Industry news

03 March 2010

Cognitive Web Accessibility Research

Clearhelp has a detailed list of over 100 research papers into cogntive disabilities and web accessibility.

12 Alternative web browsers you should try

A list of 12 alternative browsers. Whilst Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome account for the lions share of the browser share, that's not to say they are the right ones for you. Shop around!

Web accessibility preferences are for sissies

Jared Smith of Webaim discusses text resizing widgets, amongst others, are detracting accessibility from websites.

Javascript progressive enhancement framework

Progressive enhancement is designing for the common denominator and then enhancing content and functionality for those that can make use of it. Enhance.js is a JavaScript framework aimed at simplifying this process.

Microsoft Windows now has to offer a choice of browsers to you, the user.

A quick look at how the new browser selection process works in Windows XP, Vista and 7.

Are your PDFs accessible?

Some thoughts from Webcredible on creating accessible PDFs

Tip: Checking your web site for keyboard accessibility

Ensuring your site is usable by keyboard only users is an essential part of providing an accessible experience.

If you are a mouse user, hide your mouse and then try browsing your site using the keyboard on its own. If there is something you can't do, resist temptation to use your mouse! Note it down instead.

Quick guide to using your keyboard to browse websites

Pressing Tab will step through all of the interactive elements on a page including links and form controls.
With a link or button selected, pressing Enter will activate the link or button.
The focus, that is the currently selected link, is often shown by a faint dotted outline around the link. This is not always the case though!

Whilst not comprehensive, these are the basic keys for navigating a website, and should allow you to find potential problems. If you don't find any problems or difficulties, chances are you weren't looking hard enough - go back and try again. Or you've got a very keyboard friendly website - well done!

Common areas of failure

Hiding the focus outline for links. When you tab around the webpage, is it easy to tell which is the currently selected link?
Do you have to tab through all of the navigation links to get to the actual page content?
Is there Flash content that is inaccessible to you?
Are there any drop down menus used which you cannot access as a keyboard user?

This is by no means a comprehensive method for checking keyboard accessibility of your site, but will likely help you find some important issues and should illustrate some of the difficulties faced by keyboard users.

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For more information:

Email accessibility@AbilityNet.org.uk
Phone 0800 269545

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