Categories
design review

Comment on Effective Web Design to Enhance Accessibility

Several days ago, I submitted a comment to the article Effective Web Design to Enhance Accessibility, which was recently going around Twitter. The comment wasn’t published, so here it is:

Proper use of headings is another very important issue.
Comments on points above:

  1. Adequate font size by default is best; 16px ideal, 10 or 12 is unacceptable.
  2. Alternative text is a basic requirement that many folks still miss. Especially important on infographics (and comics!). If too long for alt attribute, just put text on page.
  3. Great point, but “link text” or “link content” may be better use of words. The “title” attribute (a.k.a. tooltip) should only be used for supplemental (and not duplicate) information.
  4. Symbols in addition to color is a good practice. In W3C words, “don’t rely on color alone to convey meaning”.
  5. Be sure to have a label for each form component (and associate correctly). Use Fieldset/Legend for long forms to break in sections.
Categories
wcag wcag2 webaim

WCAG Improvements

It was such a relief when WCAG 2.0 became a W3C Recommendation back in December of 2008. But in the fast paced world of the web, nothing stays the same for very long. Even WCAG could use many improvements, especially after over three years. (Time sure flies!)

Jared Smith (@Jared_W_Smith) of WebAIM recently wrote an excellent article WCAG Next which explains some of the top issues and suggests how they can be improved. I pretty much agree with all. Here is a summary:

  • Remove the CAPTCHA Exception – should prohibit all CAPTCHA at Level AA.
  • Media Guidelines – a few suggestions here plus a recommendation for restructuring.
  • Contrast at Level A -minimal contrast requirement needed for Level A.
  • Decrease the 200% Text Resizing Requirement -biggest burden of Level AA.
  • Clarify Images of Text -this is subjective.
  • Specify Mechanisms to Bypass Blocks – add techniques such as skip-to, headings, landmark roles, and others.
  • “Can Be Programmatically Determined” -a confusing aspect of page conformance.
  • Require Keyboard Focus Indicators at Level A – “There is no reason why this should not be a Level A requirement.” Totally!
  • Remove Parsing Requirement – no direct benefit and difficult to test for accessibility; possibly move code validation requirement to Level AAA.