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Buzz Archives: Accessibility

WCAG 2 now “candidate recommendation”

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

Recent Accessibility Podcasts

Join ATF members Bruce Lawson and Patrick Lauke on some recent podcasts (with transcripts available).

By Derek Featherstone | November 24th, 2006

Target sighted - a hit but not quite a bullseye

The accessibility case against Target.com moves on to a new stage just when Target had really hoped it would actually be dropped. Bad news for the company, perhaps, but is it all good news for web accessibility advocates as some have read it to be?

By Ian Lloyd | September 14th, 2006

Accessibility Webcast on Plone

Many developers in the education field are moving to open source content management software solutions for a variety of reasons, including: better standards/accessibility support, and a growing community and network of resources and help. The National Center on Disability & Access to Education recently hosted a webcast case study of one such solution, Plone.

By Holly Marie Koltz | September 2nd, 2006

New book: Web Accessibility - Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance

Those who remember the (now defunct) seminal Glasshaus book Accessible Web Sites may be interested to know that friends of ED have just released a completely reworked and expanded successor: Web Accessibility - Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance.After an overview of the accessibility law and guidelines, and a discussion about ...

By Patrick Lauke | August 20th, 2006

Flash, JavaScript, UX, standards, apologia, apologies, and one man’s opinions

The recent discussion of plug-in implementation, here and elsewhere, points to broader issues that affect everyone who is invested in web standards adoption.

By Ben Henick | August 18th, 2006

PAS78 available free of charge

The British Standards Institution's Publicly Available Specification "Guide to good practice in commissioning accessible websites" is now available free of charge and for nothing from the Disability Rights Commission. Yay!

By Bruce Lawson | June 29th, 2006

Crying Foul on Accessibility Claims

Or how not to waste tax-payers’ money on inaccessible sites or make grand claims on accessibility that you cannot fully back up.

By Ian Lloyd | June 27th, 2006

Promoting the responsible use of JavaScript: writing, teaching and presenting

The members of the DOM Scripting Task force have been busy writing and reviewing books, teaching and presenting at conferences and workshops, and preparing for upcoming events; focusing on the responsible use of JavaScript, as well as accessible JavaScript. Here’s an update of recent and forthcoming activities our Task Force members are involved in. Next stop is @media 2006 - see you there!

By Mike Davies | June 12th, 2006

IBM Endorses Dojo and Lends Accessibility Support

On Monday, IBM officially announced its support for the Dojo Toolkit JavaScript framework. This announcement comes soon after the creation of the Dojo Accessibility email list, and like its other open source donations, IBM’s support for Dojo includes a major emphasis on accessibility for people with disabilities. Several weeks ago, Dojo ...

By James Craig | June 6th, 2006

BrowseAloud respond

Many thanks to Martin McKay, Technical Director and one of the founders of Texthelp (developers of BrowseAloud), for responding to my previous post All aboard the PAS 78 gravy train. In a refreshingly sincere and straightforward email Martin reassured me of his personal commitment to the cause of accessibility and literacy. ...

By Patrick Lauke | May 27th, 2006

WCAG review period extended

The comment period for WCAG 2 has been extended to Thursday, June 22. If you are thinking about giving feedback, I suggest reading the directions for commenters. The ATF will be publishing a broader set of issues shortly, and working to help the WCAG Working Group cover narrower technical issues as ...

By Matt May | May 26th, 2006

All aboard the PAS 78 gravy train

With the extensive media coverage following its launch, a large number of businesses, education establishments and government agencies with a stake in the UK online market should be aware of PAS 78 - Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites. Partly due to the cost associated with this document, ...

By Patrick Lauke | May 11th, 2006

Scared of the Dark?

The impact of web 2.0 and/or AJAX-based web applications - from the point of view of a blind user, not a standardista (for a change).

By Ian Lloyd | May 10th, 2006

The Web Standards Project is a grassroots coalition fighting for standards which ensure simple, affordable access to web technologies for all.

Recent Buzz

W3C Offers Online Training Course: Mobile Best Practices

By Holly Marie Koltz | May 4th, 2008

The W3C Mobile Web Initiative is offering the online training course: An Introduction to W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices from May 26 - June 20, 2008. The course is free, registration is open, but limited.

This course is aimed at experienced Web developers and designers who are interested in learning to develop content for mobile Web access using W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices.

Participants will have access to lectures and assignments providing hands-on practical experience with using W3C’s mobile Web Best Practices. They will have direct access to W3C experts on this topic who are the instructors for this course. Participants will also be able to discuss and share experiences with their peers who are faced with the challenges of mobile Web design.

For more information about the course, instructors, topics, and to view a free sample course, visit Online Training Course: An Introduction to W3C’s Mobile Web Best Practices

Thanks also go to Henny Swan for posting an entry about this on her site at Want to Get Your Content Mobile.

Update: Registration is full and now closed.

Filed in W3C/Standards Documentation, Web Standards (general), Training, Design, Mobile, Education, General | Comments (1)

More Buzz articles

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WCAG 2 now “candidate recommendation” Bruce Lawson
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Acid3 Passed in 23 Days! Kimberly Blessing
New Initiative in Hyper-Localized Social Tagging Porter Glendinning

All of the entries posted in WaSP Buzz express the opinions of their individual authors. They do not necessarily reflect the plans or positions of the Web Standards Project as a group.

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