Many governments and organisations now require websites to be accessible, and when it comes to determining whether these requirements have been met, they often rely on recognised checklists of accessibility criteria such as WCAG 2.0 or Section 508. These checklists are a useful way of indicating whether a site complies with the required criteria. However, [...]
There has been much discussion, and some arguments, about how to determine the accessibility of websites. Unfortunately, this is often polarised around two simplistic choices: A compliance/conformance based approach that usually involves a checklist of criteria; or, some form of user testing by people who have different disabilities and/or who rely on different assistive technologies. [...]
My attention was recently drawn by Jenny Bruce to the relatively large number of sites that use bright ‘fluro’ background colours for navigation menu items and buttons. The combination of these ‘fluro’ background colours and white text often fails to meet the minimum colour contrast requirements of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, whereas, when [...]
At the CSUN 2011 conference I gave a presentation called “Improving Web Accessibility for the Elderly”. The presentation considered how many people over the age of 60 use the web, how much they use it and why they use it. It outlined some common issues older web users encounter and the general lack of awareness [...]
The question of whether or not PDFs are sufficiently accessible to be used on the Web has stimulated much debate over the years. There are some who believe there is no place for PDF on the Web; while on the other hand, some argue that PDF is an essential tool for communicating via the Web. [...]
Over the years, I have reviewed the accessibility of a number of sites. This document outlines ten common accessibility issues I have encountered which could result in a site’s failure to fully comply with WCAG 2.0. The document includes links to some of the WCAG 2 advisory Sufficient Techniques provided by the W3C for addressing [...]
The slides and speakers notes from my CSUN 2010 presentation: “Ten Years of Web Content Accessibility Rules: Time for a Rethink?” Following my talk at the CSUN conference in March 2010, several people have asked me to make available the slides. They also asked if it would be possible to get a transcript since many [...]
My presentation for the 2010 CSUN Conference, “Ten Years of Web Content Accessibility Rules: Time for a Rethink?” is primarily concerned with whether or not the way we have encouraged/required the development of accessible sites in the past has been successful, and how we might improve the accessibility of the web in the future. For [...]
After nearly a year of deliberation, the Australian government has finally decided to move from using Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) to WCAG 2.0 as the benchmark for website accessibility. On Wednesday February 24, The Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) announced: “Government agencies will transition to WCAG 2.0 over a four year [...]
On Tuesday 23 February the Minister for Finance, Lindsay Tanner, announced the Australian Government had endorsed WCAG 2.0. The press release by Minister Tanner contained few details, but said all government websites would need to comply with WCAG 2.0 by 2015. “These new standards will improve the ability of people with a broad range of [...]