Author: Dennis

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"assistive technology" screenreader survey webaim

Assistive Technology Surveys

Digital accessibility experts are often asked about the usage of screen readers and assistive technologies. For example, one will often ask “What’s the most popular screen reader?” This is difficult (if not impossible) to determine technically, but also has privacy implications and other problems.

The following two surveys provide great data and are provided by very reputable organizations. Keep in mind though that the respondents were not controlled and the sample sizes are relatively low.

Are you aware of any other recent surveys?

Related:

A person using a laptop computer wearing headphones and touching a braille output device.
A person using assistive technology.
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jobs

Accessibility Jobs, June 2016

Some great opportunities! (All U.S.)

For the Silicon Valley/CA jobs, credit to @jennison @a11ybay @a11yjobs.

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forms roundup

Accessible Date Pickers

Unfortunately, several shiny HTML5 features (such as the video element), ended up implemented to different levels by browsers, without good accessibility, and without an interface that satisfied designers (a nearly impossible task). This includes the date input.

And a designer should first ask, is a date picker actually needed?

Recently on Twitter, there was some discussion about accessible date picker widgets. Jason Kiss (@JKiss) did some analysis and gave feedback.

https://twitter.com/jkiss/status/720720467829493760 (Tweet no longer exists.)

I felt compelled to list the examples of accessible date pickers mentioned in the Twitter thread, so here they are. Know any other good ones?

PS: In the tweet thread, props to @handcoding, @pauljadam, and @backflip.

Related articles:

Last updated Nov 2023

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"assistive technology" jobs

Accessibility Jobs, March 2016

Wow, plenty of great open positions!

For updates, follow me (@WebAxe) and @a11yJobs on Twitter!

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captions video youtube

Captions and YouTube

Video captions are obviously necessary for users with a hearing impairment to access the audio content. But there are more reasons as to why captions are important including:

  • Speakers or headset is broken.
  • Too loud an environment such as train or yelling children.
  • Too quiet an environment such as a library or when spouse is sleeping.
  • Helps those with cognitive disability (or language is not native).
  • SEO

Correcting YouTube automated captions

So you have a video on YouTube. The automatic captions are a valiant effort but not nearly understandable enough, yet. To correct, you can use a great tool embedded right in YouTube. Note: If you recall, a few years ago, one had to download the caption file, edit, and then upload.

YouTube CC

Below are the basic steps to get you started on editing the captions. This is a very nifty and convenient tool, but best for sighted mouse users. Also keep in mind that there are different ways to reach the editing mode, and it may change (as it has already from the referenced articles below).

  1. Go to a YouTube video you own (while logged in of course).
  2. Click the CC (“Subtitles and CC”) icon just under the video.
  3. If you don’t have a custom caption file:
    1. Click the “Add new subtitles or CC” menu button.
    2. Select the language. You may be asked to set the default language at this point.
  4. If you have a caption file:
    1. Under the Published heading, click the language of the caption file to edit.
    2. Click the blue Edit button.
  5. Edit away!

Resources for YouTube Captions

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