Posts
Learning How to Test with Screen Readers
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Although accessibility checklists are important, testing for web accessibility requires more than that. Some testing requires tasks which can only be done by a human including testing with a screen reader. It's best for a regular screen reader user to do the testing, but it's also good for a developer or designer to do at least the basics (there was a big discussion on this last fall in Should Sighted Developers Use Screenreaders To Test Accessibility?).
Here are some good articles to help learn how to use a screen reader to test for web accessibility:
- Using NVDA to Evaluate Web Accessibility (WebAIM)
- Using JAWS to Evaluate Web Accessibility (WebAIM)
- Setting up a screen reader test environment (by Henny Swan)
- Easy Accessibility Testing with the NVDA Screen Reader (Yahoo)
- How to use NVDA and Firefox to test your web pages for accessibility (Marco Zehe)
- Establishing a screen reader test plan (by Henny Swan on spotlessinteractive.com)
- Testing with Screen Readers: Questions and Answers (WebAIM)
Labels: screenreader, testing, webaim, yahoo
Podcast #90: Articles, Events, Jobs, Twitter
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Dennis and Ross discuss a variety of topics including recent articles, conferences and events, some accessibility-related job openings and resources, and updates on Accessible Twitter.
Download Web Axe Episode 90 (Articles, Events, Twitter)
What's New
- About Ross' book deal!
- TweetList now free with ad support (accessible Twitter iPhone app).
- Fixing Alt
Articles
- How blind people see the Internet (MSNBC)
- Font Resizing Widgets: A Help or A Hindrance to Accessibility? (Glenda Watson Hyatt)
- Accessible Tabs – Part 2: The Solution (Nomensa)
- Keyboard Accessibility For Web Applications (Jonathon Snook) Todd Kloots, Yahoo Mail
- 21 PDF Techniques for WCAG 2.0 (W3C)
- Web Accessibility: 10 Common Developer Mistakes by Joe Dolson
Conferences & Events
- CSUN Wrapup: Tweetup, student contest, Web Axe Post-CSUN Resources.
- John Slatin AccessU Accessibility Conference from Knowbility, May 17-19, Austin, Texas.
- Free presentation on Evolving Standards in Accessibility, Wed, May 25, London, UK. A half-day event covering the new British Standard for web accessibility, BSI8878, and the international accessibility standards from W3C, together with practical examples.
- jQuery ARIA Hackathon, July 11-12, Toronto.
- Future Midwest - April 28th - 29th (UX focus).
- Next year no overlap between CSUN and SXSW.
Jobs
- Deque Systems seeks 508 Tester on-site in Washington, DC (on WebAIM)
- WCAG2 Content & Compliance Officers (Australia)
- Dartmouth college seeks an Experience Designer - Accessibility in Boston (on LinkedIn)
- AbilityNet seeks Head of Accessibility and Accessibility/Usability Consultants (London, UK)
- More:
- New! AT Work job board for accessibility and assistive tech specialties.
- On Twitter, follow @Accessible_jobs and @a11yjobs.
Accessible Twitter Updates
- Accessible Twitter over 2 years old!
- Accessible Twitter receives AFB 2011 Access Award.. Other recipients are CBS, Lexmark and Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.
- Speech from AFB Awards
Labels: conference, podcast
Fixing Alt - How one decides to build a web browser
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
This is the next blog in a series titled "Fixing Alt" where I supply alternative text to graphics on the web that badly need it.
This time it's How one decides to build a web browser, an hilarious comic which makes fun of Google and takes a (deserved?) low blow at Internet Explorer 6. So here is the text version (a definition list seemed to work semantically):
How one decides to build a web browser
Simple illustration with three panels, one for each browser.
- Mozilla Firefox
- Two people at a computer. One with a pensive look on his face, and the other says "Let's create a better Internet experience that everyone can use."
- Google Chrome
- Three people at a computer. One says "How else can Google control the Internet?" Another says "Let's make a web browser!"
- Microsoft IE6
- A man squatting over a laptop computer with his pants half down and saying "I'm ganna shit on the keyboard and see what happens."
Labels: "fixing alt", alt
AccessibleTech Website Analysis; No Joke
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Saw a new Google ad on Web Axe this past Friday, April 1, that I couldn't help but click. After viewing the ad's website briefly, I had slim hopes that this was yet another techie April Fool's joke. Unfortunately, it was not. The website for AccessbileTech has many accessibility and usability issues when claiming to be accessibility experts/consultants. Let's examine:
- Skip nav link is visually unreadable (due to lack of contrast from background image).
- Text links unclear; too many link styles; blue bullets appear to be links but not.
- Headings not marked up as headings, such as Products & Services.
- Mismatch in alternative text in News & Events heading image; alt says "events".
- The ordered list on the home page and on the Accessibility Goal page are not marked up as an ordered list; uses spans and break tags, yuck!
- Hover states on links don't have focus states.
- Home tab is highlighted on all pages. Confusing, especially for those with cognitive disabilities.
- Table layout, 5 levels of nesting. Nuff said.
- No language declared (in HTML element).
- CSS used for emphasis rather than markup (Company page) ".style1 {font-weight: bold}"
- Small decorative image (203 by 141 pixels) on About Us page is almost 40K in file size! Needs web optimization to make smaller.
- On home page News & Events section, audio and arrow icons are confusing, they appear to have functionality, but there's no behavior attached to them.
- Simple layout is fixed width; making flexible width would accommodate different screen resolutions.
Not funny. Agree?
Update
The owner of this website has contacted me. Most of the issues listed have been corrected.
Labels: review
