Fieldsets, Legends and Screen Readers

The grouping and labelling of thematically related controls within a form is an important aspect of providing semantic information so users can understand and complete a form successfully. Differences in quality and implementation of support across user agents can hamper some users' ability to benefit from this information. This must not be taken as disincentive to developers, as the benefits of using these elements outweighs the negatives. But it is clear that some assistive technology vendors need to improve implementation of HTML features that enhance accessibility, so their users can gain the most benefit.

Lemon, Gez. Paciello Group, The (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Semantic

One Reason Why Section 508 Isn't Working

The article underscores one of the key weaknesses in Section 508 today: the lack of self-regulation and commitment to Section 508 by federal agencies. Since Section 508 was released in June 2001, the primary enforcement focus has been on industry's role and responsibility. The pervasive thinking was that compliance could be better achieved by ensuring that industry designed, developed, and delivered accessible electronic and information technology for agency procurement. And there seems to be merit to this way of thinking. But if federal contracting and procurement officers do not include the 508 requirements as part of their procurement request documentation, industry has no motivation to invest money and resources required to enhance their products for accessibility.

Paciello, Mike. Paciello Group, The (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

Opera's Lie Blasts Microsoft on IE and Web Standards Support

Take a look at how Opera's Hakon Lie publicly blasted Microsoft for it's lack of support of Web Standards! Lie states. While this isn't new, I think it's important for accessibility developers to continue supporting the Mac accessibility community.

Paciello, Mike. Paciello Group, The (2007). Articles>Web Design>Standards>Blogs

Providing Context for Ambiguous Link Phrases

This article demonstrates a technique that allows ambiguous link phrases to be rendered visually in a page, whilst making sense to screen readers, and other non-graphical devices, that might render the links out of context.

Lemon, Gez. Paciello Group, The (2007). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Hypertext