In the last two months I’ve come across more examples of the LONGDESC attribute in use, than I’ve seen in as many previous years. Due to this apparent rise in its popularity, this seems like a good time to look at when the LONGDESC can be useful, and when it’s just a waste of code.
CAPTCHA’s and accessibility have been hotly debated in newsgroups, the press and also recently brought up on this blog. Many people are feeling marginalised by their use and frustrated at not being able to access the online services they want. Facebook, for example, has in the past made heavy use of CAPTCHA even once you’re logged in (and it is rumoured to be reinstated). Google also uses CAPTCHA although they have looked into providing audio alternatives to the visual CAPTCHA (at the time of writing however two people have reported that the audio has not been working). These are two of the fastest growing Internet companies on the web today who are setting precedents of how web pages are delivered.
This article looks at what CAPTCHA is, what it is for, problems and possible solutions. Continue Reading »
The first commandment of Web Accessibility is to Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
. Unfortunately, this is more often easier said than done, with inappropriate alt text often being the cause of many sites failing to reach even Single-A. So here is our guide to best practice alt text.
Time to vent some steam about the TITLE attribute. This, almost more than any other item in the web author’s toolbox, seems to be misunderstood and overused.
The TITLE is an essential attribute for some elements, such as ACRONYM or ABBR, and is a required attribute for FRAME elements where it provides contextual information that wouldn’t otherwise be obvious to screen reader users.
Unfortunately though, it can be applied to almost any HTML element. Most often we see it on links and images, where it can confuse or even mask essential information. It can create issues on other elements, but for this article we’ll concentrate on the damage it can do to clear link text and images with good ALT attributes. Often creating classic examples of too much accessibility.
Continue Reading »
