DOJ Releases a Report on Accessibility of Federal Government Electronic and Information Technology
The DOJ has released its Section 508 report, “Accessibility of Federal Electronic and Information Technology,” to the President and Congress. The report provides findings based on a survey of federal agencies on the accessibility of their electronic and information technology (EIT) and the procedures used to implement Section 508. From 2010 to 2011 the DOJ […]
How To Tailor Your Site for People With Poor Vision
Davey Winder has written a great article for PC Pro that explains how web designers can create websites that are more accessible for people with low vision. Winder suggests looking at webpages through a low vision simulator, in order to get an idea of how people with low vision experience the web. Winder also covers […]
Google Shows Tools For an Accessible Web
At its Google I/O developer conference, Google presented new and improved accessibility tools for its Chrome browser. The extention Accessibility Developer Tools allows web developers to check for accessibility features like alt text for images, keyboard accessibility, color contrast, and closed captioning on video. Google also annouced ChromeVox, an open source screen reader that uses […]
Web Accessibiliy Barriers for Older Adults
The Journal of Emerging Trends in Computing and Information Sciences recently published an article exploring the problems that older adults have accessing web-pages. Older adults often encounter barriers to accessing the web due to disabilities like vision impairments, hearing impairments, and motor impairments. Older adults are also more likely to be unfamiliar with the standard […]
Government Acknowledges Need for Better Web Accessibility
In the summer of 2011, President Barack Obama asserted the need for the enhancement of technological accessibility. In attempting to be more compliant with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Federal websites are required to be fully accessible to people who have disabilities. In March of 2012, the administration sought feedback from citizens on how […]
RNIB Gets Tough With bmibaby Over Accessibility
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIBP) has sued the UK airline, bimbaby, over the accessibility of its website. People using screen readers or non-mouse navigation were unable to buy plane tickets online, and were instead directed towards buying tickets by phone, at times paying fees to do so. Customers were also concerned that […]
Issues using the Walmart and John Lewis websites with the Jaws screen reader
This video from Ability Net explores the problems that keyboard users and screen reader users can face when attempting to navigate through an inaccessible website. Issues such as non-descriptive link titles, skipping over links, and no visual differentiation marking which link is currently selected can make navigation impossible for many users
Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) w/captions and description
Raising the Floor, a consortium of academic, industry, and non-governmental organizations and individuals are working to develop what they call the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure, a cloud-based personalized interface system that could change the landscape of assistive technologies. The Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) would allow people who cannot use the standard interfaces on devices […]
Advocates Fight CAPTCHA
Australian consumer and disability organizations have begun a campaign to reduce the use of CAPTCHA, the visual tests used by websites to distinguish human users from automated computer bots. CAPTCHA tests are generally not user friendly and they are often completely inaccessible to people who are blind or have low vision. While audio CAPTCHAs are […]