Web AxeDennis speaks with Terrill Thompson, technology accessibility specialist at DO-IT, a program at the University of Washington.
Download Web Axe Episode 77 (Interview with Terrill Thompson)
In addition to Terrill’s background and DO-IT, topics of discussion include:
Here’s a list of some great links relating to web accessibility going around Twitter last week.
benefit of Google acquiring YouTube when?
Learned from Standford Captioning session at Accessing Higher Ground conference
internationalization
hard to find on player
Section 508 Is Required, Maybe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw545k_mFKY
There are two web accessible versions of the popular YouTube video web site, that I’m aware of at least. (If you know others, please comment.) They are “Easy YouTube” and “Accessible Interface to YouTube”.
One big issue is that captioning doesn’t appear to be supported on either site. I’ve never worked with the YouTube API (yet), but I’m assuming there are technical blockers here. (Please comment if you know more!) Flash and JavaScript are required for both sites.
Both sites have excellent markup and implement great accessibility improvements. But as with any site, more enhancements can be made. Here’s a quick review each.
JavaScript expert Chris Heilmann developed this site in 2008. You can search for a video or enter the URL of a specific YouTube video. You can also choose from three video sizes. Excellent documentation and help is provided.
Suggestions:
This is a more recent accessible YouTube interface. The author is unknown. (I’d like to know who you are as it’s very well done!) The interface is very simple yet informative; it display video details and comments. ARIA is implemented, but I have not fully tested it. There’s also a survey you may take to help further development.
Suggestions:
In the YouTube video Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility, the user “gringochapin” (who is blind) demonstrates browsing a web page by its headings using a screen reader (JAWS). He demos a few different pages including a good and poor example. This is an excellent example of how proper headings is important for web accessibility. Ironically, there are no captions for this video.