Group items tagged

Guide for building an accessible website

Article from Yahoo! VP Alan Brightman on accessibility of their products.

This is an excellent resource that discusses things to keep in mind when designing a website and making it accessible to all, regardless of visual, hearing, motor and cognitive disabilities.

We must have taken the same class :) I remember that as well.

I highlighted some of the areas that stood out the most to me. I liked where it actually broke down the various components of making a site truly accessible. I have noticed that educational sites for students, like BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. are more accessible as they have text pop up that show up when you scroll over images and a CC option on all videos.

Illinois Center for Information Technology and Web Accessibility - I thought this was interesting because this is an actual course that teaches how to design Web 2.0 applications so that their functionality is more accessible. As you can see the course offering was for spring 2011 - very recent.

This article focus on accessibility awareness as a growing requirement in Web 2.0 and the principles in the Web 2.0 design.

This site was provided by IBM. It has a lot of technical jargon that is somewhat difficult to read through, but I used the highlight tool on mine to help me go through and find the important information. Basically, it notes that there are 4 main areas in which it is difficult to make Web 2.0 tech. accessible to people with disabilities: *Document structure *Dynamic content updates *Enhanced keyboard accessibility *Widget accessibility. It goes on to break down each area and explain how the problem can be addressed and fixed to ensure accessibility for all users.

This says shared by Amanda, but based on join date, the bookmark was first posted by Lilian.

Presentation by Denis Boudreau which provides an overview (based on research) of the state of Accessibility in the social media sphere. A comparison of "accessible" features in common social media services such as Facebook and Twitter, an some pointers for the ideal future of the social Web with regards to Accessibility.

This reminds me of a class we took through Lesley where we had to do a test on websites to see how accessible they were. This is something that more people need to be aware of.

I agree with Ashley. This has completely helped me take accessibility into consideration when I am creating websites, or when having my students create websites. So many things are overlooked, and this is one of them!

This website is a Web client for Twitter users that takes into account several features that make Twitter more accessible for users with disabilities. To name a few, it includes features such as: - "All links are keyboard accessible (and visual styling on focus as well as hover states). - Headings and page titles are implemented for optimal accessibility. This includes an H3 heading (for author screen name) added to tweets to assist with screen reader users. - Large default text size and high color contrast. - Text resizes many levels without breaking. Access keys (keyboard shortcuts) to main menu items."

Disability.gov: Conncecting the Disability Community to Information and Opportunities has a plethora of resources for making technology accessible. I have highlighted two that I found of particular insight. The first is Accessible Media Guidlines -- they are a set of guidelines look at ways to achieve the goal of helping students learn by using adaptive and accessible technology which is so important to all educators, but especially to those of us that teach special education. The other site, IRS Talking Tax Forms, is designed for people that are visually impaired that are supposed to be easy to use -- uses Microsoft Active Accessibility compliant screen readers and Dragon Naturally Speaking Voice Recognition Software. It is great that the government is at least trying to make this part of filling out your IRS Tax Form a little easier -- I guess so they can more easily get your money from you.

I am glad that you found this. It is a pretty comprehensive list of what is out there. I am glad that there are a set of guidelines out there to be followed. I think we sometimes take for granted the use of all of our facilities and senses, we are aware that we have them, but don't take into consideration the obstacles we would face had we not.

This is good to know about. I think especially teachers should know about the resources out there to help out every person who might have some sort of disability. Great resource, glad you found this!

This article by Accessities.org discusses how social networking sites are not user friendly for people with disabilties. Here is the list of issues. No accessibility page. A lack of skip links and poor support for keyboard navigators generally. Navigational graphics that lacked alternative text attributes. Poor link text. Poor typography. No alternatives for site facilities that relied upon JavaScript.

Social networking sites are way to cluttery! That is what ruined Myspace. Not only should people with disabilities fine simplicity more user friendly but also those without.

This is a huge document and full of very technical information, but simply looking through the Table of Contents provides an idea of where this influential group wants web 2.0 to go. Many articles published mention WCAG 2.0 guidelines....well, here they are.