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Tools, wizards, articles and tutorials on Web Accessibility for the conscientious web developer

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For anyone unfortunate enough to have spent more than a couple of minutes with me at @Media 2005 harping on about the current difficulties I find myself with, apologies. For everyone else, a little update.

Since taking a year off, I have not been able to fully settle back in UK. The reason can largely be put down to noisy next-door neighbours. Their loud music saw us ‘fleeing the scene’ back in January. I’d only just got a telephone line installed and broadband set up and found myself making every excuse to get out of the house. This was at Manda’s house (my other, and some would say better, half). My plans for Accessify.com’s redesign were once again put on hold. We then spent some time house-sitting, and then moved back to my house while we set about putting both my house and hers on the market. I’ve been at mine for a couple of months with no telephone line and the impending moving-out date hanging over me. Neither of us want to go back to hers, one because of the noise and two, because if we do, we will not be able to claim ignorance with any potential buyer ("Oh, we’ve been house-sitting elsewhere for a couple of months, don’t really know who the neighbours are.")

So, that was a long-winded way of apologising for my personal inactivity since coming back to UK. No-one can really understand how stressful it can be living next door to people like this, and it has totally affected everything that I normally do on the web. To that end, I floated an idea with Patrick Lauke at @Media last week. I did not want to hold the re-launch/re-build of Accessify any further - something that is at least 90% done (rebuilt in PHP/MySQL, all new style sheets, some new features/functionality) - and asked if he could make it happen. Hosting is already covered, the work is mostly done; the only thing that has been holding up a relaunch is me and my general unconnectedness. So, thanks to Patrick for taking this on - he’s got the source files, the drive (and by that I mean impetus, not a hard drive!) and the required presence near a net connection to do necessary uploads and fix things as they occur. I’m a hurdle that needs removing, albeit temporarily, and Patrick should see this through to its conclusion.

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Migrating from WCAG 1.0 to WCAG 2.0
Roger Hudson provides a through transition guide from WCAG 1 to WCAG 2
Beyond CAPTCHA: No bots allowed
James Edwards (aka Brothercake) provides a useful run-down of the problems posed by using CAPTCHAs
Jeremy Keith does an excellent write-up of the Accessibility 2.0 conference (which I was unable to attend)
Sharepoint and Web Accessibility
Bruce Lawson describes the disparity between Sharepoint/MOSS developed web sites and the level of accessiblity that the tool offers to users (summary - it really is not good!)
How does a screen reader user really hear your web site?
Interesting post on Beast Blog about how a screen reader user - a real one! Not one of those fake web developer tester types! - uses the tool to read a web page. A few surprises were waiting in store for author Mike Cherim.
Web Accessibility Toolbar now available in simplified Chinese
The Web Accessibility Tools Consortium (WAT-C) release a simplified Chinese version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar.
Web 2.0 vs Web Accessibility
1-day seminar in London, 25th April, brings together experts in the field to discuss/demonstrate the accessibility issues faced by web 2.0.
Leading accessibility technologists form new alliance to fix problems
The Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA), comprising (among others) Adobe, HP, Microsoft, Novell, and from the assistive tech industry Dolphin, GW Micro and HiSoftware forms to work together "to create and harmonize standards for accessible techn
Fieldsets, legends and screen readers
An excellent run-down of how fieldsets and legends can improve accessibility and how the various screen readers cope with this useful markup.
CAPTCHAs explained - WacBlog
Another really good post on the RNIB\'s Web Access Centre blog explaining captchas, why they\'re bad for accessibility and what the alternatives may be.
Making WCAG easier to read
Derek Featherstone has created some fancy style sheets to make reading WCAG documents a little easier on the eye.
Top Tips for the title attribute
Ann McMeekin provides a set of simple tips regarding when - or rather when not to - use the title attribute. \'Cos sometimes you can try *too much* to be helpful
California court tilts towards mandating web accessibility
Outlaw.com reports (on behalf of The Register) on the Target California class action lawsuit, digging a little deeper into what Target have been doing of late to address matters.
Screen Readers and display:none
Juicy Studio, aka Gez Lemon, investigate some quirks whereby screen readers announce content that they should not be. Perhaps this could be used for good rather than evil?
Google Developer Podcast: The status of accessibility on the Web
An interview with Google research scientist TV Rahman (and Hubbell, his seeing-eye dog!). Lots of talk about CAPTCHAs and accessibility, but no sign of a transcript for this interview as yet.

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