Web Access Centre Blog

With the help of Barrier Break Technologies we have pulled together a list of Jaws and WindowEyes keystrokes for Flash and PDF. These are based on certain versions of each screen reader, Flash and PDF. Most of these are standard keystrokes but useful to flag within the context of using or testing accessible Flash and PDF. Also included are some useful links.

We’d be interested to hear your feedback, how you get on with the keystrokes, or if you have any more tips and advice that others may find useful.

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This is a resource that i think i’m going to find handy - cheat sheets for all manner of client and server side languages.

While not directly related to accessibility, when this one turned up in our inbox we thought we’d post it on here as this is a pretty handy resource for anyone working with the web in any way.

Client side languages catered for include (X)HTML, CSS, JavaScript (including AJAX), ActionScript and Adobe AIR.

On the server side, there are resources for Apache Web Server, MySQL, .NET, Perl, PHP and Ruby On Rails.

There are also a number of resources for the Yahoo User Interface Library (YUI), Google keyboard shortcuts and popular blogging services including WordPress, TypePad and Moveable Type. Firefox and Thunderbird users will also find some cheat sheets they may find useful and for the creative people out there - Adobe Photoshop!

Enjoy!

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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A few weeks ago Victor Tsaran, Accessibility Program Manager over at Yahoo!, released a video introducing screen readers and web accessibility. The next in the Yahoo! series introduces screen magnification and web accessibility by Karo Caran.

This is a great introduction to screen magnification and not to be missed.

Victor Tsaran, Accessibility Program Manager over at Yahoo! is filmed here explaining what screen readers are and how people interact with them. As he carries out tasks such as navigating his desktop and browsing the web he describes what he is doing and how e uses the keyboard to navigate. This is a great video and introduction to screen readers.

View Victor’s screen reader demo