Archive for April, 2008.
Apr 30 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | Add a Comment
Peter-Paul Koch has released a new version of his browser event compatibility tables (the last major version dates to 2005) at QuirksMode.org. He has data on IE 5.5, 6, 7, and 8 beta 1; Firefox 2 and 3 beta 5; Safari 3.0 and 3.1 on Windows; Opera 9.26 and 9.5 beta; and Konqueror 3.5.7
Apr 30 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | 3 comments
During last week's New York Web Standards meetup on the WCAG Samurai errata, the group generated a few questions that no one could answer. Joe Clark, who led the WCAG Samurai, was kind enough to help out.
All of the WCAG Samurai errata we had questions about are listed below, in <blockquote>. They are organized by WCAG guidelines in bold.
You can download the PowerPoint presentation and listen to the event at this post: NY Web Standards Meetup—WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0, published on 25 April 2008.
Guideline 6.
Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully
A page that uses digital-rights management or copy protection of any kind cannot be claimed to comply with WCAG+Samurai, as its compatibility with adaptive technology and future technologies cannot be independently proven.
While this seems straightforward, none of us could think of an example. Joe Clark suggested an eBook.
Guideline 10.
Use interim solutions
Do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user.
Does not apply to JavaScript modal windows created in an unobtrusive way (obviously, no <a href="#" onclick="javascript"></a>). Check out WAI-ARIA for ways to make JavaScript applications more accessible.
Do not add non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces or not) between adjacent links unless the semantics of the document naturally would include such characters.
Navigation schemes marked up like this are a no-no:
<ul>
<li><a href=""></a> Link 1 |</li>
<li><a href=""></a> Link 2 |</li>
<li><a href=""></a> Link 3</li>
</ul>
Use the CSS pseudo-element :after, background images, or borders.
Guideline 12.
Provide context and orientation information
Do not use frames. (You may use iframes.)
I was curious why iframes were allowed and wondered how assistive technologies handle them. Joe let me know that assistive technologies handle them "quite well. … Everything inside the <iframe> and </iframe> is the alternative content, plus it's inline or block so you can do whatever you want with it."
Do not place distinguishing information at the beginning of headings, paragraphs, lists, etc. unless it is significantly harder to understand the document without it. (We do not define "significantly harder.")
We weren't sure what the WCAG meant by "distinguishing information." According to Joe, the WCAG wanted us to front-load everything (headings, paragraphs), so people wouldn't have to read more than a few words to understand what the meaning.
Hidden structural information (e.g., heading elements positioned offscreen) is permitted when document semantics warrant it.
None of us were familiar with this technique or could think of a reason to hide structural information. Joe suggested Googling "offscreen positioning" accessibility:
Apr 29 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | Add a Comment
Thanks to John Resig, I just heard about WAI-ARIA, which, "defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies" (WAI-ARIA Overview).
At the moment, I don't know anything about ARIA, but, according to John, it's currently implemented in Firefox 2 and will be supported to a greater degree in Firefox 3. I was also impressed to learn that the Google Reader team has recently added full ARIA support to their application.
So it seems that learning about ARIA is the thing to do and I intend to speak about my findings at the June meeting of the New York Web Standards meetup group.
Apr 27 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | 1 Comment
Slides from Chris Heilmann's talk at AbilityNet's Accessbility 2.0 conference. Heilmann's presentation was on how we try to sell accessibility and the mistakes we make while doing so.
From "Fencing in the habitat—doing things right and getting the accessibility wrong" on Wait till I come! by Chris Heilmann, published on 26 April 2008 at 12:09 AM.
Update 2008-04-29: Chris posted a summary of AbilityNet's Accessibility 2.0 conference on the Yahoo Developer Network blog.
Apr 25 | Posted by Jeffrey Barke | 2 comments
Notes and links from last night's discussion of the WCAG Samurai Errata for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 at the New York Web Standards Meetup Group. Thanks to everyone who made it!
During the meeting, Lydia mentioned Automated Sync Technologies, a transcription and captioning services she found. They are the best priced, easiest, and most flexible transcription and captioning service she has found. Check out their help page for useful how-to videos.
Lydia also provided the following links on Adobe Flash CS3's captioning component:
Update 2008-04-30: There is a Q&A from this meetup posted at http://themechanism.com/blog/2008/04/30/wcag-samurai-errata-qa/
Please contact us if you'd like to present at the June or July meetup.
