Accessibility News & Articles

 Internet standards organization World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has released its first public draft of the “Media Accessibility User Requirements” document, which details what is required to make web-based media like audio and video accessible to individuals with disabilities.

There are a number of legal issues that intranet managers need to be aware of, and some apply to websites and any application with a web browser even if it is not an intranet.

Let me start by saying that I am not a lawyer and I guess you are not one either, so the information and advice I have set out below needs to be verified with the legal team in your organization. In this column I am only addressing accessibility issues and the use of photographs on intranets. There are many other issues!

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (news, site) has been busy making the web a more accessible place. In focus today is a project dubbed the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) -- it aims to help software vendors make better web content authoring and management tools, including WYSIWYG editors, word processors and web content management systems.

Systems Alliance (news, site), maker of SiteExecutive (news, site), has recently announced the release of Enhancement Pack 1 (EP1), which adds a social dimension to SiteExecutive 2011. The update should provide integration with Twitter and Facebook, and provides enhancements in the Blog, Calendar, Profile Directory and other core CMS applications.

Ephox (news, site) is still playing around with TinyMCE, this time with the release of version 3.4.1, a tiny step up from the Version 3.4 Beta 3 that it released in February and which focused on accessibility.

Ephox (news, site) has added some extra code to the open source TinyMCE editor project to help users meet Web accessibility guidelines.

Telerik (news, site) has officially launched the latest version of its web content management system, Sitefinity, today. With a completely redesigned architecture, there are a number of improvements, not the least of which include advanced workflow and new e-Commerce capabilities.

As you may have heard, governance and content migration vendor Vamosa (news, site) fell into administration, despite the recent investment of £1 million through Glasgow-based Maven Capital Partners. According to our sources in the U.S., Vamosa has been sold.

This week, Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., one of the leading text imaging solution providers announced the availability of Fonts.com Web Fonts. Serving as Monotype’s cloud-based solution, Fonts.com provides thousands of high-quality fonts for web designers.

The tools called WebWorks are partially still in the works, coming from an expected source – Vamosa (news, site) – and designed (as ever so slightly hinted in the name) to make the web work and work better with proper controls by web managers.

On the brink of Morello and Immediacy brands dissolving in history, Alterian Content Manager 5.9.5 brings several new features and enhancements, ranging from W3C’s WCAG validation capabilities to changes to the user interface that have been added to both the web-based and desktop versions of the Web CMS.

Webcredible has noticed that governmental types aren't all that bright when it comes to technology (Barack Obama and Al Gore excepted) and has developed a highly accessible content management system for those in power at all levels.

The hardest part of writing web content is making it standards compliant to allow all visitors to use your site and for those with mobile devices to view it properly. The latest version of Ephox's (news, site) EditLive! allows even non-technical users to create standards-compliant content, accessible to all.

Accessibility is an important part of any collaboration or web content management system. For SharePoint this is no exception. In partnership with Microsoft, HiSoftware has developed an Accessibility Toolkit for SharePoint. That toolkit has just been updated to version 2.0 offering a number of new features to help you meet World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints (WCAG 1.0 AA) and the newest WCAG 2.0 AA Candidate Recommendation.

Still searching for that perfect Christmas gift for the web designer on your list? Not anymore.

O'Reilly has just published Universal Design for Web Applications, a new book that promotes designing accessible websites and teaches readers how to build websites that are more accessible to people with disabilities and explains why doing so is good business.