Mission:

  • To spread the gospel of Progressive Enhancement, the notion that new technologies must "first do no harm" to the user experience of those without access to the new technology
  • To make web accessibility itself accessible to the masses, rather than remaining the sole domain of standardistas and specification wonks
  • To shine a spotlight on ATAG and UAAG, the forgotten siblings of WCAG – meaning that the means for making new websites and the browsers that parse the web should be as accessible as the websites themselves.

introductory web accessibility in the age of web 2.0

First, let me say that I am not a web accessibility expert by any means. Nothing will be presented here that is novel or unique. That's not my purpose with this site. But I do intend to provide something that I have found lacking in my Internet travels: a solid, comprehensive introduction, written in a style that the casual user of the Web can understand and use.

Central tenets of Web Accessibility

  • Progressive enhancement
  • Separation of content, structure, and style
  • Graceful degradation

Topics:

Authoring Programs: Content Management Systems, Wikis, and Blogging Tools

The internet used to be like book, with a large number of webpages. Now, complex, sprawling websites are commonplace. Content Management systems arose to help designers and website administrators keep track of the huge amount of data they transact via each website. Think of it like a house: each CMS has its own floor plan, but which furniture goes in the house is up to the owner of that particular house.

AJAX/AHAH/DHTML

What is this alphabet soup all about?

AJAX is an overused term. Technically it refers only to asynchronous JavaScript and XML. "AHAH" (pronounced like "a-ha!") is asynchronous HTTP and HTML. If you care what this mess of nested acronyms and abbreviations means, it's just interactive stuff that you can play with without having to go through another whole pageload. So you can fill out forms without hitting submit. That kind of thing.

Navigation

wheelchair icon

When people think of disability they usually picture the ADA logo --- an icon of a person using a wheelchair. This image is so iconic because a wheelchair user has a significantly different approach to and experience of navigation than does one who gets around primarily by walking. Ease of navigation for people using a wide variety of methods of transportation is the essence of accessibility in the physical world.

Meet the Users

So who benefits from accessible webdesign?

...and what does "accessible" mean to them?

Browsers

Somebody Else's Problem

Browsers are sort of the red-headed stepchild of Web accessibility. Most webdesigners are not browser designers (in fact we often wish curses upon browser designers) and tend to consider browser accessibility to be Somebody Else's Problem. Browser standards are governed by UAAG (pronounced "you-egg"), which are also often deemed to be Somebody Else's Problem.

What is Web 2.0 anyway?

What is "Web 2.0" and how is it different from the "normal" web?

More Resources:

  • Dive Into Accessibility - A book that is available online, that walks you through the basic hows and whys of Web accessibility in 30 lessons (meant to be done in 30 days). A great starting place and invaluable resource for anyone at any level of Web accessibility knowledge.
  • AJAX and progressive enhancement - A great tutorial elucidating the meaning of progressive enhancement as it applies to the most Web 2.0 of technologies: AJAX.

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