WebAIM Blog

A few weeks ago we announced the release of the new WAVE web site. Today, we’re happy to announce the release of a new, much improved version of the WAVE Firefox Toolbar. The WAVE Firefox Toolbar allows you to check the accessibility of any web page directly within the Firefox web browser. This version of the add-on includes numerous updates, bug fixes, and new features, including:

• Support for several new tests and icons.
• Increased accuracy of tests and reporting.
• Better support for complex pages, including processing of pages with frames and iframes.
• Customizable shortcut key functionality to quickly and easily process WAVE reports.
• WAVE icons now feature a tooltip window that provides additional detail about the icon. Simply place your mouse over an icon to see these additional details.
• A new context menu. Right click…, WAVE Toolbar…, then select a report option.This context menu can be turned on or off in the Options.
• An improved mini-toolbar. You can drag the WAVE toolbar icon onto any other Firefox toolbar for quick access to WAVE Toolbar functionality while using only a small amount of screen real estate.

Download the new toolbar at http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar

WebAIM is pleased to announce that a new version of the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tool was released today. This significant update reflects many months of work on WebAIM’s part to make WAVE more stable, powerful, and useful. Since the version 4 beta was launched just over a year ago, WAVE has been used to analyze nearly a million web pages for accessibility. Today’s launch signifies a significant step forward in making WAVE the most powerful and useful (and ALWAYS free) web accessibility tool available.

Notable new and improved features:

• Simplified and streamlined user interface
• Significantly re-engineered back-end framework
  • Better stability and significantly faster processing of pages
  • Single sourced code for server version of WAVE and the Firefox toolbar
  • More powerful and flexible logic for WAVE evaluation rules
• Support for internationalization. Initial translations will be provided in coming months.
• Several new WAVE rules
  • Missing fieldset - alert when a group of check boxes or radio buttons is not enclosed in a fieldset
  • ARIA - indicator for all ARIA roles, properties, and attributes
  • Unlabeled form element with title - alerts users to form elements that do not have an associated label, but do have the necessary title attribute
  • Blink
  • Many other rules have been further polished and improved for accuracy

All of these new features and many more are currently being implemented into an updated Firefox toolbar which will be available in the near future.

We are always open to feedback and hope that you will take some time to review the new WAVE features and let us know how we can make it even better.

We are continuing to go over the screen reader survey results and have begun analyzing responses to the open-ended questions. The first two questions that we have worked on asked users to list their favorite web sites and sites which they avoid.

Google was hands down the winner with almost 60% of respondents, 671 of 1121, listing it as one of their favorite sites. Flash-based sites were listed most often as the type of site users avoid. It was also interesting to note that several sites prevalently as ones used and as ones avoided. We have updated the screen reader survey results to include information on favorite web sites and sites respondents avoid. We’ve also added a section of quotable comments from survey respondents.

WebAIM and The Paciello Group (TPG) are pleased to announce today a partnership that delivers independent web site certification for accessibility.

In today’s diverse environment, the Internet is becoming the pre-eminent location for people with disabilities to find information and to transact business. It is vitally important for web site creators and operators to take all appropriate steps to ensure their web properties are universally accessible. However, many people with disabilities are finding an unacceptable level of accessibility for many popular web sites, creating a frustrating experience.

Now, with the partnership between TPG and WebAIM, web site owners can retain The Paciello Group to perform full accessibility testing and professional services while additionally receiving the WebAIM Accessible Site Certification. This certificate can be posted on their web site attesting to an independent guarantee. WebAIM clients can also secure 3rd party TPG certification of thier sites.

While both TPG and WebAIM independently provide high quality, industry leading accessibility consulting and certification services, this exclusive partnership provides great value to our clients by allowing a 3rd party entity to both verify and certify accessibility of our client’s web sites and applications.

While certification systems and structures have been around for sometime, the WebAIM / TPG is unique in that two independent accessibility groups have joined to add the strength of their expertise to provide an external certification of accessibility after expert consultation. TPG and WebAIM are forming this partnership to ensure the highest level of accessibility services and to also insure full independence between the testing and certification agencies.
Mike Paciello, founder and president of The Paciello Group addresses the value of independent certification:

"There are a number of companies delivering quality professional services to help vendors make their sites more accessible, but we wanted to offer our clients the assurance that the work we are performing is of the highest quality and attested to by a completely independent authority. WebAIM’s position in the accessibility market as a recognized leader in practice and passion for accessibility makes them the logical choice to deliver this independent certification. We are thrilled to partner with them."

The Paciello Group is passionately dedicated to helping government agencies, technology vendors, e-commerce corporations, and educational institutions make their technology equally accessible to all people, including those with disabilities. The company, based in Nashua, NH, offers professional consulting, technology solutions, and monthly monitoring services to ensure that clients reach all audiences effectively and efficiently while meeting governmental and international standards.

WebAIM, Web Accessibility in Mind, provides comprehensive web accessibility solutions. Ten years of experience makes WebAIM one of the leading providers of web accessibility expertise internationally. WebAIM is a non-profit organization within the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University.

For years WebAIM has recommended a specific technique for hiding content visually while allowing it to be read by screen readers. This involved using CSS to position the content above the top of the page. It has now been brought to our attention that if the off-screen content contains a focusable element (a link or form element), that the web browser will attempt to scroll to this element when it receives focus - thus scrolling to the top of the page. This could be confusing for sighted keyboard users.

To resolve this potential issue, we now recommend the following styles for hiding content off-screen:

position:absolute;
left:-10000px;
top:auto;
width:1px;
height:1px;
overflow:hidden;

This will move the element straight to the left a considerable distance. Because the hidden element is moved directly to the left, if a link or form element within it receives focus, the browser will not scroll to the top of the page.

The width, height, and overflow styles are likely a bit overkill, but account for rare instances where positioning is disabled, but other styles enabled. Or perhaps for viewports that have VERY large external margins. These styles can probably be omitted in most instances.

It is important to note that it is not generally practice to place links or form elements, which provide functionality, in a hidden element just for screen reader users. Functionality should typically be made available to all users. Additionally, discretion should be used in providing content, cues, or information only for screen reader users. Remember that sighted keyboard users may also benefit from this information. In general, content should only be hidden from sighted users and made available to screen reader users when content is apparent visually, but not apparent to screen reader users.

An article outlining proper and improper implementations and techniques for hiding content is available at http://webaim.org/techniques/css/invisiblecontent/.