Web Axe - Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips - Podcast and Blog

Accessible WordPress Themes?

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:31:25 PDT

I'm really on a quest to find some web accessible, standards-compliant WordPress theme. It's so disappointing that the platform is set up for web standards (and usability, accessibility) but nearly all custom themes break it. Ugh!

Last week, I did a search on Google, but wasn't happy with the results. Then on Twitter, I asked the question:

Can anyone recommend a few fully accessible, fully standards-complaint #WordPress themes (besides Sea Beast)

I received a few replies, but didn't get much further in my quest. Then I ran a few searches in the WordPress themes site, but didn't come up with much. This is what I've got so far:

Sea Beast by Mike Cherim: the first theme to come to mind. Solid, but outdated.
Puritan by Peter Krantz: didn't try it because it didn't install with the new version of WordPress, 2.8.
Hybrid: Already had it installed , but still needs styling since it's a framework. And it requires joining a "club".
Stardust: good, but still needs some tweaking.

Does anyone know of any other accessible WordPress themes available? Valid code and semantic markup sure wouldn't hurt either. Template options and widget-ready are good too! Not sure why this is so difficult. Guess I'll have to make time to build my own (hopefully late this summer!).

Web Accessibility News

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:14:22 PDT

Latest goings-on in the web accessibility community. Found all on a valuable resource, Twitter!

Accessibility and the Law: from Practical eCommerce (from @joedolson)
Drupal Developers: Build accessibility into themes (and in general) (from @pixeldiva)
Working in Web Accessibility: (from @jared_w_smith)
New accessibility features in Firefox 3.5 (from @MarcoZehe)
Internet access as a human right (from @crgonzalez)
The new Pogo Sketch - Persons with mobility impairments can now use the Pogo Sketch stylus with Blackberry Storm (from @berryaccess)

Usability (and Accessibility) Tweetup in Ann Arbor, July 18

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:30:22 PDT

Ross and I are organizing a Usability (and Accessibility) Tweetup in Ann Arbor on Saturday evening, July 18th. Hope you can join us!

What: “Usability Tweetup”
When: 7pm, Saturday, July 18, 2009
Where: Ann Arbor Brewing Company in downtown Ann Arbor [Google map]
Why: To discuss web usability, web accessibility, Twitter; socialize; drink beer

Podcast #72: Twitter Accessibility, Events, and News

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:50:10 PDT

Download Web Axe Episode 72 (Twitter Accessibility, Events, and News)

Chatter

Feedback for new Web Axe theme song?
Opera 10 beta
Where are the headings?
AudioBoo "A Eulogy For IE6" by Paul Boag.
Web Axe-Refresh Detroit Tweetup! Ann Arbor, Michigan, Saturday, July 18.

Events/Conferences

12th Annual Accessing Higher Ground
Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference
10-14 November 2009
Westin Hotel in Westminster, Colorado, U.S.A.
IEEE Accessing the Future conference
20-21 July 2009
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
LinkedIn event page
Full Frontal JavaScript Conference
20 November 2009
One day; £100
Duke Of York's Picturehouse; Preston Circus; Brighton, BN1 4NA

Twitter and Web Accessibility

Accessible Twitter updates:

Ajax for deleting DM.
Popular Links page; added categories.
Add URL shortening to DM page.
Add (limited) functionality to update user profile.

Compiled List of links from #TwitterBook (look who's first!)

Other Accessible Twitter applications:

Try a mobile web app.

Tweete was created as an alternative to the mobile web and slandr mobile clients.
Twitstat Mobile
Slandr
Dabr

TwInbox - plug-in for Microsoft Outlook
Tweet s60: totally accessible Twitter mobile app for Nokia Series 60 devices (via @AbilityNet @BlindTwit)

Other issues:

More News

Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:12:48 PDT

Joe Dolson recently completed an excellent four part series published on the Practical eCommerce web site. Another great read from Joe,highly recommended. The articles cover the following four fundamental principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2):

Is it perceivable?
Is it operable?
Is it understandable?
Is it robust?

Here are the articles:

PS:
Joe was a guest back in 2007 in Podcast: #41: The Definition of Web Accessibility

Delay on Next Podcast

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:42:13 PDT

Just a note to let you know that the next Web Axe podcast is delayed a week or so. Stayed tuned!

Assistive Technology, Captivate, and Accessify

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:18:10 PDT

Browse Assistive Technology - learn about all kinds of Assistive Technology for different types of disabilities.

Tips on Adobe Captivate Accessibility

What to do with Accessify? - Give Ian some ideas! (By the way, check out the Accessify post Interview with Accessible Twitter creator Dennis Lembree.)

Other Accessibility Podcasts (and UX)

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:12:05 PDT

Information & Design is a usability and user experience company based in Melbourne, Australia. Its web site offers a fine list of User Experience Podcasts, which includes a few on accessibility, including the following:

Web content accessibility guidelines V2.0 - an interview with Shawn Henry
Accessibility: an interview with Dr. Sofia Celic
Web accessibility guidelines: an interview with Gian Sampson-Wild

PS:
There are also interviews with Steve Krug, Jakob Nielsen, and Luke Wroblewski.

WAVE now available in Spanish

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:50:12 PDT

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.

CAPTCHA Alternatives and Articles

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Tue, 26 May 2009 17:34:13 PDT

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:

Example of impossible CAPTCHA:

Video: Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:57:56 PDT

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.

Podcast #71: Gez Lemon Interview & ARIA

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 08:08:30 PDT

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.

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.

Five Layers, Questions, Adobe Encourages, Great Basics

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Thu, 07 May 2009 05:48:00 PDT

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

7 tips for designing for older users

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Mon, 04 May 2009 12:56:07 PDT

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.

Make obvious what's clickable and what's not. (Please don't mess with the underlines!)
Use radio buttons rather than dropdown menus. (Unless you have over, say, 8 options.)
Stay in one window.
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.)
Include a site map and link to it from every page. (Also good for SEO.)
Keep your language simple.
Appear trustworthy.

Web Accessibility Video

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:33:30 PDT

I'm not sure of the motivation or sincerity of this video on YouTube, but it does outline three valid points on why your web site should be web accessible.

Ethics; it's the right thing to do.
Enlarges your audience; competitive advantage.
It's the law (possibly, depending on country/state).

I'll add a number 4, which the video mentions, and that's Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Not sure if this company even realizes that better accessibility usually translates to better SEO.

Also, the video is illogically named "Documentation Usability Tips" 'Website Usability', which itself is not accessible since it doesn't correctly describe the content of the video.

Podcast #70: Lots of News & Events

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:59:48 PDT

Download Web Axe Episode 70 (Lots of News & Events)

Chatter

Web Axe over 2,000 subscribers, thank you followers!
Phone call from Web Axe listener (from last podcast on Recovery.gov site review).
Accessible Twitter updates.
Dennis changed the name of his freelance company to Web Overhauls.
Refresh Detroit:

Noel Jackson from Automattic (wordpress) presented on transitioning from print design to web design.
Tuesday we have a panel discussing writing for the web

In the News

Petition to make the Kindle 2 Fully Accessible - Web Axe signature number for this petition is 713.
An Open Letter To Game Developers - "Game Accessibility. It's a loaded phrase and I know that it scares the hell out of many developers."
The Jodi Awards For Excellence In Accessible Cultural Websites And Digital Media - Word files without proper headings and alt text.
9 Reasons Why Accessibility Matters
10 Accessibility Tips for RSS Feeds - Mmm...No different than regular web accessibility?!
Ways to understand AT- Making accessibility more real
Facebook Commits To Making Social Networking More Accessible For Visually Challenged Users
ouTube launches CaptionTube: A caption editor
WaSP InterAct Curriculum - Great resource!

Events/Conferences

Attended Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco
@feather registration: Ajax/Accessibility workshop in Ottawa: http://furtherahead.com/workshops/ottawa2009/ promo code fatwitter $100 off
The Access U 2009 Conference is coming up fast! It will be held at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, on Monday May 11 and Tuesday, May 12, 2009 (with post-conference sessions on May 13). Pricing and registration information.
Accessibility in Technical Communication and the Workplace (June 13, 14, Churchill College Cambridge, England)

IBM interviews Judy Brewer on WCAG 2.0

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 22:16:57 PDT

IBM interviews Judy Brewer in WCAG 2.0 and the future of Web accessibility: Q and A (Part 1).

In the article, Judy explains:

The primary differences between WCAG 1.0 and WCAG 2.0.
some of the challenges your Working Group faced in developing the new standard.

The article is published under the IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center, an excellent source of information for computer-related accessibility in general.

Access U 2009 Conference

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:15:00 PDT

The Access U 2009 Conference is coming up fast! It will be held at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, on Monday May 11 and Tuesday, May 12, 2009 (with post-conference sessions on May 13). Pricing and registration information.

Here's a summary of the event:

In addition to two-days of the best hands-on accessibility classes, you will hear keynote presentations, attend a captioned and audio described movie, participate in communities of practice sessions where you can share experiences, and meet hundreds of others who share your passion for accessible IT. From absolute beginners to advanced practitioners you can customize your learning to meet your specific needs.

Screen Reader Survey and New WAVE

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 09:57:33 PDT

Can't go too long without mentioning WebAIM. They've recently made two more important announcements.

Screen Reader Survey

Survey of Preferences of Screen Readers Users
Here are a couple quotes from the article which sum up all the excellent data from the survey:

Perhaps the most significant conclusion we can make from these survey results is that there is no typical screen reader user.

In general, these results suggest that following accessibility guidelines and standards, using technologies that support high levels of accessibility, and providing users with options is of the highest importance.

New WAVE (not the music!)

WAVE (web accessibility evaluation tool) is updated. Below is a brief summary of changes. For more, visit New WAVE Version Released.

Simplified and streamlined user interface.
Significantly re-engineered back-end framework.
Support for internationalization. Initial translations will be provided in coming months.
Several new WAVE rule

PS: A WAVE Firefox toolbar is also available.

Keyboard Access for Google Maps

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Google Maps is awesome, but it is not keyboard accessible. Patrick H. Lauke provides a solution by retrofitting keyboard access into google maps. Brilliant article. (Obviously JavaScript is still required.)

Also, Google Maps provides a text-only option, which is nice for those using assistive devices, mobile devices, low or costly bandwidth, etc.

Accessibility to the Face

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 08:51:00 PDT

Accessibility to the Face is a must read article for any web site owner, designer, or developer, etc., especially for those who doubt the importance of creating an accessible web site. It's a personal perspective by Rob Foster. The article doesn't mention web accessibility specifically, but is directly related (well, he does mention Section 508).

Here's a quote about the goal of the article:

My hope with this article is to make accessibility issues surrounding disabilities become real for the reader. The ideal response for me would be for people to think a little harder about the people using your product or experience and what it might be like for those who may not have all their faculties.

Webinar, Partnership, and Easy Apps

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 09:06:23 PDT

Flash and PDF Webinar

You have two more chances to view the webinar The Paciello Group and Adobe Present WCAG 2.0 Accessibility Webinars for Flash and PDF. They will be March 31 and April 1, at 12 noon Eastern Time.

Partnership

Recently, there was a partnership announced between WebAIM and The Paciello Group. The two are teaming up to provide web site owners with full accessibility testing and professional services (by The Paciello Group) and additionally receiving the WebAIM Accessible Site Certification.

Easy Apps

Below are two web applications which make Web 2.0 site mores accessible and usable. They are both from "DOM God" Chris Heilmann.

Easy SlideShare - Convert slide presentations from SlideShare to easy-to-read text.
Easy YouTube - super simple interface for viewing YouTube videos.

UPDATE Mar 29

Fixed the Easy YouTube link above.
Also try QuietTube!

Web Axe RSS Reader Stats

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 21:16:21 PDT

Just thought it would be interesting to post some statistics for the Web Axe RSS feed, provided by FeedBurner.

So what reader/aggregator application are people using? The stats last July were much more balanced. But now, Google's Reader (or Feedfetcher) is still at number one, but has approximately 8 times higher usage than iTunes (and that's Mac and Windows combined). Netvibes is next on the list, which is one of my favorite tools.

As far as readership goes, it's been increasing pretty well. In just 3 months so far this year Web Axe has increased its subscriber rate by over six hundred, more than 33%! There are almost 1,900 RSS followers. Thank you Web Axe readers!

Google Feedfetcher: 1208; iTunes (Mac): 100; Netvibes: 89; NewGator Online: 71; iTunes (Windows): 58; Bloglines: 52; Windows RSS Platform: 21; Odeo 19.

Podcast #69: Recovery.gov Site Review

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:53:08 PDT

Download Web Axe Episode 69 (Recovery.gov Site Review)

Events

Web 2.0 Expo 2009 (San Francisco) March 31- April 3.
Refresh Detroit, Transitioning from Print to Web Design, Wednesday, March 25, Washtenaw Community College, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
European Accessibility Forum Frankfurt, Germany, 27 March 2009.
CSUN Tweetup 2009 - "Twitter Meetup" at the CSUN Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference, March 18.
SXSW is going on right now (jealous I am).

News

Main Segment

Dennis and Ross give a web accessibility review of the new U.S. government site Recovery.gov. Topics discussed include:

skip-to link
menu
headings
XHTML validation
tables
forms
ALT attributes
titles

Acronym and Abbr, Referencing W3C Docs, Hiding Text Links

dennislembree@yahoo.com (Dennis E. Lembree) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:21:50 PDT

Some good recent web accessibility articles:

Acronym/Abbreviation best practice conundrum - Jared Smith from WebAIM discusses the issues with the use of the acronym and abbreviation tags and screen readers, and asks for input.
Which links to what: Referencing WCAG, ATAG, UAAG, and WAI-ARIA - The W3C explains referencing and linking to their documentation.
The Problem With Invisible Links - Frustrated screen reader user argues against the use of invisible links, with good reason.

Web Axe - Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips - Podcast and Blog

Accessible WordPress Themes?

Web Accessibility News

Usability (and Accessibility) Tweetup in Ann Arbor, July 18

Podcast #72: Twitter Accessibility, Events, and News

Download Web Axe Episode 72 (Twitter Accessibility, Events, and News)

Chatter

Events/Conferences

Twitter and Web Accessibility

More News

Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, and Robust

Delay on Next Podcast

Assistive Technology, Captivate, and Accessify

Other Accessibility Podcasts (and UX)

WAVE now available in Spanish

CAPTCHA Alternatives and Articles

Video: Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility

Podcast #71: Gez Lemon Interview & ARIA

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

New Song!

Gez Lemon, ARIA expert

Related Links

News Links

Five Layers, Questions, Adobe Encourages, Great Basics

7 tips for designing for older users

Web Accessibility Video

Podcast #70: Lots of News & Events

Download Web Axe Episode 70 (Lots of News & Events)

Chatter

In the News

Events/Conferences

IBM interviews Judy Brewer on WCAG 2.0

Access U 2009 Conference

Screen Reader Survey and New WAVE

Screen Reader Survey

New WAVE (not the music!)

Keyboard Access for Google Maps

Accessibility to the Face

Webinar, Partnership, and Easy Apps

Flash and PDF Webinar

Partnership

Easy Apps

UPDATE Mar 29

Web Axe RSS Reader Stats

Podcast #69: Recovery.gov Site Review

Events

News

Main Segment

Acronym and Abbr, Referencing W3C Docs, Hiding Text Links