accessibility on SWiK

The W3C Markup Validation Service

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:09:31 -0700

Accessibility Testing

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:20:12 -0700

Accessibility testing for web sites is a service that can provide much more than the standard point-by-point testing techniques of most automated services.

That Checkbox Needs a Label

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 21:02:02 -0700

As a user of many web applications, I often find myself noticing little things that slow me down. One such thing is the use of checkboxes in web forms. It’s not the problem of checkboxes itself, it’s the face that checkboxes require the user to really focus their attention to a fairly small box on the page and perform a click inside. If you’re filling out a form really quickly, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll take advantage of you your tab key to get through each field quickly. Sometimes there are select boxes, which require the user to make selections with their mouse. Checkboxes drive me crazy because it requires more time to position the cursor and move on.

So, when I see a form like this, I don’t see it being very quick to interact with.

While I’m not in love with the date selection interface here, my bigger pain has been the checkbox in the form. Why? Because they forgot to use the <label for=""> HTML tag.

What’s the problem? Well, I don’t have the convenience of clicking on the label text, which would toggle the corresponding checkbox.

I know, many of you know all about this… but I run into this problem everywhere. This is an accessibility issue for people and really just increases the chances for a frustrating user experience. When you use the label tag properly… it will provide a larger amount of the screen for people to click, which reduces the chance of not clicking in the right spot. The label tag was designed with this in mind so that people could click close enough to trigger the desired action.

Here is an example of where it becomes really useful.

So, the lesson? Please remember to use the label for tag. :-)


<input type="checkbox" id="remember_me" name="remember_me" value="true" />
<label for="remember_me">Remember info?</label>

This is an easy thing to forget when building web applications. We’ve forgot and I’m sure you have too. I just wanted to point it out though because I see this happen so much… even in new sites.

Perhaps you run into similar problems with web applications that can be fixed with just a little more HTML. Care to share your experiences?

For more information, read Labeling form elements from the Dive Into Accessibility site.

Emacspeak --The Complete Audio Desktop

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:49:39 -0700

The W3C CSS Validation Service

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 18:51:55 -0700

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools: Overview

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 10:57:03 -0700

Web accessibility evaluation tools are software programs or online services that help determine if a Web site meets accessibility guidelines. While Web accessibility evaluation tools can significantly reduce the time and effort to evaluate Web sites, no t

Surfin' Safari - Blog Archive " Understanding HTML, XML and XHTML

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:55:01 -0700

Microformats

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:54:59 -0700

[from rjray] Colorblind Web Page Filter

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:54:50 -0700

W3C Semantic Web Activity

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:20 -0700

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:19 -0700

Guidelines from the W3C for building accessible websites

UI Access Home Page

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:18 -0700

[DRAFT] Web Content Accessibility and Mobile Web

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:16 -0700

Tales of Coding: W3C recently posts updated docs on relationship between usability and accessibility

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:52:16 -0700

Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:53:21 -0700

List of WC3 accessibility checkpoints

Create text-to-speech podcast from RSS feed with Odiogo for iPod, MP3 player and mobile phone

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:51:23 -0700

This automatically generates a podcast from your blog post - free signup

Captioning Flash Video by Tom Green

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:56:56 -0700

Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - home page

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:54:38 -0700

Section 508: The Road to Accessibility

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:54:36 -0700

Web Accessibility - Section 508

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:54:36 -0700

Microformats

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:57:01 -0700

Lighthouse International - Lighthouse International Develops Free, Innovative Web Browser Software For People Who Are Visually Impaired

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 09:54:18 -0700

Escape from CAPTCHA - slide "Accessibility Problems with Visual Verification Systems"

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:52:57 -0700

Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:52:57 -0700

WebAnywhere: A Screen Reader On the Go

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:52:28 -0700

Tales of Coding: W3C recently posts updated docs on relationship between usability and accessibility

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:54:25 -0700

Relationship between Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 06:54:23 -0700

Emacspeak --The Complete Audio Desktop

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:52:36 -0700

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) announces immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 28.0 --a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving semantic WWW.

Emacspeak --The Complete Audio Desktop

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:49:54 -0700

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) announces immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 28.0 --a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving semantic WWW.

The W3C Markup Validation Service

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:52:49 -0700