So we all know that the Netherlands is the best place to bring up your kids already, but I fell over this today while reading through the GAWDS mailing list. It's a link to an article entitled
"New Dutch accessibility law" which announces a fairly detailed and comprehensive law ensuring that any new Dutch government sites are accessible and any older ones made accessible by 2011.
I get so frustrated/ jealous when I think about the DTI debacle and how we just can't get our act together in the UK. Web managers are largely left to their own devices here and many find it's too much of an effort to consider the needs of their disabled constituents.
I'm going to stop ranting there for the time being. I don't want to distract from the fact that the Dutch have done something pretty amazing if you compare this to the policies of UK and other developed nations. They made a decision to make something better. Such ground breaking ideas seem to rarely enter the minds of British politicians who seem to be struggling to keep the status quo.
Monday, 19 February 2007
Tuesday, 30 January 2007
The importance of link highlighting
I had assumed that most people were aware of the importance of clear link highlighting until I read a post on accessify demonstrating how to turn off the "dotted line bug" in firefox. I figured it was probably worth writing about.
Mobility impaired keyboard users rely heavily on highlighted links. A keyboard user will typically tab through link items and hit "enter" to activate the link. For this to work, the keyboard user needs to know where the current focus is, otherwise they have little hope of knowing where the next tab will take them. Site design can make this problem much worse if the links are on a background that make the dotted line difficult to detect. Mark Pilgrim is considering developing a more prominent focus indicator for Firefox, which would be a huge help if they can get the colour right.
The default link highlighting for the BBC website works fairly well (extra points for adding access key help in the tab sequence), but other websites such as CNN have a design that can be really tricky to navigate if you're using the tab key, particularly if your sight is less than perfect.
If you're going to use this type of menu system then make sure that the hidden links are visible on focus so it's keyboard-user friendly.
Mike Cherim sent a link to an article he wrote a little while back detailing the technique used to achieve the highlighting effect: Let's Focus on Focus. It should be a fairly simple mod to make the script bring offset links back on screen. Cheers Mike!
Mobility impaired keyboard users rely heavily on highlighted links. A keyboard user will typically tab through link items and hit "enter" to activate the link. For this to work, the keyboard user needs to know where the current focus is, otherwise they have little hope of knowing where the next tab will take them. Site design can make this problem much worse if the links are on a background that make the dotted line difficult to detect. Mark Pilgrim is considering developing a more prominent focus indicator for Firefox, which would be a huge help if they can get the colour right.
The default link highlighting for the BBC website works fairly well (extra points for adding access key help in the tab sequence), but other websites such as CNN have a design that can be really tricky to navigate if you're using the tab key, particularly if your sight is less than perfect.
Additional help
Stephen from Shaw Trust is a keyboard-only web user and he sometimes needs a little extra help to see links, particularly if the background to the link is a colour(particularly mid-grey) that makes the dotted line harder to see. Stephen has Cerebral Palsy which means that he finds it hard to focus on small areas of the screen. Highlighting a link (ala Salford University) makes the focus more prominent, and Stephen can get around the site much more easily. Mobility impairment combined with less-than-perfect vision is fairly common and will become more so as the average computer user gets older.
Invisible links
While offset links are a pretty good idea in lots of circumstances, don't forget that keyboard-only users don't have the benefit of having a screen reader. Therefore offset links such as "skip to content" need to be made visible so that sighted keyboard users also have the option of using them. BBC again does a good job of bringing offset links back on screen for this reason, and you can see another example of this technique used at the Salford University website.
Hidden menu items
Beware of using menu systems that provide drop down options when you mouse-over the top level menu item. Keyboard-only users can often still tab through the lower link options even though the focus disappears, so even though they'll be able to get at the lower level menu items, they won't know what they are because they can't see what they have just tabbed to. Tesco have made a song and dance about accessiblity in the past, but they manage to get this all wrong; the vast majority of the tabs are "empty" with no visual feedback at all. This makes me wonder about how serious they really are about user testing. I suspect the developers were stoked because they did it without JavaScript, but it's not good enough.If you're going to use this type of menu system then make sure that the hidden links are visible on focus so it's keyboard-user friendly.
Summary
This all really boils down to two things:- Make sure that all links are visible when they receive focus
- Create links that highlight when they recieve focus
Simple really, but not as well used as it ought to be.
Update!
Mike Cherim sent a link to an article he wrote a little while back detailing the technique used to achieve the highlighting effect: Let's Focus on Focus. It should be a fairly simple mod to make the script bring offset links back on screen. Cheers Mike!
Tuesday, 9 January 2007
Accessible e-Learning? You BETT!
I'm lucky enough that I have a job that gets me out of the office for 1-2 days a week doing something or other. Normally it's providing training or consultancy to the growing number of organisations that "get" accessibility and want to do something about it. It's a nice break from routine and this week I'm going to be at the BETT show in Olympia, London to represent(CDSMs) suite of accessible e-Learning products.
Accessibility is extremely important to the education sector in the UK. Fortunately, we have a quite a tight Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) designed to protect the rights of disabled learners, but despite this, educational software vendors still aren't investing in developing truly accessible solutions for learners. That makes it difficult for Schools to procure material that actually allows them to comply with Government requirements and with accessibility being such a buzzword, confusion rains on the poor procurement officer.
As part of the "Building Schools for the Future" (BSF) initiative, the government are expecting Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to invest in technology and the built environment to encourage effective learning. Schools and colleges will be expected to demonstrate how they have implemented their solutions and improved the state of affairs in their own establishment.
Over the past 2 years, CDSM, has invested in developing a truly accessible, SCORM compliant e-Learning package using Flash technology which can be delivered via a learning platform. CDSM's learning platform is called "My Learning Space" and it allows teachers to easily author their content, have it peer reviewed, improve it, upload it, and share it with others. The solution is being developed in Partnership with Dr. Kevin Palmer, Director of Salford City Learning Centres. Several components of the solution are already complete and work as stand-alone applications. This includes "Pedagogue" the accessible Multimedia e-Learning content development platform. The ability to create repositories of learning material which are quality graded by other teachers is one of the key features of the product. It will help teachers find the best resources to help them deliver quality lesson plans.
To ensure that we stay on the right track, all these developments need regular peer review by teachers and educators to shape the solution into something that meets their requirements precisely. CDSM/Salford CLC want to broaden the scope of the project to include other learning professionals. Middlesex University, London's largest University has recently started to participate in steering the "My Learning Space" initiative after becoming disillusioned with their existing VLE. At BETT, I hope to be talking to other enthusiastic educationalists who will also want to shape the future of e-Learning in the UK.
So anyway, from Mid-day Thursday and most of Friday, I'll be at BETT on stand S86. It's always good to put faces to names so if you happen to be at the show, call in and see me.
Accessibility is extremely important to the education sector in the UK. Fortunately, we have a quite a tight Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) designed to protect the rights of disabled learners, but despite this, educational software vendors still aren't investing in developing truly accessible solutions for learners. That makes it difficult for Schools to procure material that actually allows them to comply with Government requirements and with accessibility being such a buzzword, confusion rains on the poor procurement officer.
As part of the "Building Schools for the Future" (BSF) initiative, the government are expecting Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to invest in technology and the built environment to encourage effective learning. Schools and colleges will be expected to demonstrate how they have implemented their solutions and improved the state of affairs in their own establishment.
Over the past 2 years, CDSM, has invested in developing a truly accessible, SCORM compliant e-Learning package using Flash technology which can be delivered via a learning platform. CDSM's learning platform is called "My Learning Space" and it allows teachers to easily author their content, have it peer reviewed, improve it, upload it, and share it with others. The solution is being developed in Partnership with Dr. Kevin Palmer, Director of Salford City Learning Centres. Several components of the solution are already complete and work as stand-alone applications. This includes "Pedagogue" the accessible Multimedia e-Learning content development platform. The ability to create repositories of learning material which are quality graded by other teachers is one of the key features of the product. It will help teachers find the best resources to help them deliver quality lesson plans.
To ensure that we stay on the right track, all these developments need regular peer review by teachers and educators to shape the solution into something that meets their requirements precisely. CDSM/Salford CLC want to broaden the scope of the project to include other learning professionals. Middlesex University, London's largest University has recently started to participate in steering the "My Learning Space" initiative after becoming disillusioned with their existing VLE. At BETT, I hope to be talking to other enthusiastic educationalists who will also want to shape the future of e-Learning in the UK.
So anyway, from Mid-day Thursday and most of Friday, I'll be at BETT on stand S86. It's always good to put faces to names so if you happen to be at the show, call in and see me.
Happy Birthday Hannah!
My darling daughter Hannah turned 3 today. We woke up to another morning of unwrapping presents and saying "Yay! a lot. Her favorite gift is an easel with a blackboard one side and a huge roll of paper on the other.
Being 3, she also gets to start school today. It still strikes me as a little bit mad that we send our kids to school at such a young age. If we lived in Sweden, we would be waiting at least another 3 years before Hannah would be in school. That said, school at Hannah's age is more like a playgroup and I'm sure she'll enjoy every second of it.
Being 3, she also gets to start school today. It still strikes me as a little bit mad that we send our kids to school at such a young age. If we lived in Sweden, we would be waiting at least another 3 years before Hannah would be in school. That said, school at Hannah's age is more like a playgroup and I'm sure she'll enjoy every second of it.
Monday, 18 December 2006
I've been meme-sniped
Dan Champion has just tagged me for a meme. I wasn't going to write anything today so here's a quick one.
5 Things you did not know about Grant Broome:
- I didn't start University until I was 25. By then I was married, had a mortgage, a 2 year old and another on the way. Our generous government gave us a £4,500 to live on. Cheers. I got a first class honours and my mum was very proud.
- Years ago I nearly drowned while swimming off a Majorcan beach. I got caught in a current with my (then) girlfriend and we couldn't get back to shore. The people on the beach made a human chain and got us out of the water. As we sat on the sand, a body washed up on the beach 50 yards from where we were. It was as if the reaper had met his quota and had spared us.
- Before Uni, I owned a bike shop called Magnox Cycles in a little place called Glynneath in South Wales. It was a partnership with my very good friend Mike Peck. It was a small business and it didn't pay very well, but I have very fond memories of my time working there. The shop was 13 miles from my house and I rode to work nearly every day.
- I am born on the same day as my brother, but we are not twins.
- In another life I would be a carpenter. I've just finished building a dining table especially for Christmas. It's designed to seat 10 people and it's partially made from reclaimed pine. It's the first piece of furniture I have ever made and it's not too bad. I enjoyed the experience so much I'll probably make something else.
I was a meme virgin before today. Many thanks to Dan champion for popping my cherry.
I'm now going to tag the Pedleys: Mel and Rich, as well as Jon Gibbins , PixelDiva and Mike Davies.
Friday, 15 December 2006
GIS accessibility
By it's their nature, GIS (Geographical Information Systems) are normally inaccessible to those who can't see them, but many GIS systems are worse than that, and won't even allow keyboard-only or voice activated access, so problems can arise for those within a fairly broad spectrum of disabilities.
I've been collecting data for a while, and some time in the new year I'm going to try and compile my findings into something that the community may find useful.
At this stage I would like to give a hat tip to Mike Saunt from Astun Technology who has been exceptionally helpful. Mike has been working on presenting information in alternative ways to enhance usability and accessibilty of GIS systems. Mike's view is that GIS does not necessarily equate to inaccessible content There are plenty of options available to GIS developers to provide content that everyone can use.
Mike sent an example of his recent work with South Tyneside where information is displayed not only within a map, but also within a table (try typing NE33 2RL into the postcode search for an example).
Now at CDSM (where I work) we do a lot of web testing work which includes many web accessiblity audits with our partners the Shaw Trust. Consequently I get to look at a lot of GIS systems and would endorse this approach as the most accessible I've seen to date. I'd encourage those looking for a GIS solution (or Online Mapping as Mike prefers to call it) to talk to Astun Technologies to see what they can offer. It's very heartening to see companies like this leading the way to ensuring that GIS isn't just for sighted visitors.
I've been collecting data for a while, and some time in the new year I'm going to try and compile my findings into something that the community may find useful.
At this stage I would like to give a hat tip to Mike Saunt from Astun Technology who has been exceptionally helpful. Mike has been working on presenting information in alternative ways to enhance usability and accessibilty of GIS systems. Mike's view is that GIS does not necessarily equate to inaccessible content There are plenty of options available to GIS developers to provide content that everyone can use.
Mike sent an example of his recent work with South Tyneside where information is displayed not only within a map, but also within a table (try typing NE33 2RL into the postcode search for an example).
Now at CDSM (where I work) we do a lot of web testing work which includes many web accessiblity audits with our partners the Shaw Trust. Consequently I get to look at a lot of GIS systems and would endorse this approach as the most accessible I've seen to date. I'd encourage those looking for a GIS solution (or Online Mapping as Mike prefers to call it) to talk to Astun Technologies to see what they can offer. It's very heartening to see companies like this leading the way to ensuring that GIS isn't just for sighted visitors.
Monday, 11 December 2006
Amateur Gymnastics
Last week at the ripe old age of 34, I decided It was time to take up gymnastics. I quickly worked out that Olympic Gold was probably beyond me so I contented myself with learning some basic moves that I could show off to the family. The vision of an intricate series of tumbles and twists ending in a perfect backward somersault landing in the soft golden sand of Aberavon Beach to rapturous applause from all who had seen it was to much to resist so I enrolled in a class and got started.
Fortunately, despite being several stones heavier than while at school, the skills that I had learned there were not entirely forgotten so I confidently managed to run the length of the tumble run and execute some front somersaults (some with a 1/2 twist too!) and sink up to my waist in chunks of safe, soft foam at the end of the run. I was in my element. It would have taken many gallons of strong detergent and a wire brush to scrub the smile from my face as I continued to throw myself around the gym. I was only slightly conscious of the fact that I was 20 years older than nearly everyone else there who must have assumed I was having a mid-life crisis and left me to it while they practised their parkour in hope of a role in the next James Bond movie.
There was all the usual gymnastic apparatus there. I had a quick go on the rings and just hung there for 20 seconds swinging pointlessly without any idea of what to do next. This was followed by a similar experience on the high bar. My aspirations of performing a crucifix spoiled I strolled past the pommel horse - amazed at how gravity affects some more than others and back to the practice tumble run until my legs started complaining.
After 2 hours the fun was over and it was time to go home. The next day I was sore all over and my legs had stopped talking to me altogether. I was nursing whiplash as the result of a dare gone wrong, but it was all worth it and I'm fully looking forward to having another go soon.
I highly recommend those who have been green with envy while watching kids fling themselves yet again into the ball pool at "Jungle Jims" give this a go. I was surprised to find a gym of this type so close to where I live and maybe there's one near you. Go on, give it a try.
Fortunately, despite being several stones heavier than while at school, the skills that I had learned there were not entirely forgotten so I confidently managed to run the length of the tumble run and execute some front somersaults (some with a 1/2 twist too!) and sink up to my waist in chunks of safe, soft foam at the end of the run. I was in my element. It would have taken many gallons of strong detergent and a wire brush to scrub the smile from my face as I continued to throw myself around the gym. I was only slightly conscious of the fact that I was 20 years older than nearly everyone else there who must have assumed I was having a mid-life crisis and left me to it while they practised their parkour in hope of a role in the next James Bond movie.
There was all the usual gymnastic apparatus there. I had a quick go on the rings and just hung there for 20 seconds swinging pointlessly without any idea of what to do next. This was followed by a similar experience on the high bar. My aspirations of performing a crucifix spoiled I strolled past the pommel horse - amazed at how gravity affects some more than others and back to the practice tumble run until my legs started complaining.
After 2 hours the fun was over and it was time to go home. The next day I was sore all over and my legs had stopped talking to me altogether. I was nursing whiplash as the result of a dare gone wrong, but it was all worth it and I'm fully looking forward to having another go soon.
I highly recommend those who have been green with envy while watching kids fling themselves yet again into the ball pool at "Jungle Jims" give this a go. I was surprised to find a gym of this type so close to where I live and maybe there's one near you. Go on, give it a try.
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