Web Axe: web accessibility podcast and blog

Podcast and blog on practical web design accessibility tips.

What is web accessibility? | Email: web axe [at gmail] NOSPAM! dot com

Current Posts

Podcast 60: Web Axe 2007 Year in Review

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Happy New Year! Dennis highlights and discusses numerous podcasts and news/blog events about web accessibility in the last year.

Download Web Axe Episode 60 (2007 Year in Review)

• Podcast #56: Web Axe 2-Year Anniversary!
  
• Podcast #55: WCAG Samurai
• Podcast #52: REL Attribute
• Podcast #51: Option Groups (OptGroup)
• Podcast #50: Analysis of WCAG 2.0
• Podcast #47: Alternative Text in Detail
• Podcast #45: Accessible popup windows
• Podcast #40: About CAPTCHA and Accessibility

News

• Selecting an Accessible CMS
• Web Axe Named Top 5 Podcasts!
• Avoiding Extreme Accessibility
• For Review: Updated WCAG 2.0 Documents
• Lawyer warns that PDFs fail on accessibility (UK)
• Petition Asks Yahoo to Fix Their CAPTCHA
• Court rules against Target on website accessibility lawsuit

Labels: podcast

0 comments

Supporting Standards that Support Accessibility

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

In his article/post Supporting Standards that Support Accessibility, Joe Dolson examines the (non) relationship between web standards and web accessibility. He makes the excellent point that following web standards is not the same as providing web accessibility, although generally standards are beneficial. Joe discusses examples of where standards can actually make a negative impact on the accessibility of a web page, and where rarely used code can be beneficial.

Labels: expert, standards

0 comments

CNET TV Now Captioning

Monday, December 17, 2007

CNET TV is now captioning its Flash video using the DFXP caption support in Flash CS3. It's quite a slick implementation (select the CC icon). View Tech Predictions for 2008 for an example. This technique is mentioned in Web Axe's Podcast #53: Interview with Andrew Kirkpatrick, Adobe's leading accessibility guru.

Labels: audio, caption, flash

0 comments

WCAG 2.0 Last Call Working Draft

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

If you haven't already heard, the W3C WAI is has announced the final review of WCAG 2.0. But before you submit your clever suggestions, be sure to review the WCAG 2.0 Documents.

Other folks blogging about the WCAG 2.0 final review:

• Jared Smith at WebAIM
• Andrew Kirkpatrick at Adobe
• Patrick Lauke at Accessify
  

Labels: standards, wcag

0 comments

Web Accessibility Articles not Accessible

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Call me picky, but it sure bothers me when web page articles about web accessibility are not accessible themselves. Talk about bad credibility...

For example, the article Web Accessibility. . . Making your Pages Friendly to People with Disabilities is dreadful. Just by glancing at the main text, several issues are apparent:

• Insufficient color contrast. That dark gray text on a black background just don't work!
  
• Text size is too small; text may be difficult to resize in some browsers. Absolute sizing (pixels) are used in the CSS instead of relative sizing (ems, percentage).
  
• No sub headings in the content, and the content is not divided into "manageable groups".
  
• The links are not linked--just written out; and with obnoxious spaces also. For example: Academy of Web Specialists (http://www . onlinewebtraining.com / courses.html)

Actually, I think this article is just a bunch of advertising and SEO garbage. I left a comment saying so; let's see if they approve it...

Labels: analysis, article

6 comments

Alt text and linked images

Monday, December 03, 2007

Our friend Jared Smith at WebAIM has sparked some discussion from his post Alt text and linked images. Towards the end of the post, a question arises: does an image with a caption require an ALT attribute, even if the ALT attribute would contain the same text as the caption? I say yes! Another issue is HTML 5 working group's proposal to make the alt attribute optional for images. I say no!

Labels: alt, expert, image

1 comments

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Previous Posts

• Podcast #76: Web Accessibility Disasters
• Roundup: Accessibility Links on Twitter
• Accessible YouTube Sites
• Free Browsers for Visual Impairment
• Colorblind, Law, and Lightboxes
• Podcast #75: Jeremy Keith Interview, Google Wave
• ATIA Chicago 2009
• Accessibility Round-Up from Twitter
• Podcast #74: Awards, Events & Back to Basics
• Accessible Twitter Wins Award, Slidedeck

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Related Sites

• Web Overhauls - tune-up your web site!
• Accessible Twitter - superior alternative to Twitter.com.
• 3.7crea.tv - web design and marketing blog.
• Refresh Detroit - regional group for web professionals.
• Detroit Podcasters Network.
• Website Design - seo friendly web design company.

About the Hosts

 

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Web Axe was nominated for "Podcast of the Year" in .net magazine's 2008 and 2009 Best of the Web awards.

To learn more about Dennis Lembree, the founder and main host of Web Axe, visit his web site at www.DennisLembree.com.