Category Archives: Articles

Accessing Nav Drop-Downs

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Recently I came across a site that has a less than accessible horizontal main navigation bar with drop-down menus containing links to the different pages in each section. This got me thinking once again about the use of drop-downs from an accessibility perspective. In particular, I thought it might be useful to consider the different […]

Ten Common Accessibility Problems

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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 […]

iPhone, iPad and VoiceOver

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Several years ago, I looked at the Apple VoiceOver screen reader and found it wanting. Last week, I returned to VoiceOver and, at the risk of further inflaming the hyperbolic passion of the Apple Fan boys/girls, I must say it is amazing how much difference a few years can make. Last Friday, Russ Weakley and […]

WCAG Rethink?

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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 […]

WCAG 2 – Don’t Panic

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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 […]

Australia goes WCAG 2

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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 […]

Government 2.0 Draft Report and Accessibility

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While there are many things to praise in the Government 2.0 Taskforce Draft Report, ‘Engage: Getting on with Government 2.0‘, sadly I find it very light-on when it comes to the whole issue of social inclusion for people with disabilities. How governments around the world balance the potential of web 2.0 with the reality of […]

Social Inclusion for the Web

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We no longer think it is acceptable to discriminate against people on grounds of gender or race and, as a community, we expect provision to be made for people with disabilities in public transport and building design. However, when it comes to making sure web content is accessible to all users of the web, including […]

WCAG 2.0 and Accessibility Supported

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Web accessibility is at the cross-roads. The WCAG of 1999 is not able to meet the needs of the web today, with its enhanced interactivity, greater community engagement and the proliferation of new technologies. WCAG 2.0 is supposed to address this problem by looking not at the technologies used to generate web content, but at […]

Adopting WCAG 2

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It is six months since the release of WCAG 2.0 and I thought it might be interesting to see how extensively it has been adopted as a bench mark for determining web content accessibility. Over this time, I have felt that the rate of adoption has been relatively slow and the number of countries and […]