Web accessibility has a reputation problem — too many people picture a dry compliance document rather than the practice of building sites everyone can use. A plain-language look at what web page accessibility means, the four principles that hold it together, real web accessibility examples, and a short checklist to start with […]
A story about web page headings and sub-headings that tries to look beyond the absurd distinctions that are sometimes made about the usability and accessibility of web content, to ask who needs them and why.
New Web Usability site launched. The new Web Usability site will now also contain web-related material from Dingo Access.
More than two years ago I wrote about WCAG 2.0 and Accessibility Supported, and my fear that, “the concept of ‘accessibility supported’ is not fully understood”. I believe that this “could put at risk the whole move to improve the accessibility of the web.” I am concerned that mixed-messages relating to the status of PDF […]
I recently had reason to investigate why someone using JAWS 11 with Windows 7 (64 bit) and Internet Explorer 9 was unable to identify or select checkboxes in a particular form. I quickly found that the problems were not restricted to this form and so I initially thought it might have something to do with […]
Many governments and organisations now require websites to be accessible, and when it comes to determining whether these requirements have been met, they often rely on recognised checklists of accessibility criteria such as WCAG 2.0 or Section 508. These checklists are a useful way of indicating whether a site complies with the required criteria. However, […]
There has been much discussion, and some arguments, about how to determine the accessibility of websites. Unfortunately, this is often polarised around two simplistic choices: A compliance/conformance based approach that usually involves a checklist of criteria; or, some form of user testing by people who have different disabilities and/or who rely on different assistive technologies. […]
My attention was recently drawn by Jenny Bruce to the relatively large number of sites that use bright ‘fluro’ background colours for navigation menu items and buttons. The combination of these ‘fluro’ background colours and white text often fails to meet the minimum colour contrast requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, whereas, when […]
At the CSUN 2011 conference I gave a presentation called “Improving Web Accessibility for the Elderly”. The presentation considered how many people over the age of 60 use the web, how much they use it and why they use it. It outlined some common issues older web users encounter and the general lack of awareness […]
The results of the second survey into how people over the age of 60 use information and communication technologies (ICT) are now available. This phase of the project involved surveying people in the physical-world and one-on-one interviews with them about some of the problems they experience when using the web. There were some differences between […]
During December 2010 and January 2011, we conducted an online survey of information and communication technology (ICT) users over the age of 60. We have completed the initial collating of these results and they provide a snapshot of internet and mobile phone usage by those older members of the population who are able and willing […]