Good news for mobile voice output users as this week the guys over at Mozilla released further accessibility enhancements for Firefox in a nightly build. In addition to this Chrome was released into the Apple App store and also comes with accessibility baked in complementing it’s counterpart on Android which also recently became more accessible.Continue Reading Accessible Firefox and Chrome on Android and iOS
I was honoured to be invited to keynote at Mobile Monday London on inclusive and accessible design. It’s a topic that needs more air time within the mobile community so it was great to share a few thoughts and pieces of research.
I was sad not to be there in person and have to give a huge thanks Kath Moonan and Nisha Valand who moved heaven and earth so I could Skype in last minute as my daughter was poorly. Thanks also to Mobile Monday, Vodafone, Jo Rabin and everyone who attended and put up with a small interruption from my daughter…
Below is a copy of my slides, and if you’re looking for something more meaty check out my Mobile Accessibility slides presented from CSUN 2012. Any questions please get in touch (henny at iheni dot com).
Skips links are mainly useful for sighted keyboard only users on desktop and some screen reader users. While they’re a recommendation rather than a requirement of WCAG 2.0 it’s a feature that many websites built with accessibility choose to include.
BBC has three skip links that become visible onFocus
The value of skip links is debatable for screen reader users who have the ability to navigate content using headings, WAI ARIA Landmarks, forms, lists and links with relative ease. However they are used by some screen reader users and helpful if not familiar with the keyboard shortcuts on offer in screen reader software.
So while I’m not a huge fan of skip links there is a place for them on desktop, but is there a place for them on mobile?
There seems to be an assumption that content order is not relevant for touch screens because you can tap and find what you’re looking for. In other words you’re not forced to browse in a linear way as you are with a keyboard on desktop or a keypad device with no directional controller. This is simply not true, the order in which content is coded is as important for touch devices as it is keypad devices and desktop.
Here’s why.
Last week I presented at CSUN 12 on Mobile Accessibility and Does Accessibility have to be perfect. The wonderful Joe Dolson did an amazing job capturing the panel discussion from Does Accessibility Have to be perfect and below is my mobile presentation.
Continue Reading Mobile accessibility presentation at CSUN 2012
Kevin Chao seems to be everywhere tweeting, commenting and contributing to lists about various products and companies ranging from Apple, NVDA, Adobe, Google and Android. He’s a student, visually impaired and lives in the USA and as he himself admits loves to ‘get under the hood’ of technologies to see how they work and how they can be improved.
Like Jamie Knight, who I interviewed a couple of years ago, Kevin has an in incredibly in-depth knowledge of his field and gives a lot back to the web as a whole. I was lucky enough to grab some of his precious time to ask him a few questions about the state of accessibility across desktop and mobile as well as screen readers, WAI ARIA and HTML5.