Newsletter Archives - May 2005
Note
This newsletter is maintained here for archival purposes. The content presented here may be outdated, may contain out-of-date links, and may not represent current best practices or represent the opinion and recommendations of WebAIM. For up-to-date information, please refer to the WebAIM web site.
Featured Article
A Conceptual Framework for Accessibility Tools to Benefit Users with Cognitive Disabilities
Authors: Paul Bohman and Shane Anderson (WebAIM)
Several accessibility tools can check for obvious accessibility problems, such as images missing alt text, data tables missing headers, forms missing labels, and so on. All of these issues are important to accessibility. However, the focus of the vast majority of the algorithms in these tools is on only one type of disability: blindness. Very few of the algorithms focus on other types of disabilities. The most neglected category of disability is that of cognitive disabilities. In this article, WebAIM outlines a conceptual framework within which tool designers can approach the challenge of identifying and repairing cognitive disability accessibility barriers.
Read the full article: A Conceptual Framework for Accessibility Tools to Benefit Users with Cognitive Disabilities
Also related from WebAIM: Toward User-Centered, Scenario-Based Planning and Evaluation Tools
On Target Tips
Periodically you may want to make sure your entire website validates. This can be a hassle if your site is big. In this, article Pete Giraffe introduces a few python scripts to do mass validation from a list of links.
More Usability Frosting for your Accessibility Cake
According to Aaron Gustafson, Windows users can feel like second-class citizens when Mac users rave about the elegance of Apple's operating system and applications. Aaron Gustafson demonstrates how, with a little JavaScript in the behavior layer of our Web cake, we can transform half-baked <select> <option>s into a usable, accessible delicacy modeled on the Mac IE implementation.
Kim Siever shows how to spruce-up a site map using an icon-styled unordered list made exclusively with CSS.
On Target Resources
Mac OS X Tiger's VoiceOver offers magnification options, keyboard control and spoken English descriptions of what’s happening on screen. VoiceOver is built right into Mac OS X.
Usability Testing Without a Budget
Often a usability test is neglected because it is not in the budget. However, Roger Johansson explains you can squeeze in a low budget, quick and basic test, which is much better than not testing at all.