developing sites using JS is no longer an issue in 2011 as long as you employ a rasonable keyboard navigation mechanism, and if you use custom widgets, make sure they’re accessible by using WAI-ARIA. There are numerous resources out there on the web for web developers, starting from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the W3C, but also ranging to sites such as WebAim, The Paciello Group and others that have lots of resources on how web accessibility should be implemented. Some theory is needed to be able to properly develop stuff to get an WCAG A rating unfortunately, and since each web app is different, there’s not a one-fits-all solution.

As a web developer I have been tasked with moving our company’s website to a WCAG Level A rating.

I have searched the web for ways to develop for and test the actual usability of our site but find the information out there very confusing and contradictory. I have installed a number of Firefox add-ons but am no closer in understanding what I actually need to do besides things such as “use alt tags”, and “make logical tables”.

Can you point me to sites about accessibility written for the web developer that’s understandable rather than theoretical?

Also, our site is heavy in JavaScript and AJAX. We have a password-protected section which is only accessible via a JavaScript log-in interface. Is this still an accessibility issue in 2011?

How do sites with confidential user information and bill-payment interfaces keep their information safe and secure while still being accessible?

How can we best develop AJAXed pages for accessibility?

Any guidance you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

–Adina

I do not use Thunder, I found it to not be suitable for my needs when I tried it. I’m using NVDA, the free and open source screen reader from NV Access, as my primary screen reader on Windows.

All the best
Paul

First, I’m SO impressed with what you are accomplishing wo sight! I’m about 2/3 blind from Stargardts disease and people like you inspire me.

Second, I realize that you might not be the correct person to ask, but you know of an add-on or extension or theme that wraps test so zooming doesn’t leave text off-screen?

Thanks in Advance!

there is an article titled “My first experience using an accessible touch screen device” published right after the launch of the iPhone 3G S last year in June. I also kept track of some changes that went into iOS 4. See my latest entry on this blog on that topic. My views certainly have changed, and I am an admitted Apple fanboy now.

Look forward to seeing what you are cooking up!

Just found your blog whilst looking for a daisy player for the iPod/IPhone group.

The article ‘why I wont buy an iPod just yet’ published in early 2008. I was wondering if you have more comments now that 2 years have passed.

I am a vision impaired programmer who is looking to write some stuff for macs and iProducts.

Cheers Colin

I didn’t do anything special other than switch the editor when composing blog posts from the WYSIWYG to the HTML editor. WYSIWYG is built on TinyMCE, which is not accessible, the HTML editor is a simple text area. I did this once when writing my first post, and that was it. Nothing fancy.

But it looks like you’re using wordpress here. Is there anything special you’d recommend for her? Any advice or tools I could pass along to her as we get her set up to start blogging?

Please share your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks a bunch,
Cynthia