Accessibility

The Web should be made accessible to as many people as possible, regardless of any disabilities they might have.

Results from the WebAIM screen reader survey

WebAIM’s screen reader survey provides some interesting results. Most are expected, but there are some surprises.

Posted on February 10, 2009

WAI-ARIA support in IE8 RC no longer non-standard

As of IE8 RC, Microsoft have changed their implementation of WAI-ARIA to use the standardised syntax for setting ARIA properties through JavaScript.

Posted on February 9, 2009

Validating WAI-ARIA in HTML and XHTML

Validating WAI-ARIA in HTML or XHTML is currently more difficult than it could be, but it is possible and there is hope that it will be easier in the near future.

Posted on February 3, 2009

Headings, heading hierarchy, and document outlines

What do you do when an HTML document’s main heading is not the first text that should be marked up as a heading - insert a dummy heading or give up on having a perfect document outline?

Posted on January 26, 2009

Specify each HTML document’s main natural language

Always specify which natural language (spoken, written or signed human language) is used for a document’s content. Use the lang and/or xml:lang attributes for this.

Posted on January 20, 2009

Take part in WebAIM’s screen reader user survey

WebAIM is conducting a survey for screen reader users, with the intention to find out more about how screen reader users use the Web and what their preferences are.

Posted on January 14, 2009

Sign the petition to save the Swedish National Guidelines for Public Sector Websites

There is still no official word on what will happen to the Swedish National Guidelines for Public Sector Websites, so Jens Wedin has created a petition to save the guidelines. Please sign it.

Posted on January 13, 2009

Reveal new window links and links to non-HTML files with a user stylesheet

By telling your browser to apply a user stylesheet you can highlight links that open in a new window or point to non-HTML documents, making them less obtrusive.

Posted on December 15, 2008

Swedish National Guidelines for Public Sector Websites in danger?

Verva, the agency responsible for the Swedish National Guidelines for Public Sector Websites, is being closed down, and it is unclear what will happen to the guidelines.

Posted on December 12, 2008

WCAG 2.0 finally a W3C Recommendation

Today the W3C announced that Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG) has finally been declared a W3C Recommendation.

Posted on December 11, 2008

Quick Tips for web developers and web designers

By starting a new category of posts that focus on quick and simple tips related to front-end web development I hope to help people avoid making some mistakes that I see repeatedly.

Posted on December 2, 2008

Making Google Maps more accessible

You can make the Google Maps you put on your site more accessible by providing a static image fallback for users without JavaScript and hacking in keyboard accessibility.

Posted on December 1, 2008

Make HTML messages readable in Apple Mail

Two tips that make HTML email messages easier to read in Apple Mail. One makes Mail prefer Plain Text by default, the other sets the minimum font size used to display HTML email.

Posted on November 27, 2008

Dyslexia and accessibility

The problems dyslexics have when using the web are often overlooked, even by people who make an effort to create accessible websites.

Posted on November 17, 2008

Remember to specify a background colour

There is no guarantee that web browsers always use a white background, so if your design needs a white background, remember to specify it in your CSS.

Posted on November 13, 2008

Writing good alt text

It is quite common to come across images with missing alternative text or alternative text that does not properly describe the image’s content or function.

Posted on November 11, 2008

Going from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0

It is time to start reading up on WCAG 2.0. It may be a lot to digest, but there are documents available that compare the checkpoints in WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0.

Posted on November 6, 2008

Reading up on WAI-ARIA

WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite, helps developers make their web applications more accessible to people who rely on assistive technology. Start reading up on it.

Posted on November 3, 2008

How (a couple of) screen readers handle JavaScript events

Screen readers don’t always work as well with JavaScript as you might want or expect them to. But what exactly is it that doesn’t work?

Posted on October 29, 2008

Recently discovered web developer-related Firefox add-ons

A few very useful Firefox extensions/add-ons that I only recently discovered: ColorZilla, Firefox Accessibility Extension, Screengrab!, and WAVE Toolbar.

Posted on October 14, 2008

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