Killing the Web Accessibility Stereotype
Providing safe and barrier-free access to digital means of commerce makes good business and ethical sense. There still appears to be an assumed dichotomy, however, between websites that are attractive but also accessible.
Catching Up on Web Accessibility News
The AniktoBlog has been dark for too long, mostly due to work and travel. As a result, I’ve missed a number of interesting technological developments over the past few weeks and many of them involve accessibility within the digital space
SharePoint Accessibility
This week HiSoftware announced the release of version 2.0 of the Accessibility Toolkit for Sharepoint, which offers a number of new features in accordance with WCAG 1.0 and 2.0.
iTunes 8.1 Released With Accessibility Enhancements
This week Apple released version 8.1 of their popular music downloading and playback application, iTunes, and the press release specifically mentions “enhanced” accessibility.
NFB Files Lawsuit Against Law School Admissions Council (LSAC)
This past week saw the development of another web accessibility case in the state of California. The California affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) filed a lawsuit against the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) claiming that the LSAC Web site is inaccessible to the blind.
Read "NFB Files Lawsuit Against Law School Admissions Council (LSAC)"
WebAIM Screen Reader Survey
The fine folks at WebAIM released the results of a survey conducted among users of screen readers. Some of the results confirmed items I either already knew or assumed to be true, but there were a few surprises as well.
Legal Developments in Web Accessibility
Two items of legal interest appeared in this morning’s feeds. The first is a new subscription product offering digital trends analysis for accessibility products, the second is an investigation of Title III of the ADA that perhaps redefines our idea of “public accommodation.”
Web Accessibility for Multiple Languages
The fine folks at WebAIM have announced a project to begin offering their WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool in multiple languages, starting with a Spanish-language version to be released in the first half of 2009.
WCAG 2.0 Now Finalized
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 became a W3C-finalized standard this week. This is a significant improvement in the approach and methodology towards delivering content in a way that meets users of all physical abilities.
Should You Provide an Accessibility Statement on your Website?
When an organization takes the time and effort required to provide a fully accessible online experience, there is justifiable pride in detailing the many features that have been implemented on behalf of users with disabilities. The question remains as to whether it’s of value to list these operable benefits on a dedicated page within the website.
Read "Should You Provide an Accessibility Statement on your Website?"
WCAG 2.0 Accessibility Standard Published
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group announced yesterday the publication of WCAG 2.0 as a Proposed Recommendation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). A proposed recommendation is report, primarily technical in nature, that is sent to a governing body for final endorsement before implementation.
PSO Presentation on Barrier-Free User Experience
Anikto will be speaking on behalf of the Philadelphia Standards Organization on Tuesday, November 11 at 7:45pm. Learn about the practical benefits of compliance, uncover some common accessibility assumptions, and discover how standards-based web design benefits users of all abilities.
Web Accessibility and Aging Task Force
Members of the WAI-AGE task force met recently, as they do every other week, to continue and review their work advocating accessibility of the Web for the elderly and people with disabilities. The intended outcome of this 36-month project is to develop and endorse extensions of the W3C/WAI with regard to the specific needs of the elderly.
Google Health for the Visually Impaired
In a blog post by TV Raman, Google announced a more accessible Google Health that would provide better integration with self-voicing browsers and screen reading technology.
Deque Worldspace Accessibility Evaluator
The fine folks at Deque have released a new version of Worldspace, a free enterprise-level software tool to evaluate the compliance and accessibility of individual web pages. Called Worldspace, the tool is able to scan a URL, local file or source code against Section 508 criteria and all three WCAG priority levels. The new version supports custom rules, AJAX Javascript applications, Flash and PDF content.
Web Accessibility Overkill
No one should question the importance of implementing good accessibility practices in web-based media. Sometimes, though, development teams go too far in applying accessibility features in their designs. Here are some tips to translate those good intentions into something of tangible benefit for users with disabilities.
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