Categories
csun

CSUN12 Quick Review

Another CSUN conference has come and gone and this year was better than ever. I met many great people for the first time including Joe Dolson, who’s been on the Web Axe podcast a couple times in the past. The conference included much discussion on Google and accessibility, the announcement of WAVE5 beta by WebAIM, and the Tweetup was a bash! Special thanks to Adobe, Deque, and Accessible Media for being such great hosts. On Saturday morning, I attended the SS12 finals in which @Jennison was one of three judges (I judged last year). Be sure to check out the Great Big List by @mactoph which includes many links to presentations, round-ups, podcasts, and more. Also, here’s my Flickr CSUN12 photo album. -Dennis

Joe, Jennison, Dennis, and John sitting at table for lunch.
Photo: Joe, Jennison, Dennis, and John at lunch. Credit: Angela Hooker.
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.
Categories
csun expert podcast

Podcast 94: Women of CSUN12

This podcast is a preview of the 27th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, commonly known as CSUN, February 27 thru March 3 in San Diego, California. If you’re not attending to the CSUN conference this year, this podcast is valuable in learning about current issues in web accessibility and “meeting” several great people in the field. If you are going, then you can also make a better decision in which sessions you want to attend.

First, Dennis and Jennison Asuncion (@Jennison) do an excellent overview of the conference (OK, mostly Jennison). Then several guests, all women, speak about their work, their sessions at CSUN, and some other fun thoughts. Four of the women live in the UK!

Download Web Axe Episode 94 (Women of CSUN12)

[Transcript of podcast 94]

Guests

More Related

Categories
"fixing alt" alt facebook fun

Fixing Alt – Facebook Like Button Explained

The next in our “Fixing Alt” series is the Facebook Like button explained posted on MakeUseOf a while back. It’s a short but sweet comedic image, but again, with no alternative text provided. So here it is.

Facebook Like button, equals: I’ve read it, but I’m too lazy to comment!

PS: There are so many other things wrong with the MakeUseOf web page. But since my New Year’s resolution is not to be as critical, I won’t go into it.