Ocawa
Headlines on Accessibility
Ajax at the dawn of a new age
Culturally tinged introduction to the already mythical web presence: Ajax. Read about the worries behind the victory, as regards accessibility (amongst other things).... and then remember that there was more than one Ajax. For example there was Ajax the 5th century Evangele! (Wikipedia: Ajax).
HTML 5 on the way
Slashdot reports that a working draft of the specification for HTML 5 is now in circulation. The W3C has been working on the draft, which establishes the benchmark for many new features and standardisation around XHTML, since March of last year. Improving multimedia and client side memory issues are just some of the advantages in the new specification.
Royalty-free accessibility action from Microsoft
Microsoft, after 12 years, is releasing a development tool kit with web accessibility in mind. Read more about UI Automation project which is being given to the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance.
the January 16, 2008.
WYDSIWYDG (What you don't see is what you don't get)
The mysterious "invisible" web, which represents the greater mass of the internet, is largely unknown, and by definition, totally unreferenced. Read about the invisible web in English or a French article on the "web invisible."
UK Retail misses out on large swathe of online market
In the United Kingdom, as statistics in this Computer Weekly article show, over one third of the 20 biggest online retailers are not inline with the Disability Discrimination Act (claims Webcredible)
The bottle neck in accessibilty is most common when the client wants to check out ... and pay. Sounds like the ultimate bad business practice.
New French web forum
An article (in French) announces the opening or a new new web forum portal which is fully compliant and accessible... if we are only concerned about accessibility up to WCAG priority 1. But didn't "Web 2.0" used to mean "go longer?"
the October 08, 2007.Retail Website in Accessibility News
The retail outlet "Target" in the USA is subject to a preliminary ruling that means legal proceedings will go ahead about the accessibility of its e-commerce website. Net journal e-week has the full story.
the October 03, 2007.Towson professor helps blind
Research focuses on software programs for the visually impared
Daniel Gross
A Towson University professor's research is changing the way blind people use the Internet. Jonathan Lazar, professor and director of computer and information sciences, has been conducting research with the National Federation of the Blind to change Web design.
Read all about it on The Towerlight
the September 03, 2007.
SDSU Focuses on Web Accessibility
Sept. 1 is an important deadline for San Diego State University's Web accessibility efforts:
New and updated Web sites, Web applications and Web content, will, at the minimum, conform to baseline accessibility standards as defined in Section 508.
Read all about it on SDSUniverse
the August 23, 2007.National Audit Office Press Notice
Government on the internet: progress in delivering information and services online.
Government has made progress in making a wide range of information available to the public through the internet. But the National Audit Office has found that although internet users rate government websites reasonably well, the quality of those websites has improved only slightly since 2002.
Read all about it on UK N.A.O Press Notice
the July 13, 2007.Google taking web offline
Google is distributing a collection of open-source tools that will enable web applications to run in offline mode, locally (such as web mail etc), presumably by prestocking a local cache, etc. Story in today's NYT
the May 31, 2007.Ocawa on Indexel.Net
Ocawa tops the list of 6 tools listed at indexel.net (article in French).
the May 28, 2007.RGAA
French accessibility laws take another step in their long march to being concrete: RGAA site (in French). And they want your input! (presumably also in French).
the May 28, 2007.Take aim at target's discrimination
The National Federation for the Blind, an organization that represents blind people, is suing Target Corp., because Target's Web site is inaccessible to blind Internet users. Target's argument is their Web site isn't subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act, a 1990 law that requires retailers and other public places to make accommodations for people with disabilities. Target argued that the law only covered physical spaces. Making information technologies available to persons with disabilities is not only a matter of human rights, it also makes good business sense. Take aim at practices and policies by the Target Corporation that discriminate! Boycott Target!
Read all about it on Indibay.org
EARL - What and why?
Evaluation (and) Reporting Language
Charles McCathieNevile
W3C SWAD-Europe project
Read more about it on http://www.w3.org
School web sites fail accessibility test
Only 14 percent of nation's top universities reportedly meet W3C accessibility guidelines
By Justin Appel, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
A maker of internet content management solutions says it has tested the web sites of the top 124 universities in the nation for how accessible they are to users with disabilities, and the results aren't good: According to the company, only 17 of the 124 schools' sites comply with the World Wide Web Consortium's standards for accessibility.
Read more about it on E Schools News Online
W3C aims to boost web accessibility
Making AJAX and DHTML more user friendly
Robert Jaques, vnunet.com 27 Sep 2006
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has introduced a suite of documents designed to make it easier for website developers to engineer accessible content using technologies including Ajax and Dynamic HTML.
Read more about it on Vnu.net
Colleges struggle to support web accessibility
Money and lack of initiative are two of the that prevent many colleges from making their websites accessible to people with disabilities, reports Hannon Hill, a maker of web content-management solutions. The study found that only 17 of the 124 American universities are in compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C's) accessibility standards. The W3C standards are regarded as the industry standard for web accessibility for people with disabilities.
Read more about it on Zdnet Education
