Tips, web design book reviews, resources and observations for teaching and learning web development.
Latest Accessibility News on Accessify | Accessibility Tools – An update gives us the information that the accessible table builder wizard is back in business and all new. I’ve mentioned the tools and wizards on this site many times to many people as being very helpful, so I’m joining in on the reminder that the tools and wizards are available on Accessify and worth a look.
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility, usability, CSS, web standards
Use GrayBit v1.0: Grayscale Conversion Contrast Accessibility Tool – Main Page – Presented by GrayBit to visually convert a full-color web page into a grayscale rendition to test contrast. The other tool is Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 from the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium. The Colour Contrast Analyser is primarily a tool for checking foreground and background colour combinations to determine if they provide good colour visibility. It also contains functionality to create simulations of certain visual conditions such as colour blindness.
Technorati Tags: web design, accessibility
I just learned about another online teaching and learning tool called ANGEL Learning. I’d be interested in hearing about how it compares with Blackboard and WebCT, if you have any information to share. It uses XHTML and makes some accessibility claims that sound good, but what’s the reality?
This just in: two more content management systems for learning that claim accessibility. ATutor and Moodle. Is anyone using either of these? Can you tell me what you think?
Technorati Tags: accessibility, usability, education, web standards
California State University (Long Beach) made the news as an early adopter of WebAdapt2Me. InTouch Newsletter, Vol. 14, No. 1: “California State University, Long Beach is the first university anywhere to adopt WebAdapt2Me, an assistive technology from IBM that removes barriers to reading for people with print disabilities. This software exploits the flexibility of web information to produce reading environments that exactly fit the reading needs of each individual. Students, staff and faculty who are not blind, but who still have difficulties reading at the levels demanded by university life, can now read documents on the web effectively.”
Other related links: IBM Case Studies and CSU: LB news.
Technorati Tags:accessibility, education, web standards
Knowbility had a booth set up at SXSWi with working examples of JAWS and other demos. A fellow named Charles Chen was at the Knowbility booth too, giving away software that makes Firefox self-voicing. Information and download CLC-4-TTS here. CLC-4-TTS is a cross OS compatible (Windows, Mac, Linux) collection of JavaScript functions that can be used for transforming Firefox into a self-voicing browser. This software is open source and is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL.
I added a new permanent link to my SEO cateogory in the sidebar today. It is SEOmoz.org. All sorts of search engine optimization tools and articles are provided. Be sure to check out the article Search Engine Ranking Factors, as it is a masterpiece of clear organization and informative writing. The article surprised me by giving h1 tags on the page “Inconsequential Importance.” I’d always heard that they were important. You have to register to use some of the tools.
The article Methods for measuring text readability – Standards-schmandards gives some background about what readability is, although if you’re an education majors you’re already familiar with the notion of reading levels. The article ties it in with web accessibility, so it’s an intro worth reading. You’ll find the link to the online readability index calculator in the article.
I tried it out with the previous paragraph, and it gave the paragraph a grade level of 15 and a reading ease score of 21, saying a typical comic scores 90 and legalese can score under 10.
The previous blog entry about Paul Graham’s speech scored a reading level of grade 7 and a reading ease score of 65.