Web Access Centre Blog

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.

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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?

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.

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 »

Podcasts are getting ever more popular on the web and for good reason. They’re a portable easy way for many of us to keep up with what’s going on whilst on the move as well as a welcome alternative to wasting trees by printing things off to read on the train. Listening to podcasts from South by Southwest 2007 (SXSW), Web Axe and Equal Access to Software and information have provided a welcome distraction for me whilst wedged in between disgruntled commuters on the way home (and also a lot easier than reading a paper). For many people it’s also their preferred format when sourcing information. When meeting with Hidden Differences last week, an organisation that represents people with cognitive and reading problems, they talked about how when canvassing a large organisation’s employees recently on their preferred format for internal communications around a third opted for audio. Interesting.

However for some of us listening to podcasts it is not an option. If you’re deaf, hard of hearing, deaf-blind, do not have a soundcard or speakers you’ll be locked out of content if it is only provided in audio format. Not only that so too will search engines. The guidance therefore, according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, is to provide a transcript of what’s being said.

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We all know that when an abbreviation or initialisation is used, that it should be expanded at it’s first use. We know too, that there are two ways this can be achieved:

Unfortunately web authors often use both together. This is awful for screen reader users, if they have expansions enabled, they will get both the full plain text and the fully expanded acronym. Continue Reading »

In forms that have fairly long implicit labels, the BR element is the worst way to control where the text will wrap. Screen readers may only read the text that comes after the BR element, because of course, it’s perfectly legitimate to have a line of instruction, followed by the BR element, followed by the implicit lable.

For example, if a label were: “If you have more than 14 chickens,
how many do you own?” Many screen reader users will hear only “how many do you own?”

There are two simple ways to avoid this issue.

Here’s another series of articles, designed to uncover techniques or practices that create difficulties for a wide range of disabled people. These are all techniques we’ve found in use on the web, on professionally run sites.

Some of the hidden barriers are created by coding errors or ommissions, others are due to too little or (conversely) too much thought being given to the needs of screen reader users. Continue Reading »

I’ve been hanging out in the virtual world Second Life a lot recently wrapping my head around all the amazing things you can do there. Something that’s really struck me however is how this could be a real opportunity for people who are restricted in some way in their day to day lives.

Working as a Web Accessibility Consultant this is hardly surprising but what really got me excited was thinking of the opportunities that it could give a friend of mine, Sam, who was paralysed in a car accident a couple of years ago. Imagine if he could hang out in Second Life, meet people, go to concerts, take courses, fly, earn his own money, even play football with his Dad.

To do all this though Second Life needs to be accessible which, from what I have seen so far, it isn’t fully so I am currently researching how Second Life fairs in terms of accessibility from the perspective of all users including people with mobility, visual, hearing and cognitive impairments. To do this though I need your help. Rather than just put on my auditors hat I’d like to also hear what your experiences are with Second Life including the good as well as the bad, what you find troublesome, what features you like most and if you use an access technology or change your browser settings.

If you’d like to share you thoughts then leave a comment here or send an email to accesssecondlife@gmail.com.

All eyes and ears will be on the Beijing 2008 Olympics website next year when the games swing into action on September 6th. I for one am very excited and hoping to get over there to see the real thing but if not will have to make do with internet coverage for up to date results of what is going on. Given the experience of the 2000 Sydney Olympics website sued by Bruce Maguire for being inaccessible the Beijing Olympics website will be under more scrutiny than it may expect and the word in many accessibility circles is “Will it be accessible and will I be able to access it”?

But of course it’s not just a question of if you can access a site if you are disabled. Internationalisation (also known as i18n) and localisation (also known as l10n) must also be taken into account to ensure ease of access for people from different cultures speaking different languages. Mobile access will also play a key role with people wanting to check results while on the move. This is even more important considering mobile access to the web is higher in Asia than the West given that lack of hardware and Internet connections.

In Part One I’ll be looking at the accessibility of the current site, in Part Two I’ll be exploring ease of access for international audiences and in Part Three I’ll be looking at mobile access.

But first, how does the site currently fair in terms of accessibility? Continue Reading »