Here’s a podcast I came across titled “Accessible Business Online” by Alexandra Graham. Some good basic content here. Just as good, it references a transcription service, CastingWords.com, that I may try for Web Axe.
[Editor’s note: see more recent article by Dennis, When and How to Visually Hide Content]
There are certain instances when a label or header should be used, but wouldn’t necessarily need to be seen in the layout, such as a label for a phone number and a header for a menu. Dennis discusses when and how this would be done.
Download Web Axe Episode 22 (Hiding Labels and Sub-Headers)
The CSS:
.hidden {
position:absolute;
left:0px;
top:-500px;
width:1px;
height:1px;
overflow:hidden;
}
The XHTML:
Links:
- Invisible Content Just for Screen Reader Users (WebAIM)
- Creating Invisible labels for form elements (WCAG 2.0)
- Advanced accessibility techniques – Hidden Text (WebCredible)
The UK and other countries in and outside of Europe are making progress towards more web accessibility. Most recently, the 25 European Commission member states and nine accession countries announced a plan that could make accessibility in e-procurement mandatory. Hoorah! Let’s hope it goes into action, and the U.S. takes similar action sometime soon.
Why the Title tag is so important for Accessibility as well as SEO and usability.
- screenreader/text browsers
- visual anchor
- bookmarking
- printing
- SEO
- search results
- tip: use character encoding for special chars
- tip: use “>” or “:” to separate sections
Download Web Axe Episode 21 (Title Tag)
Related links:
- Constructing meaningful page titles
- The Usable Page Title
- W3C Quality Assurance
- Building the Perfect Page
- 7.4.2 The TITLE element
Categories
WebAIM Site Redesign
One of my favorite resources, WebAIM, has recently re-launched its web site! WebAIM has provided an excellent article documenting the redesign which explains the goals, processes and decisions made during the 9-month project. The relaunch is an excellent example of a well-coded, usable, and accessible web site. Good job WebAIM!
PS:
The new site features a blog where I left a comment on the blog entry about the redesign. Apparently there’s also an “email discussion list” about it on the site relaunch with more entries.