You may think that it’s a lost cause trying to get web apps/pages that use AJAX and the like to work on today’s browsers and assistive technology. Sure, it’s a pig of a thing to sort out but you, dear reader, are not powerless. Some time back (September this year), the W3C working group for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA) set out plans to address the various issues surrounding these types of non-trivial web pages (in other words, web pages that look/behave more like desktop applications).

• Press Release: W3C Announces Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA)

Now they are after your help. The draft suite of documents that form the basis of ARIA’s work is up for public review. The three documents for review are:

• Roadmap for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA Roadmap)
• Roles for Accesible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA Roles)
• States and Properties Module for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA States and Properties)

Closing date for public review is 19th January. So, if you’ve been lamenting the state of play of AJAX and accessibility, now’s your chance to do something practical to help out.

Many times in the past I have been asked “How did you get into accessibility?”, and I often interpret this as “Why do you care about it so much? Do you know someone who’s affected?” Usually, I respond by clarifying that I did not start preaching about accessibility for my own selfish reasons (if selfish is the right word), but that I found out about it almost by accident. I realised that there was a general gap in people’s knowledge about it and it just seemed like the right thing to do to let people know what it was all about. This very site came about as the result of the various tools and wizards that I had created and scattered around the web to help people make their pages more accessible.

Today, as I sit at work pondering how to get other people in the organisation I work for as passionate (or at least half as passionate) abut this thing we know as web accessibility I’ve been thinking about what my drivers were for this again. I have come to the conclusion, rightly or wrongly, that I am atypical, and that I cannot expect other people to be interested in it to the same level as I am. Or can I.

So, this post is a bit different - I would encourage you, dear reader, to comment on this post and tell me and all other readers:

1. How did you get into web accessibility? Was it because you have a relative that is affected and you felt the need to spread the word, or did you do it simply because it seemed like a niche market that you could become an expert in? Go on, be honest. I’d really like to know where we got to where we are in this field.
2. And if you have found yourself in a similar situation to me - feeling like you’re the guy at the bottom of a pit ranting about accessibility and trying to be heard - what did you do (or are still doing) to get other people as enthusiastic about the topic when they do not have personal reasons for doing so. Because let’s be honest, it’s not the most sexy or exciting topic on earth and many people would much rather be picking their toenails or pulling out belly-button fluff.

Really looking forward to reading people’s responses to this one.

[And before anyone suggests this, yes I have read the chapter about implementing accessibility in the enterprise in the Friends of Ed accessibility ‘bible’].

Spotted on Jeremy’s blog - his entry about judging some awards at the BIENE Accessibility Awards event. It sounds like Jeremy got to see many fine examples of quality sites with well built markup, something that you can admire in any language (although it helps if you understand some of the lingo, too, as Jeremy does). But it was this part of his posting that really stood out for me (emphasis added is mine):

My personal favourite is the website of the Media Management department of the Wiesbaden Technical College. I like the nice clean design. They also offer material in plain language and sign language. It scales nicely, it’s usable and it’s accessible. But what impressed me most was the story behind the site.

The website was created by students. A small group put the whole thing together in three months. They did this as just 12.5% of their coursework, so there was a ton of other work they needed to attend to at the same time. Under the guidance of professor Stephan Schwarz, they learned about structuring documents with markup and styling with CSS. The end result is something that would put many “professional” agencies to shame. What a debut! An accessible, good-looking site from people who have learned Web design the right way, without ever having to nest a table.

Like the man says, a great achievement and hopefully it’s testamament to changing methods of education. There is a whole heap of bad teaching materials out there that people can learn from, but thankfully I’m seeing more people in the educational sphere who are finally teaching things the right way. Wouldn’t it be great if, a few years from now, reporting on an achievement like this would seem like a waste of words because everone did things the right way? Of course we’re not there yet so, for now, this is something to celebrate. Well done on your award, students of Wiesbaden - go spread the word of good markup even further!

A commentor on the previous post (regarding government web site accessibility) wanted to draw Accessify readers ‘ attention to another way of getting involved. His comment (word-for-word, emphasis on date added by me) was:

Campainers might also want to engage in such matters in a more direct way by participating in a public consultation which Becta have recently launched on guidance as to what constitutes a ‘reasonable adjustment’ in creating and using accessible software. While the brief is wider than Websites alone much educational content is delivered via the Browser and the principles of adjustment in the development and procurement process are common across communities. You can get involved up to the 12th of December at http://communities.becta.org.uk/digitalresources/reasonableadjustment/

That’s just over a week away - if you think you can help in any way, please take a look at the page on Becta’s site: Consultation: making software accessible.

You may recall that some months ago Bruce Lawson and Dan Champion brought to our attention the poor state of affairs with a recent web site update for the Department of Trade and Industry - as in, it had poor accessibility despite it being a key requirement in the tendering process. It’s still not resolved (although various letters have gone back and forth from Bruce/Dan and government types suggesting that it is being looked at/addressed) but perhaps you can do your bit to ensure that UK taxpayers’ money is not wasted again in the future on sites that fail to meet the accessibility levels that you should rightly expect them to pass.

If you believe that governmental web sites should pass WCAG AA (minimum), add your name to the list here.

Go on, it won’t take you a moment and you’ll be saving Bruce and Dan a lot of bother in the future

Note: you must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition.

Maybe you do, and maybe you don’t - or at least not as well as you thought you did. Paul Haine is certainly hoping that you don’t feel in any shame in putting yourself in the latter category otherwise his hard work on HTML Mastery will be for nothing. The book, which is due out in January (but you can pre-order on Amazon), goes beyond the simple basics that many of use on a day-to-day basis, looks at some of the lesser-known HTML elements and their uses (and, indeed, the lesser-known ones that deserve to stay lesser-known!). It’s a great refresher for people who think they know HTML pretty well but would like to really master the craft, a task that is helped greatly by the chapters on Microformats and a look at the development of XHTML 2.0 and Web Applications 1.0. But what really makes this book a great read is Paul’s writing style - if you’ve ever read any of his blog entries you’ll know he has a great sense of humour, and this has translated well to the topic at hand, a topic that, in the hands of others, could have been a very stuffy affair.

So, congratulations on the book, Paul - it’s another great addition to the web standards armory.

Pre-order HTML Mastery from Amazon

• Amazon US
• Amazon UK
• Other Amazon locations

[Disclosure: I provided the technical editing on the book, in case you’re wondering how I know what it’s like before its proper release!]

I’ve had a lot of things on the go recently and I’ve been remiss in not doing a bit of self-promotion (and promotion for fellow authors Dan Rubin and Jeff Croft) for a certain CSS book. Pro CSS is the title and it does exactly what it says on the tin - it teaches professional CSS techniques for web developers/designers who already have a good basic understanding of CSS and want to refine their skills even further.

The book’s publication date (as far as Amazon is concerned) is the 27th November, so hopefully I’ll be getting my hands on my copies very soon (and I can tell you from experience that it’s a great feeling, although probably not quite as momentous as the first time, so to speak).

I’m looking forward to seeing Jeff and Dan at next year’s SXSW Interactive where we’ll get the chance to raise a (no doubt Yahoo or Google-sponsored) pint for a real celebration.

• Buy it from Amazon.com
• Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

I know, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for - the complete unabridged history of all things Patrick H Lauke for your listening or reading pleasure! OK, joking aside, Patrick’s been interviewed for Web Axe (actually back in October for a podcast) and the transcript is available now. In it he covers various activities with the WaSP Accessibility Task Force, his involvement with Accessify.com and the forum and hanging about with reprobates … I mean fine upstanding fellows …. like Bruce Lawson.

Or rather he will do as soon as I’ve made a donation via paypal and added a (semi) permanent link on these pags to his Micropatronage drive. What’s it all about then?

Joe Clark is looking to write/create some standards for captioning and dubbing (a real bugbear of his when people get it wrong, something with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation seem to do on a regular basis, much to his annoyance). He’s also looking to develop training courses for captioning and dubbing, as well as design and create new fonts specifically for captioning.

But all this takes time, and time is money. Joe’s estimating a $7 million price tag for this, but he’s not looking to raise all that money, rather he’s seeking patronage to pay him an income for a few months while he goes about seeking funding for the project.

Here’s a bit more detail about what Joe is hoping to achieve:

I’ve been working for four years to set up the Open & Closed Project, which will do a couple of rather big things:

• Write a set of standards (how-to manuals) for four fields of accessibility – captioning, audio description, subtitling, and dubbing. (This is not Web accessibilty except to the extent that Web sites use multimedia with one or more of those features.) The standards will be based on evidence and research. Where either of those is missing, we’ll carry it out ourselves. It will take four years to write the standards, which will be done in an open process. (Again, this is not Web accessibility. It also isn’t the WCAG Samurai.) Then we’ll test them for a year and fix whatever doesn’t work. The published standards will not be open-source or public-domain, but will be freely downloadable (and available in print and other formats at a cost).
• Next, we’ll develop training and certification programs. At that point, it will finally be possible to go to school to become a certified practitioner of captioning, audio description, subtitling, or dubbing, and it will also be possible for TV networks, movie studios, producers and distributors, and regulators to require accessibility services to be Open & Closed Project–certified.
• We’re also going to work on a universal file format for the four fields of accessibility, which has been attempted several times before with no success.
• We’ll design and test new fonts for captioning and subtitling. In fact, that activity is already underway and has been for nearly two years.

You can find out more about the Micropatronage here, learn more about the Open and Close project here, donate some funds to keep Joe in coffee for the next few months or grab one of the many banners to put on your site.
I don’t claim to know much (or anything, really) about this topic but wish Joe well with this. Maybe afterwards, we’ll all have a greater understanding about captioning and dubbing.

A few days back Roger Johansson contemplated the value of accessibility statements on web pages while, quit coincidentally, Accessify reader Rosie Sherry was having similar thoughts on the topic:

The use of web accessibility statements seems to be linked to the Code of Practice from the DDA . It appears that the fear of being sued over inaccessible websites led to the mass introduction of accessibility statements. This made it appear that people were making an effort to make accessible sites.

Word gets around easily on the web and this resulted in accessibility statements being implemented on many sites (probably around 12 million), usually copied and pasted from on site to another (as no official guidelines existed). The excuse was that they would help users, but time has proven that the actual practice of implementing accessibility statements has not gone according to plan.

You can read her thoughts here in the article Showing Web Accessibility Statements the Door