SVG Linearization and Accessibility

The usage of SVG creates new possibilities as well as new challenges for the accessibility of Web sites. This paper presents a metadata vocabulary to describe the information content of an SVG file geared towards accessibility. When used with a suitable tool, this metadata description can help in generating a textual ('linear') version of the content, which can be used for users with disabilities or with non-visual devices.

Herman, Ivan and Daniel Dardailler. SVG Open (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>SVG

Tabbing Through Flash

A way of avoiding the problem with embedding Flash on a web page (which you cannot tab out of).

Norgaard, John. Sonokids (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Flash

Telephone-Based Access to the Internet

The rapid growth of Web services has led to a situation where companies and individuals rely more and more on material that is available on the Internet and intranets. Internet access is no longer limited to personal computers and powerful workstations in the office, but is reaching into the home, as well as on the road. A new class of electronics devices with Internet access capability called 'Information Appliances' was recently born. This Internet access capability is embedded in devices such as televisions, set top boxes, home game machines, telephone-based terminals, PDAs, car navigation systems and cellular phones. As mobile phones become available for everyone as commodities, successful telephone based access to internet is becoming more and more important to improve individual productivity. However, hardware restriction, narrow bandwidth restriction and accessibility requirements are serious obstacle to the success of telephone based access to the Internet.

Wu, Xue. Universal Usability (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Bandwidth

Ten Accessibility Blunders of the Big Players

Article points out some major accessibility mistakes made by very large websites.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Ten Basic Tests to Check Your Website for Accessibility

The Disability Discrimination Act says that websites must be made accessible to disabled people. So how can you check that your website is up to par? There are a number of basic tests you can make to address some of the main issues. The following list includes guidelines that provide a good start in increasing accessibility to disabled people

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Text-Only is not Accessible

Text-only websites are not suited to all users with impairments. Although they are often ideal for users who are blind and use a screen reader, accessibility goes far beyond this user group.

Magennis, Mark. Frontend Infocentre (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Think Accessibility  

The term ‘accessibility’ refers to making services and information available for people with disabilities. With regards to Macromedia Flash MX content, accessibility means making the same web content available for all users.

Friends of ED (2003). Design>Accessibility>Web Design

This HTML Kills: Thoughts on Web Accessibility

Activist Jim Byrne sounds off on the importance of web accessibility, and the difficulty of doing it right.

Byrne, Jim. List Apart, A (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

To Hell with WCAG 2

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 were published in 1999 and quickly grew out of date. The proposed new WCAG 2.0 is the result of five long years’ work by a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) committee that never quite got its act together. In an effort to be all things to all web content, the fundamentals of WCAG 2 are nearly impossible for a working standards-compliant developer to understand. WCAG 2 backtracks on basics of responsible web development that are well accepted by standardistas. WCAG 2 is not enough of an improvement and was not worth the wait.

Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Traveling Route 508: A One-Way Street to Universal Accessibility  

'Accessible' is a higher standard than 'Section 508-compliant.' Identifying the design principles for accessible web page design, and which of those principles are required under Section 508, is a useful approach to the issue for any organization that must comply with the Section 508 standards. The legislation has no standards for determining whether your web site complies with Section 508. Possible processes include: evaluating the site using a text-to-speech application; evaluating the site using validation software; and usability testing.

Bine, Katharyn and Gloria A. Reece. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

Types of Cognitive Disabilities

There are things that designers can do to increase the accessibility of Web content to people with less severe cognitive disabilities.

WebAIM (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Über wob11.de

Mit diesen Seiten möchten wir Sie über das Thema 'barrierefreie Informationstechnik' mit Schwerpunkt barrierefreies Internet informieren und erste Hilfestellungen anbieten.

FTB. (German) Design>Web Design>Accessibility

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

Understanding the Tradeoffs: A Case Study of the University of Washington Homepage

Good web development requires knowing when and what tradeoffs should be made to best fulfill the needs of a broad audience. This article uses the University of Washington homepage to help you understand these tradeoffs.

Prosser, Jaime. EServer (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Universal Design and Disability Access to the Web

As the importance of the Internet increases, so does the need to make its content available to larger, more diverse audiences. These audiences use a variety of technologies to access the Web, ranging from traditional browsers on desktop computers to portable, hand-held devices, cell phones and hands-free devices. The need to accommodate these technologies through more universal Web design strategies grows with every new technology which is introduced. Web developers who ignore the emerging trend toward multiple-environment Internet access will be left to lament their inability to reach important segments of the population.

Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

University Web Accessibility Policies: A Bridge Not Quite Far Enough

Most university Web accessibility policies fall short of achieving their purpose. The Web sites of these universities often fail to meet minimum Web accessibility standards. Part of the problem lies with the policies themselves. Many of them fail to delineate a specific technical standard, fail to indicate whether compliance with the policy is required, fail to indicate a timeline or deadline for compliance, fail to define a system for evaluating or monitoring compliance, and fail to enumerate any consequences for failure to comply.

Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Policies and Procedures

Usability and Accessibility with AJAX

The Ajax express train rumbles on, threatening to crush anything in its path. Recent discussion has turned to those critical elements of good web development, usability and accessibility. Accessibility is a major issue with Ajax, mainly because anything that relies on JavaScript to function is inaccessible pretty much by default. There are two solutions: either provide a fall-back system where the site remains useful without its Ajax enhancements, or provide a whole separate interface that works without scripting.

Willison, Simon. SitePoint (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Ajax

Usability for Older Web Users

The number of older web users is growing at a dramatic rate. Find out how to make your website easy to use for this lucrative market.

Fidgeon, Tim. Webcredible (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Elderly

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

The UsableNet (LIFT) On-line Web Accessibility Tool

TechDis and UsableNet are working together to bring you this FREE online web accessibility evaluation tool. The tool automates many of the 'Technical Accessibility' requirements for your web pages.

TechDis (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

Use First Letter as AcessKey

The traditional way of implementing the HTML accesskey attribute using unique letters does not work. I propose always to use the first letter of the link name as access key. The first letter can be generated by code. We badly need are more accessible Internet.

Tverskov, Jesper. Smack the Mouse (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

User Style Sheet Wizard

This is a simple 'wizard tool' to create a User Style Sheet. These can be extremely useful for students with visual impairments, scotopic senstivity or visual processing difficulties such as some forms of dyslexia. User Style Sheets are a client-side application of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), they can be used to overide the presentation of HTML based web pages. They can be extremely powerful in enforcing the way in which the user desires a web page to be presented. You can set option of text font, size and colour. The font colour of hyperlinks etc. The user style sheets can be used in Internet Explorer, Opera and Mozilla.

TechDis (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Software

User-Defined Access Keys

Access keys are a contentious area of accessibility, as they can sometimes clash with the shortcut keys used by user agents. One method to get around this problem is to allow users to define their own access keys. This post suggests a PHP class that allows users to define their own access keys.

Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

User-Defined Style Sheets and Accessibility

How you can set your own stylesheet for greater accessibility; another lecture/essay.

Bartlett, Kynn. HTML Writers Guild (1999). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS

Users with Special Needs

Users with special needs who are not sufficiently visually impaired to require assistive technologies can still be frustrated by poor contrast, problematic colour schemes, or tiny, unreadable text. Up to 10% of men are colour blind to some extent, and the increasing number of older users are less likely to have 20/20 vision than those designing the pages.

Frontend Infocentre (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility