Note: This site is not actively maintained.
I still work in accessibility, just no longer on this website.
I may rekindle it at some point, but for now…
I started testing a number of screen readers with different ARIA tree views. It turns out there’s a bit going on with screen readers and tree views, so the research got a little lengthy. It also turns out that there’s significant variability across screen readers in how they handle different ARIA tree views. I found no single way to build… Continue reading (Not so) Simple ARIA Tree Views and Screen Readers
details/summaryThe HTML5 details and summary elements can be used to create a disclosure widget for showing and hiding content, something that typically has been done with JavaScript. For example, this type of interaction has often been used for things like FAQs: a list of questions is provided, but the answers hidden; clicking on any one of the questions toggles the… Continue reading Screen Readers and details/summary
Last year, in HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers in March 2010, I took a look at how then current screen readers behaved with some of the HTML5 section elements and related WAI-ARIA document and landmark roles. Now that the major screen readers have all seen some significant updates, and both Firefox 4 and Internet Explorer 9 have officially been… Continue reading HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers in March 2011
The Problem I noticed some interesting behaviour with VoiceOver 3 when working with data tables whose first cell in the first, or header, row is an empty td element. In these cases, VoiceOver does not correctly associate data cells with their proper column th header cells. Instead, VoiceOver seems to shift the header cells one column to the left, such… Continue reading VoiceOver and Tables with an Empty First Header Cell
Sometimes, often as a result of a web page’s layout or design, a label element cannot be used to identify a form control. Certainly, one can always use a visually hidden label, which is my preferred approach: you never know how the design might change in the future, at which point, if you’ve already got the label in the markup,… Continue reading Title Attributes as Form Control Labels
The WAI-ARIA specification remains unfinished and its implementation incomplete. All the same, some of it, e.g., landmark roles, can be used right now to improve the accessibility of web content and applications without causing a detrimental effect in older browsers or assistive technologies. I’m a big fan of WAI-ARIA, and think it is already a very useful collection of techniques… Continue reading Accessible ARIA Tabs
That in-page links work and properly update the page’s input focus can be crucial for users that rely on keyboard navigation, especially if they do not also use a screen reader. Often discussed in the context of “skip links”, this has been something of an issue for years, the various reasons for and effects of which have been documented well… Continue reading In-Page Links and Input Focus [Again]
Note: Updated research and results for March 2011. There are some good, helpful examples and work out there already showing how some screen readers deal with various HTML5 constructs and ARIA roles. I know the specs are not finished yet and assistive technology vendors are always working on it, but I wanted to play around a bit and confirm for… Continue reading HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers in May 2010