Web Standards Group London – Accessiblity

Since I know there is going to be a podcast I’m just going to highlight a couple of points from the London Web Standards Group Meeting I thought were interesting to me.

I’m glad Niqui talked about FlashAid. Aral and Jeremy did a fabulous job. I posted some comments on how I would like to see Flash Aid used already, but I look forward to seeing what the community thinks.

Mike Davies talked about an example where an application he consulted on had one double quote that stopped the application from working on Firefox. This is a great example of why web standards are important. With it’s growing market share something as simple as missing double quote mark probably cost a significant amount of money.

The other point I took away from Mike was that imagination is one of the greatest tools in the accessibility toolbox. As soon as you start empathising with people with disabilities you start to be able to make sensible guesses at what they would find hard on your site. If you can’t navigate your site with the keyboard, chances are other people can’t either. Mike has really hit the nail on the head with this one.

However Ann McMeekin also made an excellent point which counterbalances the previous one. Assumptions about the way people with disabilities need a site to be can also lead to some real howlers. There are communities of experts out there to help you. If you think there is a problem but aren’t sure, find someone who really knows. The RNIB have some great resources for such things, as do a number of other sites. You can even email me at tom_croucher@yahoo.com if you like.

All in all a great session. Well done Niqui, Ann and Mike! And well done Big Stu for organising another great session.

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Web Development, Accessibility, londonevents