Patrick Lauke has been experimenting with SMIL. He has produced a captioned version of Jeffrey Zeldman’s Web Essentials 04 video keynote, using Quicktime SMIL 1.0.
There’s also an HTML transcript, for those who can’t get the SMIL to work.
In respect to my earlier post regarding Doubleclick banner ads, it seems that Doubleclick Flash banners are not actually scripted to grab the focus as at first thought.
Although the focus-grabbing behaviour does actually happen, the problem appears to be with iframes themselves and how the browser (in particular Internet Explorer on Windows) deals with them: if an iframe finishes loading after its parent loads, it seems to grab the focus.
Unfortunately this throws the use of iframes into question. Further investigation is still warranted, however it is something to remain aware of.
Please note the correction made to this post.
If your site runs Doubleclick Flash banner ads in iframes, you may have a problem. It seems some of the Flash ads set the browser focus to themselves. This means that, as the ads run in an iframe, the focus is taken away from the page your visitor is expecting to be on.
There are two major implications. Firstly any visitor not using a mouse may well have difficulty getting focus back to the main page in order that they can read and navigate through it, not least because they won’t expect the page focus to have changed without them knowing. A clear accessibility failing.
Secondly any user will have unexpected results when printing the page - all they will get is the ad printed out - and they will probably blame that on your site.
The problem was pointed out by Jude Robinson who is currently doing an excellent job accessifying Nature.com. See this page for a fine example of the work and a nefarious Doubleclick ad.
Reprinted and expanded version of an article by Mary Frances Theofanos from the US National Cancer Institute and usability consultant Janice Redish, first published in ACM’s Interactions November-December 2003 issue:
Between November 2002 and February 2003, we observed and listened to 16 blind users as they worked with Web sites using assistive devices that read the screen to them (screen readers). Participants used the screen reader that they work with regularly: 13 used JAWS and three used Window-Eyes
[...] Our focus has been understanding how blind users work with Web sites and what that means for designers and developers. Our focus therefore is users rather than specific Web sites. In the following sections we describe insights gained from our observations and we present guidelines that can help designers and developers both meet the letter of the law and actually make Web sites usable to people who listen to screen readers.
Available as PDF (903 Kb) - or run it through Adobe’s online PDF to HTML conversion tool.
Thanks to Steven Faulkner at NILS for the heads-up.
Via Russ’ entry over at web-graphics:
Andrew Arch (NILS) just let me know about an interesting statistic. The Australian Bureau of Statistics states:
“The 2003 SDAC (Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers) estimates that one in five Australians (3,951,000 or 20%) had a disability. This rate was the same for males and females. The rate increased with age, reaching 81% for those aged 85 years and over.”
http://www.abs.gov.au
As announced by Julie Howell:
RNIB Techshare 2004 highlights the role of technology in the everyday life of people with sight problems.
The conference will be held on 18-19 November 2004 at Jury’s Inn, Birmingham, UK.
Techshare will interest anyone wishing to learn more about accessible technology.
The main theme of Techshare 2004 is web accessibility.
Our keynote speakers are well-known names from the world of web accessibility:
- 18 November morning:
Judy Brewer, Directory, IBM Web Accessibility Initiative
Judy will share the latest news from WAI and will provide an update on the development of version 2.0 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- 18 November afternoon:
Greg Pisocky, Adobe Systems
Adobe is working to make Adobe PDF files more accessible to blind and partially sighted people. In his keynote, Greg will describe how Adobe has worked with the American Foundation for the Blind to improve the accessibility of the company’s e-publishing products.
Greg will present an additional paper on 19 November: Achieving accessibility in PDF files with the new Adobe Acrobat
Techshare delegates will enjoy an extremely rare opportunity to listen to two of the world’s experts on web accessibility at the same conference.
Other papers on the theme of web accessibility:
- Building an accessible transport website
- Allison Tynan, Consultant, System Concepts Limited and Shane Snow, Customer Relations Manager, Transport Direct
- IBM Web Adaptation Technology — an integrated client solution
- David Banes, Director of Operations, AbilityNet
- Journey to an accessible website
- Alice Dryden, Website Developer and Marianne Lindfield, Website Manager, College of Occupational Therapists
- Practical solutions to difficult web design problems
- Crista Earl, Director of Web Operations and Elizabeth Neal, Web Content Manager, American Foundation for the Blind
- The successful development of an accessible web authoring tool in cooperation with its partially sighted and blind users
- John Norgaard, Technical Developer, Sonokids Foundation, Denmark and Phia Damsma, Creative Developer, Sonokids Foundation, the Netherlands
- Web accessibility and disability — a practical introduction
- Robin Christopherson, Web Consultancy Manager and Jon Gooday, Senior Consultant Assessor, AbilityNet
- Web content accessibility guidelines: accessibility panacea or only part of the picture?
- Ruth Loebl, Senior ICT Development Officer, RNIB
RNIB is also delighted to announce a one-day pre-conference workshop on PDF accessibility:
- 17 November: DIY accessible PDF: How to publish and not be damned
- Presented by David Stevenson, Senior Consultant, Adobe and Jeremy Ali, Technology Officer, RNIB
Conference price: Full conference (two days) - £235; one day - £150; pre-conference workshop - £150
To find out more and book your place visit http://www.techshare.org.uk
6.30pm. 25 October 2004
The Melbourne Web Standards Group will be holding a presentation night with Steve Faulkner (NILS) and Brett Jackson (Fairfax Digital) as guest speakers.
Steve’s presentation is titled “Techniques for making forms more accessible”, whilst Brett will be presenting “Managing the transition to CSS/XHTML”.
On the 27th of August 2004, the Consultants Working Group “Barrier-free (accessible) Internet Technology” (BabIT - BeraterInnen-Arbeitskreis barrierefreie Internettechnologie) has met for the official start-up of activities in Cologne, Germany. [...] We have set up this group in order to exchange knowledge, experience that we gain and encounter during our daily workflow or while working on projects from a web developer/web designer’s point of view. Further goals are to develop trainings and establish knowledge resources. Everyone who is interested is welcome to contact or join the working group.
This course is not about creating unattractive ‘text only’ pages; accessible design is about designing for disabled people and non-disabled people. The training combines off-line discussion and learning, with online experience and examples - including hands-on experience of surfing websites with text browser, a screen reader and using the keyboard only.
See further information about the course content.