Accessibility Testing on a Budget

How do you find out how your site sounds? Without dipping in to the wallet, here are some suggestions about how you can test your pages.

Accessify (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Adaptive Technologies for the Visually Impaired: The Role of Technical Communicators    

This column examines emerging technologies of interest to technical communicators to help them identify those that are worthy of further investigation. It is intended neither as an endorsement of any technology or product, nor as a recommendation to purchase.

Ray, Deborah S. and Eric J. Ray. Technical Communication Online (1998). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Blind and Low Vision Users

When we come to accessibility of web design, we will say that accessible web design is a sign of good web design. A lot of the information on the Web is not accessible to people with disabilities because of poor design. While many web site managers and developers accommodate various browser constraints, most of them do not realize that they are developing sites that people with disabilities have difficulty in navigating, or in many cases, cannot navigate at all.

Hung, Edward. Universal Usability. Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual Rhetoric

Creating Text Equivalents for Images

This article is for developers and content editors seeking to supplement the visual elements of a user interface with text equivalents. This article describes what text equivalents are, why they are required, how to create them, and the best approach to writing and editing them.

Microsoft (2002). Design>User Interface>Accessibility>Visual

Design of Haptic and Tactile Interfaces for Blind Users

Since computer use became more widespread in the 1980's and 1990's, considerable effort has been put into ensuring that the blind have equal access to state of the art techology. However, the dominance of graphical user interfaces and direct manipulation has reduced the effectiveness of old speech-based systems. This article discusses aspects of tactile and haptic interfaces, reviews current research on the topic, and provides design principles for practitioners culled from recent research.

Christian, Kevin. Universal Usability (2000). Design>User Interface>Accessibility>Visual

Designing Your Web Site for the Blind

Yet those of us who are fully sighted forget that as we make the Web our main information vehicle, we may be cutting out millions of customers or potential customers. And these millions (5 to 10 million in the U.S. alone, by some estimates) have every moral and legal right to have access to that information.

Ball, Guy. Boston Broadside (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

A Guide to Making Documents Accessible to People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

This document contains a comprehensive discussion about how to make print and electronic information available to people with visual impairments in a variety of accessible formats. Consumers who have limited vision or are totally blind have unique access needs. These needs depend on the amount of vision each person has for reading. Some people have usable vision, allowing them to read large print. Others choose to read braille on paper, while a third group prefers to use a computer with synthetic speech, or refreshable braille display, to read electronic documents.

Sutton, Jennifer. American Council of the Blind (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual

Guidelines for Writing Accessible Online Help

This article describes how to write effective on-line help for blind and low vision users of text based readers. The authors draw on their collective experience in both using text (screen) readers like JAWS to access web applications as well as preparing accessibility help for web pages and applications. This article doesn't include specific information about building web interfaces or sites, use of controls for accessibility within web sites, Section 508 or WAI Standards and Guidelines, or specific information about hardware or software. We include JAWS instructions as an example because it is commonly used in the United States. Also, we don't include information about actual language used within an interface and how to write it to make the interface more accessible. We are only discussing how to write Help pertaining to the interface itself.

Reed, Will, Everyl Yankee and Wendi Fornoff. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Stuckness and Low Vision: How Technology and Socratic Classroom Dialogue Changed my Life

Gloria discusses her low-vision condition, the problems it poses in her life and work and the accommodation strategies she has developed.

Reece, Gloria A. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual

Surpassing Gutenberg--Access to Published Information for Blind Readers

We examine some surprising reasons to explain why electronic book publishing will become a versatile medium comprising 10% of all consumer book sales in the U.S. by 2005, estimated by Anderson Consulting at $2.3 billion. The Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF) both pin this expectation on open standards--any book, anytime, anywhere, for anyone. Electronic books will succeed, we argue, in part because they provide communicative opportunities not available in traditional, static print media. But, they will also succeed because of developments in technology for blind readers which will benefit all readers regardless of ability or disability. As evidence we offer, among other points, Microsoft Corporation's licensing of technology developed to benefit blind people for use in Microsoft Reader and mainstream publishing applications. We demonstrate, further, that technology transfer from disability to mainstream use has solid historic precedent.

Sajka, Janina and George Kerscher. American Foundation for the Blind (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual

Usable, Accessible Web Pages for Low Vision: Criteria for Designers  

This paper identifies challenges for design of web pages for low vision. It examines key usability considerations (subject, occasion, audience, and purpose) for defining content for web pages and emphasizes seven basic principles of universal design. SOAP for web pages is a model that web page developers can use to define content criteria for websites. The model emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to audience, needs, task, and requirements analysis. It discusses a user–centered approach (capture, specify, plan, realize, deliver) to usability testing. Additionally, this paper summarizes key findings from low vision research on type legibility. The paper concludes with design principles that can be derived from print–based studies (normal and subnormal vision) for developing accessible web pages.

Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Visual Disabilities

Whenever I ask a large group of people whether or not they have a visual disability, very few of them answer that they do. Then I ask whether or not anyone uses any assistive technology to overcome their visual disability. Most people are unsure what I mean. Invariably, though, as I look out across the group, I see many of them--often a majority--using an assistive technology for their vision at that very moment.

WebAIM (2004). Design>Accessibility>Visual

How to Avoid Screen Reader 'Noise Pollution'

Surely there can't be a skill to writing ALT text for images? You just pop a description in there and you're good to go, right? Well, kind of. Sure, it's not rocket science, but there are a few guidelines you need to follow.

Moss, Trenton. Digital Media Europe (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Designing for Screen Reader Compatibility

Techniques that work for one screen reader almost always work in other screen readers. In some cases, one of the screen readers has capabilities that the others do not have, or handles some types of content better than the other screen readers. Still, developers are almost always better off when they focus on accessibility standards and generally-accepted accessibility techniques than when they focus on screen reader differences.

WebAIM (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual