February 2014 Newsletter
Feature
Screen Reader User Survey #5 Results
A results of the fifth in WebAIM's series of Screen Reader User Surveys are now available.
News
WebAIM Web Accessibility Training
WebAIM's next web accessibility training will be held May 6-7 in Logan, Utah.
WebAIM at the CSUN Conference
The WebAIM staff will be presenting a workshop and several sessions at the International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference March 17-22. We hope to see you there.
US Access Board submits Section 508 and 255 to OMB for regulatory review
In the next step toward implementing updated guidelines, the draft 508 and 255 guidelines have been sent to the Office of Management and Budget. OMB has up to 90 days to review them.
Resources
Thoughts on Screen Reader Detection
Several blog posts have been written in response to our screen reader user survey question that showed 79% of respondents are very or somewhat comfortable with allowing web sites to detect whether they are using a screen reader:
- Why screen reader detection on the web is a bad thing
- Thoughts on screen reader detection
- Assistive Technology Detection: It can be done right
doesn’t work in lynx
Steve Faulkner makes the argument that lynx support should not be a basis for determining accessibility.
Why Don’t Screen Readers Always Read What’s on the Screen? Part 1: Punctuation and Typographic Symbols
Paul Bohman describes many of the ways in which screen readers do or do not read text content appropriately.
Quick Tip: Line Length
Pages should be designed so the line length, the number of characters that appear per line, should be neither too short nor too long. Anything more than around 80 characters can introduce reading difficulties in scanning from the end of a line of text to the beginning of the next line. Short line lengths also introduce difficulty and vertical scrolling. The width of the body area of a web page should be constructed to ensure that lines of text are constrained to both minimum and maximum lengths across both small (such as mobile devices) and large screen resolutions.
WebAIM E-mail Discussion List
Subscribe to the WebAIM E-mail Discussion List
View the Discussion List Archives
Selected recent threads