Fixing Alt - Social Media Definition by Peeing

Social Media Definition by Peeing by Mindjumpers is a pretty funny cartoon. Like most, unfortunately, there is no alternative text provided. So in the second of the "Fixing Alt" series, I've taken the liberty of providing it. The cartoon is one large graphic with multiple images. Here's the alt text, with each image in a bullet point:

• Man in Twitter t-shirt, holding crotch, face strained: "I need to pee."
• Man in Facebook t-shirt, hands on hips, pee on floor: "I just peed."
• Man in Foursquare t-shirt pointing at pee on floor: "I'm peeing here."
• Man in Slideshare t-shirt, arms raised: "Why I am Great at Peeing."
• Man in Delicious t-shirt with arms crossed: "I collect my pee."
• Man in YouTube t-shirt, holding and pointing to cup of pee: "Watch this pee!"
• Man in LinkedIn t-shirt peeing into cup on floor: "I pee well."
• Man in Digg t-shirt, kneeling to 4 cups of pee: "I digg my pee."
• Man2 in StumbleUpon t-shirt, man slipping in his pee: "Ups! Discover my pee"
• Man in Quora t-shirt, scratching chin: "Why am I peeing?"
• Man in Wikipedia t-shirt, man2 in Wiki t-shirt, woman with pants off, all with arms raised: "Together, we pee-dia!"

Created by MindJumpers.com

Even More Web Accessibility Jobs

Great to list even more accessibility jobs!

Web Accessibility Specialist at Modis in Wilmington, DE (long-term contract). Modis is seeking aWeb Accessibility Specialistfor a long term contract position with their industry leading client.The Accessibility Specialist will be responsible for identifying and suggesting potential solutions for accessibility violations based on W3C WCAG 2.0 standards.

Web Accessibility Specialist at DeVry University, Wood Dale, Illinois. The primary purpose of this position is to consult with course developers on the guidelines and application of web accessibility to online courses created in Kinect. This includes researching section 508 and determining enhancements needed to course structure and media.

Accessibility Product Manager at RIM (BlackBerry) in Canada (Waterloo, Toronto, Ottawa). The Accessibility team is responsible for ensuring BlackBerry products and services are usable and accessible by the widest possible audience. This includes researching, specifying, designing and driving through to implementation various internal and external accessibility solutions. The successful candidate will be the voice of the customer and responsible for driving, from concept to implementation, emergency access BlackBerry solutions that meet the needs of persons with disabilities, wireless carrier partners and applicable legislation.

Accessibility Practice Lead, Atlanta, GA, 6-month contract. Collaborate with the User Experience and Development teams in planning, documenting and testing usable accessibility compliant interfaces. Proactively determine process, efficiencies, patterns, training and communication opportunities to improve our online experience for all users. Present and conduct training sessions for various teams on web accessibility process, planning, documentation and testing. Complete audits and test current and new products for compliance. Draft and maintain standards documents and remain abreast of trends and developments in the area of web and software accessibility.

Podcast #88: Quick Start to 2011

Dennis and Ross discuss the goings on in the Web Axe world, a few good articles, and a few upcoming conferences.

Download Web Axe Episode 88 (Quick Start to 2011)

Transcript of podcast 88

What's New

• Happy New Year! Intro to Web Accessibility Resources
• Monthly link archives on hold; try AccessiWatch Weekly RoundUp from Denis Boudreau (@dboudreau)
• Hardboiled Web Design (brief review)
• Comments on A quick Web Accessibility Checklist
• 25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible - and challenges of publishing.

Articles

• Play and Say on New HTML5 Logo by host Dennis Lembree.
• Testing Accessibility of Pre-populated Input Fields by Terrill Thompson.
• Is it Now Acceptable to Require Javascript? and We Haven't Forgotten About Accessibility Have We? (Monday By Noon)
• Bonus! 20 Essential Tools & Tips to an Accessible Website

Conferences

• ATIA 2011 Orlando - January 26-29, 2011, Orlando, Florida.
• Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute (JLTLI) 2011 - March 11-12, 2011, Marriott Renaissance Hotel, Downtown Seattle, Washington.
• South by Southwest - Interactive (SXSWi) - March 11-15, Austin, Texas.
• CSUN 2011- March 14-19, 2011 at Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel San Diego, California. Dennis on judges panel on that Saturday morning for Code-A-Thon Challenge organized by Project:Possibility.

25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible

After a long delay, a comprehensive how-to article on web accessibility by Web Axe creator Dennis Lembree is finally published: 25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible. (The Shortened URL is http://weba.im/25axs) Each method listed includes a succinct explanation and also an image to help convey the point. The points are:

1. Consistent Layout and Structure
2. Add Alternative Text to Images
3. Use Page Headings
4. Use Headings Properly
5. Skip Links
6. Link Content
7. Link Awareness
8. Be Careful With Title Attribute
9. Keep the Underline
10. Forms
11. Make All Links Accessible to Keyboard
12. Show Link Focus
13. Add ARIA Landmark Roles
14. Validate Mark-Up
15. The Three Tiers, and Progressive Enhancement
16. Use List Elements for Lists
17. Use More Than Color to Convey Meaning
18. [Sufficient] Color Contrast
19. Mark Up Data Tables Correctly
20. Make Changes to Content Clear
21. Now, About That Flash…
22. Provide Transcriptions
23. Add Captions
24. Appropriate Language
25. Test Through Multiple Methods

Free Online Books on Accessibility

Tweets were recently going around about free online/e-books relating to web accessibility. They point to the web page 6 free online books about web accessibility by Jitendra. I've repeated them here in a simple list and added a Microsoft book and an excerpted chapter by Shawn Lawton Henry from one of the books.

• Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance (Multiple authors, Friends of Ed, 2006)
• Understanding Web Accessibility (Shawn Lawton Henry, 2006) [Chapter 1 of book above]
• Engineering Software for Accessibility (Microsoft, 2009)
• Building Accessible Websites Serialization (Joe Clark, last updated 2007)
• Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design (Shawn Lawton Henry)
• Access by Design (Sarah Horton, 2005)
• Accessible Web Typography – an introduction for web designers (ScotConnect)
• Dive Into Accessibility (Mark Pilgrim, 2002)

Comments on A quick Web Accessibility Checklist

I came across the article A quick Web Accessibility Checklist (published last July) and have some feedback. Some points were great, but others needed some work. I was going to leave a comment, but thought the points would be good to share in a blog post.

• "Skip-to" links help, but wouldn't put first on the list. Proper tag markup and ARIA are also big navigation helpers.
• Font resize widgets are unnecessary as they add weight to a site, add clutter to the screen, and the behavior should be done by the browser.
• A site map is not needed if navigation is done well and is accessible; the tip is more of a usability issue in my opinion.
• Don't know what "links have descriptive screen text" means. If it means tool-tips (title attribute), then I highly recommend not doing most of the time.
• Yes, keyboard accessible dropdown menus are good, but remember that the whole site must be keyboard accessible.
• People still use frames? iFrames also relevant to list here, and more up-to-date.
• A good basic point missing is color; ensure sufficient color contrast, no content conveyed with color alone; etc.

Update, Jan 11:

I submitted a blog comment that linked to this page, and it did not yet get accepted.

Shortened URL to this page: http://weba.im/commquick

Intro to Web Accessibility Resources

For the new year, I thought it would be a good time to list some solid introductory Web Accessibility Resources.

• Introduction to Web Accessibility by WebAIM (now in 10 languages!)
• Accessibility basics from Dev.Opera
• Wasp Interact Learning Modules - Accessibility Module
• Introduction to Web Accessibility by Knol, An overview of the concepts and goals of web accessibility
• W3C WAI Introduction to Web Accessibility and Getting Started with Web Accessibility
• Understanding Web Accessibility by ATutor, free online course, but requires enrollment.
• Web Accessibility - don't disable your site - article by @vavroom
• Web Axe Podcast #74: Awards, Events & Back to Basics - podcast by me
• Introduction To Web Accessibility - Slideshare presentation by Steven Swafford (@RadDevelopment)

Addendum:

And now there's this by Web Axe host Dennis Lembree! 25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible