The following are my panel notes from @media2006. As I am not the fastest typer I have paraphrased what was said. Should you notice any mistakes please do point them out in the comments for corrections.
Head of Accessibility Services AbilityNet
We are right across the board and don't focus on just one disability.
A revisit of the amazon page from @media 2005. I've been watching amazon over the year. Using HPR. Shows demo of the meaningless audio output from the tabs.
2 months ago they labelled the images so all of the images are labelled amazon.co.uk
2 days ago they are not labelled again and so the screen reader defaults to reading the target of the link. With labels it's so much easier to understand.
Looking at flash in a code audit. There are various checkpoints that refer to use of flash.
Voice recognition should work so that you say the link you want and the links will be accessed but in amazon you need to bring up all the links on the page by saying image you can then access them via numbers.
With flash you can't access links by voice recognition so you need to use a mouse grid. Which allows the user to narrow done the area of the screen to click.
In flash there is the ability to make text available to screenreaders but there are a lot of issues.
Darren uses a head operated mouse and an on-screen keyboard. (Video)
Darren: I use the computer a bit and I created a website for the rock band queen. Doing this made me consider what was needed to maked a website acessible to all people not just disabled. I read news and books on the internet the internet makes it easier. I use a headset mouse that tracks head movements. I also use an on screen keyboard that auto completes words and make them available.
I've gained a lot of independance using the internet.
Flash accessibility presentation by Bob Regan sr product manager (uses breeze). Has no alternative text. Buttons don't have tooltip and aren't intuitive as to what they can do. Pressing the change view button, has dynamic content and I can't see(hear?) the text. Contrast issues with the colours used on the application.
With web 2.0 there's lots of content changes without a refresh. Many of these issues won't be covered by the WCAG.
Video of window magnifier on the Disney site.
Maginified image in the top hald of the screen with the normal page in the bottom half. There are lots of inconsistent navigation with pop-ups etc. This make it hard for the magnifier user to access the site.
This site is totally in-accesssible to keyboard users and magnifier uses also people with cognitive disabilities will also have problems.
People think that no-script tags are all you need to do to show content when js is not available. But javascriptn will be running so unless you well signpost a route to an ajax-free version those people are going have trouble. The solution is to test as much as you can and get end users involved as they understand their tools.
Q: What browsers are best for people with accessibility needs?
A: Microsoft do the best job of exposing all of the information to utilise with a screenreader or other accessibility software. Access keys in firefox are very useful. Opera has some useful accessibility features.
Q: How many people use screen reader software?
A: 15-20% in the UK.
Q: Is it something to do with the technology or how it's implemented.
A: There are fundamental issues with flash. It will never be as accessible as an html page. You can't easily change colours or text-size. You can't impose you're own font style. Our line is to use a hybrid appproach where 95% of the content is html and the rest uses flash if it requires the features of flash like drag and drop.
Q: I come from a country that doesn't speak English. How easy is it to make it easy for screenreaders.
A: You can use a in-line lang which will cause JAws to switch.
Q: (inaudible)
A:
Q: We put a title attribute on a link to make it better for screenreader users.
A: Voice recog and screens readers only read the screen text not the title attribute. Though it's good for launchiing in a new window people that can see the title attrib will know they are going to another page, and screen reader users will be told the link is going to a new window.
South Chesire College to strive and acheive is the first thing you hear in JAWS. If you arrow down it reads false, false false.
In HPR you hear the internal frames to be read out. It tells you that the page has changed and to press a keystroke to refresh the page. All you get is lots of meaningless info and the javascript is changing the page making it impossible to read further in the page.
Q: Has ajax caused a downturn in accessibility?
A: Yes it's problematic. Test your content. You need to have a clearly signposted link to an ajax free, screenreader friendly version.
Learndirect website:
Issues with web 2.0 . Everyone knows that functionality should be device independant. Resizing the text does result in problems.
Don't rely on colour alone to convey information but also you should think about the colour of text on backgrounds.
Colour filtering video:
London tube map using a visicheck a colour blindness simulator. different colour blindness issues make the different lines hard to distnguish from each other.
Although it's a priorty 3 issue it's still good to look at this.
(Slide of alternative input devices, keyboards mice etc.)
Lastminute.com
...
Google separation of links using pipes.
Vatican site. Tab order is bizarre
RNLI. no checkpoint to highlight nav as you tab through the navigation. Needs a good highlight.
AbilityNet. Don't have a million skip to content links. Use CSS so it shows up when it has focus.
Lorraine: moderate learning disabilities. (video)
I work at mencap I do Excel spreadsheets and I do spreadsheets I use Google to find things. The colouring is nice. It's quite spaced out.
(looking at next clothing site)
It's not too bad it's quite big and clear.
(looking at the eastenders website trying to click on the video)
(Trying to view the video there's a disclaimer)
I don't understand the word disclainmer I don't like a lot of jargon.
Video of effects for peopl that have issues with Dyslexia. Shows varying visual representations of what a dyslixic person might see. Fully justified text could give problems.
Spatial literacy site:
They use fully justified text.
Speaker note will be available from Ability.net.
BrowseAloud and Readspeaker can add audio reading to your site.
Signcommunity has flash videos of people doing signing. Also you can have an avatar displaying sign language for your readers.