I ran into this on Bionic Teaching and thought it was worth making note of. There are lots of resources out there for web accessibility, and it’s something I talk to people about from time to time. I’m grateful for the course W3C put together and the course I took at UAlberta. I make use of that work everyday and it’s better than the vague platitudes I see in some language/places.
Heydon/principles-of-web-accessibility: How to approach accessible web interface design
A set of high-level guiding principles for approaching web accessibility.
Read the whole thing, but some pull quotes of interest include:
Anyone who claims their offering is completely accessible is a liar, or they don’t understand accessibility, or both.
You may not feel confident you are always the best person available to work on accessibility. But you are available.
Interfaces should not be challenging to some and not to others, but some interfaces are necessarily complex and some content is inherently esoteric…If an image serves as a joke, the alternative text should not give the joke away or explain why it is funny. It should tell the same joke by alternative means.
…form must follow function and the function must be accessible.
A poorly structured interface can technically pass WCAG. A well-structured and intuitive interface can have multiple discrete WCAG errors.
Good writing cannot be automated.
People cannot—and should not—be quantified, but inputs and outputs can and are.
The mantra less is more is incorrect. Less is just less and that’s a good thing…Turning headings, paragraphs, and lists into an accessible tab interface is not an enhancement. It’s a degradation with bragging rights.
You will have opportunities to work on products that … just make the world worse. … Don’t martyr yourself trying to redeem the irredeemable.
via Bionic Teaching
I’m aware of the colour contrast issues on the blogwall and am working to retheme the WP theme I’m using.