CategoryAccessibility

May 6, 2015 — As creators of the web, we bring innovative, well-designed interfaces to life. We find satisfaction in improving our craft with each design or line of code. But this push to elevate our skills can be self-serving: Does a new CSS framework or JavaScript abstraction pattern serve our users or us as developers? Read more…

April 27, 2015 — It’s one thing to create a web application and quite another to create an accessible web application. That’s why Heydon Pickering, both author and editor at Smashing Magazine, wrote an eBook Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications, outlining the roadmap for the accessible applications we should all be making. Picture the scene: it’s a day like any other and you’re at your desk, enclosed in a semicircular bank of monitors that make up your extended desktop, intently cranking out enterprise-level CSS for MegaDigiSpaceHub Ltd. You are one of many talented front-end developers who share this floor in your plush London office. You don’t know it, but a fire has broken out on the floor below you due to a “mobile strategist” spontaneously combusting. Since no expense was spared on furnishing the office with adorable postmodern ornaments, no budget remained for installing a fire alarm system. It is up to the floor manager in question to travel throughout the office, warning individual departments in person. Read more…

March 16, 2015 — Technologies work together to extract accessibility information from a web interface and appropriately present it to the user. A big part of accessibility is, therefore, an easily met responsibility of web developers. Read more…

February 23, 2015 — Design with choice in mind, and always give users control over the page. In this article, Henny Swan shares key principles that will ensure that your products are inclusive and usable for disabled people. Read more…

December 5, 2014 — The Web Speech API enables websites and web apps not only to speak to you, but to listen, too. It’s still early days, but this functionality is set to open a whole array of use cases, which makes it pretty awesome. Read more…

October 22, 2014 — When you browse your favorite website or check the latest version of your product on your device of choice, take a moment to look at it differently. Step back from the screen. Close your eyes slightly so that your vision is a bit clouded by your eyelashes. Can you still see and use the website? Are you able to read the labels, fields, buttons, navigation and small footer text? Can you imagine how someone who sees differently would read and use it? In this article, I’ll share one aspect of design accessibility: making sure that the look and feel (the visual design of the content) are sufficiently inclusive of differently sighted users. Read more…

September 15, 2014 — To you, modal windows might be a blessing of additional screen real estate, providing a way to deliver contextual information, notifications and other actions relevant to the current screen. On the other hand, modals might feel like a hack that you’ve been forced to commit in order to cram extra content on the screen. These are the extreme ends of the spectrum, and users are caught in the middle. Depending on how a user browses the Internet, modal windows can be downright confusing. Read more…

July 9, 2014 — It’s one thing to create a web application and quite another to keep it accessible — independent of the device that the user is using and its capabilities. That’s why Heydon Pickering, now the accessibility editor on Smashing Magazine, wrote an eBook Apps For All: Coding Accessible Web Applications, outlining the roadmap for well-designed, accessible applications. This article is an excerpt of a chapter in the eBook that introduces many of the ideas and techniques presented. Reviewed by Steve Faulkner, it’s an eBook you definitely shouldn’t miss if you’re a developer who cares about well-structured content and inclusive interface design. – Ed. Because the W3C’s mission from the outset has been to make the web accessible, accessibility features are built into its specifications. As responsible designers, we have the job of creating compelling web experiences without disrupting the inclusive features of a simpler design. Read more…

May 21, 2014 — Mobile has revolutionized the way we use the web. This is especially true of disabled users, for whom mobile devices open the door to a whole new spectrum of interactions. Read more…

June 18, 2009 — Without argument, one of the most important things to consider when creating a website is that it be accessible to everyone who wants to view it. Does your website play nice with screen readers? Can a user override your style sheet with a more accessible one and still see everything your website has to offer? Would another Web developer be embarrassed if they saw your code? If your website is standards-compliant, you could more confidently answer these questions. Let’s take a look at 10 ways to improve the accessibility of your XHTML website by making it standards-compliant. We’ll go the extra mile and include criteria that fall beyond the standards set by the W3C but which you should follow to make your website more accessible. Each section lists the criteria you need to meet, explains why you need to meet them and gives examples of what you should and shouldn’t do. Read more…