Category Archives: ACCESSIBILITY

Think accessibility to future-proof your home

… Universal design is another way to look at how the features in your home add comfort and convenience not only for today, and also into the future as well. Its design is useful and marketable to people with diverse or changing abilities. This approach ensures reach, manipulation and use regardless of the user’s body,ContinueContinue reading “Think accessibility to future-proof your home”

A Smartwatch for the Visually Impaired | XPRIZE

… an idea that could change the way the visually impaired interact with technology. The students created a startup to develop and produce an affordable active Braille smartwatch, called Dot. When wearing Dot, users can check the time, read incoming text messages or tweets, and even e-books–although reading “War and Peace” four characters at aContinueContinue reading “A Smartwatch for the Visually Impaired | XPRIZE”

Use Only One on a Page | Adrian Roselli

That’s it. That’s the meat of the post. The title covers it all. You don’t need to read any further. You are, of course, welcome to continue since I spent all this time writing it. Definition For those who aren’t familiar with , the element is intended to be a container for the primary contentContinueContinue reading “Use Only One on a Page | Adrian Roselli”

Post Falls 5th grade inventor creates app to help people with disabilities

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Alexander Knoll stayed after school one day recently to have a little chat with educators at the North Idaho STEM Charter Academy in Rathdrum. “I love helping people and I’m excited to tell you about the app I’m trying to develop called Ability App,” the Post Falls fifth-grader said. “The ideaContinueContinue reading “Post Falls 5th grade inventor creates app to help people with disabilities”

Microsoft, American Council of the Blind partner to advance accessibility | News Center

REDMOND, Wash and ARLINGTON, Va – Dec. 17, 2015 – Microsoft Corp. and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) on Thursday announced they will partner on efforts to advance the accessibility of information technologies. Through the partnership, the ACB and Microsoft will work together to enable planned updates to various Microsoft products to betterContinueContinue reading “Microsoft, American Council of the Blind partner to advance accessibility | News Center”

An Access Revolution | Tarita Karsanji Davenock

The Inclusive Tourism market has been estimated as being worth US$134 billion annually. Already a major tourism sector, it is a market driven by the retirement of the baby boomers, who command almost 60% of net U.S. wealth and 40% of spending. In travel, boomers represent over 50% of consumption. The impact on the InclusiveContinueContinue reading “An Access Revolution | Tarita Karsanji Davenock”

The designer’s guide to digital accessibility | Web design | Creative Bloq

How to create accessible designs that work across print and digital. The notion of accessibility may bring to mind ideas of screen readers and voice control, but it’s about much more. Some impairments, for example, often go unnoticed. Take colour blindness: one in 12 suffer from the condition, so a design that uses only colour toContinueContinue reading “The designer’s guide to digital accessibility | Web design | Creative Bloq”

The New Old: High-Tech and Design for Aging | Re/code

… While Silicon Valley excels in creating technology that engages younger consumers and makes business practices more efficient, there is a growing opportunity for technologists to apply their skill sets to redefine how people age. Take, for example, the current trend of aging in place. Smart technology has started transforming homes, infiltrating everything from ourContinueContinue reading “The New Old: High-Tech and Design for Aging | Re/code”

Designing a landing page for color-blind people – Elokenz Blog

… One thing you should know about color-blind people, is that while most of them see blue they can’t distinguish green from red. So, having a blue logo is fine, while having a red or green logo is bad, because these colors are really different for color-blind people and they might be used by yourContinueContinue reading “Designing a landing page for color-blind people – Elokenz Blog”

Notes on Using ARIA in HTML

2.1 First rule of ARIA use If you can use a native HTML element [HTML51] or attribute with the semantics and behaviour you require already built in, instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible, then do so. … Curated by (Lifekludger) Read full article atContinueContinue reading “Notes on Using ARIA in HTML”

On Use of the Lang Attribute | Adrian Roselli

…WHATWG HTML bug (26942) where someone asked why do these examples of lack the lang attribute? I thought the answer from Hixie was a bit dismissive and not based on any data or real-world benefits of use, particularly in the context of screen readers: Why not? Realistically, few people include it. It just means theContinueContinue reading “On Use of the Lang Attribute | Adrian Roselli”

ACCESSIBILITY AS A DRIVER FOR QUALITY on Vimeo

Accessibility is a quality outcome of a good design and development practice. However, accessibility is commonly overlooked on product teams, or is considered a secondary or tertiary concern to be addressed at the end of product development. It can be difficult to get product teams to integrate accessibility into process and practice. Security and privacyContinueContinue reading “ACCESSIBILITY AS A DRIVER FOR QUALITY on Vimeo”

10 iPhone and iPad Apps That Take Accessibility To The Next Level

Accessibility refers to designing in a way that allows as many people as possible to access a physical product, service, environment, and/or app at its full potential. In the past, accessibility has been seen as optional or a nice “bonus” feature, but that view is outdated and prevents hundreds of thousands of potential users from making useContinueContinue reading “10 iPhone and iPad Apps That Take Accessibility To The Next Level”

Designing with Contrast ◆ 24 ways

When an appetite for aesthetics over usability becomes the bellwether of user interface design, it’s time to reconsider who we’re designing for. Over the last few years, we have questioned the signifiers that gave obvious meaning to the function of interface elements. Strong textures, deep shadows, gradients — imitations of physical objects — were discarded.ContinueContinue reading “Designing with Contrast ◆ 24 ways”

How technology can help dyslexic learners help themselves | Jisc

I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone how dyslexia can affect learning, and how learners can use technology to support their own independent study. What are the effects on learning? Dyslexia affects memory and processing speed in 5-10% of the population1. The impact on learning is very individual but most people with dyslexiaContinueContinue reading “How technology can help dyslexic learners help themselves | Jisc”

Six Tips for Tablet Accessibility – TabletTable

We use touchscreen devices on a daily basis in a wide variety of situations and applications. From banking machines to self-checkout scanners, the number of touchscreens in today’s society grows at an ever-increasing pace. Most of us even carry a touchscreen device of some sort with us, whether that’s a smartphone or a tablet (orContinueContinue reading “Six Tips for Tablet Accessibility – TabletTable”

Accessibility – iOS – Apple

  iOS. A wide range of features for a wide range of needs. Intuitive by design, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch also come with assistive features that allow people with disabilities to experience the fun and function of iOS. With these innovative technologies built right in, iOS devices become powerful and affordable assistive devices. Curated byContinueContinue reading “Accessibility – iOS – Apple”

Ethiopia: Of Disability and Accessibility – allAfrica.com

INTERVIEW By Henok Reta Judith Heumann is an internationally recognized leader of the disability community and a lifelong civil rights advocate for disadvantaged people. She has been appointed Special Advisor for International Disability Rights at the US Department of State. She previously served as the Director for the Department on Disability Services for the DistrictContinueContinue reading “Ethiopia: Of Disability and Accessibility – allAfrica.com”

Apple’s 2015 Accessibility Rebound | The New Hofstader.com

A long but excellent  ‘insider’ read. The most interesting thing in this story is not that Apple is the clear leader in out-of-the-box accessibility, they have held that position for a bunch of years now. The real story, as I suggest in the Introduction section of this piece is that Apple is the only largeContinueContinue reading “Apple’s 2015 Accessibility Rebound | The New Hofstader.com”

5 ways to improve the accessibility of your SharePoint intranet – Media Access Australia

SharePoint is Microsoft’s answer to a Content Management System (CMS), used by organisations to collaborate and share documents on a browser-based platform. In recent years, Microsoft has made efforts to improve the accessibility capability of their CMS by adding a number of new accessibility features in SharePoint 2013 and much more recently in the betaContinueContinue reading “5 ways to improve the accessibility of your SharePoint intranet – Media Access Australia”

HTML For Screen Readers – Labelling Elements

To screen readers, a lot of the visual information that is presented on a webpage is lost. Because of this, we need to specifically provide information to them that may be obvious to a person looking at the page. One common way people define information specifically for screen readers is to wrap the descriptive textContinueContinue reading “HTML For Screen Readers – Labelling Elements”

Léonie Watson: A quick & dirty introduction to ARIA – Front-end London – YouTube

An introduction to Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) 1.0. ARIA can be used to enhance the accessibility of content created with markup languages like HTML and SVG. With code examples and screen reader demonstrations, find out where ARIA fits into the web technology stack and how it helps improve cross-device accessibility. xx Source: Léonie Watson: AContinueContinue reading “Léonie Watson: A quick & dirty introduction to ARIA – Front-end London – YouTube”

The iPhone setting that changed this man’s life.

..Todd Stabelfeldt is able to control the entire iPhone interface, thanks to an iOS setting called Switch Control. Also known as switch access, it’s an accessibility feature for people with physical disabilities who can’t use a touchscreen in the traditional way. It turns a complicated user interface into something that can be controlled with basicContinueContinue reading “The iPhone setting that changed this man’s life.”

Accessibility: Towards a more inclusive web with Microsoft Edge and Windows 10

Windows has used the Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) API since Windows 98 to express buttons, menus, text, and other on-screen content to assistive technology. Assistive technology vendors have used the MSAA API (along with other app-specific APIs like the DOM in IE, the Office Object Model in Office, and even scraping video drivers) to makeContinueContinue reading “Accessibility: Towards a more inclusive web with Microsoft Edge and Windows 10”