Category: articles

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articles hearing writing

Deafness and the User Experience

In the article Deafness and the User Experience by Lisa Herrod, issues with Deaf web users are explored. And there are some excellent points for writing for web accessibility:

  • Use headings and subheadings.
  • Write in a journalistic style: make your point and then explain it.
  • Make one point per paragraph.
  • Use short line lengths: seven to ten words per line.
  • Use plain language whenever possible.
  • Use bulleted lists.
  • Write with an active voice.
  • Avoid unnecessary jargon and slang, which can increase the user’s cognitive load.
  • Include a glossary for specialized vocabulary, e.g., medical or legal terminology, and provide definitions in simpler language.
Categories
articles guidelines

Post-Guideline Age for Web Accessibility?

Are we entering a Post-Guideline Age for web accessibility? It’s an interesting new argument being made in the article Web Accessibility. Life In the Post-Guideline Age from the E-Access blog.

I believe there is a good case for this:

  • Too many different guidelines and laws.
  • Too many different technologies are being developed.
  • Just because a site passes web accessibility, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s usable (this is what the article focuses on).

Here’s a good excerpt from the article:

I think of this as a pyramid. Web accessibility is the foundation. Usability by disabled people is the next layer. And both of these underpin the ultimate goal: excellent user experiences by disabled people (and everyone).

Categories
articles cognitive screenreader

Writing for Accessibility Article

In his article Writing for Accessibility, Joe Dolson explains that accessible copy is more than making non-textual elements available, it’s also about the main content! He continues to explain how tone and puncuation are very sensitive and important issues when writing for accessibility. Joe suggests:

  • Keep your sentences on the short side
  • Avoid excessive parenthetical statements
  • Avoid excessive subclauses
  • Read the sentence without giving any particular emphasis to the terms and see how easy it is to understand the statement

Related links:

Categories
"assistive technology" articles

Assistive technology for the disabled

Assistive technology for the disabled is an article describing assistive technology (AT) for those with visual, hearing, and mobility impairments. The author is physically challenged himself.

Categories
analysis articles

Web Accessibility Articles not Accessible

Call me picky, but it sure bothers me when web page articles about web accessibility are not accessible themselves. Talk about bad credibility…

For example, the article Web Accessibility. . . Making your Pages Friendly to People with Disabilities is dreadful. Just by glancing at the main text, several issues are apparent:

  • Insufficient color contrast. That dark gray text on a black background just don’t work!
  • Text size is too small; text may be difficult to resize in some browsers. Absolute sizing (pixels) are used in the CSS instead of relative sizing (ems, percentage).
  • No sub headings in the content, and the content is not divided into “manageable groups”.
  • The links are not linked–just written out; and with obnoxious spaces also. For example: Academy of Web Specialists (http://www . onlinewebtraining.com / courses.html)

Actually, I think this article is just a bunch of advertising and SEO garbage. I left a comment saying so; let’s see if they approve it…