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Web Accessibility: The Complete Documentation

• This category contains 21 Papers
• The last paper was added on 2007-03-26 (YYYY-MM-DD)

10 Reasons Clients Don't Care About Accessibility

Published on 2005-09-12, by Christian Heilmann, ©Digital Web Magazine..

Working as an accessibility consultant in an IT company is a very frustrating job right now. Highly publicized lawsuits and deep-rooted accessibility myths leave us with a lot to explain when the final product does not really help visitors. Our clients simply don’t care about accessibility as much as we’d like them to, and there are several reasons for that.

Accessibility, Web Standards, and Authoring Tools

Published on 22 March 2002, by Christopher Schmitt, ©A List Apart Magazine.

It’s been a long trip, but we’re almost out of the dark. We finally have browsers that offer substantial support for several technologies established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other standards bodies. Designers and developers can use many core features of XHTML and CSS and sometimes DHTML without worrying about the hazards of cross–browser chicanery.

Accessible Method of Hiding HTML Content (An)

Published on 2004, by Paul Bohman, ©WebAIM.

Though somewhat rare, there are occasions when the accessibility needs of screen reader users appear to be at odds with the needs of visual users. This kind of conflict occurs when Web developers put form elements inside of a data table matrix, when they want to use images as headings instead of text, and in other situations. Adding extra text helps screen reader users, but can complicate the visual layout, thus reducing understandability. One solution is to use CSS to hide the text from sighted users in a way that is still accessible to screen readers. The details of this technique are discussed, along with the technical reasoning behind it.

Accesskeys: Unlocking Hidden Navigation

Published on , by Stuart Robertson, ©A List Apart Magazine.

Who can use your website? People with limited mobility may have a hard time controlling a mouse to click on links, and tabbing through menus can be slow going. The W3C introduced the accesskey attribute to enable users to select the appropriate key on their keyboards and navigate to a particular link.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Published on 3 February 2000, by Jutta Treviranus, ©World Wide Web Consortium.

This specification provides guidelines for Web authoring tool developers. Its purpose is two-fold: to assist developers in designing authoring tools that produce accessible Web content and to assist developers in creating an accessible authoring interface. Authoring tools can enable, encourage, and assist users ("authors") in the creation of accessible Web content through prompts, alerts, checking and repair functions, help files and automated tools. It is just as important that all people be able to author content as it is for all people to have access to it. The tools used to create this information must therefore be accessible themselves. Adoption of these guidelines will contribute to the proliferation of Web content that can be read by a broader range of readers and authoring tools that can be used by a broader range of authors.

Backward Compatible Style Switcher (A)

Published on 8 February 2002, by Daniel Ludwin, ©A List Apart Magazine.

In ALA Issue 126, Paul Sowden famously introduced the joys of alternate Style Sheets per W3C specs. Not content to elucidate theory, Sowden devised a compliant Style Sheet Switcher built with a few lines of JavaScript, and presented it to ALA’s readers and the entire design / development community as an Open Source gift.

Creating Accessible JavaScript

Published on 2004, by Jared Smith, ©WebAIM.

This may best be answered by defining what JavaScript is NOT. First, it is not HTML. JavaScript does not use HTML tags or abide by any of the general rules of the HTML language. You can, however, use JavaScript with HTML on a webpage. Second, JavaScript is not Java. Although JavaScript is often called Java, the two are not the same. Java was developed by Sun Microsystems and is a stand-alone programming language. JavaScript, on the other hand, was developed by Netscape Corporation. Although similar to Java in syntax, JavaScript is not a stand-alone language; in order for JavaScript to work, it must be part of a web page that is being displayed in a browser that understands the JavaScript language. Sun's Java programming language can be implemented in webpages as a built in program, whereas JavaScript scripts are reliant upon the client (visitor's) computer in order for them to work.

Creating Accessible Macromedia Flash Content - part 1

Published on 2004, by Jared Smith, ©WebAIM.

Macromedia Flash content can be viewed on nearly all computers. The Flash technology, in a general sense, may be one of the most widely available technologies used on the Web. For developers, the ability to program one multimedia presentation that can be viewed the same on nearly all computers makes the technology very appealing. For individuals with disabilities, Flash can introduce unique accessibility problems.

Dive Into Accessibility

Published on 2002, by Mark Pilgrim, ©Mark Pilgrim.

This book is entitled "Dive Into Accessibility: 30 days to a more accessible web site", and it will answer two questions. The first question is "Why should I make my web site more accessible?" If you do not have a web site, this book is not for you. The second question is "How can I make my web site more accessible?" If you are not convinced by the first answer, you will not be interested in the second.

Dyslexic Perspective on e-Content Accessibility (A)

Published on 2003-03-25, by Peter Rainger, ©Peter Rainger.

This paper gives the web developer an insight into the issues of web accessibility for users with Dyslexia (and/or other specific learning difficulties). This paper covers the four main areas of accessibility: presentation, content, structure and navigation. The material covered by this paper forms part of TechDis wider range of research into usability and accessibility issues of electronic educational content.

Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement

Published on 20 October 2003, by Joe Clark, ©A List Apart Magazine.

Development of the Fahrner Image Replacement technique and its analogues is moving faster than the destruction of the Berlin Wall. This article provides some much-needed empirical data on how FIR actually works in screen readers.

Flash MX: Clarifying the Concept

Published on 26 April 2002, by Joe Clark, ©A List Apart Magazine.

In “Flash Access: Unclear on the Concept,” I dissected Macromedia’s plans for making Flash accessible to people with disabilities. At the time, Macromedia had ignored accessibility completely. Once it had belatedly committed to solving the problem, the company did not know just what it was getting into.

Flash MX: Moving Toward Accessible Rich Media

Published on 26 April 2002, by Andrew Kirkpatrick, ©A List Apart Magazine.

Macromedia released Flash MX in mid-March of 2002, including enhancements to the player and the authoring tool to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.

Forms, usability, and the W3C DOM

Published on 2003-05-30, by Peter-Paul Koch, ©Digital Web Magazine.

Despite the specification having been around for nearly five years and a workable level of browser support for about three, the average Web developer doesn’t yet have a clear view of what the W3C DOM can do for Web sites.

How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself

Published on 14 November 2003, by Joe Clark, ©A List Apart Magazine.

As is now quite widely known among indie developers and virtually unknown everywhere else, websites are properly created in accordance with published accessibility standards. The chief source for those standards is the set of “recommendations” by the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Accessibility Initiative (the W3C WAI). These Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) were last officially updated in 1999.

Making Ajax Work with Screen Readers

Published on 2006-05-25, by Gez Lemon and Steve Faulkner, ©Juicy Studio..

The accessibility community is understandably concerned about the accessibility of client-side scripting, in particular using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) to produce Rich Internet Applications. Steve Faulkner of Vision Australia and founder member of the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C) and myself on behalf of The Paciello Group (TPG) have collaborated in an effort to come up with techniques to make Ajax and other client-side scripting techniques accessible to assistive technology.

Slash Forward (Some URLs are Better Than Others)

Published on 22 February 2002, by waferbaby, ©A List Apart Magazine.

Setting up a consistent, well-organized website is kind of like building a new house. You can rush in, sticking bricks and mortar hither and yon with wanton abandon, and wonder why a few months down the track your roof leaks and visitors are hit by falling debris.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Published on 17 December 2002, by Ian Jacobs, ©World Wide Web Consortium.

This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological). User agents include HTML browsers and other types of software that retrieve and render Web content. A user agent that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility through its own user interface and through other internal facilities, including its ability to communicate with other technologies (especially assistive technologies). Furthermore, all users, not just users with disabilities, should find conforming user agents to be more usable.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Published on 5-May-1999, by Wendy Chisholm, ©World Wide Web Consortium.

These guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. The guidelines are intended for all Web content developers (page authors and site designers) and for developers of authoring tools. The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. However, following them will also make Web content more available to all users, whatever user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer, etc.) or constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment, etc.). Following these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines do not discourage content developers from using images, video, etc., but rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide audience.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

Published on , by Ben Caldwell, ©World Wide Web Consortium.

W3C published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) as a Recommendation in May 1999. This Working Draft for version 2.0 builds on WCAG 1.0. It has the same aim: to explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to define target levels of accessibility. Incorporating feedback on WCAG 1.0, this Working Draft of version 2.0 focuses on checkpoints. It attempts to apply checkpoints to a wider range of technologies and to use wording that may be understood by a more varied audience.

XML Accessibility Guidelines

Published on 3 October 2002, by Daniel Dardailler, ©World Wide Web Consortium.

This document provides guidelines for designing Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological). XML, used to design applications such as XHTML, SMIL, and SVG, provides no intrinsic guarantee of the accessibility of those applications. This document explains how to include features in XML applications that promote accessibility.