[Web4lib] Web technologies and public access

[Melora Norman]

Hi there.  Before I replied, I had to read the whole thread, including
anything of course by Karen, whom I also worship ;-).  My apologies to
those for whom the following is way too basic.

Here are a small number of simple things you can try so as to begin to
start understanding some access issues for visually impaired users:

1. Go to accessibility options and set your display to use high
contrast.  You will see that anybody needing to use this will prefer
black text on a white background, because high contrast turns the black
into white and the white into black.  A color on a color can be
virtually (or even completely) illegible in this mode.

2. Run your cursor over every item on your page.  Can you copy and paste
all text?  Does every image have alt text (when you run your cursor over
it, text pops up on the screen)?  If not, there are parts of your web
page that will remain nothing but nameless *image* to your blind users.

3. Check this out:
http://www.webaim.org/simulations/screenreader-sim.htm It actually does
a pretty good job of giving a taste of what it's like to use a screen
reader.  If you're really inquisitive, go and download the demo of JAWS
or WINDOWEYES and try reading your page with those.

Beyond that, I'd suggest you use something other than FrontPage, which
even Microsoft has abandoned.  Dreamweaver is my preferred for-$
product; NVU is a really great, really simple open-source editor that
works for basic things.  http://nvudev.com/index.php

Cheers,

Melora Ranney Norman

Melora Ranney Norman
Director, Quimby Library
Unity College, 90 Quaker Hill Rd.
Unity, ME 04988
207.948.3131 x233
mnorman at unity.edu
www.unity.edu



-----Original Message-----
From: Vaughn-Tucker, Dani A. [mailto:dvaughntucker at osterhout.lib.pa.us] 
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 12:35 PM
To: Melora Norman; web4lib
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Web technologies and public access

Melora,

I'm interested in your topic.  I just redid our website and I'm sure
that it is probably not in compliance with ADA.  But I'm just really
learning the basics of webpage development (and I'm using FrontPage).
Do you or anyone else have any recommendations?  By the way, I tried to
stick to our colors which are blue, yellow and white.  Our url is
http://www.luzerneco.lib.pa.us/.


Regards,
 
Dani 
 
"Success is nothing without someone you love to share it with..." Billy
Dee Williams in Mahogany
 
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Melora Norman
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2008 12:20 PM
To: web4lib
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Web technologies and public access

The recent experiences I had working with blind people challenged my
perspective on these issues.

Many of the blind people I spoke with had given up on physical libraries
altogether; there was very little in most *typical* libraries for most
blind people.  Now that we are designing online experiences that
parallel or supplement our physical libraries, we have a unique
opportunity to offer information that is also accessible to blind
people--and, one step further, even to offer content that is very usable
for blind people.

For one thing, a few years ago, there were best-practice recommendations
for web design that included the creation of parallel web pages; some
software even supported this practice.  Since then, common wisdom
asserts that CSS and other improvements have made the parallel page
obsolete and unnecessarily redundant.  I question that this is always
entirely true because I believe that usable design for someone who is
very oriented to the use of graphics and usable design for someone who
is using a screen reader may very well be two different things.

Something else many blind computer users mentioned was that
accessibility for someone who has the latest and greatest software is
very different than for someone whose hardware and software are more
basic.  The latter's ability probably more closely resembles that of
someone using a PDA or phone, where a complicated structure--no matter
how closely it conforms with Section 508--may well create a barrier to
use.

Salud,

Melora

Melora Ranney Norman
Director, Quimby Library
Unity College, 90 Quaker Hill Rd.
Unity, ME 04988
207.948.3131 x233
mnorman at unity.edu
www.unity.edu



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