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Vernon Fowler

WCAG 2.1 is Coming-and Here's What You Should Know Right Now - Siteimprove - 0 views

  • Expect the new WCAG standards to emphasize a mobile experience that matches what users might expect from a traditional browsing session. This will likely include making your site’s touch screen functions more compatible with assistive technology. 
  • The new standards are expected to raise that level to 400% to help users with low vision navigate sites more smoothly.
  • WCAG 2.1 will likely seek to place limits on where and when pop-ups and similar advertising can appear. 
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  • For users with motor skill issues, clicking on incorrect links and buttons is a common problem. WCAG 2.1 will likely require improvements in navigation technology that makes it easier both to find the right link and to correct actions if the wrong link is clicked. 
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    Considering how massively the online landscape has changed in the past decade, it's amazing that international standards for web accessibility haven't been updated since December of 2008. That's about to change. After soliciting and assessing recommendations from the public, the international Web Accessibility Initiative is set to announce version 2.1 of its Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in the middle of this year. As that update draws nearer, there are a few key changes website owners may want to start planning for. (Keep in mind that all WCAG 2.1 changes are tentative.)
Sandra Earl

E-Access Blog » Blog Archive » Organisation in the Spotlight - W3C: Global St... - 0 views

  • One major new piece of work undertaken by WAI is the EC-funded WAI-AGE Project (http://www.w3.org/WAI/WAI-AGE/), a look at the implications of an ageing population for web access, given the older people are more likely to have disabilities and may also be less familiar with new technologies. “Demographics worldwide are dramatically changing at the moment,” says Andrew Arch, who works with Abou-Zahra on WAI-AGE. “The proportions of older to younger people are changing as well as the numbers. We’re living longer, and we haven’t got the support behind us. “Lots of things have got to change in governments and organisations - with an ageing workforce, you have to keep learning to stay accessible.”
  • The WAI-AGE project is partly aimed at finding out whether there are any significant new pieces of work needed to ensure web accessibility for an older population, Arch says. “We’ve looked at what research and user observation has gone on over the decade. There is a pretty big overlap between older people and others with disabilities - sight starts to decline, motor dexterity - and individually these overlap. But with older people there is often a lack of recognition that there is a disability there. For example some people might just say they can’t remember so well, rather than that they have a cognitive impairment. Or people won’t see failing eye-sight as a disability, it’s just ‘part of growing old’. But they are disabilities, and often multiple disabilities.”
  • Having gained a grasp of current research the project returned to guidelines such as WCAG 2.0 to see if any changes might be needed. “A large proportion of the needs of older people are met by the new guidelines, but other things might need to feed into the guidance we will issue on implementing the guidelines, for example guidance on how people prepare content for older people.,” said Arch. “Many older people have not grown up with computers, and may not realise their capabilities, for example that you can magnify text in your browser.”
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  • This argument is a development of the age-old mantra from the accessibility sector that people with disabilities want to use the web in the same way as everybody else - “it is a human right recognised by the UN,” says Abou-Zahra. But he recognizes that businesses in particular will also  be interested in the additional business benefits, especially in the current financial climate.
  • “With commercial organisations the return on investment is often an important argument. Well, a few years ago, companies might have said ‘how many older people are online?’ but with demographics changing they know the answer. And with the current surge in mobile phone use there is another incentive, since accessible sites work better on mobile phones.”
  • Another change of style will be a greater separation between the core guidelines and references to specific technologies such as Javascript or browser types, Abou-Zahra says.
  • “WCAG 1.0 was too  technology-specific. Back then HTML was more dominant, and there was less use of multimedia, but today we have a flurry of technologies such as Ajax, so the first lesson we learned is don’t write for a specific technology. Also, in the days of WCAG 1.0 we had to exclude Javascript because it was not sufficiently standardised and  assistive technology could not handle it consistently, but now that has largely changed so you need to include it, to look at how any technology should be accessible. The requirements - such as tagging images with text - needs to apply to any technology you are using.
Sandra Earl

WebAIM: Accessibility of AJAX Applications - Accessibility Issues - 0 views

  • AJAX is
  • a smorgasbord of web technologies put together to allow dynamic client-server interactions to occur in web applications without requiring pages to reload or refresh.
  • AJAX uses the following:
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  • The XHTML and CSS elements can be dynamically modified to display new information or styling. These changes are typically done using the Document Object Model.
  • XHTML (or HTML) and CSS to create an interface and visually style information.
  • JavaScript is used to manipulate the interface elements and is also used to establish a communication with a web server through XMLHttpRequest. This allows data (typically in XML format) to be transmitted between the client and the web server without requiring page reloads or refreshes.
  • standard type of client-server interaction
  • A web page interface is presented. User information is collected (via forms, links, etc.). The user submits information (submits form, activates link, etc.). The server processes submitted information. A new web page interface is sent to the user.
  • With AJAX, all of these steps can be handled in one interface.
  • The types of web applications and interactions allowed by using AJAX has given rise to the term "Web 2.0"
  • AJAX allows feature-rich, dynamic web applications which use server-side processing without requiring the traditional "submit data — retrieve web page"
  • allows more streamlined applications that require less processing and data transmission
  • higher levels of interactivity
  • current solution to these problems is to either provide a non-AJAX alternative to your application or to allow your AJAX application to continue to function if JavaScript and XMLHttpRequest are not supported. Such a requirement may be very difficult to achieve
  • Another issue with AJAX is how the application interface is updated. When updates to the interface occur, it may not be visually apparent that a change has occurred. The problem is even more troublesome for screen reader users. Screen readers typically read in a linear fashion. When changes happen in the interface, the screen reader user may not be aware of the change and the new content will likely not be read.
  • to allow dynamic interface changes to be accessible, the application must alert the user that a change has occurred, allow direct access to the new content, and then allow continued functionality of the web application. This process, while difficult to achieve, especially for screen reader users, is possible to achieve in many AJAX applications.
Sandra Earl

Unobtrusive and keyboard accessible connected select boxes | 456 Berea Street - 0 views

  • Any web developer who has created a reasonably complex form is probably aware of the concept of multiple select elements that are connected – choosing something from one select box either makes a new select box appear or changes the options of one that is already visible. There are usually two problems with this approach. One is that most implementations are completely dependent on JavaScript being available. Often there either is no submit button at all, or there is a submit button but without JavaScript there is no way to access the options that appear only as a result of changing the first select box. The other problem is that in some browsers, using the cursor keys to change the selected option triggers the onchange event immediately, so you can never get past the first option unless you know how to use your keyboard to display all options. I normally work around these problems by requiring users to submit the form to get the next set of options from the server. Obviously that isn’t an ideal solution either. So what other options do we have? One option that looks promising is described by Christian Heilmann in Unobtrusive connected select boxes - yet another solution approach. It involves using optgroup elements to create a two-level select box, which is then split into two separate select boxes if JavaScript is available. Neat. The solution Chris describes solves (or at least mitigates) the keyboard access problem since it doesn’t reload the page when the onchange event is triggered. And if JavaScript is unavailable, there is a single select box with option groups. The catch is that nested optgroup elements are not allowed in current versions of HTML, so this will not work when more than two connected select boxes are needed. Nested optgroup elements are allowed in the current Web Forms 2.0 Working Draft, so I guess there is a reasonable chance of that change making it into HTML 5.
Sandra Earl

Thoughts around universal access on mobile from Accessibility 2.0 » iheni :: ... - 0 views

  • Yahoo’s! graded browser support helps developers framework what browsers and versions they should target on desktop. This got me wondering if we need something similar for mobile. Seeing as Chris Heilmann from Yahoo! was sat in the audience I thought I might direct the question at him during the panel (also mentioned over Twitter) and being the thoroughly top bloke he is he listened. I know many larger orgnisations will have this sot of information fed into the test plans but for the large majority of us we have to figure it out as we go along. Not only that it’s such a fast changing target that it’s impossible to keep up with on your own.
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    "Yahoo's! graded browser support helps developers framework what browsers and versions they should target on desktop. This got me wondering if we need something similar for mobile. Seeing as Chris Heilmann from Yahoo! was sat in the audience I thought I might direct the question at him during the panel (also mentioned over Twitter) and being the thoroughly top bloke he is he listened. I know many larger orgnisations will have this sot of information fed into the test plans but for the large majority of us we have to figure it out as we go along. Not only that it's such a fast changing target that it's impossible to keep up with on your own."
Vernon Fowler

WordPress › WP Accessibility Plugin « Make WordPress Accessible - 0 views

  • These title attributes have exactly the same value as the text of the link — if the text of the link is “Joe’s Blue Widgets”, then the title attribute is also “Joe’s Blue Widgets”. In the best case scenario, where a screen reader is set up to ignore title attributes, having this set makes little difference. In the worst case scenario, where a screen reader reads all attributes, it’s awful: the screen reader reads the title attribute and the link text, meaning that every link is, effectively, read twice.
  • Skiplinks provide a means to leap from the very top of a page to an alternate section of that page — one principle use being to leap over the main navigation to the main page content.
  • It does *not* remove it from other fields, because a common technique to grant keyboard focusability to normally non-focusable elements is to define a negative tabindex: this places the element into the focus sequence but does not force it into a particular place in that sequence.
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  • Removing those attributes usually makes keyboard navigation much more linear and predictable. The intention behind tabindex was to create a logical tab sequence when it would otherwise have been unnatural; but in practice, that required absolutely insane degrees of maintenance to use in a real-life web site.
  • Links opened in new windows can break web site flow (creating a change of context) and disorient users who don’t realize they’ve moved to a new window. Also, it takes away the option of opening in the same window/tab
  • Remove title attribute from inserted post images/featured images
  • for accessibility, all links should make sense without requiring context, to grant screen readers the ability to scan the page and have information. This plug-in adds the title of the post into this pattern
  • Many designs do not provide a design for the view of links or other focusable fields when a keyboard user brings focus to that element. This makes it very difficult for visual users who are keyboard dependent to keep track of where they are. A common pattern for this is to change the appearance of the element on keyboard focus; and this item adds an outline.
Sandra Earl

Bruce Lawson's personal site  : Proposals for changes to lists in HTML 5 - 0 views

  • One of the things that have long irritated me about HTML is the restriction on what elements are allowed inside lists. The specs for both HTML 4 and 5 allow only li for ul, ol, and only dt and dd are allowed inside dl definition lists. I’d like to expand that to allow h1…h6, section and div.
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    Is this what we want to do with navbars?
Sandra Earl

Better Website Development: Disability Discrimination Act Dda Amp Web Accessibility - 0 views

  • There's been widespread speculation about the new legislation being introduced under the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act), which will ensure that websites are accessible to blind and disabled users. Try to find specific information about it on the Internet and chances are you'll come up empty handed.The RNIB (Royal National Institute for the Blind) and the DRC (Disability Rights Commission), two of the most renowned advocates for the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) and accessible websites, have no specific information about the laws and what websites specifically need to do in order to meet the legal requirements.
  • 2.2 (p7): "The Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public."
  • 4.7 (p39): "From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services."
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  • The law about accessible websites came into force on 1st October 1999 (http://www.drc-gb.org/open4all/law/code.asp) and the Code of Practice for this section of the Act was published on 27th May 2002 (http://www.hmso.gov.uk/si/si2002/20020720.htm). This means that the majority of websites are already in breach of the law.Can you be sued?Well, probably. The RNIB claim that they've considered taking up a number of legal cases against organisations with regard to their websites. When they raised the accessibility issues of the website under the DDA, companies have typically made the necessary changes, rather than facing the prospect of legal action.The DRC has now published their findings from their formal investigation into 1000 websites. (http://www.drc-gb.org/publicationsandreports/2.pdf). If your website was included then you will have to start thinking about making it accessible to all web users in the very near future.
  • What do you need to do to comply?It's widely believed that if, or perhaps more appropriately when, a case makes it to court that the W3C accessibility guidelines will be used to assess a website's accessibility and ultimately decide the outcome of the case. The W3C is the Internet governing body and its web accessibility guidelines can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html.
Sandra Earl

Make HTML messages readable in Apple Mail | 456 Berea Street - 0 views

  • I’ve been using this for years and can’t understand why it isn’t available in Mail’s GUI. Here’s what to do: Quit Mail.app Open Terminal.app Enter defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE and press enter (toggle it back by changing TRUE to FALSE) Open Mail.app View an HTML message and marvel at the readable plain text The catch is that this only works for messages that actually contain a plain text alternative, which far from all HTML email does.
  • Specify the minimum font size Apple Mail uses for HTML messages As a fallback for the messages that do not contain a plain text alternative it is useful to make sure that the text at least has a readable size: Quit Mail.app Open Terminal.app Enter defaults write com.apple.mail MinimumHTMLFontSize 13 in the Terminal window and press enter Open Mail.app View an HTML message and marvel at the readable font size You can change the font size to whatever suits your eyes. Apply both of these and you should be able to read most of the HTML email that you receive.
Vernon Fowler

Juicy Studio: CSS Analyser - 0 views

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    "This service has been provided to allow you to check the validity of your CSS against the W3C's validation service, along with a colour contrast test, and a test to ensure that relevant sizes are specified in relative units of measurement. If the CSS is specified by a URL, it will be loaded into the text area to offer an option to make changes for testing without having to re-upload. "
Vernon Fowler

WebAIM: Blog - 10 Easy Accessibility Tips Anyone Can Use - 0 views

  • add the appropriate landmark role attribute (role="main", role="navigation", or role="search". If your site uses HTML5 <main> or <nav>, add the role to these elements.
  • Sighted keyboard users generally navigate through the links and form fields on a web page using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys on the keyboard. To help ensure they can visually identify which link or form field they have navigated to, you can add the following to your CSS file: a:focus { outline:1px solid red; background:yellow; } The colors may need to be customized to fit your site design, but they should be fairly distinctive. To take this tip one step further, you can search your CSS files for a:hover and in each instance change it to a:hover, a:focus. This will ensure that keyboard users get the same visual highlighting when they navigate to items as mouse users get when they hover over an item.
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    "Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD). To celebrate and to help promote accessibility, here are 10 simple accessibility tips that most anyone can implement today into their web site's HTML and CSS to make it more accessible."
Sandra Earl

Digital Web Magazine - Understanding Disabilities when Designing a Website - 0 views

  • In the UK In the US 2m people have a vision impairment3 10m people have a vision impairment4 8.2m people have mild to moderate deafness5, 688,000 people have severe to profound deafness6 28m people have a hearing impairment7 3.4m people have a physical disability8 8m people have a physical disability9 1.5m people have a learning disability10 6.8m people have a learning disability11 6m people have dyslexia12 25m people have dyslexia13
  • Most people who are blind will rely on screen reading software such as
  • JAWS or Windows-Eyes
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  • refreshable Braille device which converts the text on the website into Braille.
  • Place form instructions before the form field
  • To improve accessibility and usability for screen reader users, form field requirements must be placed before the form field itself.
  • Provide a ‘skip to main content’ link Screen reader users benefit from a ‘skip to main content’ link as it enables them to jump over lengthy navigation to the main content of the web page, reducing the amount of content they have to listen to.
  • Ensure link text is descriptive Screen reader users using software such as JAWS can listen to the links on a web page through functionality known as a links list. If link text is not descriptive—solely using phrases such as “click here” or “more information”, for example—there is no way for screen reader users to determine where the link will take them.
  • Provide descriptive web page titles The first piece of information a screen reader user will listen to when they open a web page is the <title> assigned to the page. It is important, therefore, to use a title which reflects the content of the web page.
  • Provide descriptive headings It is important to provide descriptive headings
  • Screen reader users often listen to headings out of context from the main content
  • Provide audio descriptions and transcripts of video content Screen reader users depend on audio descriptions to provide additional information about important visual content displayed within a video.
  • Transcripts are written accounts of the video or audio content and can include additional information such as comments and descriptions
  • screen reader users cannot use a mouse
  • People with low vision will tend to use magnification software to make reading a website easier. Depending on the severity of their vision impairment, these users may combine magnification and screen reading software by using software products such as Supernova or ZoomText. For milder vision impairments, users may just increase the default size of text within their browser settings or change the colors to make the content more comfortable to read.
  • Avoid using images of text
  • Ensure text can be resized
  • Place key information in specific locations of the screen
  • ebsite search functionality is often located in the top-right corner of the web page
  • Juicy Studio color contrast analyzer.
  • it is possible to determine whether the colors chosen meet the minimum requirements specified in the WCAG Guidelines.
  • People with a hearing impairment tend not to use assistive software to improve their web browsing experience. Instead, they rely on the website being accessible by providing any audio content in alternative formats, such as captioning or transcripts.
  • By making audio content accessible for users with a hearing impairment, it also makes the content accessible for other users who find themselves in an environment where audio cannot be heard.
  • library with the sound turned down; they may be in a noisy environment where it is difficult to hear the audio; or they may be using a computer without speakers.
  • Provide captions for any video content
  • Provide transcripts of the spoken audio Where content is spoken without video, such as in a podcast, it is important to provide a transcript. It is recommended that the transcript be provided in plain accessible HTML to allow access by the widest possible audience, as opposed to a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF document.
  • Physical disabilities range in severity from those who are temporarily disabled, for example having a broken arm, to those who are quadriplegic and have no use of any limbs. Depending on the severity of the physical disability, these users may access websites through voice recognition software such as Dragon Naturally Speaking.
  • However, what all users with a physical disability have in common is limited or no ability to use a mouse. This means that content within the website that requires a mouse click or fine motor control cannot be accessed by these users.
  • Ensure all content can be accessed via the keyboard
  • Users with a physical disability will have limited or no ability to use a mouse and as such will navigate websites using the keyboard.
  • Provide a focus state for links
  • Provide visible skip links Skip links are links that become visible when they receive focus, and are helpful for users with a physical disability. Keyboard users must tab through the web page to reach the particular link they are interested in—skip links allow lengthy navigation to be bypassed and reduce the number of key presses required to activate links in the main content.
  • Avoid moving targets Avoid using moving targets such as tickers, as users with a physical disability can find them very difficult to use.
  • Provide large clickable areas
  • provide sufficient whitespace between links
  • People with a cognitive or learning disability may have difficulties with memory, problem solving, perception, and conceptualization. In addition, people with a learning disability may have issues with reading and comprehension such as dyslexia.
  • To enhance the usability of the website for these users it is important that content is written in plain English, page layouts are simple in design, navigation is clear and consistent and there is no moving content to impede comprehension.
  • Provide the same look and feel throughout all pages of the website. Ensure that the navigation and main content are located in the same area of every page. Additionally, consider color coding different sections within the website. Users with cognitive or learning disabilities tend to find it easier to navigate around sections which are color coded.
  • Provide a site map A site map will enable users with a cognitive or learning disability to have a clear idea of the breadth of content contained within the website. The site map also enables users to directly access any page on the website, and helps if the user becomes lost.
  • Use a resizable sans-serif font which is left-aligned To increase readability for users with a cognitive or learning disability, use a sans-serif font which can be resized. Additionally, left-align content—justified text is more difficult to read due to the uneven spacing between words. Italicized and capitalized text should also be kept to a minimum to aid readability.
  • Provide helpful error messages
  • Offer speech output Organizations such as Browse Aloud and Textic enable content from a website to be spoken when highlighting the words on a web page. Offering this functionality is especially helpful for users who find it difficult to read large amounts of text.
  • Provide an Easy Read Version Consider providing an ‘easy read’ version of complex content. This combines plain text with images to aid understanding of the information. For an example of an easy read document see the Department of Health’s Making Lives Better for People with a Learning Disability.
  • Provide different color schemes People with cognitive or learning disabilities may benefit from different color scheme options. It is helpful if an easy read scheme such as a lemon background with dark text, and a hi-viz scheme such as a black background with yellow text, are provided.
Sandra Earl

WebAIM: Accessibility of Rich Internet Applications - 0 views

  • WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications or ARIA) is a W3C protocol for enhancing and supporting accessibility of scripted and dynamic content.
  • ARIA provides accessible interactive controls (such as tree menus, drag and drop, sliders, sort controls, etc.), content roles for identifying page structure (navigation, search, main content, etc.), areas that can be dynamically updated (called "live regions" in ARIA), better support for keyboard accessibility and interactivity, and much more.
  • accessibility issues with rich internet applications can be characterized as: Providing the semantic structure of page areas and functionality (e.g., navigation, main content, search, etc.) Maintaining accessibility of content that is dynamic and may change within the page (e.g., AJAX content updates) Allowing certain non-focusable page elements to receive keyboard focus (e.g., setting focus to an error message within the page) Providing keyboard and screen reader accessibility with complex widgets and navigation elements (e.g., sliders, menu trees, etc.)
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  • WAI-ARIA provides the ability for developers to specify roles for document areas (and many other things).
  • ARIA is being implemented into many scripting libraries (such as jQuery, Dojo, YUI, and GWT). While developers can certainly implement ARIA into their advanced widgets and applications, using ARIA-supported libraries greatly simplifies the process of providing this level of accessibility.
Sandra Earl

Captivate Accessibility Hints | SSB BART Group - 0 views

  • Captivate has a number of accessibility features in version 3 and 4 although there are some issues that Adobe is working on.
  • Ensure that the “enable accessibility” checkbox is checked under the File > Publish settings in order for accessibility to be exposed to assistive technologies.
  • Slide Accessibility Text Each slide can contain accessibility text. This can be added by going to the slide properties, activating the Accessibility button and entering text in the text field.
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  • Closed Captioning Closed captioning can be added to all audio files. From the record audio dialog, closed caption text can be added under the Caption tab. The playback bar contains a CC button which allows the closed captioning to be displayed or hidden.
  • Button Accessibility Text buttons can be made accessible. The text that appears on-screen becomes the button’s accessible name. To make the buttons keyboard accessible, the “Set Keystroke: Select Keys” button should be used and the keystroke of “enter” should be set in the object’s properties dialog. Other shortcuts can be assigned but enter/space will then not work to activate the button after tabbing to it. The keystroke of “enter” can be assigned to multiple buttons and the button with focus will be activated when Enter is pressed.
  • Audio recordings can be associated with click boxes and thus authors can associate descriptive text to be announced when a shortcut keystroke is pressed to assist users with visual impairments.
  • Text from PowerPoint Much of the text from PowerPoint will come through as text in Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) and will be exposed to users of screen readers. Currently there isn’t a method to change the order or edit this text.
  • Quiz Questions There is some accessibility support for quiz questions. Simple types of questions such as true and false and multiple choice provide accessible names for the radio buttons and the text of the question appears as text in the accessible MSAA structure and is exposed to screen readers.
  • Accessibility Differences Between Captivate 3 and 4 The text in the “text caption” object does not show up as accessible text in Captivate 3 but does in Captivate 4. In addition, it is not possible to set accessible text for specific images in Captivate 3 but it is possible in Captivate 4.
Sandra Earl

WebAIM: Screen Reader Survey Results - 0 views

  • We received 1121 valid responses to the screen reader survey, which was conducted Dec. 2008 - Jan. 2009.
  • Skip to content22% Skip to main content28%
  • 33 respondents (2.9%) reported being both deaf and blind.
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  • Please rate your computer proficiency Response% of Respondents Expert22% Advanced44% Intermediate27% Beginner8%
  • Please rate your screen reader proficiency Response% of Respondents Expert17% Advanced41% Intermediate32% Beginner9%
  • Screen Reader Usage
  • Of the 1121 respondents, 74% use JAWS, 23% use Window-Eyes, 8% use NVDA, and 6% use VoiceOver. While several other screen readers were reported, these were the most prominently reported. Individual versions of screen readers are not yet computed, but generally the majority of users are using the most up-to-date version of their screen reader.
  • How soon do you update your screen reader after a new version is released? Upgrade Window% of Respondents Immediately41% First 6 months25% 6-12 months9% 1-2 years9% 2-3 years4% 3+ years6% No response6%
  • How customized are your screen reader settings? (e.g., changed verbosity, installed scripts, etc.) Response% of Respondents A lot29% Somewhat40% Slightly21% Not at all7% No response4%
  • a lot or some customization was reported by only 27.6% of respondents with no disability versus 71.4% for those that reported blindness.
  • 78% of respondents reported using a screen reader on a desktop computer, 54% use a screen reader on a laptop, and 12% use a screen reader on a mobile phone.
  • No respondents who use screen readers for evaluation reported using a screen reader on a mobile device.
  • Which web browser(s) do you currently use with a screen reader? Browser% of Respondents IE633% IE768% IE82% Firefox39% Safari6%
  • Respondents with no disability were nearly twice as likely to list Firefox as blind respondents - 66% to 37%.
  • The percentage of Safari users is over double that of the overall population - this may be due in part to the fact that some in the Mac community actively solicited survey participation and encouraged respondents to indicate their Safari use, perhaps partially due to feeling snubbed because we didn't list them with IE and Firefox as direct choices.
  • When first accessing a new, unfamiliar home page, I'm most likely to... Response% of Respondents Read through the home page46% Navigate through or listen to the links on the page35% Use the Search to find what I'm looking for13% Look for a site map or site index3% No Response2%
  • Interestingly, the more proficient screen reader users are more likely to read through the home page and use links less often than less proficient screen reader users. This may be due to faster reading speeds for more experienced users. The home page strategies used were very similar regardless of proficiency, disability, or amount of screen reader use.
  • I use "skip to content" or "skip navigation" links... Response% of Respondents Whenever they're available22% Often16% Sometimes28% Seldom19% Never10% No Response4%
  • Some questions were of a technical nature and we understand that many participants may not have been very technically savvy. Responses may also be based upon user experiences with web content that is generally inaccessible. We cannot help but wonder if responses may have been different if screen reader interactions with web content were typically very positive.
  • I use Access keys... Response% of Respondents Whenever they're available22% Often16% Sometimes28% Seldom19% Never10%
  • I navigate by headings... Response% of Respondents Whenever they're available52% Often24%
  • 76% always or often navigating by headings when they are available.
  • I use site search functionality... Response% of Respondents Whenever it's available26% Often25% Sometimes31%
  • Find the word "Search"18% Jump to the first text/edit field on the page25%
  • Jump to the first form element in a page36%
  • Proficient screen reader users were more than twice as likely to jump directly to the form or text/edit field than less proficient users. Less proficient users were nearly three times more likely to use more manual methods (reading, tabbing, or finding) than more proficient users.
  • a majority of respondents seldom or never use site maps. There was no marked difference in the use of site maps across screen reader proficiency or disability. In general, it appears that site maps may be beneficial, but are not commonly accessed by screen reader users.
  • Text-only versions are always used by many and never used by many. As such, it is very difficult to interpret the value they have for screen reader users. More proficient screen reader users were much less likely to use text-only versions than less proficient users. This may suggest that proficient users employ sufficient techniques to render the main version acceptable to them. Or, it may suggest that proficient users do not gain value in using text-only versions, which are often less than optimal.
  • If content is identified as being "for screen reader users", how often do you use it? Response% of Respondents Whenever it's available38% Often15% Sometimes25% Seldom13%
  • A closer analysis, however, reveals that pop-up windows are reported as very difficult twice as often by less proficient screen reader users than with higher proficiency. Alternatively, more proficient users were three times more likely to indicate that pop-up windows are not at all difficult. This shows that less proficient screen reader users (which represent 41% of respondents) have more difficult experiences with pop-up windows.
  • Firefox users were much more likely to give a favorable response, perhaps a reflection of Firefox support for ARIA, etc. Evaluators and those without disabilities were nearly twice as likely to indicate that these applications are not very or not at all accessible than those that always use screen readers or have disabilities. This may suggest that these applications are actually more accessible than evaluators believe them to be, or alternatively, that screen reader users with disabilities are less knowledgeable about the true inaccessibility of these technologies.
  • 66% of evaluators preferred that the image be ignored, compared to only 28% of those that always user a screen reader. Similarly, 65% of those with no disability preferred that the image be ignored, compared to 29% of those with disabilities.
  • If a web page contains a photo of the White House, I prefer that the image be identified as... Response% of Respondents Photo of the White House80%
  • 69.4% of evaluators found them difficult compared to only 42.6% of those that always use a screen reader. Those with higher screen reader proficiency naturally found these links easier.
  • 71.5% of screen reader users reported that Flash is difficult
  • While the majority (58%) of users reported that frames are easy, those that are blind were 3 1/2 times more likely to indicate that they are easy than those with no disability. Similarly, those that always use a screen reader reported frames as easy nearly 3 times more often than evaluators. This perhaps suggests a misconception among those that do not have disabilities that frames are very inaccessible when in fact those with disabilities find them easy.
Vernon Fowler

Data show small improvements in accessibility of course materials - 0 views

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    But new data from Blackboard show that the most common types of course content that students use on a daily basis -- images, PDFs, presentations and other documents -- continue to be riddled with accessibility issues. And while colleges have made some slight improvements over the last five years, the issues are widespread.
Vernon Fowler

Don't Rely on Default Browser Error Messages - Intopia - 0 views

  • Another issue is that the messages are temporary. As soon as you put focus on the input with mouse, keyboard or touch, the message disappears. People with cognitive impairments will find it difficult to use these, and I think anyone trying to fill in the form while they’re distracted will have trouble as well. People who rely on the keyboard for navigation (which includes both sighted users and screen reader users) will also lose these messages as they move around the form.
  • If you’re confident of your error messages, you can remove the browser validation by adding the novalidate attribute to the wrapping form element, like this: <form novalidate>...</form>
  • You can style this with CSS, using the :valid and :invalid pseudo-classes
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Only the first error is noted with a message.
  • The rest rely on a change of border colour, which is, again, not evident to screen reader users.
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    "When I found out the major browsers were beginning to include error validation into their support for forms, I was pretty excited. Form validation is always a fiddly part of accessibility, so I'm always looking out for ways to make it easier for developers to do properly. I read MDN's form data validation tutorial and a CSS Tricks article on client-side form validation and immediately made some test forms. Sadly, I was disappointed with the results. The default error validation in browsers is almost completely inaccessible. I was hoping we'd get default "you've forgotten to fill this in" messages that could be customised. I might have been a bit too optimistic! Validation at the browser level has many of the same issues we find at the website level."
Vernon Fowler

10 colour contrast checking tools to improve the accessibility of your design | 456 Ber... - 3 views

  • online tool simulates colour blindness on an image that you upload or on a web page that you specify, while the Photoshop plugin changes the colours of the document you are working on
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