Accessibility News & Articles

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.

Are you in the loop on this? The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) has been approved by the W3C. With it, comes discussion among W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative about what’s new with these guidelines as well as the resources that will be available for web developers and designers.

Some code and functionality used in web development may not be available to all users, especially those who rely on screen readers, or cannot use a mouse. The W3C addresses these accessibility challenges.

An updated Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Working Draft, published by W3C, is designed to make web content and web applications more accessible to users with disabilities.

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) realizes that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0) discouragement of Javascript does not work for developing accessible Rich Internet Applications. They do recognize the need to provide technologies to map controls, AJAX live regions, and events to accessibility APIs.

As a result, the Protocols and Formats Working Group has released the first set of Working Drafts of the ARIA - Accessible Rich Internet Applications suite.

Human Factors International (HFI), a company dedicated to software usability, presents Trends in user experience design: What you need to know in 2008 that can help your business. This free, live webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 7 at 3:30 pm ET (US).

Too often in our plight to design beautiful, engaging websites, we overlook the unique abilities and disabilities of our users. Sure, we know their demographics, their wants, their desires and maybe even their top tasks. But do we really design with their abilities in mind?

SharePoint Server 2007 has announced the Accessibility Toolkit for SharePoint 1.0, better known as the AKS Solution.

Microsoft partnered with accessibility technology vendor HiSoftware to build the toolokit. It provides files, programs and utilities that enable SharePoint Server (MOSS) and SharePoint Services (WSS) sites to follow the accessibility guidelines put forth by the W3C (WCAG 1.0 AA).

The AKS Solution can also be used to address exceptions that have been identified in the Section 508 of the US Gov’s Rehabilitation Act Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) documents for MOSS 2007.

Squiz is forever telling us what we should do and what we should think: about CMS, about SEO, doing business on the web, about the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha (it’s a WIP). Which is quite irritating, because they’re invariably just about right.

In more standards news the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) recently announced that their members have approved OpenDocument Format (ODF) for Office Applications version 1.1 as an official OASIS Standard.

OpenDocument is a royalty-free, XML-based file format that covers features required by text, spreadsheets, charts, and graphical documents.

This newest update provides users with important accessibility enhancements, ensuring that the OpenDocument format takes care of addressing the particular needs of people with disabilities.

Enterprise Web CMS vendor, VYRE, fresh from Denmark where cmf2006 went down, headed off to Amsterdam this week for the Digital Asset Management Symposium. The mini European tour is a big deal considering Europe is still an open frontier where the CMS marketplace is concerned.