Web Access Centre Blog

Would you even know if it was?

For most people, the answer would be no, and it’d be down to a very simple thing - your default operating system colour scheme. Most people who use windows use the default colour scheme, which comes with a white background colour for applications, such as Internet Explorer. Firefox for Windows also comes with a white background colour by default, regardless of operating system default.

So what’s the problem?

The problem is when you forget that you need to specify that you want that white background colour in your web page.

Continue Reading »

We talk a lot about making PDF’s accessible and how we should present them on the web but rarely do we touch on making PowerPoint accessible. As with PDF the bottom line is that if the content of the PowerPoint can not be made accessible then an accessible alternative should be given.

Accessibility is about access to information for all types of people regardless of ability or disability including people with hearing cognitive, mobility and sight impairments. For the purposes of this article however we’re looking at how people with screen readers can both access PowerPoint to read and also use when delivering presentations.

The general consensus is that PowerPoint files are not as accessible as HTML pages, and that, while there are ways to improve on the accessibility of slides, it is advisable to provide a Text or HTML alternative.

Continue Reading »

When I was at South by Southwest Interactive earlier this year, I attended a panel which had the intruiging title of “High Class and Low Class Web Design”. I’m not sure what I expected before I went in, but while I was in there, I had a bit of an epiphany.

Coming from a topic based on class, there was a lot of talk about respect for the audience and whether designers treat their audiences as equals and how do deal with audiences that aren’t in the same cultural, educational or peer group. One of the panelists worked for a wrestling magazine and described how after being initially skeptical, he came to understand, and then to respect his audience as he got to know more about them.

In amongst a lot of fascinating discussion, came an interesting point - that it’s difficult, if not impossible to design for an audience that you don’t respect - and it got me thinking…

…what if the reason that web accessibility (and accessibility in general) hasn’t got as far as it should have by now, is that the majority of designers/managers/people in charge of making stuff have no, or not enough knowledge of what life is like for people with disabilities, or what it’s like having a disability, and as a result, don’t understand, and don’t respect them.

It’s all very well to make a choice that you don’t want to design websites for wrestlers because you just don’t “get” them (or think that it’s a complete waste of time and money), but there really shouldn’t be a web designer out there who decides they don’t want to (or can’t) make websites for disabled people.

It’s not news that there’s a lack of understanding generally about disability, but this is particularly true when it comes to how people with disabilities use the web, and since coming back I’ve been having a look around the web to see what’s out there, and the truth is, there isn’t much. Yahoo have been doing some good things with videos of screen reader and screen magnification users, but the feedback I’ve been hearing is that while those are great, it’s still not enough.

So in the coming months, we’re going to try and do something about that.

First though, it seemed sensible to get some opinions from you - the readers of this blog, and the people who have been crying out for this information - as to what exactly you want.

Some of the ideas we’ve come up with are:

Profiles/text interviews, accompanied by photographs of how each individual uses the web.
Audio interviews/podcasts (with transcripts, of course)
Surveys of groups of disabled people
Videos (technology and hosting permitting)

What do you think? Anything else you’d like to see? Any particular group you’d like us to concentrate on first?

The RNIB Techshare conference to be held on the 4th and 5th of October is shaping up to be the biggest yet. Bookings are now open and I recommend you book a place fast as I’ve had a sneak preview at who will be involved and the line up is impressive.

There’s a lot to whet the appetite for anyone looking at not just the web but also software, mobiles, standards and compliance. Here are just a few of the web accessibility highlights so far…

Keynotes

This year we have keynote speakers from a wide range of backgrounds representing industry, disability organisations and governance. So far keynotes will be given by the United Nations, who in December 2006 published the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Microsoft and the Daisy Consortium.

Presenters

Some of the best known names in web accessibility will be joining us to share their views on current and emerging issues in the area. We have Dan Champion, web consultant and local government expert, presenting what promises to be an interesting paper on “Government web accessibility policy - advocacy vs. militancy”, Andrew Kirkpatrick and Matt Morgan-May from Adobe, Kath Moonan from AbilityNet, Pierre Guillou from BrailleNet, Brian Kelly from UKOLN and our very own Bim Egan who will be giving you an update shortly on what she plans to talk about.

Pre Techshare workshops

On October 3rd there will be a number of full and half day workshops on accessibility that you can book separately. These are:

• Software tools for dyslexic learners – Full Day, Chris Stringfellow, AbilityNet and Sharron Butteriss, Iansyst Ltd
• Testing your website: is it accessible? – Full Day, Donna Smillie, RNIB Web Access Team
• Web 2.0 and Screen Readers: Challenges, Solutions, and the Future – Half Day, Steve Faulkner, The Paciello Group (TPG) Europe
• Transitioning your website from WCAG 1.0 to 2.0 – Half Day, Henny Swan, RNIB Web Access Team

To find out more and keep up to date with news, confirmed speakers, exhibitors, venue and registration details visit the Techshare website.

Hiding text off the screen view using CSS is one of the ways that web authors can provide contextual information for screen reader users. This is just to make the information that is visually obvious, potentially audible. It’s a great help, but you do need to be careful which CSS technique you use.

If DISPLAY: NONE; or VISIBILITY: HIDDEN; is used, there’s a very good chance that screen readers will “obey” this rule, and won’t read the hidden content.

The surest technique is negative positioning. this only places the text out of screen view, but doesn’t hide it from screen readers. So if the content you are styling out of sight should be available to screen readers, try the following rule:

.screenreader {
               position: absolute;
               left: -999em;
               }

This way, most screen reader users will benefit from your thoughtful additional content.

Earlier this year I took part in a workshop for Public Sector Forums (PSF) called “Real World Accessibility” along with Bruce Lawson, Patrick Lauke, Grant Broome, Dan Champion and Ian Lloyd.

It was only open to Public Sector employees, and went down a storm. So much so, PSF asked us to do another one, this time open to anyone.

It’s being held near the Barbican, this Wednesday, 8th August, and tickets have been selling well… but there are still tickets available if you want to take advantage of the collective knowledge that will be in the room, and if you’re still not sure, then check out the agenda:

Agenda

Chair: Dan Champion

9.30-10.05: Web Accessibility: What, Why, How, and Who Cares?
Bruce Lawson

An introduction to accessibility: whistlestop tour around why and how you should use Web Standards to make sites that are accessible to disabled people, usable for all and profitable for your client.

10.05-10.40: How disabled users use the web
Ann McMeekin, RNIB

A closer look at assistive technologies and how people with disabilities can - and do - use websites.

10.40-11.10: Short supplier slots

11.10-11.30: Exhibition, networking and coffee

11.30-12.05: Too much accessibility - good intentions, badly implemented
Patrick Lauke, University of Salford

HTML offers many features and attributes that can make your sites more accessible…but only if they’re used wisely. Can there really be “too much accessibility”?

12.05-13.05: Discussion - A Public Sector Web Management Group?

13.05-13.45: Exhibition, networking and lunch

13.45-14.20: GIS, PDF and other monsters in the closet
Grant Broome, Shaw Trust

Certain proprietary technologies sit on our servers secretly hoping that no-one will find them. Grant Broome from the Shaw Trust Accessibility Services examines how disabled users find these technologies and offers advice on how they can be made more accessible.

14.20-14.55: Quality assurance - testing, monitoring and maintaining accessibility
Dan Champion, Champion IS

14.55-15.15: Exhibition, networking and coffee

15.15-15.50 Case study - real world examples of common accessiblity cock-ups in the wild
Ian Lloyd, Nationwide BS and Accessify.com

To include video examples of public and private sector sites

15.50-16.45: Panel discussion, including WCAG2

Book a ticket for the second Real World Accessibility workshop.

Do be careful to define a base (natural) language on all web pages. Otherwise, defining other languages can result in the entire page being read by a screen reader trying to use the pronunciation rules for the wrong language.

This can happen where the HTML tag isn’t given a LANG attribute, for instance:
<httml lang="en">

The problem arises if there is any coded “change” to the natural language on the page, because the “change” is, in fact, the first time that a language is defined. So everything after it may be pronounced as if it is in the “foreign” language. Continue Reading »

I was really excited to see that WebAIM, in partnership with the National Center on Disability and Access to Education, has received funding to help web developers consider issues of cognitive disability in their designs. The Phase I Steppingstones of Technology Innovation grant, awarded by the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), is a two-year development grant with a focus on producing a tool intended to help Web developers create web content that can more readily be used by those with cognitive and learning disabilities.

This is great news and something that is very much needed. When the draft version of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) was published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) last year it drew a lot of comment from the accessibility and web design community. One re-occurring comment was that it failed to address the needs of people with cognitive impairments satisfactorily and that this group was in danger of being left behind. Specifically it was flagged that the testability of the success criteria that address cognitive impairments were insufficient.

With the most recent draft release of WCAG 2.0 the Working Group provided some explanation of how they have taken on board and addressed accessibility for users with cognitive impairments but for me the fact that this was such an issue served only to highlight that we, in the web design community, need a lot more research done in this area.

The Steppingstones Project with look at developing a set of evaluation rules and algorithms to be added to the WebAIM’s WAVE evaluation tools. The intent of the new functionality is to provide developers with feedback on how their web page designs might impact users with cognitive or learning disabilities.

Find out more about the Steppingstones Project on Web Accessibility and Cognitive Disabilities in Education.