Tag Archives: accessibility in a digital age

November 7, 2011, 3:00 pm

Accessibility in a Digital Age 1.5

Welcome to the latest installment of “Accessibility in a Digital Age,” a roundup of links concerned with how to create and use digital resources that are accessible to all people.

Dey Alexander has written a great multi-part series on “Accessibility for Web Writers” for 4Syllables.

Meanwhile, Karl Groves is writing a series concerned with “the Business Case for Accessibility.”

The a11y Bugs Project is “a grass roots advocacy effort to identify and fix bugs that undermine accessibility on the web.” (Puzzled by what a11y means? “Accessibility is often abbreviated to the numeronym a11y, where the number 11 refers to the number of letters omitted.”)

Matthew Lasar of Ars Technica asks “Will copyright hamper IP closed captioning?”

Writing for Media Access Australia, Scott Hollier explains that when it comes to captioning online video, “It’s not as hard as you think.”

Greg…

October 10, 2011, 8:00 am

Accessibility in a Digital Age 1.4

By George Williams

Welcome to the latest installment of “Accessibility in a Digital Age,” a roundup of links to information about creating and using digital resources that are accessible to all people.

In a thought-provoking essay, Lennard Davis asks “Why Is Disability Missing From the Discourse on Diversity?,” a question we would do well to consider as we remain mindful of the various ways the digital divide can affect various people.

We Connect Now is a relatively new grassroots organization “dedicated to uniting college students with disabilities in access to higher education and employment issues.”

The United States National Council on Disability has produced a substantial report entitled The Power of Digital Inclusion: Technology’s Impact on Employment and Opportunities for People with Disabilities, available for download.

Kelli Shaver, of Mashable, tells us about “7 Tech Breakthroughs…

September 8, 2011, 11:00 am

Accessibility in a Digital Age 1.3

By George Williams

This is the third installment in what I used to call “Accessibility in a Digital Environment,” a roundup of links to information about making digital resources accessible to all people. (Here is the first roundup, and here is the second.) For today’s post, I’ve decided to focus on links to information about upcoming meetings devoted to the topic. There are many events scheduled over the next few months:

The “Boston Accessibility Unconference” takes place next week: September 17, 2011 at the Microsoft NERD Center: “the exact sessions that will take place will only be determined the morning of the event, so long as it relates to technology accessibility (e.g., web, mobile, social media, e-learning, touch screen technology) and users with a variety of disabilities, everything is open to discussion.”
The “Web Accessibility London Unconference” is scheduled for September 21, 2011 at City…

August 5, 2011, 11:00 am

Accessibility in a Digital Environment: Link Roundup 2

By George Williams

In May I shared a few links about creating accessible resources in a digital environment. Below, I provide a few more links on the same subject.

First of all, Ian Hamilton has written a very helpful “Simple Introduction to Web Accessibility“: “Accessibility can often seem daunting and complex but in fact there are only four types of disability you need to be aware of. Through groupings, simulations, and quick fixes, the basics are actually surprisingly simple.”

Roger Johansson provides an overview of accessibility in Lion, the latest Mac operating system, and finds that “there are quite a few nice improvements.”

The University of Cambridge Engineering Design Centre has created an “Inclusive Design Tookit:” “Inclusive design applies an understanding of customer diversity to the design of mainstream products to better satisfy the needs of more people.”

WebAxe evaluates the…

May 20, 2011, 8:29 am

Accessibility in a Digital Environment: Links

By George Williams

Last month, we covered how to create accessible Microsoft Office files and how to create accessible documents more generally. Today I’d like to share a few helpful accessibility resources I recently came across: the first two are aimed at creators of content for the Web, the third is for people with disabilities who would like to learn more about using their computer.

Dennis E. Lembree, with “25 Ways To Make Your Website Accessible,” provides a generous list of specific suggestions that should prove helpful for beginners and experts alike. (Lembree is perhaps best known for WebAxe, his “podcast and blog on practical web design accessibility tips.”)

In “Keyboard Accessibility,” Jonathan Snook offers a thoughtful consideration of the challenges and rewards of designing keyboard shortcuts–which are quite useful to users who are blind or visually impaired–in a Web application like…