Newsletter Archives - October 2005

Featured Article

Testing with Screen Readers: A Hypothetical Conversation
by Paul Bohman of WebAIM

Paul Bohman takes a conversational approach in this article answering common questions he receives about using screen readers for testing the accessibility of web content.

Read the full article: Testing with Screen Readers: A Hypothetical Conversation

On Target News

Blackboard Buys Competitor WebCT for $180 Million
from University Business

Educational software maker Blackboard will get a bigger piece of the market through the acquisition of competitor WebCT for $180 million. The merger still requires regulatory approval, but is expected to close late this year or early in 2006.

WebAIM to Present Series of Workshops at Accessing Higher Ground
8th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference: Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference

Disability Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder presents the 8th Annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference: Accessible Media, Web and Technology Conference November 8 - 11, 2005. Accessing Higher Ground focuses on the implementation and benefits of Assistive Technology in the university and college setting for sensory, physical and learning disabilities. Other topics include legal and policy issues, including ADA and 508 compliance, and making campus media and information resources - including Web pages and library resources - accessible. Also, this year the Conference offers a special business track featuring accessibility workshops for commercial media designers.

WebAIM will present:

• The Next Generation of Web Accessibility: Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust (POUR)
  • Session 1: Principles of a POUR Website
  • Session 2: Techniques of a POUR Website
• Training and assessment of Web accessibility competencies
• Creating accessible PDF files using Adobe Acrobat

Early registration deadline extended to October 14. For conference registration, online payment options and general information, please visit: www.colorado.edu/ATconference.

On Target Tips

Navigation — Our Visitors' Travel Guide
by Chris Heilmann on evolt.org

Navigation and menus are not a technical matter. They are not confined to the world of IT but are used in real life, too. Navigation is a human interaction matter, human beings with all their issues and problems need and use it. Really successful navigations care about the visitors' needs, not promote a technique or our company's structure.

Methods for Measuring Text Readability
by Pete Giraffe at Standards-schmandards

Content is commonly overlooked when working with a web site to increase accessibility. Even if your web site follows all W3C recommendations it will still be inaccessible if your content is difficult to comprehend. This article describes how you can test your content for readability by giving a brief overview of formulas for measuring readability as well as an online tool to measure readability for your texts.

On Target Resources

Web Essentials 05 Podcasts
from Web Essentials 05

If you missed Web Essentials 05 in Sydney, you can listen to many of the sessions. Download their podCasts and tune into a web development conference "by developers for developers".

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta
from Microsoft

The beta version of the IE Developer Toolbar – Microsoft's answer to Chris Pederick's Web Developer Toolbar for Firefox – is now available for testing.

IBM Systems Journal
from IBM

Making information technology accessible to the largest possible population of users has become a significant aspect of application and system development. Providing accessibility involves designing and modifying technology to make it accessible to users who would otherwise be unable to use it. This has become a growing element of the design process, due to government mandates as well as business considerations. Hardware and software assistive technologies have opened the Web to users with disabilities, though considerable work still needs to be done in order to achieve the goal of end-to-end accessibility for all users. This issue contains 13 papers on architectures, tools, applications, and assistive technologies designed to increase accessibility for diverse user groups.