Author: Dennis

Categories
law

Mexico Signs Manifesto on Web Accessibility

Twenty-three Mexican states and three Mexican municipalities have created and signed a manifesto on web accessibility and usability. The manifesto states:

As administrators, our objective is to create and maintain websites that are both useful and easy to use for the widest possible audience: usable and accessible websites. We believe that government, academia and the private sector should work together to achieve this objective.

The manifesto sprang from the Usability and Accessibility for the Web International Seminar which was held in Monterrey, Mexico this past July (2007).

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ajax podcast screenreader

Podcast #57: AJAX and Accessibility (Part 2)

Previously, Dennis and Guest Mark McKay began the discussion on nearly taboo subject of AJAX and web accessibility in Podcast #49: AJAX and Accessibility. Now in Part 2, Dennis and Ross discuss the problems and solutions in greater detail.

Download Web Axe Episode 57 (AJAX and Accessibility, Part 2)

The Problems & Solutions

  • Notifying screen readers updated content
  • For JavaScript disabled browsers, use Hijax and progressive enhancement
  • The dreaded alternative page
  • The future?

AJAX Links

News

Announcements

Categories
law

Court rules against Target on website accessibility lawsuit

Huge news pertaining to web accessibility law in the U.S. — a California court ruled that web sites such as target.com are required by California law to be accessible.

Categories
browser text visual

Don’t Use Text Resizing Widgets

Web sites should not implement text resizing widgets–you know, those little buttons, usually an “A+” and “A-” that increase/descrease the size of the text on the site. The responsibility for providing this functionality lies with the browser, like the forward and back buttons.

Web designers/owners need to put forth more effort in teaching/guiding the user to using the browsers’ features for text resizing. Equally, the browsers themselves should make this feature more obvious and usable.

In addition, most sites I see that use resizing widgets are not very accessible; they seem to add this feature as a cheap replacement (bluff, excuse) for a genuinely accessible web site.

More:

Categories
roundup

Podcast #56: Web Axe 2-Year Anniversary!

So it’s been two years since I started Web Axe. After a year, Ross Johnson joined in as co-host for most shows, which I think helped keep the dialog going and definitely give some fresh input. We did some big interviews over the last year, and had a couple of great guests Joe Dolson and Mark McKay.

For a special feature, the following web experts were gracious enough to send me input on their thoughts about recent events and trends in the world of web accessibility:

  • Mark McKay
  • Joe Dolson
  • Roger Johansson
  • Patrick Lauke
  • Jared Smith
  • Ross Johnson

Download Web Axe Episode 56 (2-year anniversary)

Past Web Axe Interviews

News Links