Firefox 2.0: The Right Change In The Wrong Way
Firefox 2.0 introduces some changes in its default keyboard mapping compared to previous versions. Specifically, where keyboard navigators might have previously used:
ALT + A.N.Other Key
to activate a site facility that had an accesskey assigned to it, they’ll now have to use:
ALT + Shift + A.N.Other Key
Firefox 2.0: The Right Change In The Wrong Way: continue reading …
Designing For Dyslexics
When discussing accessible web design, one of the topics that rarely seems to be covered is that of designing with dyslexics in mind. Over the past few months, I’ve come to realise that one of the reasons for this is that many web designers know very little about dyslexia itself. They’re aware that it is a problem with regard to reading but little more.
So, I’ve written a short series of articles on the subject for accessites.org summarising some of the common elements of the condition, the specific problems introduced by high contrast web pages and a short summary of the other issues that affect page readability.
I’m hoping these articles will provoke some discussion here.
Site Advisor? Site Misadvisor!
Site Advisor is a downloadable tool from McAfee that claims to protect Internet users from all kinds of Web-based security threats and annoyances including spyware, adware, unwanted software, spam, pop-ups, online fraud and identity theft. Site Advisor’s so-called “innovative technology” appears to be, basically, just a bot that amongst other things, signs up for things like product registrations, services, community access, and newsletters using a one-off email address.
And mailing lists!
JAWS In Forms Mode
I recently came across some articles that suggested that, when in Forms Mode, the JAWS screen reader would not speak text that was not enclosed in a form control tag (e.g. <label>.
Additional instructions are often part of online forms. Examples might include the correct format for a credit card expiry date or details of acceptable passwords.
The articles that I read were relatively old and referred to JAWS 4 or JAWS 5. However, the issues that they raised were sufficiently important enough for me to start wondering whether these problems still existed – either with newer versions of JAWS or other screen readers that ultilised a similar Forms Mode.
More On Dyslexia
A number of questions were raised following Does W3C Get Its Contrasts Wrong?. The following was orginally posted as a comment follow-up, but, since it’s rather long, I’ve re-posted it here.
Does the problem of too high a contrast prove to be a barrier to all people with dyslexia?
As long as you are clear what you mean by ‘dyslexia’, yes – as far as I am aware. The difficulty arises because the term ‘dyslexia’ is often used simultaneously to mean a specific reading difficulty and a group of learning difficulties of which reading is one.
An Alternative Colour Contrast Analyser
Following my comments in Does W3C Get Its Contrasts Wrong?, I decided to develop an alternative colour contrast analyser that took into account some of the points I’d raised.
As well as using the W3C thresholds, it uses the Hewlett Packard Color Difference threshold which, at 400, is 20% lower than the corresponding W3C figure. It also provides a ‘high contrast warning’ if the colour difference exceeds 600. This latter figure is really just a guess on my part, so I’d be interested in any concrete evidence that might help provide a better threshold for dyslexics.