WCAG ha cumplido 20 años

El 5 de mayo de 1999, W3C publicó Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. El W3C lo comunicó en su nota de prensa W3C Issues Web Content Accessibility Guidelines as a Recommendation:

The World Wide Web Consortium today announced the release of the "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" specification as a W3C Recommendation. As a W3C Recommendation, the specification is stable, contributes to the universality of the Web, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership who recommend it as the means for making Web sites accessible. W3C encourages information providers to raise their level of accessibility using this Recommendation.

Un paso fundamental para el desarrollo de WCAG fue la creación de la Web Accessibility Initiative el 22 de octubre de 1997, como podemos leer en World Wide Web Consortium Launches International Program Office for Web Accessibility Initiative:

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today announced the launch of the International Program Office (IPO) for the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to promote and achieve Web functionality for people with disabilities. "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web. "The IPO will ensure the Web can be accessed through different combinations of senses and physical capabilities just as other W3C activities ensure its operation across different hardware and software platforms, media, cultures and countries."

Más información sobre este aniversario en:

• HAPPY BIRTHDAY WCAG — NOW YOU ARE TWENTY! 
• HISTORY OF THE WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES (WCAG)

Dos cursos en línea sobre accesibilidad digital

Disability and Digital Media: Accessibility, Representation and Inclusion:

Module 1: Introducing digital disability
Module 2: Disability and social media
Module 3: Accessibility and the digital world
Module 4: The future of digital disability


Accessibility: Designing and Teaching Courses for All Learners (HE):

Week 1 - Why Accessibility Matters
Week 2 - Integrating Faculty and Staff Roles
Week 3 - A Blueprint for Equal Learning Opportunities
Week 4 - Taking Action to Provide Equal Learning Opportunities
Week 5 - Methods for Compliant Content Creation
Week 6 - Content Creation Tools and Assistive Technology

Accesibilidad web

Conferencia impartida en la Universidad Técnica de Ambato (Ecuador) el 20 de mayo de 2016:

¿Cuánto sabes sobre accesibilidad web?

Diez preguntas con las que puedes medir tu nivel de conocimiento sobre accesibilidad web: How much do you know about Web Accessibility?

La accesibilidad muy mal entendida

Hace unas semanas me encontré esto en Internet:

Desgraciadamente, cosas similares pasan muchas veces con la accesibilidad web, se implementan soluciones de forma incorrecta o luego se ponen barreras que impiden su aprovechamiento.

Accessibility Insights

Accessibility Insights es una nueva herramienta de evaluación de la accesibilidad web lanzada por Microsoft.

Está disponible en forma de extensión para Google Chrome.

Y el siguiente vídeo explica su uso:

Las mejores herramientas para verificar el contraste de color

En Best Color Contrast Checkers for Accessibility Testing se analizan las herramientas:

• Contrast Ratio by Lea Verou
• WCAG Color Contrast Analyzer
• WAVE Accessibility Evaluation Tool for Chrome
• Color Contrast for iOS by UserLight

Cómo reducir las animaciones en una página web

En Move Ya! Or maybe, don't, if the user prefers-reduced-motion! se explica una nueva media query que permite detectar cuándo un usuario no desea animaciones en una página web.

Libro gratuito "Web Accessibility for Developers"

Web Accessibility for Developers:

Web Accessibility for Developers is a technical book aimed primarily at programmers. Learn how to develop accessible interactivity on the Web and gain expertise using WAI-ARIA, a W3C specification that enables optimal use of assistive technologies, like screen readers, when navigating the Web.

Desastre de imágenes en Naukas

En el sitio web Naukas, el uso del texto alternativo con las imágenes es un verdadero desastre:

Tenemos los típicos botones (imágenes que son enlaces) de redes sociales:

que están hecho con iconos y sin un texto equivalente (no se puede poner un texto alternativo porque las imágenes no están en el HTML, están en el CSS):

Tenemos los típicos enlaces contiguos, uno con una imagen, otro con texto, que tienen el mismo texto y el mismo destino:

Y tenemos las típicas imágenes en enlaces sin texto alternativo:

Errores de accesibilidad en la web de El Corte Inglés

La web de El Corte Inglés tiene algunos errores de accesibilidad curiosos. Por ejemplo, un enlace que contiene una imagen con un texto alternativo y el mismo texto al lado.

O un enlace al que le han puesto el atributo alt:

El mercado de los servicios de evaluación de la accesibilidad web crecerá los próximos años

Según Accessibility Testing Service Market is slated to grow rapidly in the coming years:

Accessibility Testing is defined as a type of Software Testing performed to ensure that the application being tested is usable by people with disabilities like hearing, color blindness, old age and other disadvantaged groups.

Global Accessibility Testing Service Market documents a detailed study of different aspects of the Global Market. It shows the steady growth in market in spite of the fluctuations and changing market trends. The report is based on certain important parameters.

Some of key competitors or manufacturers included in the study are: , QA InfoTech, QualiTest, Planit, QualityLogic, Siteimprove, Invensis, Knowbility, Applause, QA Consultants, Intopia, Interactive Accessibility, Paciello Group, Happiest Minds, TestingXperts, Zoonou, Octaware, BarrierBreak, AccessibilityOz, Ten10, BugFinders, Magic EdTech, 360Logica, Sopra Steria, Deque Systems, Saffron Tech, Criterion 508

The rising technology in Accessibility Testing Service market is also depicted in this research report. Factors that are boosting the growth of the market, and giving a positive push to thrive in the global market is explained in detail. It includes a meticulous analysis of market trends, market shares and revenue growth patterns and the volume and value of the market. It is also based on a meticulously structured methodology. These methods help to analyze markets on the basis of thorough research and analysis.

Curso "Materiales digitales accesibles (3ed)"

Materiales digitales accesibles (3ed) es un curso perteneciente al Canal Fundación ONCE en UNED Abierta. Financiado por el Real Patronato sobre Discapacidad del Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social del Gobierno de España.

El calendario del curso es:

• Inicio del curso: 1 de abril de 2019
• Fin de la atención tutorial: 5 de mayo de 2019
• Cierre del curso: 8 de septiembre de 2019

El temario del curso es:

1. Materiales digitales
2. Accesibilidad de material multimedia (información sonora y visual)
3. Accesibilidad de textos digitales (textos e imágenes)
4. Mini-vídeos Docentes Modulares
5. Mini-libros Electrónicos Modulares

Y el vídeo de presentación del curso:

Los subtítulos no solo ayudan a las personas con discapacidad

Muy interesante todo lo que se explica en Why Gen Z Loves Closed Captioning:

Closed captioning is a relatively recent development in the history of broadcasting, and it was designed with the hearing impaired in mind. According to a useful history on the National Captioning Institute’s (NCI) website, the technology dates back to the early 1970s, when Julia Child’s The French Chef “made history as the first television program accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers.” Real-time captioning arrived later, with stenographers typing at a blazing 250 words-per-minute to keep up with live news and sporting events.
If it wasn’t for the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 and additional rules adopted by the FCC in 2012, it’s unlikely my daughter’s IP-based Netflix streaming content would even have closed captioning options today.
While the NCI doesn’t explicitly acknowledge the growing use of closed captioning by those without hearing impairments, it does note that “closed captioning has grown from an experimental service intended only for people who are deaf to a truly global communications service that touches the lives of millions of people every day in vital ways.”
It’s certainly not just a phenomenon for young people. There are many people my age who admit to using them because they have some middle-aged hearing loss or simply need help understanding what the characters on Luther or Peaky Blinders are saying. They use captions to focus more intently on the content.
The need to read captions for what you can hear might even have a biological base. According to Dr. Sudeepta Varma, a psychiatrist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, some people may have trouble processing the audio from television.

Educación inclusiva en universidades presenciales

Conferencia impartida en el V Foro de Academia Innovadora "Fomentando una cultura de innovación, diálogo y accesibilidad con el apoyo de las TIC" en la Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica el 20 de septiembre de 2017:

Cómo trabaja un programador ciego

En Así es como trabaja un programador ciego, se cuenta:

Tuukka Ojala es un desarrollador de software ciego originario de Finlandia. Cuando trabaja, mantiene su computadora portátil cerrada tiene un teclado externo conectado a ella con la que puede realizar su trabajo de una manera peculiar y extraordinaria.

Las cinco reglas de ARIA

En Using ARIA:

1. First Rule of ARIA: If you can use a native HTML element or attribute with the semantics and behavior you require already built in, instead of re-purposing an element and adding an ARIA role, state or property to make it accessible, then do so.
2. Second Rule of ARIA Use: Do not change native semantics, unless you really have to.
3. Third Rule of ARIA Use: All interactive ARIA controls must be usable with the keyboard.
4. Fourth Rule of ARIA Use: Do not use role="presentation" or aria-hidden="true" on a focusable element.
5. Fifth Rule of ARIA Use: All interactive elements must have an accessible name.

Y en español:

1. Primera regla de ARIA: si puede usar un elemento o atributo HTML nativo con la semántica y el comportamiento que ya necesita, en lugar de reutilizar un elemento y agregar un rol, estado o propiedad de ARIA para hacerlo accesible, entonces hágalo.
2. Segunda regla de ARIA: no cambie la semántica nativa, a menos que realmente tenga que hacerlo.
3. Tercera regla de ARIA: todos los controles interactivos de ARIA deben poder utilizarse con el teclado.
4. Cuarta regla de ARIA: no use role="presentation" o aria-hidden="true" en un elemento enfocable.
5. Quinta regla de ARIA: todos los elementos interactivos deben tener un nombre accesible.

Desastre de contraste en la web de Turkish Airlines

En una página web de la web de Turkish Airlines hay que elegir un país en una lista desplegable. El país seleccionado se puede ver con mucha dificultad, el resto de países, ¿hay más países en la lista?

No confiar en las herramientas automáticas de evaluación de la accesibilidad web

En A warning about automated accessibility "warnings":

There are a lot of people out there who want automated accessibility testing. I see the question asked all the time on Twitter, especially by those that may be new to accessibility. Often they may not know exactly what to focus on to fix their issues, and just want a report, or linting errors, to tell them what to fix and why.

Fortunately for them, there are quite a few tools out there than can be run as part of development build processes, as one-off instances via browser extensions, and there are even services that will run continuous testing against your website or application.

These testing tools are really great for helping people find flagrant accessibility issues. However, just because a warning pops up, or your “accessibility score” doesn’t reach a perfect 100%, you should still verify that these warnings are actually issues to solve for.

[...]

Automated tests are just one tool we can use to help ensure we’re building accessibly compliant websites and applications. However, it’s important to understand the results you’re receiving, and to be able to verify if an issue, or best practice, is truly an issue to act on.

For instance, warnings to check text against background images is common place with many automated checkers. It can be incredibly difficult to automatically determine color contrast in such situations, so a warning will be flagged for a manual check. It is a good thing to be reminded to verify such instances. While it may seem daunting to be met with a large number of issues to “review”, it’s far better than receiving no guidance at all.

Sometimes you may come across gaps in the assertions these tools are based on. Or a best practice may dictate that you don’t double up ARIA roles on their native elements, when that’s absolutely what you need to do to ensure cross-browser and assistive technology feature parity.

So please do use these tools, they can be incredibly helpful. It just behooves us to ensure that we’re not chasing down “100% accessibility scores” when it’s usable and inclusive user experiences we should really be focused on.

Sobre el uso de abbr

Consejos de Short note: The abbreviation appreciation society:

WHY SUX?

• The title attribute content is only practically available to mouse users.
• The title attribute display for mouse users with low vision is problematic, to say the least.
• The title attribute content is available to users of JAWS and NVDA screen reader users if they enable it, by default it’s ignored.
• VoiceOver simply does not announce the title attribute content on <abbr>
• No amount of clever tricks with ARIA, CSS and JavaScript will make it not suck.

A solution
Provide an expansion of the abbreviation/acronym, neuronym even, in plain text on first use, use an <abbr> to mark up the abbreviation, which provides a hint to user agents on how to announce/display the content: