Mary Gillen | - Part 11

SOCIAL MEDIA: Two Ways to Make Your Twitter Tweets More Accessible

Posted on February 10, 2019February 10, 2019 by Mary Gillen

1) Add Alt Tags to photos you include in your Tweets

When you Tweet photos using the Twitter app for iOS or Android, or on twitter.com, be sure to compose a description of each image you post so the content is accessible to people who are visually impaired.

Here’s how to enable the Compose image descriptions setting in Twitter:

a) Log in to your Twitter account.
b) Click on your profile icon and select Settings and privacy from the dropdown (or press the “g” key quickly, followed by the “s” key).
c) Click Accessibility from the list of settings.

d) Find the Compose image descriptions checkbox.
e) Check the box to turn the setting on.
f) Click Save changes.

Once you add an image to your Tweet

a) Click the Add description option.

b) On the next screen you will have the opportunity to “Describe this photo for the visually impaired.”

NOTE: The image description is limited is 420 characters.

2) Make your links accessible

Including a hyperlink in your Tweet. You should indicate what type of file it leads to by adding [PIC], [VIDEO], [AUDIO] or [PDF] to the right of the link so screen reader users will know what they will find when they follow the link.

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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 WEBSITE CONTENT: Five Steps to Plain Language

Posted on February 10, 2019February 13, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Communications illustration two men talking and not communicating well

Plain language benefits all website visitors, especially people with cognitive disabilities, low reading literacy, and individuals who speak English as a second language.

According to the folks at The Center for Plain Language: “A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.”

Check out The Center’s five-step checklist that can guide you through the plain language process and help you develop content that’s accessible for all.

Read the checklist 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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TOOL: Create Accessible Equations with MathML Cloud

Posted on February 10, 2019February 10, 2019 by Mary Gillen

A fantasy cloudscape with stars overlaid with a vintage, textured watercolor paper background.

MathML Cloud is an open source tool that makes it faster, easier, and cheaper for traditional publishing houses and authoring platform providers to create math content that is accessible to all readers.

Take MathML Cloud out for a drive 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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VIDEO: How a Blind Person Uses a Computer

Posted on February 10, 2019February 10, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Tommy Edison, who has been blind since birth, uses humor to answer the most popular questions about living without sight, takes on more challenges which test his other senses, and goes on adventures that allow him to experience things for the first time.

In this video, Tommy shows how he uses the computer to send an email. The MacBook Pro has an Accessibility preference called Voice Over which reads the screen to him.

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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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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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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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Category: Mary Gillen

ACCESSIBLE WEBSITE CONTENT: Five Steps to Plain Language

TOOL: Create Accessible Equations with MathML Cloud

VIDEO: How a Blind Person Uses a Computer

TOOL: Identify Seizure Risks in Your Website Content

ACCESSIBLE WEBSITES: Test Your Content for Readability

WEB DEV ACCESSIBILITY TIP: When Meta Refresh Sours

AUDIO: Make It Stop! Make It Stop!

TOOLS: Accessible Procurement Toolkit for RFPs