Category Archives: Articles

Is PDF accessible in Australia?

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I am concerned that mixed-messages relating to the status of PDFas a “web content technology” in Australia could put at risk the whole move to improve the accessibility of the web.

JAWS 11 and IE 9

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We found some problems when using forms with JAWS 11 and IE 9 that could mean someone relying on a screen reader would not know there were checkboxes or radio buttons on the page.

Accessibility Barrier Scores

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This suggested ABS system aims to provide a measure of how often barriers to accessibility occur in reviewed web page(s) and the likely seriousness of those barriers.

Measuring accessibility

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Determining the accessibility of websites is often polarised around two simplistic choices: A checklist-compliance based approach or user testing by people with disabilities. This article considers the pros and cons of both approaches.

‘Fluro’ Colours

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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 […]

Improving Web Accessibility for the Elderly CSUN Slides and Transcript

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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 […]

Mature Age ICT Users Survey 2

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The results of the second survey into how people over the age of 60 use information and communication technologies (ICT) are now available. This phase of the project involved surveying people in the physical-world and one-on-one interviews with them about some of the problems they experience when using the web. There were some differences between […]

Mature Age ICT Users Online Survey Results

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During December 2010 and January 2011, we conducted an online survey of information and communication technology (ICT) users over the age of 60. We have completed the initial collating of these results and they provide a snapshot of internet and mobile phone usage by those older members of the population who are able and willing […]

Older web users and text size

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Our research into use of the web and other information and communication technologies by people over the age of sixty is producing some interesting results. In this article I want to comment briefly on some of the responses relating to the size of text on web pages. This research, which I’m conducting in association with […]

Baby Boomers and the Web

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When we talk about the Baby Boomer generation, we usually refer to the people born in the years between 1946 and 1964[i], the post-war boom of rapid population growth particularly in countries like the U.S. and Australia. “Baby boomers” are sometimes divided into “early boomers” (1946-55), and “late boomers” (1956-1964)[ii] . In this article I […]