Tags: assistive

The blind programmers who created screen readers - The Verge

A fascinating account of the history of JAWS and NVDA.

Playing with Envision Glasses - Tink - Léonie Watson

The street finds its own uses for things, and it may be that the use for Google Glass is assistive technology. Here’s Léonie’s in-depth hands-on review of Envision Glasses, based on Google Glass.

The short wait whilst the image is processed is mitigated by the fact a double tap is all that’s needed to request another scene description, and being able to do it just by looking at what I’m interested in and tapping a couple of times on my glasses is nothing short of happiness in a pair of spectacles.

What’s in a name? | Sarah Higley

This is a terrific explanation of the concept of accessible names in HTML, written with verve and style!

Contrary to what you may think, naming an element involves neither a birth certificate nor the HTML name attribute. The name attribute is never directly exposed to the user, and is used only when submitting forms. Birth certificates have thus far been ignored by spec authors as a potential method for naming controls, but perhaps when web UI becomes sentient and self-propagating, we’ll need to revisit that.

Could browsers fix more accessibility problems automatically?

Some really interesting ideas here from Hidde on how browsers could provide optional settings for users to override developers when it comes to accessibility issues like colour contrast, focus styles, and autoplaying videos.

Truths about digital accessibility | Eric Bailey

Tough, but fair.

Naming things to improve accessibility

Some good advice from Hidde, based on his recent talk Six ways to make your site more accessible.

Artificial Intelligence for more human interfaces | Christian Heilmann

An even-handed assessment of the benefits and dangers of machine learning.

Know your ARIA: ‘Hidden’ vs ‘None’ | scottohara.me

When to use aria-hidden="true", and when you might need display: none:

aria-hidden by itself is not enough to completely hide an element from all users, if that is the end goal.

When to use role="presentation" (or role="none"):

Where aria-hidden can be used to completely hide content from assistive technology, modifying an element’s role to “none” or “presentation” removes the semantics of the element, but does not hide the content from assistive technologies.

Useful accessibility resources

A whoooole bunch of links about inclusive design, gathered together from a presentation.

Spaced Out & Smiling Presentations

Jamie has put his talks online, complete with transcripts:

• Autism, Apple Watch & Independent Living,
• Autism & Technology, and
• Cognitive Accessibility 103.

Apple has given my son a hand! – the surprised pessimist

One of the accessibility features built into OS X:

Using Switch Control, and tapping a small switch with his head, my son tweets, texts, types emails, makes FaceTime calls, operates the TV, studies at university online, runs a video-editing business using Final Cut Pro on his Mac, plays games, listens to music, turns on lights and air-conditioners in the house and even pilots a drone!

Results of the 2016 GOV.UK assistive technology survey | Accessibility

The Government Digital Service have published the results of their assistive technology survey, which makes a nice companion piece to Heydon’s survey. It’s worth noting that the most common assistive technology isn’t screen readers; it’s screen magnifiers. See also this Guardian article on the prevalence of partial blindness:

Of all those registered blind or partially sighted, 93% retain some useful vision – often enough to read a book or watch a film. But this can lead to misunderstanding and confusion

When is the right time for accessibility? » box of chocolates

Prompted by the Bespin fuss, Derek shares his thoughts on *when* accessibility should be integrated into products.

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Click | Stevie Wonder interview

Stevie Wonder talks about assistive technology. I think this finally proves that yes, accessibility *is* sexy!

ScreenReader.net: freeware freedom for blind and Visually impaired people

A free screen reader. If this turns out to be any good, it could be a game-changer: a long overdue kick in the behind for Freedom Scientific.

AssistiveWare - Videos on computer accessibility

It's easy for us to take technology for granted. This video shows how transformative technology can be. I am humbled.

box of chocolates » Innovations in Accessibility

Derek points to a new piece of assistive technology and wonders where the next innovation will come from.