Category: accessibility

W3C Accessibility Before and After Demonstration

[Draft] Before and After Demonstration: Overview: “The ‘Before and After Demonstration’ is a multi-page resource suite that shows common accessibility barriers using practical examples. The demonstration consists of an inaccessible Web site, an accessible version of the same site, as well as information about the demonstrated barriers. This demonstration does not attempt to cover every checkpoint of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) nor to provide an exhaustive list of examples but to demonstrate some key aspects of Web accessibility.”

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Visit Web Teacher to read any comments.

What’s up in 2007 for accessibility

Sharron Rush, of Knowbility, talks about What’s up in 2007 for accessibility and takes a look at where we’ve made progress and where we have to keep pushing for progress. One of her comments is, “YouTube, Flicker and millions of blogs upon which the users themselves generate content are the fastest growing use of the Internet. What to do about accessibility when the content is being created by millions of users who do not have the first clue about accommodating the needs of people with disabilities?”

Addendum: SXSW podcasts a new interview with Sharron Rush discussing accessibility. She talks about the benefits of accessibility. Her background as an accessibility activist is also part of the interview. And, of course, you get some previews of what will be involved in this year’s SXSW accessibility panels.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Skip Navigation or a Heading?

I’m currently reading an accessibility book. I’m not quite ready to post a review of it yet, because it’s very lengthy, but I got so excited about a new piece of information in a chapter of the book by Jim Thatcher that I just had to say something about it.

A modern screen reader can navigate using heading elements (h1 to h6). Using the H key, a person with a screen reader can jump from heading to heading to get a sense of how the page is organized and find the content they want to hear. (Opera uses the S key.) This means a well structured page with textual heading elements (or their equivalent) identifying each major content area of the page can be quickly understood just from the headings. Skip navigation links are not needed in a page with informative heading text. In particular, there should be a good heading indicating the main content.

When using skip navigation, the most useful link is to the main content.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

ATSTAR

ATSTAR “ATSTAR is an acronym for Assistive Technology: Strategies, Tools, Accommodations and Resources. This online curriculum improves educational outcomes for students with disabilities
by helping teachers learn to use assistive technology in the classroom. Our core program is a series of online teacher training modules with supporting CD-based videos.” The ATSTAR program is from Knowbility.

Technorati Tags:

Visit Web Teacher to read any comments.

Summary and History: Browser Support for CSS

A chapter from a new book by Kynn Barlett, Browser Support for CSS on webreference.com is 8 pages long and is a good overview of the browser situation now and the history of browser adoption of CSS. The chapter title “Browser Support for CSS” gave me the idea this would be a table showing how each browser supported each CSS property, but it isn’t that at all. If you teach and need a good resource for an overview about the growth of browser support for standards, this is an excellent reference. The chapter is hour 3 from Sams Teach Yourself CSS in 24 Hours.

I haven’t read the entire book and can only recommend this chapter as a good resource for teachers.

Visit Web Teacher to read any comments.