No session on accessibility, though.

No session directly about accessibility, anyway. Which is weird, given the dedication to accessibility usually witnessed amongst standards-committed website-makers. Or maybe not. AEA is, after all, based on the premise that standards = good, and for many, standards = accessibility. Look at thenetawards.com description of their category ‘standards champion’ – ‘This gong will be awarded to a site, individual or organisation promoting accessible design in 2009’. It’s true, standards and accessibility do go hand-in-hand, clutching each other tightly, but they’re not the same. Adherence to standards doesn’t guarantee accessibility.

So perhaps the absence of a session devoted specifically to accessibility at AEA is compensated for by its spoken and unspoken presence in (almost all) sessions. This was notable in Dan Cederholm’s talk on ‘Progressive Enrichment with CSS3’. Cederholm demonstrated some unbelievably amazing things that can be achieved with ever-so simple CSS3 in some browsers – transitions, re-sizing, movement and more. But he preceded his talk by saying, more or less, ‘none of this matters – and that’s why it’s OK to do it’. In other words, the fact that these effects can only be viewed in certain browsers, or not at all if CSS is disabled, doesn’t get in the way of what really matters – the content. Make content usable and accessible, and then add bells and whistles. In fact, from an intellectual disability perspective, the bells and whistles might make content more accessible.

Eric Meyer couldn’t avoid the accessibility question in his talk ‘JavaScript will save us all’. What if you haven’t got JavaScript? But again, he was talking about using it for progressive enhancement, not for core content. And again, what he was talking about might make content more, not less, accessible for people with intellectual disabilities.

What was really interesting in Eric’s talk was the call – in something of an aside – for a Web Accessibility Project, along the lines of the Web Standards Project. It makes sense. Many web designers complain that the WCAG guidance is complex to understand and implement (see this blog and our ‘core findings’ page). So evangelical translators are needed. Individuals are already doing this, but banding together under the label of the Web Accessibility Project might add impact.

So accessibility was there at AEA, albeit discretely. But accessibility for people with intellectual disabilities was, as ever, absent.

There are also lots of technologies which can help people with disabilities use the web. There is information about some of them in this section, especially those which are made for people with intellectual disabilities.

You can find out about how to make websites that work for everyone, including people with disabilities, at the websites listed below.

Web Accessibility Initiative

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative works with a number of organisations and through public contribution to develop guidelines and resources aiming to make the Web accessible to most disabled people. The current reference guidelines remain 1999’s WCAG 1.0, however work is drawing towards completion on a revised set of guidelines (WCAG 2.0) which are currently available in working draft form. In addition to content guidelines for Web developers, WAI also produces guidance for the developers of user agents, authoring tools and in relation to the development and implementation of rich media and dynamic Internet applications.

Web AIM

WebAIM provide Web accessibility guidance, training, and tools. Their site contains a considerable collection of excellent free tools and guidance. The site is also an excellent source of up to the minute information and external accessibility links.

Adobe Accessibility Resource Centre

This section of the Adobe site details techniques which enable the creation of accessible PDF documents and sets out a framework to approach accessible design using Adobe Flash.

RNIB Web Access Centre

The RNIB’s Web Access Centre website provides considerable Web accessibility guidance with particular, though far from exclusive, focus on the needs of the visually impaired audience.

Juicy Studio

Juicy Studio is the UK website of accessibility consultant, Gez Lemon. The blog style site provides a great deal of independent Web accessibility guidance, debate and reference materials.

Mencap – Accessibility Guidelines

Mencap are the largest UK charity concerned with the needs of people with intellectual disabilities (they use the term learning disabilities). Mencap produce guidelines in PDF format entitled “Making your website accessible for people with a learning disability” which can be found in the resources relating to learning disablility section.

Jim Thatcher

Jim Thatcher is an accessibility consultant, developer and author with a long history in accessibility, having developed one of the first screen reader applications for IBM way back in the mid 1980s. His site provides excellent reference materials, example techniques and summaries of accessibility guidance.

UIAccess

UIAccess is the homepage of Shawn Lawton Henry (Outreach Coordinator of the WAI) the focus of the main site is user interface design and usability. Thanks to industry sponsorship, the site also hosts an online copy of Shawn’s latest book Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design.

Accessify

Accessify is a UK site dedicated to Web accessibility which offers free tools, accessibility guidance and a regularly updated news blog.

456 Berea St

456 Berea St is the busy and vibrant blog of Swedish Web developer, Roger Johansson. The blog is an excellent and well maintained source covering web standards, accessibility and more…