web-accessibility &laquo; WordPress.com Tag Feed http://en.wordpress.com/tag/web-accessibility/ Feed of posts on WordPress.com tagged "web-accessibility" Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:13:59 +0000 http://en.wordpress.com/tags/ en <![CDATA[Podcast #76: Web Accessibility Disasters]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/podcast-76-web-accessibility-disasters/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:12:38 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/podcast-76-web-accessibility-disasters/

 

Dennis and Ross review web sites which should be great in web accessibility, but fail badly. The hosts provide a lot of constructive criticism, including many fixes that can be done in a minimal amount of time. Issues are also good to discuss as a reminder for our own work.

Download Web Axe Episode 76 (Web Accessibility Disasters)

Chatter
Articles
Web Site Disasters
Digitalaccessibiliy

Company targeting Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

The Good
  • Almost all of the text is marked up in HTML rather than image, flash or other media.
  • Simple, clean design.
The Bad
  • No ALT text on main banner.
  • Font size tool (triple whammy).
  • Underlines not links; links not underlined.
  • Headings not marked up appropriately.
  • Menu missing <ul>
  • List not a list (see Compliance page).
  • Inline / intrusive JavaScript.
Job Accommodation Network (JAN)

A service provided by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). JAN’s mission is to facilitate the employment and retention of workers with disabilities by providing employers, employment providers, people with disabilities, and family members with information on job accommodations, entrepreneurship, and related subjects.

The Good
  • Textual navigation; no Javascript based navigation.
  • Has proper ALT text on pictures and JAN and ODEP logos.
The Bad
  • No heading tags; some marked up with bold tag.
  • There is a summary on layout table (double whammy).
  • No skip nav or skip to link provided.
  • Inline javascript. Example: <body onload="P7_ExpMenu()">
  • Non-breaking spacing used for layout.
The Rose Project

Mission is to provide maternal and child healthcare to the economically poor people of Malawi, with particular reference to HIV treatment and care.

One of nine listed for Most Accessible Website in the Irish Web Awards?

The Good
  • XHTML; semantic, clean mark-up
  • Using headings
  • Language is defined (xml:lang="en")
  • SWFobject.js for unobtrusive flash embedding
The Bad
  • When JavaScript is unavailable, Flash replacement image has broken links and placeholder text.
  • Skip links – Skip link doesn’t work?
  • ‘Find out about ways to give’ button.
  • logo missing alt text for tag line.
  • H1 headings should be H2 (such as Featured Project).
  • Some links that should be underlined, are not.
  • Use of <small> tags not recommended.
  • Links lack the default focus effect and outline removed!
    DO NOT do this:     
:focus {outline-color:-moz-use-text-color;outline-style:none;outline-width:0;}

 

 

Podcast #76: Web Accessibility Disasters

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree)

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:43:32 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Podcast #76: Web Accessibility Disasters]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/podcast-76-web-accessibility-disasters/ Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:11:32 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/podcast-76-web-accessibility-disasters/

 

Dennis and Ross review web sites which should be great in web accessibility, but fail badly. The hosts provide a lot of constructive criticism, including many fixes that can be done in a minimal amount of time. Issues are also good to discuss as a reminder for our own work.

Download Web Axe Episode 76 (Web Accessibility Disasters)

Chatter
Articles
Web Site Disasters
Digitalaccessibiliy

Company targeting Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

The Good
  • Almost all of the text is marked up in HTML rather than image, flash or other media.
  • Simple, clean design.
The Bad
  • No ALT text on main banner.
  • Font size tool (triple whammy).
  • Underlines not links; links not underlined.
  • Headings not marked up appropriately.
  • Menu missing <ul>
  • List not a list (see Compliance page).
  • Inline / intrusive JavaScript.
Job Accommodation Network (JAN)

A service provided by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). JAN’s mission is to facilitate the employment and retention of workers with disabilities by providing employers, employment providers, people with disabilities, and family members with information on job accommodations, entrepreneurship, and related subjects.

The Good
  • Textual navigation; no Javascript based navigation.
  • Has proper ALT text on pictures and JAN and ODEP logos.
The Bad
  • No heading tags; some marked up with bold tag.
  • There is a summary on layout table (double whammy).
  • No skip nav or skip to link provided.
  • Inline javascript. Example: <body onload="P7_ExpMenu()">
  • Non-breaking spacing used for layout.
The Rose Project

Mission is to provide maternal and child healthcare to the economically poor people of Malawi, with particular reference to HIV treatment and care.

One of nine listed for Most Accessible Website in the Irish Web Awards?

The Good
  • XHTML; semantic, clean mark-up
  • Using headings
  • Language is defined (xml:lang="en")
  • SWFobject.js for unobtrusive flash embedding
The Bad
  • When JavaScript is unavailable, Flash replacement image has broken links and placeholder text.
  • Skip links – Skip link doesn’t work?
  • ‘Find out about ways to give’ button.
  • logo missing alt text for tag line.
  • H1 headings should be H2 (such as Featured Project).
  • Some links that should be underlined, are not.
  • Use of <small> tags not recommended.
  • Links lack the default focus effect and outline removed!
    DO NOT do this:
:focus {outline-color:-moz-use-text-color;outline-style:none;outline-width:0;}

 

 

Podcast #76: Web Accessibility Disasters

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree)

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 04:43:32 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Accessible World Tek Talk presents netECHO, November 23, 2009 by Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/accessible-world-tek-talk-presents-netecho-november-23-2009-by-larry-lewis-president-flying-blind-llc/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:14:16 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/accessible-world-tek-talk-presents-netecho-november-23-2009-by-larry-lewis-president-flying-blind-llc/

 

On Monday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time, Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC www.flying-blind.com will be demonstrating netECHO, an accessible, phone-based web application that enables individuals who are vision impaired to perform a number of tasks using the world wide web.

read more

Accessible World Tek Talk presents netECHO, November 23, 2009 by Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC
Jim Ruby
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:36:05 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Accessible World Tek Talk presents netECHO, November 23, 2009 by Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/accessible-world-tek-talk-presents-netecho-november-23-2009-by-larry-lewis-president-flying-blind-llc/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:12:45 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/accessible-world-tek-talk-presents-netecho-november-23-2009-by-larry-lewis-president-flying-blind-llc/

 

On Monday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time, Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC www.flying-blind.com will be demonstrating netECHO, an accessible, phone-based web application that enables individuals who are vision impaired to perform a number of tasks using the world wide web.

read more

Accessible World Tek Talk presents netECHO, November 23, 2009 by Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC
Jim Ruby
Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:36:05 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Disappointed in Google WAVE]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/disappointed-in-google-wave/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:33:04 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/disappointed-in-google-wave/

 

Google WAVE logo

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

And the generated source:

<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">
Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

Disappointed in Google WAVE

Dennis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:56 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Disappointed in Google WAVE]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/disappointed-in-google-wave/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:32:35 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/disappointed-in-google-wave/

 

Google WAVE logo

Google WAVE logo

What can I say besides I’m just plain disappointed in Google WAVE. There was so much hype, so much excitement about it, and now it’s evaporated.

No HTML5

I understood that WAVE was to be done in HTML5, but it has a doc type of HTML 4.01. And actually, I found that it has a very serious case of “Divitis” (too many DIV tags). Can’t find any type of HTML5 tag at all, not even a section tag, header tag, nuthin’. Just a ton of DIVs and SPANs.

If you’re curious, here’s a look at the top of the source:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">

And the generated source:

<html><head><meta name="gwt:property" content="locale=en">
Not Accessible

Google WAVE is not web accessible. Period. Simplistically, this means that people with disabilities cannot use it, or it’s very difficult. For more on this, check out my Web Axe entry Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave and Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review by WebAIM’s Jared Smith.

To further frustrate us web accessibility professionals, Google has stolen the name of WebAIM’s free tool WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool).

No Usage

No one’s using WAVE. Most people I know now who want a WAVE invite (and that’s a lot of folks), has received one by now. And I haven’t seen much activity at all. As a matter of fact, I haven’t seen any new messages for a month now.

Disappointed in Google WAVE

Dennis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:12:56 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Stumbling Around .gov Websites: Good, Bad, and Goofy ]]> http://asyourworldchanges.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/stumbling-around-gov-websites-good-bad-and-goofy/ Sun, 22 Nov 2009 20:02:07 +0000 slger http://asyourworldchanges.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/stumbling-around-gov-websites-good-bad-and-goofy/

Recently, attention returned to concern about
the role of accessibility in the U.S. government transparency movement. While gov website operators might well deserve a good grade for effort, most sites have obvious failings that experts and users repeatedly point out. In this post, I show some of my personal problems and suggest corrective actions. Visually impaired people can hear a realistic experience with a capable, free screen reader to better understand how websites respond to an intermediate level visually impaired, task oriented user. Sighted readers and accessibility specialists are urged to consider alternatives to reduce causes for stumbling around.

Hear me Stumble Recording

Download MP3 recording (38 minutes, 17 MB) trying tasks at whitehouse, disability, data, and recovery .gov. Starting with some typical tasks, I get into each website far enough to identify and stumble over some problem, then later come back and analyze the cause in both the website and my own practice, written up below. These little experiments are certainly not definitive because someone more experienced with the website might take a very different route or the proper screen reader action just might not occur to me at the moment. So, listen if you’re patient and interested to these 4 segments and follow along in your browser to perhaps grok what I’m missing in the recording.

For the record, I was using Windows XP, Firefox 3.5, NVDA RC 09, and PlexTalk Pocket as recorder.

The BLUF — great availability of useful information but fall short of
excellence in usability

BLUF=bottom line Up front

The Obama administration has unleashed an enormous flow of energy and
information for citizens to use for their personal lives, political causes, and
general improvement of society. I really appreciate the nuggets of
explanations dispensed in RSs feeds and twitter streams, amplified by social
media communicators interested in technology and organizations with a special
thread of accessibility. I offer these stumbles as the only feedback I can
provide, hoping my analyses eventually reach into the administration and d.c.
government apparatus. My stumbles are not flat on my face, fallen and cannot
get up, but rather trips over seed bumps, unnecessary traversals around hazy
obstacles, and stops to reconsider the surroundings to decide my next safe
steps. Just like real physical life, these stumbles absorb way too much energy,
often discouraging me from completing a task. Informed by my own experience
building interfaces, databases, and websites plus software engineering methods
of testing, use cases, complexity measures, and design exploration, I truly
believe each stumble indicates a serious design flaw. The good news is that
while my stumbles may partially track with vision loss and continuing learning the rules of accessibility and assistive technology,
of the ‘curb cut’ principle suggest corrections will smooth the
way for other, abled users who are also troubled with usability difficulties
they cannot understand without the accessibility and usability framework.

Summary of my stumbles on typical .gov tasks

  1. Website: whitehouse.gov

    Task: Find a recent blog post received by RSS

    : stumble: Post was not in recent list, didn’t know how to use archives, didn’t trust search

    Follow up: Navigated around November archive, eventually found links to previous articles

    Suggestions: Factor archives, Use landmark pattern for list sections

    Comments: Now has a text only version but similar navigation problems

    Grade: C. Text Only site isn’t much of an accessibility improvement, please work on organizing this mass of information. RSS feeds more useful than website. Also, use your clout to force social media services to become accessible, too.

  2. Website: Disability.gov

    Task: Discover information about public transportation in local community

    : stumble: Found ” Transportation” main topic but could not reach specific information

    Follow up: Read “how to use” and eventually figured out info organized by state

    Suggestions: “See sidebar” isn’t sufficient so data needs better organization

    Comments: Site content is effectively transmitted by RSS and Twitter. good survey can help improve site

    Grade B: Good process, but not yet organized properly or communicating website use

  3. Website: data.gov

    Task: Trial download of a data set using search form

    : stumble: Very hard to understand search form components distracting headings and social media,

    Follow up: Eventually got search results, but unsatisfactorily

    Suggestions: Start over

    Comments: Only for wonks on salary, not advised for citizens

    Grade: Incomplete, do over, or adapt expensive recovery.gov interface and data management

  4. Website: Recovery.gov

    Task: Find recovery funding projects in Arizona

    : stumble: Locating form for query and then results

    Follow up: Found the form under non descriptive heading, easily set query, drilled down past top of page to text version of results table

    Suggestions: Make the “Track the money” foremost part of page, submerging feature awards and website data

    Comments: $10M+ project needs more usability and accessibility input

Individual Website Analyses

whitehouse.gov — this National Landmark needs ARIA landmarks

I don’t visit this site often but I do read occasional blog and press briefings in my Levelstar Icon RSS client. One article caught my attention, about encouraging Middle Eastern girls, and seemed worth a tweet to my followers with similar interests. But I needed a good web address so set off to navigate myself through the site.

I was surprised to find a link to an “accessible” version, not sure what that mean. It turns out to be “text only” which doesn’t mean much to me if the navigation is the same as a screen reader is abstracting from text decorations anyway. Hence, I was faced with a branching decision with no criteria for which branch to take, somewhat confusing.

As usual to refresh or familiarize myself, I take a “heading tour” to learn the main sections of the site and target the section for my task. Soon, I find the “blog” section but the article list is mainly on President Obama’s Asian trip, not reaching back as far as the article I wanted was a few days old. I declared a “Stumble” by not knowing how to use the archives, needing to train myself and wander a bit more off recording.


Following up later, I found myself confused about the organization of past material. I took the November link but ended up in more heaps of videos, blog posts, briefings, etc. Eventually, I got to blog article lists and found the web construct that linked to past articles, looks like “previous 1 2…. next”.


Answer: DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano blog post on ‘Meeting female students in Abu Dhabi’

To analyze a bit further, let’s separate accessibility from usability. This task seemed to take a little more effort than needed, because I stumbled around learning the archive information architecture and list results patterns. Nothing in the screen reader or the HTML seemed problematic. Headings helped, not hindered. Perhaps this is a stubble that can only be prevented by more practice, but it’s possible we have a jumble of website content that could be factored to make paths easier to follow.

Traversing a list divided into sections is a common pattern, often intermixed with links to articles and media. The list of blog posts was indeed an HTML list that could be followed by items, but got strange at the end the next-previous section is labeled with something like LSQUO, which makes no sense in a screen reader. This construct is also easy to miss using links rather than items. Could this pattern be


standardized (see below)?

Duh, why didn’t I just use the website Search? Unfortunately, I have a deeply ingrained mistrust of site searches, mainly from getting gobs of results that don’t help. Like, how would I know the rules for making a good search query? Is it “Napolitano Abu Dhabi” with quotes where, and default being conjunction? And these words are not the easiest names to type correctly, so is there spelling correction? Well, it turned out “Napolitano” (2nd try) turned up the article about 4 results down but with the same search result bar construct. OK, I’m convinced to bring Search back into my website explorer toolkit. and will work to overcome bad experiences from past generations of website searches.

Overall, I grade myself as a B with my improving mental map of the site, but definitely prefer using the content by RSS feed, i.e. getting blog and briefings spoken from mobile device. Sorry, but whitehouse.gov still gets a C in my ratings, mostly from the need to have a stellar, near perfect website to model for not only .gov but also community, state gov, professional associations, universities, etc. Only 10 months into the website, the amount of content, useful individually, may grow into a giant heap of links that drive citizens away. Regarding accessibility, I simply don’t see the rationale for the text only site and recommend looking ahead to using better overall structure with landmarks (see below).

Disability.gov is very useful but maybe convoluted?

Disability.gov is a regular in both my RSS feed list and Twitter tweetroll. The site has a general framework of disability needs and resources. New resources and classes of resources per day of the week are routinely broadcast. I have a warm feeling when I see these, like somebody is actually looking out for me in that great USG bureaucracy.

For some local surveys, I anticipate needing data and examples of regional transportation systems supported by public and disabled communities. Ok, I know I’m delusional that a conservative wealthy retirement oriented city will even consider such a thing as services for economic, environmental, or social reasons. But, hey, there’s a sliver of hope. Indeed, this is a typical way the USG can foster citizen innovation through better and more transparent data.


The website navigation sidebar is straightforward with tasks and information topics. In the recorded session, I picked Transportation and then got stuck. I had a page headed Transportation, nice, with topic overview, but no real information, just a use the sidebar. Ok, but how? why? After, in my follow up, I figured out that information was organized by state, which makes sense, but wasn’t explicit when I stumbled.

Choosing Arizona from the state list, I found a number of resources, none of which lead directly to the Tri-city Prescott area. Tucson was well represented, but I knew that, been there, seen the buses, and vision services. Overall, I found this site satisfactory, with an encouraging amount of information, but I’m still somewhat befuddled about the relationship between topics and sidebar and details.

At one point, I was presented with a survey. Sure, I’ll give you feedback, thanks for asking. As usual, I didn’t know how long the survey would take, like how many questions. First accessibility glitch was that required fields were designated by some symbol not read by a screen reader in normal mode, probably an asterisk *. That meant I had to switch into listening more punctuation in the screen reader or just answer all questions. Silly, why not say REQUIRED, rather than use a little symbol. Next, I couldn’t figure out the form of answers, which turned out to be radio buttons labeled 1 to 10 and NA. Ok, that’s a lot of tabbing but not overwhelming, as I whizzed through the questions. Then, came a switch to some combo boxes for answers. Annoying, suggesting the survey wasn’t vetted by many people using screen readers, but not really too bad. Do other gov sites have comparable surveys? They should.

Overall, I rate myself and disability.gov with a B. I need more practice, and the website developers need more feedback. But really, I know they’re trying, and somebody will likely read this blog. Good job, and I truly appreciate the resources, framework, and the RSS and tweets.

data.gov for wonks, not citizens


Oh, my, this site is annoying. The headings are sparse and inappropriate. There’s a sideline off to social media sites that aren’t accessible and in the way. A link says “Click here” which indicates deprecated thinking and cluelessness about hyperlinking.

The main purpose of this site is a distribution point for datasets collected from various government agencies distributed in XML, CSV, and other formats usable in spreadsheets and statistical analyzers. Great, but the form is a mess.

I tried to query fo ex ampler datasets, any topic, from National Science Foundation. The agency list is long, painfully, with check boxes. That’s about 40 tab or next line key strokes to get to NSF. Then I found the Submit button. Not so good, which I learned by reading “No search results” at the bottom of the page! Most important effect of a search is to know if it succeeded, produces results, geez! What did I do wrong? Do I need to select format and make an explicit query? Ok, tried that with term “computers”, All Categories, All Agencies. Got 2 results this time, both on illegal exports, spooky and uninteresting.

Argh, I gave up. I’m sure this site will eventually be useful for policy wonks willing to train and practice, but I, an ordinary citizen with a research background, didn’t feel like I could get much out of here. Sadly, the form’s long list of check box agency names uncoordinated and un searchable was painful. But worse was not getting direct feedback about number of or absence of search results combined with uncertainty about the query actually executed. I had little confidence in either the site or myself as searcher, but, luckily, I don’t forecast any personal need for data.gov. Sayonara.

So, I rate this sucker a big Incomplete with good intents but pretty clueless about accessibility and usability. Hey, download NVDA and try this out yourselves, data.gov designers. There are lots of ways to design forms and search results. Back to the design stage, please Now that recovery.gov is launched at great expense, perhaps some of the interface and data management functionality can be used to refresh data.gov, but who am I to reorganize .gov :-) ..

Recovery.gov Usable but Cluttered

Well, it wasn’t fun but I can use this website. The big problem is clutter. I go here to “Track the Money” and cannot find the form to do so. Uh, oh. Plenty of stuff about the site itself, some of the big featured expenditures, but where’s the form. Oh, there it is, under heading “Data, Data, and More Data”, cute but not obvious. This time, I decided to drill down on National Science Foundation awards in Arizona. Unlike data.gov, the agency selection was single choice reached by the convention of first letter, N, and a few key strokes to make the selection. All right, but now what?

So, the search seems successful yielding another page with lots of accessibility and agency clutter at the top I had to listen through. Back and forth a bit, I found the link to text presentation of the data, accompanied with a blue map.

Looking for text data, same boring junk at the top then up comes the table of rows of actual data. It’s hard to navigate by row and column, some columns have no real information, like I know I asked for ” National Science Foundation”, read in every row. But painfully working row by row I can find an interesting item like $80K created .17 job –wow! Indeed, the award details is there and readable and interesting.

The big problem with this iteration of Recovery.gov is that the website is in the way. I definitely do not plan to post anything on MySpace social media service but I have to listen to or bypass this silly text and thought too often to learn what’s on a page. It just seems goofy to send a Recovery dataset to a “friend” on a social network, although it could be relevant in a mature Twitter thread. If the gov goal is to incorporate social media into its normal workflow, then there are big questions of stability, accessibility, and much more of these profit-seeking, ad-driven enterprises.

I give myself an A for conquering this site, although I’m still stumbling around tables of data. Recovery.gov gets a B for assembling this information in readable form, although not in dataset forms as relative to missions like data.gov. In other words, it looks like a lot of page scraping to identify trends. My suggestion is simple: get the “Track the money” form front and center and press the website, social media, and features into the background. Overall, better than I expected, although the recording and further use leave a feeling of irritation, like having to sweep off a desk of junk to find a phone to get the information needed. Like, just give me control and let me track the money myself. I’ll be back.

General Suggestions for Improvement

It’s Time to Bring Landmarks to .gov

I’m getting spoiled by really accessible websites like AccessibleTwitter and BookShare that use the ARIA landmark feature to structure pages and search results. For example, the .gov sites could be separated into (1) agency logo and babble, (2) navigation, (3) main content, (4) reference to other gov sites and external services. Bookshare shows how to organize search results integrated with the next-previous results page bar.


Indeed, this brings up the issue of consistency among .gov websites, which could be kind of nice and helpful. Not meaning to squelch individuality of agencies or artistic license or experimentation with diversity, but a citizen wanting a simple answer to an information question isn’t as impressed with decorations as with ease of use, especially on return visits. And visually impaired users especially appreciate predictability, a trait shared with most human beings, when confronted with pure tasks. With all due respect,most visits to gov websites are not for tours through marble halls or to expand social networks to include anonymous civil servants, but rather to get a piece of info as fast and readable as possible.

Should gov sites link to inaccessible social web services? NO!

All gov 2.0 buzz seems to involve social media, as in Twitter, Facebook, and sometimes Flickr and MySpace. But the accessibility of most of these sites is way below that of the .gov sites. Can a website assert it is accessible if it links to patently inaccessible services? I think not. The good news is the movement toward alternatives like Accessible Twitter and accessible versions of YouTube. These should be mentioned in accessibility statements. Or, better yet, no links to unless these billion-dollar enterprises raise their accessibility levels to the acceptable status demonstrate by these alternatives. Perhaps there should be a warning label on sites known to be poorly designed or not for the newbie. The US government uses its clout for diversity, why not also for accessibility?


After spending several hours on these websites, knowing a lot myself about social media, the focus on social stuff seems rather silly considering the weight of the data involved. Am I, is anybody, going to post a link on MySpace or Facebook of a significant query and insight? I doubt it. Rather, these sites give an impression of trying to be oh, so cool, gotta get our stuff out to the fan pages on Facebook. Gimme a break. From a screen reader user, this is just pure clutter in the way of your main mission, stuff I have to listen to redundantly and irrelatively. Try it yourself and determine what value is really added from social media service references so prominently in users’ faces/ears. Even scarier, if gov agencies are adopting these inaccessible, unstable services for actual business, the traditional discrimination policies must come into play, as well as questions about judgement. For example, Twitter is a great news medium, but its rules can, and do, change at any moment.

How about a gov BEST and WORST practices competition?

I personally don’t get any value, but rather irritation, from the skip links and text size adjustments. First, the skip links are often just plain wrong, often enough to mistrust and not worth a false link and recovery. Text size adjustments are relevant to those who need large fonts not supplied by browser adjustments. Pages with good headings and landmarks don’t require skip links. Pages that aren’t crowded with text don’t need on-page text size adjustments.. To me, these are accessibility decorations that amount to screen reader noise. It’s rather jarring to find major inconsistencies among gov websites, e.g. text-only at whitehouse.gov but not others, different HTML form patterns, and greatly varying degrees of conventional accessibility.

As complained about in the whitehouse.gov blog lists, there’s a common pattern that might be nicely standardized. A list of, say 100, items is divided into sections with a bar of links: previous, 1, 2, … next. If you’re drilling down through several pages of results, getting easily into this bar is important. A landmark is a natural way of identifying results.

Does every search form have to be constructed differently? Above tasks required me to figure out the subdivisions of forms (usually not labeled) and then the form elements. There’s probably a special class of gov site users who can whack their way through a form down to a data set in no time. But the ordinary citizen has to struggle through understanding then mastering the form, finding results, and interpreting answers, which can take hours. How about an award for government service by providing a superior form that other sites can emulate? And give those web designers a bonus or promotion, too!

Sum up, getting better? Yes or No?

Overall, although using these sites made me rather grumpy, the trend is toward better accessibility, more usability, and genuine transformation of how citizens use USG data. My wishes are:

  1. Work on clutter and removal and helping users find direct paths to important data, i.e. work on the most significant use cases.
  2. Designers and maintainers of these website should listen to recorded TTS of their pages and contents for several hours to really appreciate the clutter effect of featuritis, accessibility decorations, and social media silliness.
  3. Cut down on the social media crap and rethink what really matters. Yes, these services are useful but really, do they deserve so much prominence? Will they still be here 3 years from now?
    It just seems incongruous to think of sharing recovery datasets with ad-hungry “friend” oriented services. Most serious is the hypocrisy of declaring accessibility on a gov website when these lucrative services so actively ignore accessibility and force visually impaired service users to volunteer developed accessible alternatives.

  4. The most important use of this data is not visible to most citizens. Namely, RSS feeds are the best way for someone to monitor these sites, scanning article titles, downloaded to a mobile device, with rare visits to actual websites. How can the USG foster better offline use of important government developments?
  5. Is there a “curb cut” effect from feedback like this? I hope so, that fixing stumbles precipitated by accessibility bumps and usability gaps will help everybody.
  6. Finally, a cautionary warning I just heard from my CNN news feed. Many recovery awards seem to have fallen into fallacious congressional districts, making the whole record keeping of job data questionable. Apparently citizens reporting award data don’t know what congressional district they belong to (I’m AZ ONE, I think, maybe). Now, data base developers and instructors know, there’s a TRIGGER for that. Zip codes usually map to unique districts but that might not be a requirement or implemented yet. Just saying.

Related Posts

]]> <![CDATA[Section 508 Compliant Video Player]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/section-508-compliant-video-player/ Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:36:24 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/section-508-compliant-video-player/

 

Would you like to embed YouTube videos on your website? Would you like to ensure that your website viewers with disabilities have equal access to your video? Business.gov has made its YouTube video player available to web managers who would like to embed YouTube videos on their websites. This video player follows the Section 508 Standards for web-based applications.

Section 508 Compliant Video Player
(author unknown)
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:39:24 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[AIR 2 Beta, Introducing Accessibility Support]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/air-2-beta-introducing-accessibility-support/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:04:50 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/air-2-beta-introducing-accessibility-support/

 

The AIR 2 beta went live on Adobe Labs yesterday, and it includes support for MSAA to allow assistive technologies on the Windows platform to access Flash-based content within AIR applications.

We are still doing testing and addressing issues, but encourage you to try it out. The beta runtime installer is available at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/.

For any readers who aren’t familiar with AIR, what you are installing is not a developer tool but the runtime that is used to run AIR applications that developers create. There are many applications that are developed as AIR applications and this is underlying technology that allows those applications to be displayed on your system. So what does the addition of accessibility support mean for users with disabilities? For blind or low-vision users, this means that content that is developed with accessibility in mind will be able to interact with the applications using assistive technologies that they already use.

Will all AIR applications now be accessible? No, no more than all HTML websites or all C++ or Java applications are – but what this does mean is that developers now have the capability to address accessibility in their applications. With previous versions of AIR a developer could ignore accessibility for blind and some low-vision users because the information wouldn’t reach the assistive technologies, but now with AIR 2 it does.

My colleague Daniel Koestler published a post on AIR accessibility yesterday, and he includes a link to an application that he developed with accessibility in mind that you can download and try.

Please give AIR 2 a try and let us know about your experiences.

AIR 2 Beta, Introducing Accessibility Support
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:08:54 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[AIR 2 Beta, Introducing Accessibility Support]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/air-2-beta-introducing-accessibility-support/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:04:23 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/air-2-beta-introducing-accessibility-support/

 

The AIR 2 beta went live on Adobe Labs yesterday, and it includes support for MSAA to allow assistive technologies on the Windows platform to access Flash-based content within AIR applications.

We are still doing testing and addressing issues, but encourage you to try it out. The beta runtime installer is available at http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/.

For any readers who aren’t familiar with AIR, what you are installing is not a developer tool but the runtime that is used to run AIR applications that developers create. There are many applications that are developed as AIR applications and this is underlying technology that allows those applications to be displayed on your system. So what does the addition of accessibility support mean for users with disabilities? For blind or low-vision users, this means that content that is developed with accessibility in mind will be able to interact with the applications using assistive technologies that they already use.

Will all AIR applications now be accessible? No, no more than all HTML websites or all C++ or Java applications are – but what this does mean is that developers now have the capability to address accessibility in their applications. With previous versions of AIR a developer could ignore accessibility for blind and some low-vision users because the information wouldn’t reach the assistive technologies, but now with AIR 2 it does.

My colleague Daniel Koestler published a post on AIR accessibility yesterday, and he includes a link to an application that he developed with accessibility in mind that you can download and try.

Please give AIR 2 a try and let us know about your experiences.

AIR 2 Beta, Introducing Accessibility Support
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:08:54 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[An easy way to improve web accessibility]]> http://markmorrell.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/an-easy-way-to-improve-web-accessibility/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:09:16 +0000 markmorrell http://markmorrell.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/an-easy-way-to-improve-web-accessibility/

Has anyone seen the new free accessibility tool on the WAVE site?  I thought you might be interested in knowing there is a simple to use and visual tool out there compared with other tools that tend to be a bit ‘techie’ in their results.

WAVE is a free web accessibility evaluation tool provided by WebAIM. It is used to aid people in the web accessibility evaluation process.  Rather than providing a complex technical report, WAVE shows the original web page with embedded icons and indicators that reveal the accessibility of that page.

Even better from an intranet perspective, the WAVE Firefox toolbar allows you to evaluate web pages directly within your browser.  Because no information is sent to the WAVE servers, the toolbar allows you to evaluate password protected, secure, or otherwise sensitive web content.  The WAVE toolbar evaluates content as it is rendered within Firefox.  This allows dynamically created, modified, or scripted content to be evaluated in real time.

]]> <![CDATA[Are PDFs More Important Than Web Accessibility?]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/are-pdfs-more-important-than-web-accessibility/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:23:50 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/are-pdfs-more-important-than-web-accessibility/

 

We recently did an audit of a website where probably close to 99% of all the information it contained was in downloadable documents, mostly PDFs. These documents contained a lot of the stuff you’d usually find on a website, structured text, data tables, application forms, complex diagrams, graphs and other images. None of those we looked at were accessible. We wondered what we should advise the client to do about it. The PDFs weren’t structured or tagged, so a user of assistive technologies would find them problematic. For a screen reader user, the structure would be difficult to make out, data tables difficult to understand, information in diagrams and graphs completely unavailable and application forms impossible to fill in. So even if the HTML pages were made fully accessible, or if the PDFs could be acquired by some other means, 99% of the information and functionality on the website would still be unavailable to those users. In this case, it could be argued that the PDFs are more important for accessibility than the ‘web accessibility’.

Are PDFs More Important Than Web Accessibility?
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:39:59 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Captioning YouTube Video and Providing Accessible Controls]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/captioning-youtube-video-and-providing-accessible-controls/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:12:15 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/captioning-youtube-video-and-providing-accessible-controls/

 

With a little bit of work, some free online tools, and code and utilities available from this web page, you can provide your students, staff, and other users within and outside the university access to web video that is usable by everyone, including people with disabilities.

Captioning YouTube Video and Providing Accessible Controls
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:38:20 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Screen Reader User Survey Results]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/screen-reader-user-survey-results/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:08:25 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/screen-reader-user-survey-results/

 

From WebAIM – Web Accessibility in Mind: In October 2009, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen reader users. This was a follow-up survey to a previous survey. We received 665 valid responses to the screen reader user survey. More in-depth analysis and documentation on the free-form responses will be available in the future.

Screen Reader User Survey Results
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:42:32 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Screen Reader User Survey Results]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/screen-reader-user-survey-results/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:07:05 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/screen-reader-user-survey-results/

 

From WebAIM – Web Accessibility in Mind: In October 2009, WebAIM conducted a survey of preferences of screen reader users. This was a follow-up survey to a previous survey. We received 665 valid responses to the screen reader user survey. More in-depth analysis and documentation on the free-form responses will be available in the future.

Screen Reader User Survey Results
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:42:32 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Google's Intent on Fostering Net Access for Disabled]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/googles-intent-on-fostering-net-access-for-disabled/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:04:30 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/googles-intent-on-fostering-net-access-for-disabled/

 

Search engine giant and Net neutrality cheerleader Google wants everyone to be able to enjoy all the wonders of the Internet, and in between all its other thousands of projects, it’s making a serious commitment to making the Internet as accessible as possible. Advanced Web designs and tools and browser add-ons can pose irksome challenges to Internet users who are disabled, whether they’re dealing with poor eyesight, finger dexterity issues or deafness. Just consider, for a moment, how much Internet use requires typing, decent eyesight and capable mouse use, and not every site or online operation is taking the needs of whose who are disabled into account. Google has been working for years on enabling development kits and software so programs can be more accessible and just launched a formal Web site to house news and information on what’s up when it comes to information access efforts.

Google’s Intent on Fostering Net Access for Disabled
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:55:51 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Google's Intent on Fostering Net Access for Disabled]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/googles-intent-on-fostering-net-access-for-disabled/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:03:39 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/googles-intent-on-fostering-net-access-for-disabled/

 

Search engine giant and Net neutrality cheerleader Google wants everyone to be able to enjoy all the wonders of the Internet, and in between all its other thousands of projects, it’s making a serious commitment to making the Internet as accessible as possible. Advanced Web designs and tools and browser add-ons can pose irksome challenges to Internet users who are disabled, whether they’re dealing with poor eyesight, finger dexterity issues or deafness. Just consider, for a moment, how much Internet use requires typing, decent eyesight and capable mouse use, and not every site or online operation is taking the needs of whose who are disabled into account. Google has been working for years on enabling development kits and software so programs can be more accessible and just launched a formal Web site to house news and information on what’s up when it comes to information access efforts.

Google’s Intent on Fostering Net Access for Disabled
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:55:51 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Digital Britain: Barriers And Solutions To Internet Use By Persons With Disabilities]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/digital-britain-barriers-and-solutions-to-internet-use-by-persons-with-disabilities/ Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:37:47 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/digital-britain-barriers-and-solutions-to-internet-use-by-persons-with-disabilities/

 

The Consumer Expert Group (CEG) was asked in the Digital Britain Report to report on the specific issues facing people with disabilities using the Internet. This report responds to that request. We urge that this report is used to inform the government’s long-term strategy, as well as the immediate work that is being done by both the Consortium for the Promotion of Digital Participation and by the Champion for Digital Inclusion, Martha Lane Fox, in their work to get people online. In the course of research for this report it became clear that there are a number of issues which specifically affect people with disabilities and discourage them from using the Internet. The research also shows that people with certain disabilities face issues that are very specific to their disability.

Digital Britain: Barriers And Solutions To Internet Use By Persons With Disabilities
(author unknown)
Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:59:55 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Accessible YouTube Sites]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/accessible-youtube-sites/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:34:52 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/accessible-youtube-sites/

 

There are two web accessible versions of the popular YouTube video web site, that I’m aware of at least. (If you know others, please comment.) They are "Easy YouTube" and "Accessible Interface to YouTube".
One big issue is that captioning doesn’t appear to be supported on either site. I’ve never worked with the YouTube API (yet), but I’m assuming there are technical blockers here. (Please comment if you know more!) Flash and JavaScript are required for both sites.
Both sites have excellent markup and implement great accessibility improvements. But as with any site, more enhancements can be made. Here’s a quick review each.

Easy YouTube

JavaScript expert Chris Heilmann developed this site in 2008. You can search for a video or enter the URL of a specific YouTube video. You can also choose from three video sizes. Excellent documentation and help is provided.
Suggestions:

  • Missing H1 tag.
  • Add highly visible hover/focus states on elements.
  • Add captioning support, if possible.
  • Implement ARIA.
  • Add video comments content.
Accessible Interface to YouTube

This is a more recent accessible YouTube interface. The author is unknown. (I’d like to know who you are as it’s very well done!) The interface is very simple yet informative; it display video details and comments. ARIA is implemented, but I have not fully tested it. There’s also a survey you may take to help further development.
Suggestions:

  • Add highly visible hover/focus states on elements.
  • Add captioning support, if possible.
  • Add controls for volume adjustment.

 

Accessible YouTube Sites
dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree)
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:08:59 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Accessible YouTube Sites]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/accessible-youtube-sites/ Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:33:39 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/accessible-youtube-sites/

 

There are two web accessible versions of the popular YouTube video web site, that I’m aware of at least. (If you know others, please comment.) They are "Easy YouTube" and "Accessible Interface to YouTube".
One big issue is that captioning doesn’t appear to be supported on either site. I’ve never worked with the YouTube API (yet), but I’m assuming there are technical blockers here. (Please comment if you know more!) Flash and JavaScript are required for both sites.
Both sites have excellent markup and implement great accessibility improvements. But as with any site, more enhancements can be made. Here’s a quick review each.

Easy YouTube

JavaScript expert Chris Heilmann developed this site in 2008. You can search for a video or enter the URL of a specific YouTube video. You can also choose from three video sizes. Excellent documentation and help is provided.
Suggestions:

  • Missing H1 tag.
  • Add highly visible hover/focus states on elements.
  • Add captioning support, if possible.
  • Implement ARIA.
  • Add video comments content.
Accessible Interface to YouTube

This is a more recent accessible YouTube interface. The author is unknown. (I’d like to know who you are as it’s very well done!) The interface is very simple yet informative; it display video details and comments. ARIA is implemented, but I have not fully tested it. There’s also a survey you may take to help further development.
Suggestions:

  • Add highly visible hover/focus states on elements.
  • Add captioning support, if possible.
  • Add controls for volume adjustment.

 

Accessible YouTube Sites
dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree)
Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:08:59 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Invitation to participate in a Google usability study]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/invitation-to-participate-in-a-google-usability-study/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:40:41 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/invitation-to-participate-in-a-google-usability-study/

Hello!

Thank you for your interest in participating in accessibility studies at Google.

To be added to the list of our study participants, please complete the brief questionnaire below. We will contact you as we plan our studies.

You must:
- be at least 18 years old
- be willing to sign our Non-Disclosure Agreement

Thank you.

Antonella Pavese
Senior User Researcher at Google NYC

Google Invitation page

]]> <![CDATA[Invitation to participate in a Google usability study]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/invitation-to-participate-in-a-google-usability-study/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:40:07 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/invitation-to-participate-in-a-google-usability-study/

Hello!

Thank you for your interest in participating in accessibility studies at Google.

To be added to the list of our study participants, please complete the brief questionnaire below. We will contact you as we plan our studies.

You must:
- be at least 18 years old
- be willing to sign our Non-Disclosure Agreement

Thank you.

Antonella Pavese
Senior User Researcher at Google NYC

Google Invitation page

]]> <![CDATA[Easy ARIA Tip #4: Landmarks]]> http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/easy-aria-tip-4-landmarks/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:49:29 +0000 rbwatson1 http://thebatchannel.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/easy-aria-tip-4-landmarks/

 

Yes, they’re back! This is the fourth Easy ARIA Tip in a trilogy of Easy ARIA Tips. :)

This week, WebAIM published the results of their second screen reader survey. One of the things to note for me was that not many users seem to be aware of a feature in the WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) specification called landmarks. This article aims to provide an easy to follow guide to implement landmarks in a matter that makes sense, in the hopes that more folks will start using them in their web projects and more screen reader users will take notice and utilize them in their daily surfing experience.

What the heck are they?

WAI-ARIA landmarks are a new method of providing easy navigation to certain points or hot spots on a page. Traditionally, this is being accomplished by providing visually hidden “skip links” to various anchor points. A commonly encountered one is the “skip to main content” or similarly named link that provides a quick way to navigate past all the navigation, search etc. features a site may have, and start reading directly at the main content of a page.

However, as the above cited survey results show, skip links aren’t nearly as important for most screen reader users as a good heading structure is. Skip links are usually also very useful for keyboard users (who need not necessarily be screen reader users).

However, one of the biggest problems is that “skip links” aren’t consistent. They might be called “skip to…” or “jump to …”, “skip past …” etc., and they may vary in what features they provide. This may also cause complaints for usability. I’ve been demoed pages that provide 20 or so skip links at the top before an actual link to a site feature is encountered. Needless to say, it didn’t provide a skip link for the skip links. :)

WAI-ARIA attempts to rectify that by standardizing a certain number of navigational anchor points to allow easy and quick access to portions of a page that are frequently needed.

How are they added?

Landmarks are added to a page by specifying the role attribute on certain HTML elements. If you view the source of this blog page, for example, and search for the word “role”, you’ll find it added to some HTML elements that start blocks of interest. The addition is very simple, the only thing that really needs to be done is give some thought about placement of the landmarks.

Screen readers such as JAWS version 10 and above, Orca, NVDA from version 2009.1beta and above recognize WAI-ARIA landmarks in Firefox 3.0+ and IE 8. They usually provide one of their quick navigation keys to navigate to each landmark in turn, and JAWS and NVDA also provide lists of landmarks on a page. NVDA even shows the nesting of landmarks.

The different landmarks

Below is an explanation of the intention of each landmark from a practical standpoint.

banner

The banner landmark denotes the portion of a page where a company logo, site slogan or the like would be found. Providing this landmark will allow a screen reader user to easily access that information to, for example, copy the text info to paste somewhere for providing information, correct spelling etc.

complementary

the complementary landmark denotes a section with complementary information to the main content of the page. For example for a page that shows a single blog post, the complementary information could be links to related articles.

contentinfo

The contentinfo landmark denotes the section of a page that contains the copyright notice, link to privacy statement etc. It can also be used to denote a section with footnotes, but I’ve not seen an example of that yet.

main

The main landmark denotes the section of a page that contains the main content. This is equivalent to the target of a “skip to main content” link. On a page showing a single blog post, this is obviously where the title of the post is which starts the article.

Note that it is explicitly stated in the WAI-ARIA spec that this landmark should only appear once in a document. I believe the reason is obvious: If you had more than one main content on a single page, you should split that into two pages. :) All other landmarks can appear more than once (in fact it makes sense for them to do so in some circumstances), but main should only appear once.

navigation

The navigation landmark denotes one or more sections of a page that contain navigational items. Usually these are links to various features of your site.

search

The search landmark denotes the section of a page that starts your search feature. This is not necessarily the search textbox itself, but starts usually at the search form level to also include advisory information or the label you might want to include for your search.

application

The application landmark is a special landmark in that it does not just provide an anchor point but also usually causes different screen reader behavior. The application landmark denotes a section of a page that should not be treated like just any other ordinary web content, but provides features that are more closely related, in concept, to what a desktop application would provide. An example is the Search feature on the Yahoo! pages that provides a very rich experience with widgets not found in standard HTML.

When a screen reader encounters such an application section, what happens is, at least on Windows, that they switch out of their virtual document reading modes into a more interactive mode called “Focus mode” or “forms mode”. In addition, contrary to normal form elements, they usually prohibit switching back to virtual mode as long as focus is inside the application section. The user is required to interact with whatever keyboard navigation and other feedback (for example through the use of live regions) the web app author provided.

Having said that, the application landmark is usually not found when it comes to providing simple navigation anchors. When the application role is used, you should expect the web author to also have implemented an accessible rich internet application experience and can expect widgets to appear you wouldn’t find in your standard HTML element. If someone uses the application landmark without providing real rich widgetry, it’s probably a bug on their part and they’d most likely appreciate a friendly hint. ;)

Personally, I don’t consider application to be just another landmark role. For me, application clearly belongs more in the space of true rich internet application development. I just mention it here because it is listed in the same section in the specification.

What about validation?

Oh yes, that may be important to some! The current W3C validator doesn’t validate XHTML+ARIA or HTML+ARIA yet, which includes the landmarks. However, if you don’t care, or you can convince your client that landmarks are a viable new feature for their sites, Steve Faulkner of The Paciello Group has worked out a way to validate the landmarks.

Further reading

A slightly different approach to explaining the WAI-ARIA landmarks has been done by Steve Faulkner of The Paciello Group in January of this year.

Previous Easy ARIA Tips
  1. aria-required
  2. aria-labelledby and aria-describedby
  3. aria-invalid and role “alert”

Easy ARIA Tip #4: Landmarks
Marco
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:33:01 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Easy ARIA Tip #4: Landmarks]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/easy-aria-tip-4-landmarks/ Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:48:38 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/easy-aria-tip-4-landmarks/

 

Yes, they’re back! This is the fourth Easy ARIA Tip in a trilogy of Easy ARIA Tips. :)

This week, WebAIM published the results of their second screen reader survey. One of the things to note for me was that not many users seem to be aware of a feature in the WAI-ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) specification called landmarks. This article aims to provide an easy to follow guide to implement landmarks in a matter that makes sense, in the hopes that more folks will start using them in their web projects and more screen reader users will take notice and utilize them in their daily surfing experience.

What the heck are they?

WAI-ARIA landmarks are a new method of providing easy navigation to certain points or hot spots on a page. Traditionally, this is being accomplished by providing visually hidden “skip links” to various anchor points. A commonly encountered one is the “skip to main content” or similarly named link that provides a quick way to navigate past all the navigation, search etc. features a site may have, and start reading directly at the main content of a page.

However, as the above cited survey results show, skip links aren’t nearly as important for most screen reader users as a good heading structure is. Skip links are usually also very useful for keyboard users (who need not necessarily be screen reader users).

However, one of the biggest problems is that “skip links” aren’t consistent. They might be called “skip to…” or “jump to …”, “skip past …” etc., and they may vary in what features they provide. This may also cause complaints for usability. I’ve been demoed pages that provide 20 or so skip links at the top before an actual link to a site feature is encountered. Needless to say, it didn’t provide a skip link for the skip links. :)

WAI-ARIA attempts to rectify that by standardizing a certain number of navigational anchor points to allow easy and quick access to portions of a page that are frequently needed.

How are they added?

Landmarks are added to a page by specifying the role attribute on certain HTML elements. If you view the source of this blog page, for example, and search for the word “role”, you’ll find it added to some HTML elements that start blocks of interest. The addition is very simple, the only thing that really needs to be done is give some thought about placement of the landmarks.

Screen readers such as JAWS version 10 and above, Orca, NVDA from version 2009.1beta and above recognize WAI-ARIA landmarks in Firefox 3.0+ and IE 8. They usually provide one of their quick navigation keys to navigate to each landmark in turn, and JAWS and NVDA also provide lists of landmarks on a page. NVDA even shows the nesting of landmarks.

The different landmarks

Below is an explanation of the intention of each landmark from a practical standpoint.

banner

The banner landmark denotes the portion of a page where a company logo, site slogan or the like would be found. Providing this landmark will allow a screen reader user to easily access that information to, for example, copy the text info to paste somewhere for providing information, correct spelling etc.

complementary

the complementary landmark denotes a section with complementary information to the main content of the page. For example for a page that shows a single blog post, the complementary information could be links to related articles.

contentinfo

The contentinfo landmark denotes the section of a page that contains the copyright notice, link to privacy statement etc. It can also be used to denote a section with footnotes, but I’ve not seen an example of that yet.

main

The main landmark denotes the section of a page that contains the main content. This is equivalent to the target of a “skip to main content” link. On a page showing a single blog post, this is obviously where the title of the post is which starts the article.

Note that it is explicitly stated in the WAI-ARIA spec that this landmark should only appear once in a document. I believe the reason is obvious: If you had more than one main content on a single page, you should split that into two pages. :) All other landmarks can appear more than once (in fact it makes sense for them to do so in some circumstances), but main should only appear once.

navigation

The navigation landmark denotes one or more sections of a page that contain navigational items. Usually these are links to various features of your site.

search

The search landmark denotes the section of a page that starts your search feature. This is not necessarily the search textbox itself, but starts usually at the search form level to also include advisory information or the label you might want to include for your search.

application

The application landmark is a special landmark in that it does not just provide an anchor point but also usually causes different screen reader behavior. The application landmark denotes a section of a page that should not be treated like just any other ordinary web content, but provides features that are more closely related, in concept, to what a desktop application would provide. An example is the Search feature on the Yahoo! pages that provides a very rich experience with widgets not found in standard HTML.

When a screen reader encounters such an application section, what happens is, at least on Windows, that they switch out of their virtual document reading modes into a more interactive mode called “Focus mode” or “forms mode”. In addition, contrary to normal form elements, they usually prohibit switching back to virtual mode as long as focus is inside the application section. The user is required to interact with whatever keyboard navigation and other feedback (for example through the use of live regions) the web app author provided.

Having said that, the application landmark is usually not found when it comes to providing simple navigation anchors. When the application role is used, you should expect the web author to also have implemented an accessible rich internet application experience and can expect widgets to appear you wouldn’t find in your standard HTML element. If someone uses the application landmark without providing real rich widgetry, it’s probably a bug on their part and they’d most likely appreciate a friendly hint. ;)

Personally, I don’t consider application to be just another landmark role. For me, application clearly belongs more in the space of true rich internet application development. I just mention it here because it is listed in the same section in the specification.

What about validation?

Oh yes, that may be important to some! The current W3C validator doesn’t validate XHTML+ARIA or HTML+ARIA yet, which includes the landmarks. However, if you don’t care, or you can convince your client that landmarks are a viable new feature for their sites, Steve Faulkner of The Paciello Group has worked out a way to validate the landmarks.

Further reading

A slightly different approach to explaining the WAI-ARIA landmarks has been done by Steve Faulkner of The Paciello Group in January of this year.

Previous Easy ARIA Tips
  1. aria-required
  2. aria-labelledby and aria-describedby
  3. aria-invalid and role “alert”

Easy ARIA Tip #4: Landmarks
Marco
Sat, 31 Oct 2009 08:33:01 GMT

]]> <![CDATA[Colorblind, Law, and Lightboxes]]> http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/colorblind-law-and-lightboxes/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:12:17 +0000 rbwatson1 http://accesstechnews.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/colorblind-law-and-lightboxes/

 

Color Sensitive

I usually shy away from About.com, but I recently came across a piece worth mentioning. In the article Are Your Web Pages Color Sensitive? from the HTML/Web Design section, Jennifer Kyrnin provides some good information and techniques for web development with color blindness in mind. Here are some good tips from Jennifer:

  • Don’t use only color to indicate something specific on your page.
  • Desaturate your images to see if they still have impact.
  • Avoid placing red and green together.
  • If you can, find a color blind friend or relative to look at your site.

Did you know that color blindness is an issue with 8 to 12% of males of European origin?

Law Needed

In his blog Yes, we need accessibility laws, Eric Eggert gives an argument for why we need better laws for web accessibility. He states that a good accessibility law should do:

  • Create awareness.
  • Do not create a climate of fear.
  • Create mediations.
  • Reference international standard.
  • Be inclusive.
Lightboxes

In the article Lightboxes and keyboard accessibility from 456 Berea Street, Roger Johansson describes how a lightbox should function with a keyboard. He states:

  • Let me use the left and right arrow keys to step through images in a slideshow.
  • When I press Esc, close the lightbox.
  • Do one of the following:
    • Either add focusable elements (links or buttons) for close/next/previous, put keyboard focus on the first focusable object in the lightbox, make sure I can’t tab to something behind the lightbox, and make it visually obvious which object has keyboard focus.
    • or close the lightbox when I press Tab.
  • When the lightbox closes, return keyboard focus to where it was when I opened it.

In addition, Roger cites the following two articles:

 

Colorblind, Law, and Lightboxes
dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree)
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:26:00 GMT

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