WCAG 2.1 Accessibility Blog

TOOL: Identify Seizure Risks in Your Website Content

Posted on February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 by Mary Gillen

a medical background with a man and epilepsy waves

The Trace Center’s Photosensitive Epilepsy Analysis Tool (PEAT) is a free, downloadable resource for developers to identify seizure risks in their web content and software. The evaluation used by PEAT is based on an analysis engine developed specifically for web and computer applications.

PEAT can help authors determine whether animations or video in their content are likely to cause seizures. Not all content needs to be evaluated by PEAT, but content that contains video or animation should be evaluated, especially if that content contains flashing or rapid transitions between light and dark background colors.

Download the PEAT tool now.

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES: Test Your Content for Readability

Posted on February 3, 2019February 3, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Happy smiling little girl reading interesting book in the park.

How readable is your website?

Users with learning disabilities, reading disorders, or who speak English as a second language may have a difficult time understanding your content.

Typical factors that affect readability include:

Average sentence length
Syllable count
Percentage of multi-syllable words
Average word length
Familiarity of words
Complexity of sentences

For better readability, follow these basic tips:

One idea.
Be sure each paragraph focuses on one idea. This makes content easier to remember and digest.

Shorter line length.
Design for a line length between 45 and 75 characters. This makes the text easier to read on the screen. If the line is too long, folks with cognitive issues may lose focus and stop reading.

Simple language. Complex language can pose problems for users, especially those with cognitive disabilities or who aren’t fluent in the language.

Tools for testing readability

Hemingway Editor
>> http://www.hemingwayapp.com

Screenshot of Hemingway Editor Home Page

The Hemingway Editor is like a spellchecker, but for style and readability. This free online tool reports your content readability issues by highlighting content sections in different colors.

Readable
>> https://readable.io

Readable.io uses tried and tested readability algorithms, as well as proprietary scoring systems, to analyze the readability of your website or text and recommend ways to improve upon it. This is a paid service, but you can take the tool for a test drive by requesting a demo of how it works.

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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WEB DEV ACCESSIBILITY TIP: When Meta Refresh Sours

Posted on January 31, 2019January 31, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Keyboard with Refresh button, internet concept

Using meta refresh tags on your website pages?

Warning

If you have set a META REFRESH element with a non-zero timeout to automatically refresh the page in a certain number of seconds, this causes an unexpected interruption for screen reader users. This also takes control of the website page away from the user.

Example

Best Practice

If you have to use a META REFRESH element, set the refresh time to zero. This will prompt an immediate redirect, and will not be perceived as a change of context.

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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AUDIO: Make It Stop! Make It Stop!

Posted on January 29, 2019January 29, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Got a call from a business owner here on the East Coast, a fellow who sells cement. “Mary, I have a new website, and according to my stats, people come to the site, but don’t stay very long. Can you have a look and let me know if you can tell what the problem is?”

Sure.

When I visited his website. I was immediately accosted by very patriotic but EXTREMELY LOUD John Philip Sousa marching music blaring through my computer speakers. So loud that my Black Labbie Gracie woke from a deep sleep and started running around my office…barking, barking and barking. The sudden unexpected noise was so shocking I couldn’t hit the browser’s back button fast enough to make it stop!

What a racket!

What does this have to do with accessibility?

Jeepers creepers, people, don’t automatically start any audio when a home page loads. Always give the user the option to listen.

If an audio file a visitor has selected plays longer than 3 seconds, you have to give the user a way to turn it off.

Mr. Cement did not like my suggestion of ditching the loud music. He thought my advice was un-American.

Sigh.

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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TOOLS: Accessible Procurement Toolkit for RFPs

Posted on January 24, 2019January 24, 2019 by Mary Gillen

RFP BOILERPLATE FOR ACCESSIBILITY

Check out this online tool for government procurement. Developed for Mandate 376 in Europe, U.S. companies may use it as a start for developing their own RFP accessibility responses.

Check it out >> http://mandate376.standards.eu/procurement-stages/writing-a-call-for-tenders/wizard/technical-requirements/

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE FORMS: Calling All Radio Buttons

Posted on January 23, 2019February 5, 2019 by Mary Gillen

To be recognized by screen readers, radio button groups need: 1) a fieldset, 2) a legend, and 3) labels.

Legend text is announced along with the label text for radio buttons inside a fieldset, which makes it easier for a screen reader user to understand each radio button choice.

CODE EXAMPLE:

<form>

<fieldset>
<legend>Choose the sandwich you want to order:</legend>

<input type=”radio” name=”sandwich” value=”cheese” id=”sandwich_cheese”>
<label for=”sandwich_cheese”>Cheese</label>

</fieldset>

</form>

BROWSER VIEW

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE HTML TABLES: Is Your Data Hidden from Screen Readers?

Posted on January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Computer Code HTML on monitor

Using role=‘presentation’ on HTML data tables prevents information from being read out correctly by screen readers.

If your HTML table contains data you want to make accessible to all visitors, be sure to remove the attribute role=‘presentation’ from the TABLE element.

If you are using the HTML table for layout purposes, add the attribute role=”presentation” to the TABLE element. You then need to change all TH elements to TD elements and remove semantic elements like CAPTION.

Screen readers interpret TH and CAPTION elements as part of a data table. If these elements are part of a presentation HTML table, the results can be very confusing to individuals using assistive technology.

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE CONTENT: Use a Time Stamp to Quickly Direct Users to a Section of Your Video

Posted on January 20, 2019January 20, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Close-up of waving flag with YouTube logo, editorial 3D rendering United States

Have a long demo video on YouTube? Need to direct users to a certain section of the video so no one has to sit through the whole presentation?

Make use of YouTube’s Time Stamps.

Simply add a time code to the end of the YouTube URL link for your video. When the prospect clicks the link, he/she will be taken to a timed point in the presentation.

EXAMPLE:

Let’s say your YouTube video URL is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20SHvU2PKsM [launch the video]

Introduction to Web Accessibility and W3C Standards Video

You want to direct the prospect to the 1 minute 10 second mark in the video.

The Time Stamp code for this would be #t=1m10s

Change the URL to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20SHvU2PKsM#t=1m10s [launch the video]

Shadi Abou-Zahra, Accessibility Strategy and Technology Specialist at W3C

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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ACCESSIBLE CONTENT: Use the Inverted Pyramid Style for Quicker Info Access

Posted on January 19, 2019January 19, 2019 by Mary Gillen

triangles in abstract vector background

Think like a journalist when writing accessible website content. Use the “inverted pyramid style” by including the who, what, when, where, why and how information in the first paragraph of the page. Why is this style important for accessibility? Sighted users can visually scan or skip over content they don’t consider important. Individuals using screen readers must listen to the content of the page, one paragraph at a time. Presenting the most important facts first allows for quicker info access for those using assistive technology.

How to Write in the Inverted Pyramid Style

Journalists use the “inverted pyramid style” when composing news stories. The reader has immediate access to the most important facts, in case there isn’t enough time to finish the entire article. The supporting information is then included in the subsequent paragraphs.

Tips for Writing in the Inverted Pyramid Style

In the article Inverted Pyramid: Writing for Comprehension, author Amy Schade shares tips on how to write in the inverted pyramid style:

“1. Identify your key points. What piece of information is the key fact you want your readers to know, even if they only read a single paragraph or sentence on the page? What effectively summarizes all the information that will follow?

2. Rank secondary information. Outline the story details and supporting information, prioritizing the information that is most likely to be of interest to the broadest audience, and moving down the list to the smaller and more nuanced details.

3. Write well and concisely. The structure only helps readers if the content is strong. Cut unnecessary information. Get to the point quickly. Use straightforward language. Use short paragraphs and bulleted lists.

4. Frontload all elements of content with important information. The main headline should be descriptive. The story should start with the main point. Each heading or subheading should be descriptive. The first sentence of every paragraph should be the most important. The first words in each sentence should be information-carrying and indicate what content will follow.

5. Consider adding a summary or list of highlights. Some sites go a step beyond and add a summary or a bulleted list of key points to further emphasize the main takeaways of the content.”

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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TOOLS: Decaffeinate Accessibility Problems with NoCoffee Vision Simulator

Posted on January 18, 2019January 18, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Five hot coffee drink with steam icons

NoCoffee is a Chrome extension that helps web developers, designers and content creators get a better understanding of the difficulties visually impaired users experience when viewing website pages.

This useful tool can help you see the problems faced by people with slight-to-extreme vision issues. These include:

– Low Acuity
– Low Contrast Sensitivity
– Colorblindness
– Visual snow, glare, ghosting and cataracts.
– Nystagmus (rapid, involuntary, oscillatory movement of the eyes).
– Obstructed visual field

Download it today and start making better design decisions that accommodate the needs of the visually-impaired.

Download NoCoffee Chrome Extension now

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WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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