Archive for the ‘Accessibility’ Category

Some while ago I was asked how screen readers handle disabled and read only form fields. Despite forms being commonplace on most websites, there’s remarkably little information available on the subject. It turns out that there’s also very little consistency in the way different screen readers behave either.

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Contacting an organisation to explain why you find their website difficult to use, can seem a bit daunting. Who should you talk to? What should you say? How should you approach it?

Contacting Organisations About Inaccessible Websites is a splendid new resource from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

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Windows 7 has an Ease of Access Center, which was originally introduced in Windows Vista. It’s a single place where all of the accessibility features and settings can be found. Windows 7 includes some new accessibility tools, and improvements to existing ones.

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Google Wave is the latest innovation in online communication. It’s caused a great deal of interest across the industry, and may well herald a new era in online social interaction. It’s new, it’s cutting edge and it’s exciting. It’s also a catastrophic accessibility failure for screen reader users.

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Imagine getting home from work, collecting the post from the mat and sitting at the kitchen table to go through it, while you wait for the kettle to boil. For most people that’s domestic normality. For many blind people, it’s a process that involves a computer, scanner and OCR package. Hardly the setup for a quick look at anything.

KNFB Reader is a portable OCR package that works with your mobile phone. It’s very convenient, easy to use, and highly accurate.

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Accessibility 2.0 is a one day conference hosted by AbilityNet. With six presentations and two panel discussions, topics ranged from mobile interface design and accessibility beyond the desktop, through to HTML 5, WAI ARIA and Silverlight accessibility.

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