Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them, by Chiara Fox: “Sitemaps and site indexes are forms of supplemental navigation. They give users a way to navigate a site without having to use the global navigation. By providing a way to visualize and understand the layout and structure of the… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Web Site Accessibility and Usability
Communicating With White House Via E-Mail Now a Daunting Task
White House E-Mail System Becomes Less User-Friendly: “Those who want to send a message to the president must now navigate as many as nine Web pages and fill out a form that asks if they support White House policy.” A New York Times follow-up article: “The White House Web site began more prominently featuring the… Continue Reading
Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act (July 26)
From the U.S. Census Bureau, Facts & Features: On July 26, 1990, President George Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act, guaranteeing equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public accommodations, commercial facilities, employment, transportation, state and local government services and telecommunications. 49.7 million: Number of people age 5 and over in the… Continue Reading
Website Usability Testing Using WebEx
Remote Online Usability Testing: Why, How, and When to Use It. From the article: “…in-person usability testing isnt always feasible. Projects take longer than expected, budgets get tightened, and target users can be hard to come by. So whats a usability crusader to do when in-person usability testing is impossible? One option is to conduct… Continue Reading
Study of Availability and Type of Search Engine Personalization Features
Search engine personalization: An exploratory study. From the abstract: “Findings show that: (1) eight (13 percent) of the 60 search engines, including Yahoo, AOL, Lycos, Excite and Netscape, enabled some level of personalization; and, (2) personalization features are largely related to e-mail, business and financial information, searching of a reference tool, such as yellow pages,… Continue Reading
Microsoft Speech Server
Microsoft has released into beta testing its speech server and said it will launch a partner program for solution providers building speech applications. Microsoft’s White Paper: Microsoft Speech Server, Enabling people to use speech as part of their everyday interactions with software and services whether they are using telephones, mobile devices, or PCs. Continue Reading
Quick Website Accessibility Tips
Tips and techniques for making your site accessible, by German website designer Alex Horstmann, offers 14 quick usability tips, along with associated html code as applicable. Continue Reading
IBM Works With Gov’t/Corporations On Web Accessibility
From InfoWorld: IBM’s Global Services division has created a team of 40 consultants and 100 IT professionals dedicated to developing and implementing services to make software and hardware accessible to people with disabilities. The services address areas such as tweaking Web sites so their content can be read aloud by voice software and so that… Continue Reading
USPTO and Accessibility Compliance
“The Department of Commerce’s United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is the first federal agency to fully comply with the provisions of Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, requiring that all federal agencies’ electronic information is accessible to people with disabilities and is comparable to the information and access provided… Continue Reading
Resource on State Accessibility Laws
Overview of State Accessibility Laws, Policies, Standards and Other Resources Available On-line, updated April 2003, “provides an overview of the states that have published on-line their laws, policies, standards or guidelines, and other resources related to accessibility of websites, application development, IT procurement, and public hardware (i.e., the core areas).” The sponsor is the Information… Continue Reading
Barriers Still Impediment to Web Access for Disabled
See these two articles, one free and the other from the New York Times ($$), that discuss how a user community “unintentionally left out of the so-called digital revolution has been the severely disabled.” Continue Reading
Web Site Accessibility and Digital Rights
Joe Clark, author of Building Accessible Websites, published a white paper on Accessibility implications of digital rights management in which concludes, “Digital rights management, as currently designed, will harm people with disabilities and others who rely on accessibility features.” See also Fiddling with the Internet Dials: Understanding Usability. Continue Reading
