Comments on: Accessibility - Let it be for all

By: Tor Bollingmo

Tor Bollingmo — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 23:02:23 +0000

Preach ;-)

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 08:39:09 +0000

By the gods of Thor from Walhalla …

I bring you ->

http://accessify.com/
http://joeclark.org/access/

By: Syteve

Syteve — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:10:33 +0000

More please. I just lost a fight over the universities redesign. including an argument about skip links b eing only for those with vision impairments and hence browsing with stylesheets off.

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 09:30:19 +0000

More please. I just lost a fight over the universities redesign. including an argument about skip links b eing only for those with vision impairments and hence browsing with stylesheets off

This is also handy for mobile users that cannot scroll easily. And when styles are off since all content is underneath each other. Two extra arguments. Good implementation is http://www.themaninblue.com. Just go over the page.

By: Syteve

Syteve — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:27:06 +0000

Johan,

You are preaching to the choir I love them since I have arthritis and limited manual dexterity - especially for forms

By: Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 14:43:39 +0000

Syteve,

I hope that you get back in there and win that arguement! Good luck.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the points raised in the article? Are web designers here generally agreeing?

By: Johan

Johan — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:12:16 +0000

You are preaching to the choir I love them since I have arthritis and limited manual dexterity - especially for forms

I have more psalms right here:

http://www.456bereastreet.com/archive/200605/skip_links_visible_or_hidden/

By: Matt Davies

Matt Davies — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:28:33 +0000

You are right - a rant but a good rant which reminds us all that accessibility is not just about humans but also about robots. Slowly we are all coming around to the idea that the positives outweigh the negatives in accessibility. Nice one Andy…

By: P.J. Onori

P.J. Onori — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:42:40 +0000

Well said Andrew. My personal feeling is that many folks ignore the larger picture of accessibility because it immediately makes the problem amazingly more difficult. What you bring up may be slightly blurring the lines between accessibility and usability, but I definitely agree with you. Nice writeup.

By: Volkher Hofmann

Volkher Hofmann — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:49:53 +0000

Yes, accessibility is a lot more than most designers and programmers are considering.

Now, I can only speak for the visually impaired, but this new fad of toning down colors, letting the writing basically bleed into the background by choosing an only slightly brighter color for the text is - let’s see if this gets banned here - absolute bull****. Following that fad excludes a huge number of people (also very young people) from what you are publishing on your site. You’re basically telling a larger number of (potential) readers to take a flying leap.

I consider it an insult to me as someone who has problems with his vision that I’m excluded from those sites by default.

Yes, my own site is far from accessible (tag soup, etc.), but at least I’m contemplating the issues, thinking of fixing things so, for example, screen readers can access it. I’m just not good enough at putting into practice what I have in mind.

What irks me is that many people are not thinking about those real (!) accessibility issues until they are hit by problems themselves. Mea culpa, by the way.

I have a lot more to say on the issue(s), but I’ll refrain. ;)

Volkher

By: Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:27:00 +0000

Volkher,

I think you’re hitting the nail on the head here. Real accessibility in my view is far more important than simply validating.

By: Volkher Hofmann

Volkher Hofmann — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:11:50 +0000

Shaun Inman alerted me to vision problems that involve the exact opposite, people who have problems discerning dark letters on a bright background. I hadn’t thought about that at all.

Maybe a style switcher is really the best answer then?

By: Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 16:45:48 +0000

Or user stylesheets? If one has access issues (or maybe just personal preferences) then one can switch the background/font colors to overcome any issues.

I find this feature underused, maybe as the user has to know either:

- how to create a stylesheet
- or where to download a stylesheet to suit their issues.

If anyone knows of resources for this, then link away.