Buzz Archives: Accessibility
WCAG 2.0 is a W3C Recommendation
After 9.5 years of work, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 have reached W3C Recommendation status. On behalf of the WaSP Accessibility Task Force, I'd like to welcome WCAG 2 officially into the pantheon of Web standards. I think this tweet by caledoniaman sums up the level of anticipation: WCAG 2.0 and ...
By Matt May | December 11th, 2008
- Introduction to WAI ARIA - available in Spanish and French
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Accessibility genius Gez Lemon recently published An Introduction to WAI ARIA on Dev.Opera. Designed to work together with HTML 5 the Accessible Rich Internet Application Suite, published by the Web Accessibility Initiative, aims to make Ajax accessible to disabled people using screen-readers and is key to safeguarding accessibility in today's ...
By Henny Swan | December 10th, 2008
- “Just ask: Integrating accessibility throughout design” available in English, Japanese and Spanish
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Fancy giving your site a hardcore usability test? Then why not involve people with disabilities in your testing. Not sure where to start? Then check out Just Ask: integrating accessibility throughout design. This free online book, written by Shawn Lawton Henry from W3C in her spare time, looks at all you ...
By Henny Swan | December 8th, 2008
- BSI British Standards invites comments on new draft standard on accessible web content
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BSI British Standards is inviting all interested parties, and in particular marketing professionals and disabled web users, to review and comment on the draft of a new standard on accessible web content. DPC BS 8878 Web accessibility – Building accessible experiences for disabled people – Code of Practice is ...
By Patrick Lauke | December 1st, 2008
- WCAG 2.0 resources
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Here's a starter list of some resources to help transition to WCAG 2 from the world of WCAG 1, now the new standard goes to proposed recommendation status. This is just a starter list; please add other resources that you recommend in the comments. It would be great to have ...
By Bruce Lawson | November 6th, 2008
- WCAG 2 and mobileOK Basic Tests specs are proposed recommendations
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WCAG 2 and the mobileOK Basic Tests specifications have been moved to "proposed recommendation status" by the W3C, which means that the technical material is complete and it has been implemented in real sites. WCAG 2 Shawn Henry writes of WCAG 2, Over the last few months, the Web Content ...
By Bruce Lawson | November 4th, 2008
- UK government draft browser guidance is daft browser guidance
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Last friday, the UK government's Central Office of Information (COI) published a public consultation on browser standards for public sector websites: This guidance has been developed to assist those delivering public sector websites to determine which web browsers to use for testing. Public sector websites have a responsibility to be inclusive ...
By Bruce Lawson | September 8th, 2008
- Call-to-action: Save the UT Accessibility Institute
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The University of Texas is closing its Accessibility Institute today. Non-profit Knowbility has started a petition to save it. Though you may not have heard of the Accessibility Institute, you have been influenced by its work. Its late founder, Dr. John Slatin, was the former co-chair of the Web Content Accessibility ...
By James Craig | August 29th, 2008
- What the Target settlement should mean to you
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It's a question many of us in accessibility have been waiting for years to be answered. Does the Americans with Disabilities Act apply to the web? Sadly, accessibility's ultimate cliffhanger once again reaches an awkward denouement, leaving us deflated, and looking at yet another boring sequel. The National Federation of the Blind ...
By Matt May | August 28th, 2008
- British Standard for accessibility
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The British Standards Institution (BSI) has invited two members of the WaSP, Bruce Lawson and Patrick Lauke, to join the drafting committee for the first British Standard for Web Accessiblity. Two years ago, the BSI was sponsored by the Disability Rights Commission to write a Publicly Available Specification ...
By Bruce Lawson | July 11th, 2008
- hAccessibility redux?
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Thanks to Sebastian Snopek from the International Liaison Group (WaSP ILG), this post is also available in Polish: Wtórny hAccessibility?. Fanning the fires of the ABBR pattern debate, the developers at BBC Radio Labs announced today that they'll be removing the hCalendar microformat from their programmes listing pages, pending further ...
By Patrick Lauke | June 23rd, 2008
- RNIB Surf Right Toolbar available for IE
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Those clever folks at the Royal National Institute of Blind People have teamed up with the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium and The Paciello Group to produce a toolbar for Internet Explorer that exposes some of its usually buried accessibility options. It's not for developers so much as end-users; the RNIB say The ...
By Bruce Lawson | June 20th, 2008
- Easy-to-use Flickr and YouTube
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It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that accessibility is only about the blind people with physical disabilities, and forget about those with cognitive difficulties, or those who are new to the Web. Many pages are very busy and confusing and hence off-putting. Flame-haired DOMscripting lovegod Christian Heillman, ...
By Bruce Lawson | June 19th, 2008
- WCAG 2 now “candidate recommendation”
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The W3C announced today that WCAG2 is now a candidate recommendation and is likely to be "live" by the end of the year. The W3C says Candidate Recommendation means that we think the technical content is stable and we want developers and designers to start using WCAG 2.0, to test it out ...
By Bruce Lawson | April 30th, 2008
- Opera complains to Europe over IE lock-in
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Opera Chief Technology Officer and co-inventor of CSS, Håkon Wium Lie has written an open letter to the Web community explaining the reasons that Opera has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Union to force Microsoft to support open Web standards in Internet Explorer and to unbundle Internet ...
By Bruce Lawson | December 13th, 2007
- UK government accessibility consultation
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The UK government has issued a consultation document on Delivering Inclusive Websites. It's not finalised, as the consultation doesn't end until November 13 (my birthday, by the way …) but in its current state it's not a bad document; it rehashes PAS 78, recognises that the only way to find out ...
By Bruce Lawson | November 4th, 2007
- Will Target get schooled?
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Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California certified the NFB lawsuit against Target as a class action on behalf of blind Internet users throughout the U.S. and ruled that websites like Target.com are required, under California state law, to be accessible.
By Aaron Gustafson | October 5th, 2007
- Obstacles to Accessible Flash
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Adobe Flash can often get a bad rap from the standards community, but the reality is that there are many situations where Flash is the most appropriate tool for the job. As well as just being the best technology for some applications, the Flash Player also enjoys near ubiquity in ...
By Drew McLellan | August 6th, 2007
- A review of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, May 2007 Working Draft
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In last month's Interview with Judy Brewer on WCAG 2.0, we read that:WCAG 2.0 went through several Public Working Drafts in recent years, and a Last Call Working Draft in 2006. Each Working Draft was sent out for public review — altogether to hundreds of individuals, organizations, and lists around ...
By Patrick Lauke | June 11th, 2007
- London: Shawn Lawton Henry on WCAG 2.0
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Organised by the RNIB, Shawn Lawton Henry will be talking about WCAG 2.0 at Westminster University, New Cavendish campus on Tuesday 5th June 7pm.
By Mike Davies | May 28th, 2007
- Screen Reader User on U.S. National Public Radio
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I heard a piece on NPR this morning featuring an atypical screen reader user: atypical because he is not blind.His vision-impairment is caused by a lack of muscle control due to cerebral palsy, effectively making him vision-, mobility-, and dexterity-impaired. The mention of the screen reader is a minor note ...
By James Craig | May 24th, 2007
- Current browsers and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
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In web accessibility, you’ll often hear emphasis being placed on the duty of web authors to create accessible content. However, this is only one part of the web accessibility equation.One that has been particularly close to me, or rather one that has provided me with a lot of opportunity to ...
By Patrick Lauke | May 20th, 2007
- Call for Review: Updated WCAG 2.0 Working Draft
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The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) invites you to comment on an updated draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0), published on 17 May 2007. WCAG 2.0 addresses accessibility of Web content for people with disabilities.The updated WCAG 2.0 Public Working Draft incorporates changes ...
By Patrick Lauke | May 17th, 2007
- What’s happening with WCAG 2.0?
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Following a conversation with Judy Brewer from the W3C back in February, Jared Smith had the chance to interview her and submit some probing questions about what's happening with WCAG 2.0. Thanks Judy...and nice one Jared! See the interview with Judy Brewer on WCAG 2.0 in our WaSP Asks the ...
By Patrick Lauke | May 5th, 2007
- Blogging Against Disablism Day
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Tomorrow, May 1st, is Blogging Against Disablism Day. Started by a group of individuals in the UK, last year's participation included nearly one hundred and fifty blog responses. From the call for participation: On Tuesday, May 1st—or as near to as you are able—post something on the subject of Disabilism, Ableism, ...
By James Craig | April 30th, 2007
- hAccessibility
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By Bruce Lawson and James Craig. (German translation) Microformats are a great idea. They allow the embedding of parsable, semantic data (like contact information and event details) into regular web pages. With the right plug-in, that information can be saved directly to your calendar program or address book. Like Microformats, a ...
By James Craig | April 27th, 2007
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) at ALA
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WaSP ILG member Martin Kliehm writes about the WAI draft for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) at A List Apart this week.
By Holly Marie Koltz | April 11th, 2007
- Failed and Flawed Accessibility Organisations
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Mike Davies suggests that a number of accessibility related web sites and groups have failed to come up with the goods but still has high hopes for the WaSP ATF and WCAG Samurai.
By Ian Lloyd | February 26th, 2007
- Petition the UK government for accessibility
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The newspapers are reporting that the UK government is worried because an online petition on the 10 Downing Street website has more than a million signatures protesting about transport policy. Which reminded me that there's a petition on that site set up by Ian Fenn after the fiasco of the ...
By Bruce Lawson | February 13th, 2007
- What to do with WCAG 2?
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To say that the W3C has been working on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 for some time would be an understatement. The first public working draft for WCAG 2 was posted on January 25, 2001 - a full 6 years ago. Just less than a year ago ...
By Derek Featherstone | February 8th, 2007
- The Dutch Embrace Web Standards
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According to Peter-Paul Koch the new Dutch accessibility laws are pretty sweeping and "go way beyond WCAG". Better yet, they read like a veritable blueprint for modern standards based web development: A few examples will show you where Dutch government accessibility is heading. As of 1 September last year, every website ...
By Dean Edwards | January 15th, 2007
The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.
Recent Buzz
WCAG 2.0 is a W3C Recommendation
By Matt May | December 11th, 2008
After 9.5 years of work, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 have reached W3C Recommendation status. On behalf of the WaSP Accessibility Task Force, I’d like to welcome WCAG 2 officially into the pantheon of Web standards.
I think this tweet by caledoniaman sums up the level of anticipation:
WCAG 2.0 and a new Guns ‘n’ Roses album in the same year. What’s the world coming to.
Interesting comparison. They’ve each had about as many pre-releases. In any case, I can say, having spent over 8 years with it, that WCAG 2 is not as entertaining as Chinese Democracy. But I do think that it’s better equipped to stand the test of time.
If I had to pick one thing I’m most happy about, I’d say it’s that the HTML- and text-centrism in WCAG 1 is largely gone. In its place is a much more flexible (dare I say robust?) concept of accessibility-supported technology. So when newer technologies can show themselves to be directly accessible, they too can be used in WCAG 2-conformant content.
Over the years, many people have conflated “WCAG-conformant” with “accessible,” and that’s led to people making statements like: “Don’t use JavaScript–it’s inaccessible.” That’s bad for everyone, from users with disabilities who actually can work with JavaScript (which is to say, the vast majority), to Web designers and developers, to policymakers, to those developing new technologies.
With WCAG 2, “Don’t use x” is no longer valid. (Was it ever?) It is now up to you, the developer, to work on the direct accessibility of your content, no matter what technology you choose. I believe we’re about to experience a new wave of accessible design techniques, as a result.
But first, we need to flush “Don’t use x” out of our system. Some are accustomed to saying it about anything they’re not comfortable with. That’s only holding accessible design back. It’s time to learn what’s out there, today, and use it in everyday Web design. It’s time to make everyone’s Web more accessible. Have a look at the WCAG 2.0 Recommendation, and its supporting material. Then, start thinking about what a more accessible Web could be. We still have a lot of work to do.
Filed in Accessibility, Accessibility TF, W3C/Standards Documentation, Web Standards (general) | Comments (8)