Link Roundup - June 2010

• Simple Free Online Caption Creator for YouTube Videos
• Australian Government releases Web Accessibility National Transition Strategy
• Open Web Camp 2010 at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, July 17 (Free)
• Assistive Technology Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 29-30 (Free)
• Online version of book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design
• 50+ Reasons to Use VoiceOver (from Apple)
• AJAX and the Problem of Web Accessibility by @JoeDolson
• HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives (W3C)
• How NOT to use the HTML title attribute by @ianpouncey (from January)
• Forthcoming Updates on Federal Section 508 Rules by @JoeDolson
• Chrome explains its partial screen reader support
• Princeton University and learning disabled student settle suit
• Blind students sue four California law schools over inaccessible online applications
• What AT devices announce when encountering ARIA roles
• AViewer beta - new accessibility checker tool from The Paciello Group
• Making JavaScript Accessible slides presented by @dennisl at Bayjax meetup
• How to get started on Twitter with JAWS - CNIB blog by @mcourcel
• Examples of Inaccessible Web Design
• Sign petition for Google to make Chrome screen reader accessible
• Features of a Cognitively Accessible Web Site
• How to Use HTML, CSS and JavaScript in an Accessible Manner
• Web Accessibility and WAI-ARIA Primer by @emilylewis
• Writing text alternatives for maps
• Future Web Accessibility: SVG from WebAIM
• List of Twitter clients for persons with disabilities
• U.S. Departments of Justice and Education tell college/university presidents that required electronic book readers must be accessible

Podcast #82: Deque Labs FireEyes

Dennis and Ross speak to Dylan Barrell (VP, Product Development) and Brian Kerr (Software Developer) of Deque Systems/Deque Labs. The main topic is the newly developed Worldspace FireEyes plugin for the Firefox browser which is being released in Beta status. It is a web accessibility tool that works in conjunction with the widely used Firebug Firefox extension. You can follow Deque Labs on Twitter.

Download Web Axe Episode 82 (Deque Labs FireEyes)

[transcript of podcast 82]

NOTE: As of June 28, the Worldspace FireEyes add-on has not yet been released. It's planned for end of June.

UPDATE: On July 1, the Worldspace FireEyes beta is released! Read the FireEyes announcement.

Chatter & News

• Refresh Detroit: Drupal Meetup Summary
• Dennis Lembree presented "Making JavaScript Accessible" at the Bay Area Ajax and JavaScript Meetup (BayJax) June 15, 2010 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California.
• Sign the online petition for screen reader accessibility for Google Chrome.
• Critiquing CA.gov Web Site Accessibility Page
• Dennis will be speaking at the Annual Assistive Technology Conference July 29 & 30, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.A.
• Accessibility Viewer Application Beta "AViewer" from The Paciello Group; Blog on AViewer from Joe Dolson; ARIA, DOM
• How Government sites have and now use Skip Links
• Whitehouse.gov improving their accessibility

BayJax Presentation "Making JavaScript Accessible"

Web Axe host Dennis Lembree presented "Making JavaScript Accessible" at the Bay Area Ajax and JavaScript Meetup (BayJax) June 15, 2010 at the Yahoo! campus in Sunnyvale, California.

• Making JavaScript Accessible slides on SlideShare
• Making JavaScript Accessible text version
• BayJax Flickr photo album

Dennis was honored to be invited as a replacement for Dirk Ginader, who sadly couldn't make it due to a family emergency.

Making JavaScript Accessible

View more presentations from Web Axe.

The CA.gov Accessibility Page Updated!

Today, just 3 working days after my critique of the CA.gov Accessibility page was published, the CA.gov Accessibility page has been updated! Some of the point discussed were removed and other modified. As for the site itself, the "skip to content" is now visible when tabbed upon. Hooray!

Also, a couple of interesting links were added to the "related sites" at the bottom of the page: Accessible Twitter and California's Accessibility Standards.

The CA.gov Web Site Accessibility Page

The accessibility page of the State of California web site lists many claims on what makes their web site accessible. Frankly, I'm pretty embarrassed for this state is which I live; nearly all of the bulleted items have major web accessibility mistakes and flaws. Let's take a look. (All of the assessments were made from referencing only the one accessibility page.)

Clean, Simple and Consistent

This is true. Although it's consistently inaccessible, as we'll see.

"Skip To:" Menu

Skip nav is good, but it's not visually displayed, not even when tabbed upon. This is a major issue for sighted keyboard users. Also, the skip link lands the user before the breadcrumbs; it should go past the breadcrumbs since the object is to pass over all the navigation to the main content.

The Navigation

The main menu requires a mouse to access the second level of items, therefore, it's not keyboard accessible. What's worse is that the second level links are not listed on the main page of parent menu item! In other words, there's no fallback.

Breadcrumb Navigation

Breadcrumbs are a good idea, but first of all, they require JavaScript [on this site's implementation which is unnecessary; a server-side solution is ideal]. And, there is no semantic markup or a heading denoting what this section is. Also, it's better practice to markup the breadcrumb links in an unordered list.

Images With Alternative Text

Wow, I didn't know that alt text is "visible when the mouse is placed over the image"! LOL, that's just silly IE. (It's the title attribute which is rendered as a tooltip in most browsers.) Also, say no to alt="bullet", yuck!

Relative Font Sizing

This doesn't work when the text is a graphic! A graphic doesn't increase when text size increased. See "Popular Pages". Note that graphic text will increase in size with page zoom, but then may be very pixelated and unreadable.

Style Sheets

What? The second paragraph is instructing the user to install a developer toolbar!

Fluid Sizing Display

Says "viewed best at a minimum of 800 x 600 pixels" but the web page doesn't fit in that screen resolution! There's a nasty horizontal scrollbar. So I took a better look and there is no fluid sizing. The CSS is clearly static: width:972px;

Accessible Via Mouse or Keyboard

Uh, no, see reasons above.

Access Keys

Implementing access keys is an outdated practice and get in the way of assistive technology. But the site has implemented only 1 anyway. Just silly. Draw your own conclusions here.

No Sound, No Images, No Problem

Lies I tell you!

Improved Search Engine

This is more of a usability issue.

Although there's clearly a lot of effect here, it's almost worse off than no effort at all. Sticking with semantic markup and unobtrusive JavaScript in itself may have been a better start.

Addendum

The CA.gov Accessibility Page Updated!

Link Roundup - May 2010

• Do Your Flashing Ads Cause Seizures?
• FAQ on software development for the blind or visually impaired
• Why You Should Adopt An Accessible Content Strategy (business case for accessibility)
• 4 Easy Steps to Make Your Site More Usable (and accessible) to Older People
• Program to help locate screen cursor: PinPoint 3 "Never Lose Your Mouse Again"
• Use ARIA to Indicate When Form Fields Are Required
• Google Slaps People with Disabilities in the Face
• Kill Accessibility (great comments)
• Test cases with HTML5, ARIA Roles & Screen Readers
• What are your favorite accessibility & UX blogs?
• HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives
• Next accessibility unconference is A11yCamp, Guelph, Canada, June 8
• Text CAPTCHA service - alternative to image or audio CAPTCHAs
• The new GNU accessibility statement
• iPad Assistive Technology Roundup
• Slides from Access U presentation HTML5 & Accessibility
• NFB files complaints against 9 law schools for inaccessible web site
• Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility
• Future Web Accessibility: HTML5 Semantic Elements (Part 2 in a series)
• A few problems with the concept of accessible PDFs
• Do we need a new game plan to make the Web accessible? (great comments)

Podcast #81: HTML5 and John Foliot

HTML5 is hot. It's new, powerful, and exciting. But what is it exactly, and how will it make the web more accessible? Dennis discusses these issues and more with web accessibility veteran John Foliot. Topics include background on HTML5, browser support, new form functionality, how Canvas can be accessible, and much more!

Mr. Foliot runs the Stanford Online Accessibility Program. He is an active member of the W3C and is an integral part of the web accessibility community. He writes a blog entitled Unrepentant and you can find John on Twitter.

Download Web Axe Episode 81 (HTML5 and John Foliot)

[transcript of podcast 81]

Mentioned Resources

• HTML: The Markup Language
• HTML5 differences from HTML4
• HTML5 Doctor
• Bruce Lawson
• Remy Sharp
• Dive Into HTML5
• Book: Introducing HTML5 by Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp (there's also HTML5 For Web Designers by Jeremy Keith)

Other HTML5 Resources

• Test cases with HTML5, ARIA Roles & Screen Readers
• HTML5: Techniques for providing useful text alternatives
• Slides from Access U presentation HTML5 & Accessibility
• Future Web Accessibility: HTML5 Semantic Elements (Part 2 in a series)
• HTML5 Demos and Examples