Introduction The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, or VPAT, was created by the Information Technology Industry Council as a means for vendors to supply information to government agencies regarding the level of compliance with the Technical, Functional Performance, and Documentation & Support requirements of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. This documentation format can help procuring …
This past March, Jared Smith moderated a session at CSUN titled “Do We Need To Change the Web Accessibility Game Plan”. The discussion at and after the session was filled with interesting perspectives. The diversity of viewpoints demonstrates what a complex topic this really is. I’d like to take my stab at addressing this topic, …
As I sit here today, running through unit tests on the automated testing capabilities on AQUA (which later became Tenon), I’m left with the feeling that I owe it to anyone who uses such tools to tell them that nothing can replace the eyes of a skilled professional. The issue, in short, is that so …
During my career, I’ve performed scores of audits and expert reviews to look at the accessibility of web-based systems (websites, web-based applications, intranets, etc.). Of those, I can count on one hand the number of systems tested that were pre-production. In nearly all cases, the testing was performed on systems that were already released to …
During my 8+ years working in web usability and accessibility, I’ve frequently been party to or witnessed numerous conversations relating to the “business case” or “cost justification” of usability and accessibility efforts. In my opinion, the conversations usually don’t go well – particularly on the side of the usability/ accessibility advocate. Here’s how they usually …
Frequently on mailinglists, blog posts, and Twitter, I read about accessibility advocates decrying the sins of what they call “Checklist” accessibility. What the arguments attempt to assert is, essentially, that “Checklist” accessibility is not good enough, either because the checklists themselves are flawed or that the checklist takes the disabled user out of the equation …
As far back as August 2008, I’ve been aware of Ian Hickson’s fallacious arguments that elements and attributes of HTML4 should not be included in HTML5 merely because web authors misuse them. In the case of the longdesc attribute for img, similar arguments go back even farther. My feeling on such an approach has been …
In the 2nd week of March, 2011 I spoke at The 26th Annual International Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference, more affectionately known as “CSUN”. The topic of my presentation was Managing Web Accessibility Compliance in the Enterprise. My presentation discussed the following topics: Defining the problem Solving the Problem Gauging Organizational Maturity Managing Compliance …