User Statistics – People with Disabilities

Posted by John in Archive, Research, Web Accessibility on May 13, 2012

Often, decisions and compromises must be made in projects large and small. Experienced decision makers surround themselves with factual data so that they can weigh the benefits and risks of any crucial decision. When it comes to online accessibility, it is important to remember that is not just about “disabled” users – it’s about all users – “disabled” is a label that many people do not want or feel applies to them.

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HTTP Error Codes (and what they mean)

Posted by John in Archive on March 12, 2012

Web servers will use the following Error Codes when something goes awry. Knowing what they mean enables you to fix the problem, or create custom error pages.

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Adding a New Category – Archive

Posted by John in Archive on March 12, 2012

I have added a new category to the ‘ol blog: Archive. None of it is new, and most of it will be archived material that was either previously posted at WATS.ca or has been kicking around my Hard Drive for a number of years.

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CSUN 2012 Recap

Posted by John in Personal, Web Accessibility on March 3, 2012

It is Saturday morning (afternoon by the time I finish), and I am sitting here thinking about the past 4 days: CSUN 2012. A significant part of me is still simply processing all of the energy and love that CSUN 2012 delivered to my mental In Box, and this blog post is an attempt to capture some of that, get it written down, and share it back. It is likely not comprehensive nor complete, but it’s a start. While I saw some amazing things in the realm of research and innovations, I’m going to focus mostly on softer, but larger thoughts today.

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HTML5 Accessibility: aria-hidden and role=”presentation”

Posted by John in HTML5, Web Accessibility on February 20, 2012

It’s a common design pattern, seen multiple times a day: a thumbnail image and Headline, both linked to the same URL. We’ve seen this pattern for so long now that most sighted users know, instinctively, that clicking on either the thumbnail or the Headline takes them to the same location. However the code developers use to achieve this is a bit of a mess, and for non-sighted users or keyboard-only users, the User Experience (UX) leaves a lot to be desired: duplicate links announced for each article, and excessive tabbing through the content. It would appear that either aria-hidden="true" or role="presentation" should be able to help out here.

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Guideline for Ensuring Accessibility Success

Posted by John in Web Accessibility on February 8, 2012

I originally wrote this a couple of years ago, and decided that I should now share it more widely. I have edited the original to better reflect a wider audience.

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Johnny Otis and Etta James – R.I.P.

Posted by John in My Music on January 21, 2012

It was a sad week for fans of old school R&B, as we lost 2 titans of the genre. The passing of Etta James on Friday (January 20, 2012) was duly noted in most of the main-stream media, but somewhat lost was the equally sad news of Johnny Otis’ passing 3 days earlier (January 17, 2011). What many may not realize is that it was Johnny Otis who discovered and promoted Etta James at the beginning of her career, and without Johnny we may never have had Etta.

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