Measuring accessibility

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 […]

Accessing Nav Drop-Downs

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

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

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 […]