Screen Readers and 'display:none'

When an element is hidden with display: none, the browser doesn't generate a box for the element; the element is not visible on the screen, and the layout of the page isn't effected by the element. As screen readers are supposed to read the screen, it makes sense that they do not announce content that is hidden with display: none.

Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS

Section 508 Web Accessibility Now a Federal Law!

Web design at Federal departments and agencies just got orders of magnitude more complex. In 1998, President Clinton signed into law Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The law, aimed at making government technology accessible to 120,000 disabled federal employees and 50 million other disabled Americans, went into effect June 21, 2001. Unlike the OSHA Ergonomic Program that was universally reviled by the Republican Administration and was immediately repealed upon President Bush taking office, Section 508 has been widely endorsed by President Bush and his Cabinet. This rule is here to stay. Commended by disability groups throughout the nation, Section 508 is an important step in making technology accessible to everyone. With hundreds of government agencies rethinking their technology investments, the effects of Section 508 will be felt throughout the public and private sectors. Section 508 marks the beginning of a new era in technology development. For the first time disabled employees and users of government-sponsored technology are in the driver's seat. And the controls they need are no small matter.

Mauro, Charles L. TaskZ (2001). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

Setting and Retrieving Accesskeys with JavaScript and DOM

There are some things in the world of accessibility that appear, on the face of it, to be really wonderful ideas… until you scratch slightly below the service. What may seem feasible when putting together some guidelines on accessibility might not ultimately translate well to a real-world application. Hands up who can remember the last time they felt compelled to use a longdesc attribute? And what about the accesskey attribute? Oh, you have used them you say. OK, let’s back up a little and find out what went wrong here.

Lloyd, Ian. Vitamin (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>JavaScript

The Speechlet Project

Speechlet is a system which allows blind students of the Java programming language to use existing course material. Most Java courses use program examples that generate graphic output. The main reason for this is that students enjoy writing programs that produce interesting and exciting outputs. However, a blind student is unable to see the output of their program and is unable to even gauge that their program has worked. Speechlet was therefore produced to allow a blind student to move the mouse pointer over the screen and hear a spoken description of what is there. This paper discusses the reasons for the development of Speechlet, followed by a description of its operation and finally a discussion of its use in practise.

Mullier, D.J. TechDis (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Stuckness and Low Vision: How Technology and Socratic Classroom Dialog Changed My Life  

The author shares some stories from her own life that may be useful in helping Web page designers and product developers better understand issues surrounding low vision, hearing loss, and mobility restrictions using her 'art of accommodation.' In this article, she discusses this art as it applies to seven areas: (1) reading structural cues and wayfinding, (2) multimedia, (3) graphics, (4) text design and visual threshold, (5) contrast, (6) glare and size of electronic displays, and (7) mobility.

Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Education>Accessibility>Web Design

UK Accessibility Investigation of 1,000 Web Sites - Results Released

An investigation of 1000 UK Web sites carried out on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) reveals unacceptably poor (in fact woeful) accessibility. At least 81% of sites failed to meet the minimum accessibility standard, and this figure is likely to be much higher.

Dodd, Jon. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Using an Access-Centered Design to Improve Accessibility: A Primer for Technical Communicators    

This article discusses accessibility barriers as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and provides a basic primer on how technical communicators can remove these barriers during their Web design process and test to ensure the barriers were removed. The article focuses on 10 common barriers to a meaningful experience for people with disabilities, barriers that a technical communicator can consider when designing online information. Working on accessibility issues before online information goes live will help to reduce re-work and re-design and can save a lot of headaches for a technical communicator.

Roberts, Linda Enders. Technical Communication Online (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

Using Opera to Check for Accessibility

There are a lot of tools available to check your Web content for accessibility. Some tools are Web-based (such as WAVE 3.0). Other tools are stand-alone software products that you install on your hard drive. One tool that you may have overlooked is the Opera Web browser. Opera is not an accessibility validator—it's a Web browser—but it can act like an accessibility validator if you know how to use it that way. In fact, it's one of the best available. This article explains why.

WebAIM (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Visually Challenged Users and Need for a Universally Accessible Web Site

Visually impaired people suffer from no faults of their own. This is quite worthy of consideration that a little more efforts toward adoption of certain features in your web site can help them retrieve information in the desired manner. Their ease of accessibility to your web site will not go unrewarded; they can well augment your business interests by turning into your most valuable customers.

Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Voice-Enable Your Web Page with Multimodal 4.3.2

Become fluent in X+V, today's versatile Web markup language (WML). X+V, short for XHTML+Voice, is a Web markup language that is comprised of voice and visual elements used for developing multimodal applications. This article provides the novice developer of Multimodal X+V, Web pages, and handheld devices with a process for creating and testing an X+V application. This article uses the IBM® Multimodal Toolkit 4.3.2 running on WebSphere® Studio Site Developer (Site Developer) or on WebSphere Studio Application Developer (Application Developer) 5.1.2.

Celi, Miriam. IBM (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Audio

WCAG 2.0 Preview: So What's New?

This article reviews the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 and was published in SPIN Magazine. The article summaries the new guidelines and identifies key revisions and changes made to the original WCAG version 1.0.

Palmer, Mark. User Vision (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Web Accessibility Basics

Brenda Huettner provides us with the basics for making our web sites accessible in this training podcast.

Huettner, Brenda P. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Podcasts

Web Accessibility for Section 508

The legislation referred to as "Section 508" is actually an amendment to the Workforce Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The amendment was signed into law by President Clinton on August 7, 1998. Section 508 requires that electronic and information technology that is developed by or purchased by the Federal Agencies be accessible by people with disabilities.

Thatcher, Jim. JimThatcher.com (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

The Web Accessibility Initiative  

Gillen explains the Web Accessibility Initiative, a coalition of groups that work to advance the cause of accessibility on the Web.

Gillen, Lori. Intercom (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

What is Talklets?

Many people find it difficult to read from a computer screen - especially visually impaired users, and those with reading difficulties such as dyslexia. Many people print pages out to read them later, which isn't very efficient in terms of time (as well as paper consumption). Unsurprisingly, a number of 'read aloud' applications are emerging for web sites.

O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Voice

Why Web Accessibility?

There are many reasons why you should strive to make your web site as accessible as possible: legal reasons; economic reasons; technical reasons.

O'Gribin, Niall. Erigena (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

With Accessibility for All

The Web is not a panacea. If businesses, governments, and other organizations that publish information on the Web don't pay attention, the Web's promise of equal access for all could be fatally undermined by the rush to make Web sites technologically slick and visually exciting.

Garfinkel, Simson L. Boston Globe (1998). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Civic

Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

This document is an appendix to the W3C "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". It provides a list of all checkpoints from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for Web content developers.

W3C (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Web Browsing through Adaptive Technology: A Consumer Information Resource

The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC), University of Toronto coordinated efforts with the Diversity Management Directorate (DMD), Public Services Commission of Canada to systematically evaluate how commercial World Wide Web (WWW) browsers functioned with various types of adaptive technology under different operating systems. The types of adaptive technology examined include screen magnifiers, scanning / switch access systems, alternative keyboards, screen readers, Morse code input devices and voice recognition systems.

Nguyen, Kevin K. and Linda S. Petty. University of Toronto (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Web Browsers

Multiple Form Labels and Screen Readers

Just about every website needs some forms. Sometimes there are many of them, sometimes just a single contact form. Regardless of their number, they need to be usable and accessible, which can sometimes be a little more work than it would be if theory and practice aligned a little better.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Forms

Helping Others Understand Web Accessibility

When I hold workshops for people who want to learn more about web standards and accessibility, I often notice that the attendants really have tried to improve their accessibility knowledge. But they get overwhelmed when they go to the official documentation from the W3C and try to understand it.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Making Web Accessibility Accessible

when first learning web accessibility and uncovering its secrets, like many things, it can seem daunting and difficult. I think a lot of developers are downright intimidated by web accessibility — maybe even scared to go that route. But why? I suspect the reason is web accessibility is a discipline that lacks accessibility.

Cherim, Mike. Beast-Blog (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Education

Overdoing Accessibility

Sometimes when people first learn about Web accessibility they look for quick ways of improving the sites they build. This often leads to misuse or overuse of certain HTML features that are meant to aid accessibility, but when used wrongly have no effect and can actually have the opposite effect by making the page less accessible and less usable.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility

Accessibility is Part of Your Job

Accessibility is one of the fundamentals of the Web, so how people who claim to be passionate about the Web and say that they deliver high quality can choose to ignore it is beyond me.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Choose an Accessible Image Replacement Method

The technique of using CSS to replace normal HTML text, mostly for headings, with a background image in order to achieve a particular look has been talked about many, many times since early 2003.Several different image replacement methods have been proposed, each with their pros and cons. Some methods create accessibility problems, while others place restrictions on the type of image you can use or force you to use extraneous markup. No method that I am aware of is perfect.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS