Accessible PDFs

Accessibility is not an especially familiar concept in the computing world. Most of us encounter the idea of accessibility often enough by way of special vehicle parking spaces, ramps, braille signage, beeping crosswalks, and so on. Improving accessibility is more than a courtesy, it is an accepted and vital goal of any advanced society.

Johnson, Duff. PlanetPDF. Design>Document Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Accessible PDFs

How can I generate a Table Header Cell Element (TH) field automatically with Acrobat?

PDFzone (2004). Design>Information Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat

Accessible Pop-up Links

Sometimes we have to use pop-ups — so we might as well do them right. This article will show you how to make them more accessible and reliable while simplifying their implementation.

Chassot, Caio. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS

Accessible Tables

There is no question that the vast majority of tables on the Web are layout tables, used to structure the visual appearance of the page. Often the structure of tables is remarkably complex, with tables nested in tables as much as seven deep.

Thatcher, Jim. JimThatcher.com (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>HTML

Accessible Taxes? A Blind Consumer's Experience with the US Tax System

One of the most common, and least enjoyable, experiences of citizens of the United States is that of filing income tax forms. This year, Sachin Pavithran, who is blind, attempted to complete the forms and file them without assistance from sighted friends. Find out whether he was successful or not.

Bohman, Paul, Shane Anderson and Sachin Pavithran. WebAIM (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Government

Accessible Web 2.0 Applications with WAI-ARIA

Our web applications can suffer from inaccessibility problems due to inherent markup limitations. Martin Kliehm helps us sort through the WAI specs for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) to increase usability.

Kliehm, Martin. List Apart, A (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Ajax

Accessible Web Design

We encourage developers of web pages to consider the full spectrum of visitors to their sites. Listed below are some resources that may be helpful in creating pages that are accessible to everyone, including those who have disabilities.

University of Washington-Seattle (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Accessible Web Typography: An Introduction for Web Designers

Text is your flexible friend; it can be transformed into audio or braille; used to describe non-text elements; and be presented visually in an infinite number of sizes.

Byrne, Jim. Scotconnect.com (2003). Design>Typography>Web Design

AccessibleNet.org

Accessible directory of links and resources to help policymakers and web designers make informed decisions about Web accessibility.

Ogston, Matthew. AccessibleNet (2003). Design>Accessibility>Web Design

AccessiBlog

AccessiBlog was a weblog of articles and sites dealing with the topic of Web accessibility (though it is no longer updated).

Clark, Joe. AccessiBlog (2003). Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Blogs

Accessing Form Elements Array with JavaScript

This article shows how you can access an array of HTML form elements using JavaScript.

DevBay (2005). Design>Web Design>DHTML

Accesskeys: Unlocking Hidden Navigation

Your favorite applications have shortcut keys. So can your site, thanks to the XHTML accesskey attribute. Accesskeys make sites more accessible for people who cannot use a mouse. Unfortunately, almost no designer uses accesskeys, because, unless they View Source, most visitors can’t tell that you’ve put these nifty navigational shortcuts to work on your site. Stuart Robertson unlocks the secret of providing visible accesskey shortcuts.

Robertson, Stuart. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Information Design

Accommodating Active Learners in Software Documentation Decisions  

Recent research focusing on a minimalist approach to computer software documentation has explored ways to design computer software tutorials and workbooks for users with an active learning style. The principles of minimalism and active learning styles, however, are less frequently applied to traditional reference manuals. This paper reviews several elements of minimalism and suggests ways to apply strategies for active learners to traditional reference manuals.

Smart, Karl L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Instructional Design>Software

Accommodating Color Blindness

An estimated nine to twelve percent of the male population suffers from some form of color vision deficiency, commonly called 'color blindness.' It is important for computer interface designers to take into account and eliminate, if possible, any potential confusions that can arise because of color vision deficiencies. There are two major types of color blindness. The most prevalent causes are confusion between red and green. This type affects approximately eight to ten percent of the male population. In another type, an additional one to two Percent of men suffer from a deficiency in perceiving blue/yellow differences. Less than one percent of women suffer from any form of color blindness. To understand color blindness better, it is helpful to be familiar with the ways in which colors differ from each other. One standard way to discuss color is to divide it into hue, saturation and brightness (HSB).

Hoffman, Paul. STC Usability SIG (1999). Design>Accessibility>Human Computer Interaction>Color

Accountability of Accessibility and Usability

Focus on your users, all of them. Learn from mistakes currently made on the Web. If a user can't fill out a form, they can't buy anything from your site. People turned away by unusable sites will probably try a competitor's site. Don't be the site that turned people away. Make your Web site as usable and accessible as possible. It's the business savvy thing to do. It's the right thing to do. If you don't, someone just might force you legally to do it or threaten to sue.

Pavka, Anitra. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Accurate Image Manipulation for Desktop Publishing

Devoted to the best possible quality in the desktop publishing workflow. This calls for accurate calibration and correct choice for the working space.

AIM for DTP. Articles>Graphic Design>Document Design>Color

Achieving High Visibility on the Global Web - How to Prepare Your Web Site for Translation

Is there a demand for your products or services outside of your domestic market? If so, how are you marketing to this group of potential customers? How do you overcome language and cultural barriers? Web Localization, which is the process of translating your web site into your customers' languages and adapting to local markets, is an essential step toward establishing a market presence.

Iler, Huiping. WTB Language Group (2005). Articles>Web Design>Localization

Achieving Minimalism through Interactive Multimedia  

Use interactive multimedia with text-based online documentation to achieve the minimalist model pioneered by instructional design guru John Carroll. Non-linear modules of 'real' tasks help users get started fast, and quickly learn from any errors.

De Yoreo, Dave and Ben Kauffman. STC Proceedings (2004). Design>Multimedia>Interaction Design>Minimalism

Achieving Objectivity Through Genred Activity: A Case Study    

Finding itself at the center of highly publicized legal and political deliberations over fairness in testing, personnel credibility, and legal liability, the training department at a North American transit authority adopted a genre system that enabled the production of objective evidence of job competence, which was then used to make objective decisions about who passed and failed various training programs. The ongoing genre-structured activity of the department involved not only the regularization of organizational texts but also the regularization of social interaction mediated by those texts, which, while producing the types of interpretively stable documents required for successful public deliberation, led to a shift in authority and social relations within the department that instigated considerable resentment and loss of morale among many veteran instructors.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Writing>Instructional Design>Genre

Achieving Success with Intranet-Based Online Documentation  

To key to achieving a successful online documentation implementation on the intranet is to understand that the resulting system is indeed a 'system.' The need for well-written, formatted and structured documents is necessary but the interactive framework in which those documents exist is equally important. It is crucial to understand the role of each individual involved in the system from Reader to Author and I.T. provider.

Frost, Edward D.J. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Documentation>Intranets>Web Design

The Achilles Heel of Product Design Competitions and the Fair Judging Solution

I have judged a fair number of national and international product design competitions (five in the past three years alone) and each has made the same procedural mistake: products are assembled and categorized, judging criterion are devised, reputable judges are assembled, and yet we judges never see or touch the products in person. Instead, we receive a set of written documents describing each product, its intended function, and its design process. Imagine an art contest conducted by email and you get the gist of what's going on out there.

Buttiglieri, Rich. Usability Professionals Association (2007). Design>Usability>Assessment

Acrobat 6 Pro, a New Forms Layout Tool?

I was recently asked by my employer to do some research on various form designer packages to see what they had to offer. Right around that time Acrobat 6 was released, but to consider it a fully featured forms 'layout' tool was the last thing on my mind. Little did I know that I would soon change my mind. After working with Acrobat 6 Pro for a while and getting to know all the new and useful tools it has, it gradually started to dawn on me that it offers form design and layout capabilities that one could only dream about with the previous versions of Acrobat.

Guignard, Bryan. PlanetPDF (2003). Design>Web Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat - Ein PDF-Dokument Wieder in Text (oder HTML) Konvertieren  

Wie kann ich eine Acrobat-Datei in ein editierbares Textdokument (ASCII, RTF oder HTML etc.) zurückverwandeln? (Anmerkung: Diese Frage wurde zu Zeiten von Acrobat 3 und 4 gestellt. In Acrobat 5 soll Exchange eine direkte RTF-Exportfunktion besitzen.)

Transcom. (German) Design>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat

Acrobat Features Turbocharge the Online Review Process

One of the more tedious and error-prone processes in technical writing is that of collaborative document review. Even when documents are shared electronically, keeping track of comments, suggestions, and changes contributed by multiple team members can be exasperating. Too often errors due to collaborative review lead to delays, missed deadlines, misunderstandings and an inaccurate final document.

Gravel, Charlie. Carolina Communique (2003). Articles>Document Design>Software>Adobe Acrobat