This week on UX will be particularly focused on Accessibility.
HTML5 and Accessibility
The newest version of HTML5 is being praised all over the Web. With new features like Canvas and offline cache, it sure provides a solid foundation to create HTML-based applications, running on the Web browser, available on the Web.This post discusses the fact that HTML5 is not a panacea for accessibility (nor it should be). Sandi correctly states that, without WCAG and other inclusive design practices, the accessibility experience of a Web site is definitely not guaranteed.
Working Group Decision on ISSUE-30 (longdesc)
Which brings us to the biggest discussion this week on accessibility blogs, mailing lists, twitter, and other forums. longdesc.For those who might not know about this, longdesc is an HTML attribute for the img element, that aims at providing a thorough description of images. While the alt attribute serves as a quick description/caption of the image, longdesc is critical for situations where an image has a lot of information, such as graphs or paintings.
So, without further ado, longdesc has been removed from the current HTML5 draft. A lot of ink has already flowed around the Web. I'm against this action by the HTML5 Working Group, despite the fact that it is a rarely used attribute, severely used in wrong ways when actually used. aria-describedby is not a solution for many cases where longdesc fits purpose.
A really interesting follow up on this question can be read at a properly entitled blog post How do we save longdesc?. The comments provide a lot of insights and opinions on this issue, as well as several links to more information about it. Please do read it.
Web accessibility for cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties
The oft perceived bastard child of accessibility, due to its immense spectrum of related disabilities and lack of knowledge on how to cope with them. Cognitive disabilities are also, probably, the most difficult to be taken into account on design phases, usability testing, etc.This blog post at Dev.Opera defines a small, useful set of recommendations on how to make content accessible for people with cognitive disabilities: consistency, structure, focus, readability, transformability, and content. Really interesting read.
bonus point: following these recommendations, your Web site will definitely have a better usability to everyone and, ultimately, provide a better experience for all users.
For completeness, read a 4-years old formal objection to WCAG 2.0 claims on the inclusion of requirements, guidelines, and criteria for making Web content accessible to people with cognitive disabilities.
that's it for now. next week I'll definitely have more to share! meanwhile, if you haven't read previous posts, or would like to re-read them here are the links for all chapters: IV III II I
(this is part of an experiment on posting some links I found around the Web centred on UX topics. most of them come from my shared feed of UX blogs. thanks for reading this post!)
