I’ve become an RSS junkie. I’m amazed by the power that blogging and RSS feeds have brought to the accessibility field. I have Google Reader chock full of accessibility blogs and feeds. I have learned so much in the last year or so due to the vast contributions of the accessibility bloggers I have stumbled upon. I’m sure there are many more out there that I have yet to discover.
Here are the best of the accessibility blogs that I’m currently subscribed to (not to mention our own blog). The RSS icons link directly to the RSS feed (RSS 2.0 when multiple options are available). If you’d like to subscribe to all of these feeds in your RSS reader (I recommend Google Reader), you can download an OPML file containing all of these feeds. Your feed reader should import the OPML file and subscribe you en masse.
My “Must Read” accessibility blogs
- 456 Berea Street
- Roger Johansson is one of the most active and knowledgeable accessibility bloggers. He’s an accessibility superstar in my book!
- A List Apart
- If you can get past their very broken RSS feed which repeats entries every few days, then you’ll find great, peer-reviewed articles here on a range of topics.
- Accessibility in the News
- With almost 1800 entries, this feed is a very active and comprehensive aggregator of accessibility news from all over the web and beyond.
- Accessify
- Ian Lloyd and the folks at Accessify post many accessibility items, particularly ones relevant to the UK crowd.
- Accessites.org
- The goal of Mike Cherim and his “Team Access” is to prove that accessible web sites can function well and look beautiful.
- AlastairC
- Alastair Campbell provides a nice combination of practical and insanely technical.
- box of chocolates
- “You never know what you’re going to get” is the tagline, but with Derek Featherstone you get a true Accessibility Ninja.
- Blind Access Journal
- As a blind information technology professional, Darrell Shandrow actively blogs “about the blind and our quest for the greatest possible access to all the information available.”
- Bruce Lawson’s personal site
- Fellow ATFer Bruce Lawson’s blog offers a mix of very interesting humor (you’ve been warned), personal experiences, and in-depth accessibility info. Bruce knows his stuff and if you disagree, you may regret it.
- Joe Clark
- If you don’t know of Joe, then you probably don’t really know accessibility. Joe blogs on a wide variety of topics – his favorites range from typography to lambasting the W3C to the accessibility of everything from web sites to train subway-station signage. The RSS feed above is for his accessibility-related posts only.
- Joe Dolson Accessible Web Design
- Joe is an accessible site designer that shares his immense knowledge powerfully though his blog and many articles.
- Juicy Studio
- Gez Lemon’s personal site. Gez provides some of the most influential research and writing in the accessibility field, particularly on the technical aspects of accessibility and assistive technologies
- splintered
- Patrick H. Lauke is one of the more vocal and active accessibiliters you’ll find. He’s active on about every accessibility project and mailing list there is, yet still finds time to work as web editor for the University of Salford.
- The Web Standards Project
- WaSP is perhaps the most influential group of standards advocates on the planet. The Accessibility Task Force of WaSP is comprised of the brightest minds in web accessibility. The news feed represents just a small portion of the work that goes on behind the scenes at WaSP.
- Web Axe – Accessibility Tips
- Web Axe is a podcast and blog featuring practical web design accessibility tips. There are currently 47 podcasts available for download and every one of them provides useful accessibility information. Dennis Lembree’s site provides loads of useful information and interviews with the who’s who of web accessibility.
Other fantastic accessibility blogs and news aggregators
- AccessibleNet.org
- An active aggregator of accessibility news and tips.
- Adobe Accessibility Blog
- Andrew Kirkpatrick and the Adobe accessibility team keep us apprised of accessibility in Adobe products.
- bestkungfu weblog
- The blog of Matt May, former WAI/WCAG point person.
- E-Access Blog
- Run by the team behind E-Access Bulletin on all issues relating to access to all new technologies by people with disabilities
- Guild of Accessible Web Designers
- The Guild of Accessible Web Designers is a large, members-only group of many of the best accessible experts out there.
- Beast-Blog.com
- Mike Cherim’s professional and personal blog
- Blether
- The online playground of Dan Champion, local government web manager, smallholder and technology bootstrapper.
- fadtastic
- A multi-author web design trends journal spearheaded by Andrew Faulkner.
- Isolani
- Mike Davies’ personal and accessibility blog
- Shayna Productions – Sandy Clark
- Sandy, besides being a Coldfusion (my first real web scripting language) wonder woman, also blogs extensively on accessibility and other standards related topics.
- Spider Trax
- Besides running Black Widow Web Design, her design firm that focuses on standards compliant accessible site design, Mel Pedley is a prolific blogger on many accessibility topics.
- Standards for Life
- Natalie Jost’s blog topics include color schemes, her strong Christian faith, photography, and site design. In a field where stuffiness prevails, Natalie’s writings and design work are refreshing and inspiring.
- Standards-schmandards
- Started by Peter Krantz, the man behind the Fangs Firefox extension, Standards-schmandards truly does take a pragmatic approach to web accessibility.
- The Desert Skies
- Jeff Bishop’s blog on technology with a twist toward accessibility.
- ThePickards
- The tagline of “standards, accessibility and ranting (and general stuff) by the web chemist” pretty well sums up what you’ll find on Jack Pickard’s blog.
- Wait till I come!
- Blog of Chris Heilmann – web standards nut and web developer for Yahoo! Be sure to check out his articles also.
- Web Access Centre Blog
- A very active blog by the web accessibility folks at the Royal National Institute of the Blind.
- Web Site Accessibility Blog
- Matt Bailey is, by trade, an expert in the field of search engine and website marketing, thus making his insights into accessibility all the more relevant to today’s web.
What have I missed?
If you write or are familiar with an accessibility-related blog that’s not listed above, please post the URL in a comment below.
Surely you meant *subway*-station signage. Anyway, category feeds in WordPress are found by adding feed/ to the end of a category URL, which the RSS link above is missing. Hence:
http://blog.fawny.org/category/accessibility/web-accessibility/feed/
(which is presumably what you meant)
http://blog.fawny.org/category/accessibility/feed/
(for readers interested in the whole megillah)
(Category feeds are a great feature. Why have separate blogs? People interested in only one thing can subscribe to that and never see anything else.)
Thanks Joe. I’ve corrected the problems.
And yes, I’ve often wondered why some people publish multiple blogs instead of simply advertising category feeds.
I just started a new one to focus on practical accessibility tips for bloggers who many not have a web development background.
All Access Blogging: http://www.allaccessblogging.com
who MAY not have
(Late afternoon is not my best typing time, apparently.)
hah…your feed descriptions made me chuckle!
Patrick-
Yeah, there’s only so many ways to say, “This blog rocks!”
I can suggest you few blogs if you read and understand french:
* Blog Webatou,
* Blog Accessibilité,
* FairyTells,
* Alternatives Electroniques,
* Tentatives Accessibles,
Great list Jared. Glad to see Web Axe on the list. Of course, YOUR blog is the best 😉
Well, I’m positively amazed you missed mine!
Grant Broome
🙂
I love the floks over at Webcredible. They publish a very handy newsletter.
Webcredible
Andrew, admin at fadtastic here. Thanks for the inclusion. I’m honoured to be in such company. Cheers.
Great list…always good to have a solid resource of sites to use when looking for this type of information.
New Blog By Wes Linda on Web Accessibility
Great article! I passed it along to all of my co-workers.
TecAccess posts often posts useful and insightful information here:
http://www.508portal.com/?q=blog/feed
I ran across this rather late in, I see! Thanks for the recommendation! I’m honoured!
I blog and write articles on accessibility issues with a software testing angle.
Currently I am working on a project Insomnia, and I am trying to make HTML as an alternative to PDF format. I have bookmarked this page and I shall try to read all of the refered links but kindly help me as well in handling the accessibility issues. Thanks.
Here are two more: WAI Highlights and
WCAG 2.0 Updates
After a long hiatus, Curb Cut is thinking about accessibility again.
This is a great list, but I have a shameless plug for inclusion.
This is a blog posting that describes why we should design accessible Web sites.
And here is the URL: http://www.tandemseven.com/insights/blog/details/40/
I am Director Of Web Development for a new Web Accessibility company called AccessibleNet and I put together a blog that we will be updating frequently.
Anyone can join AccessibleNet and help make the web more accessible to people with disabilities together.
Here is the blog link I hope you find that it is worthy of you posting it.
http://accessiblenet.blogspot.com/
Have a nice day!
Hi Jared,
Great work. It was nice to find all the blogs and information collected in one place. I think you might find this tool (www.Icheckwebsite.com) also useful for checking the accessibility of all your webpages. especially for very large websites.
I am looking forward to your feedback about this tool http://www.icheckwebsite.com/feature. 🙂
Thanks
Komal