CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation. Prior to CSS, nearly all of the presentational attributes of HTML documents were contained within the HTML markup; all font colors, background styles, element alignments, borders and sizes had to be explicitly described, …
Yesterday I was doing some cleaning of my computer’s files and came across the slide deck for Selling Accessibility (which you can see under Presentations). It also reminded me of two things littering my desk for a while which I “borrowed” from my room at the Marriott in San Diego during last year’s CSUN Conference: …
I’ve previously talked about Prioritization and even given presentations on the topic, which I quite enjoy. Prioritization is a topic which I enjoy thinking about because I like to think about ways to get the most benefit from accessibility efforts in the shortest possible time. For me, the end goal is always a more accessible …
I gave a presentation on this topic at this year’s CSUN Conference on Disabilities. Due to the popularity of that session, I figured I’d share the salient points in a blog post. The below information is mostly relevant for organizations who are in the market for an enterprise level accessibility testing tool along the lines …
In this 33 second video, I demonstrate the differences between a native UI element vs. a custom UI widget. In the video, I access a SELECT element containing country options. At the 16 second mark, I switch to a customized UI widget which allows the user to select from the same country options. While I …
Talking with clients & potential clients is always tricky. The last thing I want to do is offend someone, but there are some things I wish I could say up front and with frankness. As the saying goes, sometimes the truth hurts, so in the interest of politeness these messages are often skipped or glossed …
With the upcoming eventual issuance of a Final Rule for Section 508 Refresh and deadlines for compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), as well as increasing rate of Web Accessibility-related lawsuits, I’ve become increasingly aware of people’s frequent misunderstanding of the purpose of what the term ‘Level’ represents in the Web …
On May 10, 2013, HiSoftware issued a press release: HiSoftware Gives the Cynthia Says Web Accessibility Testing Tool a Makeover . Eager to find out more about this new version, I eagerly went to the site to check it out. This is what I saw: Who puts a CAPTCHA on an Accessibility Testing Tool? CAPTCHA’s …
Quick: what is this? If the word “Button” comes to mind, you might be right. Unfortunately we’ve been seeing a lot of instances in our testing where an image or CSS styling is used to trigger an action of some kind. Here are some markup samples: 
Continue readingLinks are not buttons. Neither are DIVs and SPANs
Often when I talk to clients, I am asked the following question: “Can we track how many users with disabilities access our site?”. The question itself is always asked with good intentions. The client wants to be able to provide an improved experience for persons with disabilities. Here’s my answer to a recent similar query: …