Cognitive disabilities are the least recognized in the world of web accessibility (as opposed to visual, auditory, and motor). The goal of WebAIM’s Steppingstones Project is to “help web developers consider issues of cognitive disability in their designs”. To assist in this process, WebAIM is inviting people to complete its Cognitive Disability and Web Accessibility Survey. It takes about 10 minutes.
Dennis and Ross discuss a variety of recent web accessibility news and events.
Download Web Axe Episode 62 (Web Accessibility News)
HTML 5 and Accessibility post — comment from Laura Carlson of Web Standards Group with great info and links.
WAVE toolbar and blog available
Reference Card for Accessible PDF Creation from Word from the Adobe Accessibility blog by Andrew Kirkpatrick (Download Reference Card)
For Review: UAAG 2.0 First Public Working Draft
Joe Clark has released the (final?) update to the WCAG Samurai’s errata. Also see The WCAG Samurai Errata are now available.
Moving WCAG 2.0 to the next stage (W3C March 2008 Update)
Radio New Zealand Interview of Shawn Henry, February 2008
Are Lists Becoming the New Tables?
IE8 announces change in “version targeting”:
- Surprise of the year: IE8 will use Standards mode by default
- Microsoft Backflips on Browser Version Targeting
CSS Globe, 11 Good Accessibility Tips
SXSW panels of note:
- Accessible Rich Media (Sharron Rush)
- Targeting Your Web Site: Accessibility Litigation Update (Mike Wasylik)
- Catching up with Accessibility: The Basics Quickly (Shawn Henry)
- Dell’s Blog about SXSW Accessibility topics
The Digital Bus – a blog about digital marketing
Categories
HTML 5 and Accessibility
HTML 5 is under development, and I thought I’d point out some proposed changes that directly affect accessibility, namely, the removal of certain attributes:
- accesskey attribute on a, area, button, input, label, legend and textarea
- longdesc attribute on img and iframe
- target attribute on link
- summary attribute on table
- headers, axis and abbr attributes on td and th
- scope attribute on td
Key Links
- A Preview of HTML 5 (ALA)
- HTML 5 differences from HTML 4 (W3C)
In a report from the UK, where web accessibility is more widely practiced than in most other countries, 75% of Local web design companies ignore disabled people. Unfortunately, I’m sure that percentage is much higher here in the United States, where accessible web sites are still limited to not much more than some government and education sites.
Assistive technology for the disabled is an article describing assistive technology (AT) for those with visual, hearing, and mobility impairments. The author is physically challenged himself.