Antanova Ltd. » Accessibility

I ordered the sauce

Jason C — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Having just deployed the latest release of design agency Outburst’s website, I was again thinking about the order of source in html, and how I would put the content first in that site. I could use absolute positioning, but I don’t think that would work in cases where the font size had been increased by the user, or where the user’s display has a resolution greater than the default 96 dpi.

In a spare moment, I did a quick search and found an old but pretty informative presentation and article on exactly that, where they’d done a little bit of user testing. It’s so hard to find that kind of hard information I thought I’d pop a link up here.

http://www.usability.com.au/resources/ozewai2005/

WCAG Cheatsheet

Jason C — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 19:41:00 +0000

While making accessible websites is accepted practice by any web devloper worth his or her salt, sometimes we need help identifying exactly how to. The W3C’s WCAG are here to help us, and our clients.

Trouble is, they’re quite in-depth and long-winded. Thankfully now, though I found something on my travels that will help me tick as many of the accessibility boxes as possible. Remembering of course that making websites accessible is much more than just crossing off items from a list.

Here is is: the WCAG cheatsheet

Blooming marvellous

Jason C — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:50:00 +0000

At last, the BSI has seen sense, and will hopefully help clear the muddy waters of website accessibility. I mentioned in my earlier post “Accessibility… for a price” that there were guidelines for website commissioners called “PAS78”, but that the only way to obtain them was to buy them. Now, like some rare bloom that flowers once a decade, sense has blossomed and the guidelines are available to download for free.

So I’m going to sip the sweet nectar. Stick around and I’ll let you know how it tastes.

Accessibility… for a price

Jason C — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:13:00 +0000

First the good news: the RNIB in conjunction with the BSI have released new guidelines (called PAS 78) to help website commissioners and developers make their sites accessible. Which is a Very Good Thing.

So, I know what you’re thinking. “Where can I get it?” “What’s the URL?”. You can’t! You just can’t! They’re making accessibility guidelines “inaccessible”. You have to buy them for £30 from BSI. And that’s BS, if you ask me.

Come on guys, do everyone a favour and release them on your site. For nothing. Everyone needs to see those guidelines. Remember, the web’s not just built by professionals. So help guide all the amateurs and make the web a more accessible place for everyone.