Courtesy of Kim Krause Berg, a great summary of accessibility policies by country. A big deal is frequently made of Section 508, the United States accessibility guidelines, WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 1.0, and the accessibility rules set by the UK: The Disability Discrimination Act. But what if your primary audience is in Belgium? Even though very, very few countries currently provide laws requiring accessibility for privately owned commercial sites, it’s always a possibility that this could happen: it’s a […]
Continue reading “International Accessibility Legislation” »Category: Accessibility
Going Mobile: Development and Preparation
I’ve just had an article published at Accessites, the accessible design showcase where I’m also a site reviewer. The subject is about mobile design: what kinds of complexities you can encounter when attempting to design a site with wide-ranging mobile compatibility. I’m also dealing with accessibility — there are numerous areas where mobile development and accessible design overlap, and it can help your development process to keep these ideas in mind. Accessites doesn’t support comments, so after you give the […]
Continue reading “Going Mobile: Development and Preparation” »What’s the key to Accessibility?
Note: I highly recommend reading the comments on this post. Jared Smith from WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) makes some very valuable comments on these issues which I’ve responded to. In a word, options. Building an accessible website doesn’t mean building a visual experience which will work perfectly for all audience. It doesn’t mean writing content that everybody will be able to read equally. What it means is creating an experience where users can alter their experience as they choose […]
Continue reading “What’s the key to Accessibility?” »E-Accessibility Day: December 3rd, 2006
The United Nations established the International Day of Disabled Persons in 1982. Each annual observance of the day is themed: and the theme for 2006 is E-Accessibility. From the United Nations: Persons with disabilities are at a considerable disadvantage by not being able to access information technologies. For instance, as education becomes increasingly dependent on information technologies, not being able to access the Internet for example limits the learning potential of persons with disabilities. Several places already have legislation and […]
Continue reading “E-Accessibility Day: December 3rd, 2006” »IE7 and Assistive Technology
Kelly Ford, from the IE (Internet Explorer) Accessibility Team, posted today in the IEBlog about IE7’s expected behavior with a variety of commercial screen readers and screen magnifiers. The general sound of things is that IE7 will be compatible (or mostly compatible) with the most recent versions of most assistive technology software. Although the number of products detailed on the IEblog is quite small, it does cover the better known products in assistive technology, all of which either are currently […]
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