Author: Dennis

Categories
conference csun microsoft

CSUN 2018 Conference Preview

The 33rd annual CSUN Assistive Technology Conference will be held March 19-23, 2018 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, California. (It’s reportedly the last year in San Diego as the conference will move back to the LA area in 2019.) The keynote speaker is Daniel Goldstein, an attorney who has been involved in the field of disability rights for almost 35 years. If you can’t make it there, catch the keynote live stream on YouTube (5:30 PM PST Tuesday, March 20).

CSUN Assistive Technology Conference

Here are session schedules by companies well-known in the digital accessibility industry:

Lainey Feingold‏ (@LFLegal) will be presenting her very popular Digital Accessibility Legal Update a few times, in large rooms, so everyone can attend, yay.

Notable events:

  • Deque Party and Accessible Karaoke: Palm Foyer, Wednesday, March 21, 6:30-10:00PM.
  • 3rd Annual aXe Hackathon; Saturday, March 24th 10:00AM-3:00PM, at Downtown Works, 550 West B Street (short distance from conference venue).
  • Microsoft Reception: Thursday, March 22, 7-9PM, Seaview Room (lobby level).
  • Google party, if you’re lucky enough to get an invite (not very inclusive!)

Web Axe author Dennis Lembree (@DennisL) will be co-presenting two sessions:

If you’re new to the CSUN conference, you may want to check these out:

Scheduling info:

More info:

Categories
fun

Web Axe gear

Like Web Axe? Get your Web Axe gear on RedBubble! Always good to promote web accessibility with a little swag/merchandise!

Currently available: t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, notebooks

White mug with black Web Axe logo, email and twitter handle

 

Categories
jobs roundup

Digital Accessibility Jobs, February 2018

Many great opportunities are available in the digital accessibility field.

Follow me, @a11yJobs, and @LyndonDunbar on Twitter for more!

pinned flyer that says Job Openings!"

Categories
color design

High Contrast Option for Color Contrast

Most of use are aware of the color contrast guideline in WCAG 2.0 AA which states:

1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum): The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, except for the following: (Level AA)

This can be a big problem for websites when the color scheme uses the brand colors which do not meet the above requirement. This can be especially troublesome for medium orange and green tones.

A technique to meet this guideline is G174:

Providing a control with a sufficient contrast ratio that allows users to switch to a presentation that uses sufficient contrast

You may want (or need) to consider this technique for your website, at least temporarily. The control for this option should be in a global nav bar or settings (if available). A longer term goal is to correct your brand’s colors so that it meets the 4.5:1 color contrast requirement.

Here are some examples of websites that have a high contrast option available (the control is in the top horizontal bar in all examples).

partial screen shot of Choice Hotels website; arrows points to text increase contrast
Example of providing an increased contrast setting on a website.
Categories
screenreader stats survey

Screen Reader User Survey 7 Results from WebAIM

In December 2017, results of Screen Reader User Survey #7 by WebAIM were released. The survey was conducted in October and had 1,792 valid responses. The survey had less respondents than the previous survey, but had better world-wide representation.

Highlights:

  • Primary screen reader usage: JAWS 46.6%; NVDA 31.9%; VoiceOver 11.7%.
  • CAPTCHA remains the most problematic item.
  • The second most problematic item is now “Screens or parts of screens that change unexpectedly”. This is surely due to complex designs and SPAs/JS frameworks.
  • Web accessibility basics (keyboard access, alt text, forms, headings, data tables) are still in top 10 of most problematic.
  • When asked if more accessible web sites or better assistive technology would have a bigger impact on accessibility, 85.3% responded more accessible web sites.
  • Sadly, frequent use of landmarks and regions dropped to 30.5%. WebAIM states that this may be “due to infrequent or improper usage of landmarks/regions in pages”.
  • 33.3% reported using Braille output with a screen reader.
  • 41.4% reported using an external keyboard with a mobile device and screen reader.

I highly recommend you also read WebAIM’s summary of Screen Reader User Survey.

More:

WebAIM web accessibility in mind