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Hi, I'm Nick Freear and I'd like to talk to you about a new project, Accessify Wiki (beta) http://freear.org.uk/accessify
The Web is an important place for everyone
It's increasingly where we learn, work, play and shop
Unfortunately, many Web sites put barriers in the way of those with disabilities
This is bad for the visitor - preventing them gaining equal access to services and sites
And it is bad for Web sites and organizations - it can result in loss of customers, loss
of reputation and potential costs. We already have laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act
in the USA, the Equality Act in the United Kingdom, and so on
And we have guidelines, including the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
Finally, we have educators, lobbyists, charities and other "fixers" like Fix the Web
and the A11y bugs project. Accessify Wiki aims to complement these efforts.
Accessify Wiki comprises these three components: Anyone can create accessibility fixes for
any web site, End-users can automatically employ the fixes
during their normal browsing, And, tools to help site owners/developers use
the fixes in their site. Let's look at these three components in more detail...
1. Creating fixes
Accessibility and usability fixes are created and stored in a Wiki,
The fixes use a CSS-selector or jQuery-like selector syntax
We aim for a low barrier to entry for authors, So that we don't rely on programmers.
Here, you can see a screen-shot of some accessibility fixes for Wikipedia.
Note that Wikipedia is already fairly accessible. 2. For End-users
So far, we have a user-Javascripts and bookmarklet to add the fixes automatically,
Add-ons and extensions for browsers will follow - watch this space!
We aim to support most browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari,
And most assistive technology: screen readers like NVDA, JAWS and Voice-over; screen magnifiers
and so on. Here, you can see a screen-shot of Accessify Wiki
fixes being applied to Wikipedia - the key phrase (bottom-right) is "OK, 14 fixes
applied, 0 errors..." 3. For Site owners/developers
So far, we have a tool to compile the Javascript fixes for direct inclusion in a site,
Other tools will follow. A few words of caution though,
Site owners and developers should still plan in accessibility from the start of their project
- see for example BS 8878, And, Accessify Wiki can NOT fix all problems,
and provides no guarantees - there are trade-offs between ease of authoring/ security, and flexibility,
You are NOT off the hook! You can see here a list of the technologies
and standards that Accessify Wiki uses... We use and develop open-source software.
Finally, Accessify Wiki needs YOU! We currently need,
End-user testers - to provide valuable feedback, Passionate authors and fixers,
And, developers. Thank you!
Fixing accessibility on the Web one site at a time
http://freear.org.uk/accessify