Mary Gillen | - Part 9

ACCESSIBLE IMAGES: How to Handle ALT Text Acronyms

Posted on April 11, 2019April 11, 2019 by Mary Gillen

How to code ALT text acroymns

IMG ALT text with acronyms can cause problems when read by screenreaders.

FAIL: <img src=”mit-it-logo.jpg” alt=”ITS at MIT” />
(read by a screen reader as “It’s at Mit”).

SOLUTION: Include spaces in between acronym letters in the IMG ALT attribute

PASS: <img src=”mit-it-logo.jpg” alt=”I T S at M I T” />
(read by a screen reader as “ITS at EM EYE TEE”).

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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 CONTENT: Don’t Use Color As Part of Your Instructional Content

Posted on April 9, 2019April 9, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Color Blindness - Illustration of Glasses

Are you using color as a way of instructing visitors about the next action to take on your Web site?

Think again.

Let’s say you have images of two buttons on your Web page.

If you instruct folks to click on the red button, you may be confusing the over 108 million Web users who are color blind.

WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.4.1 warns Web designers, developers and content creators about depending solely on color when conveying instructions.

There are a number of color blindness conditions. Here are three you should learn about:

Protanopia: People with protanopia lack the long-wavelength sensitive retinal cones that are required to distinguish between colors in the green-yellow-red section of the spectrum. It is a more common form of color blindness, occurring in between 1% and 5% of males (varying by race) and in approximately 0.1% of females.

Here’s how individuals with protanopia see the red & green buttons:

Image of how a person with protanopia views red and green colors

Deuteranopia: People with deuteranopia lack medium-wavelength retinal cones and are therefore also unable to distinguish between colors in the green-yellow-red section of the spectrum. Deuteranopia is a more common form of color blindness, occurring in between 1% and 5% of males (varying by race) and in approximately 0.1% of females.

Here’s how people with deuteranopia see the red & green buttons:

Image of how people with deuteranopia view red and green buttons

Tritanopia: People with color blindness involving the inactivation of the short-wavelength sensitive cone system have tritanopia, a very rare blue-yellow color blindness. Tritanopia is a very rare form of color blindness, occurring in less than 0.003% of males and females.

Here’s how people with tritanopia see the red & green buttons:

Image that depicts how a person with tritanopia views red and green buttons on a Web page

Accessible Best Practice: Don’t use color as part of your instructional content. It will confuse and frustrate your site’s color blind visitors and is considered inaccessible according to WCAG 2.0 Guidelines.

WCAG 2.0 Guidelines covered in this post:

Level A Guideline 1.4.1 Use of Color: Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.

Level AAA Guideline 3.3.5 Help: Provide detailed help and instructions.

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WCAG 2.1: 118 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 55 accessibility checkpoints

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

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WEB DEV: Free Zip Code Distance, Radius and Location API

Posted on March 30, 2019March 30, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Hand drawn U.S. Map

Need to pull dynamic U.S. zip code data for your website? Check out ZipCodeAPI.com, the easy way to calculate distances, radius, and locations for U.S. zip codes.

ZipCodeAPI.com allows you to:

– Convert zip code to city/town or city/town to zip code
– Pull zip codes from a nearby radius
– Create a custom SQL search
– Pull related zip codes from a surrounding area
– Find the distance between two zip codes
– Organize a list of zips ordered closest to each other

Free Plan

With the free plan (registration required), you are allowed 1,200 API requests per day, which should offer enough functionality for a simple application. Note that the free account allows up to 10 API requests per hour. You also receive a free trial period of 50 API requests per hour for 2 weeks. Paid plans are also available for more robust applications.

Find out more about ZipCodeAPI.com.

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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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ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS: Convert PDF Files to MP3 Audio with RoboBraille.org

Posted on March 27, 2019September 27, 2020 by Mary Gillen

Hispanic blind man with disability. Visually impaired man using Digital Assistant and Ease of Access functions on mobile phone, voice typing to smartphone

RoboBraille is an e-mail and web-based service capable of automatically transforming documents into a variety of alternate formats for the visually and reading impaired.

RoboBraille.org Logo

Originally created by Synscenter Refsnæs (the National Centre for Visually Impaired Children and Youth in Denmark) and Sensus ApS, RoboBraille is accessible 24/7 as a self-service solution and is available free of charge for individual, non-commercial use. Users don’t need not register in order to use the service.

Step 1: Select your file and upload it to the server (max 64 MB). Multiple files of the same type may be selected. Supported file types are .DOC, .DOCX, .PDF, .PPT, .PPTX, .TXT, .XML, .HTML, .HTM, .RTF, .EPUB, .MOBI, .TIFF, .TIF, .GIF, .JPG, .JPEG, .BMP, .PNG, .PCX, .DCX, .J2K, .JP2, .JPX, .DJV and .ASC

Step 2: Specify the target format of your document. The following formats are available: MP3 audio, Braille, E-book or Accessibility conversion.

List of RoboBraille Output Formats

Step 3: If you specify Accessibility conversion, here are your options: Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx), RTF, Tagged PDF (text over image, image over text), Microsoft Excel (xls, xlsx), Windows Text (.txt) or HTML (.htm).

Robobraille Accessibility Options

Step 4: Add your email address then submit your file conversion request.

A Test

I uploaded an 11-page PDF file and requested a conversion to MP3. Within five minutes I received an email that contained a link to the MP3 file. I also received confirmation that the original PDF file I uploaded was deleted from the RoboBraille.org server.

Visit RoboBraille.org now and test the file conversion functionality.

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Instant Download!

PDF Accessibility Remediation How to Fix 40 Common Errors

Whether you have limited experience with the PDF remediation process, are expanding your knowledge on how to remediate PDFs, or simply need a resource that can help remind you how to fix a frustrating error, the info provided in this e-book can help.

Download now.

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ACCESSIBLE FORMS: Get a Head Start with Boilerform

Posted on March 26, 2019March 26, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Cartoon Illustration of HTML Forms

Boilerform is a little HTML and CSS boilerplate to give you a head start when creating accessible HTML forms.

By providing baseline BEM structured CSS and appropriate attributes on elements, Boilerform takes some of the pain away when building forms in the best possible way with a view to being dropped into most projects.

Take Boilerform for a test drive here.

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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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ACCESSIBILITY TESTING TOOLS: Microsoft Accessibility Insights

Posted on March 25, 2019March 25, 2019 by Mary Gillen

Microsoft’s two Accessibility Insights applications are now available as open source code.

The two free tools, Accessibility Insights for Windows and Accessibility Insights for Web, help developers find and fix common accessibility issues early in the software development cycle. They can be used as stand-alone tools or can be integrated through their rules engines into a developer’s build process.

The applications are built on open-source axe technology from Deque Systems, which works with companies to make their websites and mobile apps accessible to people with disabilities. The Accessibility Insights applications are part of Microsoft’s larger inclusion efforts that also involve inclusive hiring and the Department of Homeland Security’s Trusted Tester program.

Read the rest of eWeek’s article Microsoft Now Offers Accessibility Insights as Open Source Code

Download Accessibility Insights for Windows and Accessibility Insights for Web 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 VOICE: Conversational Search for All

Posted on March 22, 2019March 22, 2019 by Mary Gillen

We all know folks with physical, cognitive and learning disabilities who need to use voice recognition technology rather than type on a keyboard or use a mouse. Yet many more of us are conducting conversational searches via voice-activated services on our mobile phones and other devices.

Report: There are now over 50 billion voice searches every month. This number is expected to grow to over 200 billion by 2020 and account for over 50% of all searches. [SOURCE]

So how is this changing the keyword phrases we use when we use voice search?

In the article How conversational searches change your search strategy, author Sara Kleinberg reports that people are “searching with natural language in a manner reminiscent of asking for advice.”

Here are some examples:

Mobile searches for “do I need” have grown over 65%. For example, “how much do I need to retire,” “what size generator do I need,” and “how much paint do I need.”

Mobile searches for “should I” have grown over 65%. For example, “what laptop should I buy,” “should I buy a house,” “what SPF should I use,” and “what should I have for dinner.”

Mobile searches starting with “can I” have grown over 85%. For example, “can I use paypal on amazon,” “can I buy stamps at walmart,” and “can I buy a seat for my dog on an airplane.”

Sara offers this advice to website owners and marketers:

“Because consumers are growing more and more at ease with technology, consider using more natural language and creating intuitive experiences across all of your digital touch points. In search, after locking down the key words and phrases typically associated with your business, think beyond those to consider more conversational phrases that customers might be using to find you.”

Read the rest of How conversational searches change your search strategy

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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 E-COMMERCE: Five Online Shopping Problems Encountered by People with Disabilities

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

Pencil Drawing of Shopping Cart

In the article Tips For Online Shopping With Disabilities: A Website Accessibility Guide, you’ll discover some of the common online shopping problems experienced by people with disabilities.

These include:

Rarely can you see what clothing looks like on people sitting down. There’s the website, but what about the products themselves? For people who use wheelchairs, it can be hard to tell if clothing they see online would be comfortable or flattering in a wheelchair
Detailed, homogeneous descriptions can be difficult to find on some sites. According to surveys, only 49% of disabled people feel they have even some of the information needed or wanted while making purchasing decisions
Flash animations can be bad for both visually impaired and learning-disabled users, creating over-stimulation. Sometimes, there’s not much to be done for ads, but sites themselves can be overstimulating, too.
Subtitles and closed captions are a small thing to add to videos but sometimes ignored. Be sure to turn on closed captions on YouTube, as most websites use YouTube to host their videos.
Plain links called “links” or “click here” are not helpful to those who use screen readers. Luckily, labeling a link with the text “click here” is falling out of fashion

Read the rest of Tips For Online Shopping With Disabilities: A Website Accessibility Guide

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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 DESIGN: Make Your Mobile Buttons More Accessible for Color Blind Users

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

Cartoon of seven human hands holding mobile phones

In the article 5 Techniques to Make Mobile Call to Action Buttons Intuitive, author Anthony has a suggestion on how to make your buttons more accessible to color blind users.

“Color blind users won’t be able to tell the difference between the weight of buttons. They need something more than color to serve as a visual cue.”

Including an icon on the checkout button helps the color blind user better understand the Call to Action

“Giving the high priority action an icon adds the extra emphasis to set it apart,” he writes. ” When users scan, they often fixate on visual elements more than text. The icon ensures that all users will pay more attention to the high priority action than the other ones. If you removed the color and label, users would still be able to recognize the checkout button. The icon communicates checkout as well as the text does.”

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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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Tag: Mary Gillen

ACCESSIBLE IMAGES: How to Handle ALT Text Acronyms

ACCESSIBLE CONTENT: Don’t Use Color As Part of Your Instructional Content

WEB DEV: Free Zip Code Distance, Radius and Location API

ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS: Convert PDF Files to MP3 Audio with RoboBraille.org

ACCESSIBLE FORMS: Get a Head Start with Boilerform

ACCESSIBILITY TESTING TOOLS: Microsoft Accessibility Insights

ACCESSIBLE VOICE: Conversational Search for All

ACCESSIBLE E-COMMERCE: Five Online Shopping Problems Encountered by People with Disabilities

ACCESSIBLE DESIGN: Make Your Mobile Buttons More Accessible for Color Blind Users

ACCESSIBLE CODE: Create a Simple Tooltip Using ARIA & Vanilla JavaScript