>>using Javascript to submit a form (now a no-no).
>>
Why is that?
KOla
-----Original Message-----
From: G [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: 04 June 2001 13:56
To: CF-Talk
Subject: Re: Your site's easy to navigate? You Think so?
As Michael suggested, Kola, take look at the Bobby tool.
To just expand on this issue, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act has
defined a set of standards that must now be met by web sites developed for
US government agencies to ensure that people with disabilities can
adequately navigate the site. While it is a bit of a burden (re-writing old
sites is never fun), the changes really aren't that extensive or intrusive.
There are a few restrictions that have caused us problems though, namely,
using Javascript to submit a form (now a no-no).
I thought it was interesting that Mike said that the government sites seemed
to be the worst. The standards laid out in section 508 should address this
problem. While the standards are specifically targeted for government
websites, they provide a good set of guidelines for the average developer
who is interested in making their websites available for everyone. For more
info on these standards, check out: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/web.htm
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kola Oyedeji" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 5:02 AM
Subject: RE: Your site's easy to navigate? You Think so?
> Is there an industry standard tool used by people with disablities to
browse
> web sites, i've just brought this issue to the attention of my boss, and
we
> may want to purchase such a package to test our sites.
>
> Thanks
>
> Kola
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Kear [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: 04 June 2001 04:44
> To: CF-Talk
> Subject: Your site's easy to navigate? You Think so?
>
>
> I have just come out of a most enlightening session with a blind user,
> running though a client's web site with JAWS, a screen reading program
> that turns the web page into synthesised voice.
>
> I thought I was quite aware of accessibility issues before, and was
> comfortable in thinking that my sites were better than the average in
> providing access to the blind and people with other disabilities. This
> session was educational to say the least.
>
> I am still convinced my sites are better than average, but I am bound to
> inform you that the average is pretty damn poor. I know some people are
> really concerned about accessibility for the disabled and others have
> decided that the disabled are such a small portion of their userbase, it's
> not worth changing everything to allow for them.
>
> I'm here to tell you that it's not difficult to design a good site to
> allow for access, it just takes a little understanding of how programs
> like JAWS works. To be truthful, I think that if I were blind, I'd go
> stark raving mad at all the frustrations of life but trying to surf the
> web wouldn't make life any easier that's for sure.
>
> For example, he took us through a page of our bookshop. And we'd
> arranged things to look nice on the page, but there were parts of the
> catalogue page where he didn't know what the "add to basket" graphic was
> referring to - this book or the previous one. And some nested tables
> were simply awful and impossible to work round. We all think putting
> navigation buttons on the top of every page makes for easy navigation, but
> blind people have to wade through (in our case) 50 navigation links before
> getting to the guts of the page. On a search of our site, the resulting
> page has a nice header at the top with links to all our site's catgegories
> and sub-categories and then a sidebar with links to other parts of the
> site, and finally the search results itself. Visually it looks fine -
> quick and simple to move around the site. But using the screen reading
> software it took **AGES** to get to anything related to the search. By
> just laying out the page differently, we could have made this page FAR
> easier to navigate for him.
>
> I'm not suggesting we should all go about redesigning our sites just for
> the relatively few blind users, but just understanding how the software
> works, has made me re-think many of the forms I build. The user also
> said that Government sites tended to be the worst of all. I'm not sure if
> that's because they're designed by developers with an eye on the
> government money or because they are specified by bureaucrats. Certainly
> of all the sites that ought to know about accessibility, Government sites
> ought to be the leaders, and apparently they aren't.
>
>
> I think as web developers, you'd all be doing A Good Thing if you arranged
> for a meeting like we just had at Australian Consumers Association - have
> a blind person come and work your site for you using their screen reading
> software. At the risk of being accused of making an off-colour joke, it's
> a real eye-opener.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Mike Kear
> AFP Webworks,
> Windsor, NSW, Australia.
>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at
http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-talk@houseoffusion.com/
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
