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

WAVE now available in Spanish

Friday, May 29, 2009

WebAIM recently announced that their free web accessibility evaluation tool WAVE is now available in Spanish. It's a great tool for testing web sites, and there's even a Firefox toolbar plugin!

WebAIM plans to translate the utility to more languages possibly Portuguese, German, Japanese, Thai, Turkish, and Russian. They are seeking volunteers to help; if you are interested, please contact WebAIM.

By the way, you can read a recent interview with Jared Smith of WebAIM from totallyaccessible.com.

Labels: interview, testing, webaim

0 comments

CAPTCHA Alternatives and Articles

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Seems like there's been more talk about CAPTCHA lately (stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart"). Most of us dislike the use of CAPTCHA in web forms. And all of us (I hope) can certainly agree that it's poor in usability, and often times not accessible--even for any human user; see Top 10 Worst Captchas. Even so, it's still way too common on the web. Damn spammers are forcing developers to implement this poor technique.

Fortunately, the collective intelligence of developers across the world have created many alternatives to CAPTCHA. Here are some great ideas from WebAIM's article Spam-free accessible forms:

• Detect spam-like content within submitted form elements.
• Detect content within a hidden form element.
• Validate the submitted form values.
• Search for the same content in multiple form elements.
• Generate dynamic content to ensure the form is submitted within a specific time window or by the same user.
• Create a multi-stage form or form verification page.
• Ensure the form is posted from your server.

Here are some other articles about the (in)accessibility of CAPTCHA and other resolutions:

• CAPTCHA GOTCHA
• CAPTCHAs, CAPTCHAs everywhere
• Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA (W3C)
• Accessibility of CAPTCHA (Juicy Studio)
• CAPTCHA Killer
• Web Axe podcast on CAPTCHA

Example of impossible CAPTCHA:

Labels: audio, captcha

2 comments

Video: Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

In the YouTube video Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility, the user "gringochapin" (who is blind) demonstrates browsing a web page by its headings using a screen reader (JAWS). He demos a few different pages including a good and poor example. This is an excellent example of how proper headings is important for web accessibility. Ironically, there are no captions for this video.

Labels: heading, screenreader, video

2 comments

Podcast #71: Gez Lemon Interview & ARIA

Monday, May 11, 2009

Download Web Axe Episode 71 (Gez Lemon Interview & ARIA)

New Song!

This episode premieres the new Web Axe theme song, check it out! Created by Jeff Ensign.

Gez Lemon, ARIA expert

Gez Lemon is a world leader in the web accessibility profession and its community. He as an Accessibility Consultant for The Paciello Group, a company devoted to accessibility in technology. He maintains a popular blog Juicy Studio in which he's written many excellent articles and innovative scripts. Gez is a member of the Web Standards Project (WaSP) Accessibility Task Force (ATF). He's become an expert in WAI ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications). You may also follow Gez on Twitter (or Accessible Twitter) @GezLemon.

Related Links

• Introduction to WAI ARIA
• ARIA Best Practices
  
• Web 2.0 Accessibility with WAI-ARIA FAQ
• Paciello Group Blog
• How Can I Validate (X)HTML + ARIA? (DTD for ARIA)
• Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar
• ARIA for Google Calendar, Finance and News
• Focus Twitter Greasemonkey script

News Links

• View the slides 5 layers of web accessibility.
• IBM & IEEE to host Accessing the Future conference in Boston, MA on July 20-21, 2009.
  

Labels: administrative, aria, expert, interview, podcast, standards

4 comments

Five Layers, Questions, Adobe Encourages, Great Basics

Thursday, May 07, 2009

The 5 Layers Of Web Accessibility
Great slide deck on Slideshare. In addition to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Dirk Ginader adds "CSS for JavaScript" and ARIA.

Is Your Web Site Accessible?
Great questions a web designer and developer should continually ask oneself.

Adobe encourages the European commission to use WCAG 2.0
Boring, but important.

Accessibility Basics
A great beginning-level article from Opera. Topics include:

• What is accessibility?
• Designing with accessibility in mind
• Interoperability requirements
• Features of an accessible web page
• Standards for accessibility
  

Labels: adobe, aria, basic, wcag

0 comments

7 tips for designing for older users

Monday, May 04, 2009

Although the article from webcredible is titled "7 tips for designing for older users", the strategies are great for plain old usability and accessibility. Here is a summary with some comments.

1. Make obvious what's clickable and what's not. (Please don't mess with the underlines!)
   
2. Use radio buttons rather than dropdown menus. (Unless you have over, say, 8 options.)
   
3. Stay in one window.
4. Implement the shallowest possible information hierarchy. (And forget 3 or 4-level cascading menus; they are also difficult to navigation with our without a mouse.)
   
5. Include a site map and link to it from every page. (Also good for SEO.)
   
6. Keep your language simple.
7. Appear trustworthy.

Labels: cognitive, design, usability

2 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.