 Will Not Support W3 Standards
http://www.net4now.com/isp_news/news_article.asp?News_ID=3163
Microsoft's blog admission that IE7 will not support standards at the heart of the flexible, accessible web is shameful, according to web testers SciVisum. "Microsoft's admission that IE7 will not support leading and well established standards such as CSS is shameful and undermines accessibility efforts. While accessibility may well not be a mission critical element like security, this is a moral issue - saying it's not a priority sets a callous example, and thousands of businesses will follow suit. Microsoft needs to lead by example and be at the cutting edge.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:55:37 GMT.
Speaking form labels - Summary
http://www.access-matters.com/2005/09/10/speaking-form-labels-summary/
From Access Matters: Some time ago, Joe Clark suggested "This, however, is a topic that should also be tested and written about." This series has its roots in WCAG 2.0 Guideline 4.2, Success Criteria #4, which states: "The label of each user interface control that accepts input from the user can be programmatically determined and is explicitly associated with the control. [I]" Note that "[I]" (invisible) indicates that a criterion does not specify how content should be presented. Apparently, that gave the green light to some WCAG contributors to find a way to hide labels whether it makes sense to do so or not. This led to the first two quizzes in this series.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:54:26 GMT.
Quiz 5.2.9a: Screen Reader Test #9a
http://www.access-matters.com/2005/09/13/quiz-529a-screen-reader-test-9a/
From Access Matters: A colleague from the CSS-Discuss mail list, Zoe Gillenwater suggested a variant of "offleft." This one uses a large negative left margin. Let's try it. Please try SR Test 9a on every screen reader and browser you have.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:53:21 GMT.
Web Standards Are Your Responsibility
http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/archives05/2005/09/web-standards-are-your-respon...
Last week my post Standards Geeks Hard To Come By raised some good discussion. One of the threads I found particularly interesting is the age old tale of how many developers, for a host of reasons, cannot use Web standards in their day job. At the risk of pissing some people off, I'm going to call bullshit on this one. This goes out to professional Web designers and developers everywhere: Web standards are your responsibility, even though you might not know it. I know, probably better than many, how much of a challenge Web standards can be to implement on a day-to-day basis. I've expressed my angst towards standards and validation in particular many, many times, but when all is said and done the only way I've been able to use standards on my paying projects is because I pushed long and hard for them and probably spent many an extra hour of my own time making sure Web standards were a part of my projects.
Contributed on Thu, 15 Sep 2005 22:52:32 GMT.
Why eBay needs Standards-Oriented Design: An Interview with Eric A. Meyer
http://www.uie.com/events/uiconf/articles/ebay_needs_standards/
Eric A. Meyer is a recognized expert in the area of Web Design and Cascading Style Sheets. He has been working with the Web since late 1993. Eric coordinated the authoring and creation of the W3C's CSS Test Suite and has recently been pushing the limits of CSS-based design. He is author of several books including, Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide 2nd Edition (O'Reilly & Associates) and More Eric Meyer on CSS. Recently, New City Media's David Poteet got a chance to chat with Eric about his work. A number of major corporations are starting to recognize the importance of standards-based design. It not only makes web-browsing faster and easier, it also improves the accessibility of their sites.
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:33:00 GMT.
10 Reasons Clients Don't Care About Accessibility
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/ten_reasons_clients_dont_care_about_accessib...
Working as an accessibility consultant in an IT company is a very frustrating job right now. Highly publicized lawsuits and deep-rooted accessibility myths leave us with a lot to explain when the final product does not really help visitors. Our clients simply don't care about accessibility as much as we'd like them to, and there are several reasons for that. How do we get people to care? The article finishes with some suggestions on how to advocate for accessibility.
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:32:12 GMT.
Methods For Measuring Text Readability
http://standards-schmandards.com/index.php?2005/09/09/24-measuring-text-readability
From the Standards Schmandards Blog: In this article we will have a look at how you can test your content to see give a brief overview of formulas for measuring readability as well as an online tool to measure readability for your texts. Content is commonly overlooked when working with a web site to increase accessibility. Even if your web site follows all W3C recommendations it will still be inaccessible if your content is difficult to comprehend. As previously mentioned here and elsewhere you can do a lot to increase accessibility by working with your content. The technical aspects of accessibility is often more easy than the content aspects. If you are reading this you probably already know how to create an accessible web site by using the W3C recommendations. You also know how to use the W3C validator to test your templates before you put them onto your live site. Content, on the other hand, varies over time and is often created by a large number of people, each with their own personal style of writing. It is also more difficult to test using an automated tool.
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:30:50 GMT.
Universality and Accessibility
http://juicystudio.com/article/universality-accessibility.php
From Juicy Studio: The general goal of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to make the Web available to everyone, regardless of the device, platform, network, culture, geographic location, or physical or mental ability of those using it. Collectively, this is known as universality. To ensure these goals are met, the W3C has many initiatives, such as the Internationalisation (I18n) Activity, the Device Independence group, and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:29:22 GMT.
Program To Help College Students Continue Studies
http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=18929
When the SARS epidemic ravaged Hong Kong a few years ago, it prompted worries at the University of Illinois and other colleges. How would a school continue to teach thousands of students if its campus had to be shut down or quarantined because of an outbreak? Online education seemed the perfect answer, and the UI proposed a national conference to explore how campuses could respond to a range of disasters, from health scares to terrorism. Now they're getting a chance to put their theories into action - not in a flu epidemic but after a hurricane and levee break. More than 180 colleges and universities across the country, with help from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, are setting up a free online program this semester for students from schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina. The Sloan Consortium will offer an eight-week accelerated online semester program for students from community colleges to graduate schools in the Gulf Coast region. Classes will start in early October. The goal is to register 10,000 students. An estimated 100,000 to 175,000 students from 30 schools in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were affected by the hurricane. A copy of the press release on two Universities offering affected students a "Sloan Semester" is available here: Katrina-Affected Students Find New Educational Opportunities on Web The efforts to aid the victims of Katrina by both the national and international communities has been very heartening and finding ways to ensure that students are able to continue their education is an essential part of getting things back on track. However, one caveat - please ensure that all courses are available to students with disabilities - that they are not excluded from the recovery efforts because of accessibility issues.
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:28:47 GMT.
The Internet Circa 2010
http://www.smartmobs.com/archive/2005/09/06/the_internet_ci.html
This news article says a report written by Trevor Barr, Alex Burns and Darren Sharp looks at the future of the internet and "quotes internet heavy-hitters". One of whom is Mr Howard Rheingold, Professor Barr's report,(PDF) Smart Internet 2010,"explores four schools of thought on the next five years of internet evolution. The Adaptive User Environment suggests that the most successful technologies will be those that can fit user needs; proponents of Not the Smart Internet want a simple, user-friendly web; Rich Media advocates want to be able to see "any content, on any device, in any format, at any time"; and the Chaos Rules school holds that the internet "may be in a continual state of decay and worsening disorder". The report says "ubiquity will be the byword of the net's future. Said Professor Barr:" Instead of the net society, it's about the net in society. It will become this indispensable lifestyle tool".
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:27:04 GMT.
90% of S and P Global 100 Companies Fail Annual Report Usability Standards
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2005/9/emw282111.htm
Less than 10% of the world's 100 largest public companies are meeting basic usability requirements for their online annual reports to shareholders - and standards have worsened over the past three years. These are the main findings of an in-depth comparison of the online annual reports of the S&P Global 100 Index companies, the world's highest profile listed companies. The study was conducted jointly by IR Web Report, an independent investor relations website evaluation firm, and GeBer Geschaftsberichte, a web production firm. "Online usability of financial disclosures is essential for investors to easily stay informed about their investments in public company securities, particularly as companies begin to replace printed reports with Web versions. Yet the vast majority of these mega-cap companies are failing to meet an acceptable usability standard," said IR Web Report president Dominic Jones. What percentage of these sites are accessible? If little thought is being given to usability for all users, how much effort is being made to ensure that they are even accessible to users with disabilities?
Contributed on Wed, 14 Sep 2005 22:25:07 GMT.
NCDAE Webcast - Electronic Accessibility in Library and Information Services
The National Center on Disability and Access to Education is pleased to announce another in our series of webcasts. Join us Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 for the live audio webcast titled: "Electronic Accessibility in Library and Information Services". The broadcast will last approximately one hour and will feature nationally-recognized experts in accessibility and library sciences. The panel will discuss the state of electronic accessibility to libraries that are used in education with a focus on implications for distance education students. They will share current access data, policy and best practice, and opinions on the specific challenges that must be overcome to create accessible library experiences for individuals with disabilities. The broadcast will begin at 1PM Mountain Daylight Savings Time (12:00PM Pacific; 2:00PM Central; 3:00PM Eastern). You will be able to tune in to the broadcast free of charge beginning 10 minutes before the broadcast using either Windows Media Player or Quicktime. The broadcast will be simultaneously captioned for the Deaf and hard of hearing and archives will be available shortly after the conclusion of the broadcast.
Contributed on Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:53:25 GMT.
University Is Disability Savvy
http://www.thebatt.com/media/paper657/news/2005/09/07/News/University.Is.Disabil...
Two stories from the Texas A&M Battalion: A&M Ranks No. 10 In Country For Providing Services For Disabilities and English Professor Utilizes Lip Reading, Interpreter To Overcome Impairment.
Contributed on Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:52:39 GMT.
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