Léonie Watson
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Tag, you're it
Adrian Roselli tagged me in his Tag, you're it post in March, and it's taken me until now to get to it! Why did you start blogging in the first place? I have no idea why I began blogging! It probably had something to do with having owned my own domain name since the late 90s but not having done anything…
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Sticky pork belly slices
This recipe for sticky pork belly slices is one where you can turn up the heat if you like your food with a chilli kick to it. Otherwise, it's just sweet and sticky and just a little bit crunchy all the way. Information Makes: 2 helpings Time: 10 minutes prep + 60 minutes Ingredients Measurement converter…
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Using Ray-Ban Meta Glasses
I wrote about the advantages of wearable AI tech for blind people back in 2020, when I bought a pair of Envision Glasses. At the time they felt revolutionary, and indeed they were, but they never became part of my everyday tech. I've had my pair of Ray-Ban Meta Glasses for a few months now, and they've…
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Slow cooker French onion soup with cheese toasts
Making French onion soup can be a bit of a faff, especially when it comes to caramelising the onions, but if you're not in a hurry, you can use a slow cooker to make it instead. Information Makes: 2 or 3 large helpings Time: 15 minutes prep + 8.5 hours in the slow cooker Ingredients Measurement converter…
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Stranger Things: The First Shadow with Audio Description (AD)
Last Sunday I went to see Stranger Things: The First Shadow, at the Phoenix theatre in London. If you like the Stranger Things Netflix series, you'll love the play - and I absolutely did! What really made my day was that it was a performance with live Audio Description (AD) and a touch tour beforehand…
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Nielsen needs to think again
Jakob Nielsen thinks that accessibility has failed. I give this some thought as I make my lunch with ingredients I purchased from an online grocery store. I keep thinking about it as I return to my desk and respond to a few emails using my online mailbox. I check my online calendar for upcoming meetings…
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Adventures with BeMyAI
Today I was given early access to the BeMyAI beta, a feature that's being added to the BeMyEyes iOS app using ChatGPT4. BeMyEyes BeMyEyes is one of the most remarkable apps to have emerged in recent years. You sign up either as a sighted volunteer, or a blind or low vision person. If, like me, you fall…
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Addressing concerns about CSS Speech
The case for CSS Speech is not just about screen readers, but they do of course matter. Whenever the topic is mentioned, someone will contact me to say they worry about websites taking over their screen reader and making content less accessible instead of more enjoyable. The concern is that if a website…
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Why we need CSS Speech
In these times when almost every device and platform is capable of talking to you, you may be surprised to learn that there is no way for authors to design the aural presentation of web content, in the way they can design the visual presentation. Once this was largely an accessibility issue. Listening…
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Perceived affordances and the functionality mismatch
Using one element or set of elements (usually because of their functionality) and styling them to look like something else is a common pattern. A recent conversation about using radio buttons styled to look like buttons highlighted the essential problem with this approach - it creates a mismatch between…
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Thoughts on skin tone and text descriptions
In a blog post on writing great alt text, Jake Archibald asked "Should skin tone be mentioned in alt text?". It's a good question, and one I've asked myself as a blind person, so Jake's post has prompted me to do some thinking out loud... Here's a question for you: if you read a text description that…
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Patrick H. Lauke's Goulash
The 15th in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This meltingly good goulash recipe comes from Patrick H. Lauke. Information Makes: 3 or 4 helpings Time…
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Notes on synthetic speech
I've been thinking about conversational interfaces for some time, and about the importance of voice quality as a part of user experience. I use a screen reader and it sounds the same, whatever I'm doing - reading an email from a friend, reading news of a global disaster, reading something in the first…
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AccessiBe and data protection?
The case for not using accessibility overlays has been made and endorsed by industry professionals, disability organisations, and people with disabilities. One concern is the privacy of personal data, and in the case of the AccessiBe overlay, it deserves closer scrutiny. Enhanced Tracking Protection…
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Thoughts on screen readers and image recognition
The provision of text alternatives has been a first principle of accessibility since before WCAG 1.0 made it official in 1999, but apparently not everyone has got the message. According to the WebAIM Million from February 2020, more than 30% of homepage images were missing text descriptions and more…
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Playing with Envision Glasses
We humans put a lot of effort into seeing. When our eyes are open, vision accounts for two thirds of the electrical activity in our brain; 40% of the nerve fibres that are connected into the brain relate to vision; and more of our neurons are dedicated to vision than the other senses combined. We consume…
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Everybody be Coil. You... Be Coil
Online advertising is, in my opinion, intrusive, invasive, and, in the case of accessibility, frequently destructive. Yet since it first emerged in 1994, online advertising has been one of the few ways content creators have had to be compensated for their efforts. Until now. Web Monetization is a proposed…
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How screen readers navigate data tables
When a table is created using the appropriate HTML elements (or ARIA roles) screen readers can inform users about the characteristics of the table, and users have access to keyboard commands specifically for navigating tabular content. For the purposes of this post I'm going to use NVDA. Jaws uses the…
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The difference between aria-label and aria-labelledby
The aria-label and aria-labelledby attributes do the same thing but in different ways. Sometimes the two attributes are confused and this has unintended results. This post describes the differences between aria-label and aria-labelledby and how to choose the right one. The aria-label and aria-labelledby…
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Amelia Bellamy-Royds' Vegetarian (or not) chilli
The 14th in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This versatile recipe comes from Amelia Bellamy-Royds. Information Makes: 6-8 cups (1.5−2L), or around…
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Pork rillettes
I've loved pork rillettes since my family used to holiday in France during the summers of my childhood. I have many happy memories of sitting around the kitchen table in the cottage owned by friends in Parcay-Meslay, spreading rillettes onto slices of baguette with a good sprinkling of salt, accompanied…
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The difference between keyboard and screen reader navigation
18/5000 한국어 번역 People often include screen reader users in the much larger group of keyboard-only users. Whilst this is correct (most screen reader users don't use a mouse), it also creates a false impression of the way screen reader users navigate content. To help explain this, I'm going to generalise…
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Using the aria-roledescription attribute
The aria-roledescription attribute changes the way screen readers announce the role of an element. Intended to give authors a way to provide a localised and human-readable description for a role, it has the capacity to both enhance and seriously break accessibility for screen reader users. The ARIA1.1…
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Accessible SVG flowcharts
The accessible SVG line graphs post explains how to use ARIA table semantics to make that form of data visualisation accessible to screen readers. This article uses the same ARIA based approach to make a screen reader accessible SVG flowchart. The example comes from the W3C Process document, and a flowchart…
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Eric Meyer's Cinnamon chicken
The 13th in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This mouth-watering chicken dish is from Eric Meyer. Information Makes: Four servings Time: 30 minutes…
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Regaining sight?
People often presume I would jump at the chance to be able to see again. The fact of the matter is that I really don't know whether I would or not, because there is more to it than you might think. I lost my sight at the turn of the century, over the course of about 12 months. For some of you reading…
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Playing with the Accessibility Object Model (AOM)
Updated on 27th February 2019: The Accessibility Object Model (AOM) specification has been updated and accessibleNode has been dropped. Read the AOM explainer for more information. The Accessibility Object Model (AOM) is an experimental JavaScript API that enables developers to modify the browser accessibility…
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Accessible SVG line graphs
SVG is often used for data visualisation, but because SVG lacks the semantics to express structures like bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots, the content is difficult for screen reader users to interpret. The solution is to use the technique for creating accessible SVG tables as your starting…
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Accessible SVG tables
SVG has no native semantics for representing structures like tables, but ARIA1.1 introduces a number of roles that can be used to polyfill the necessary semantic information. If you're using HTML, use the relevant HTML elements to create tables. The table, thead, tfooter, tbody, th, and td elements are…
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Using a custom domain with multiple Github repositories
It's possible to use a single custom domain with multiple Github repositories that use Github Pages. The available documentation makes it seem more complicated than it is, so this is an effort to provide some more simple instructions. This post assumes you have a custom domain you want to use, and a…
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Quick guide to the ARIA specifications
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a suite of specifications from the W3C. Knowing which specification has the information you need isn't always obvious, so this post briefly introduces each specification and where it fits into the overall ARIA landscape. ARIA This is where ARIA itself is…
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Using the aria-current attribute
It is common on the web for the current thing in a collection to be highlighted visually, but providing an alternative for screen reader users has often involved something of a hack. The aria-current attribute is intended to solve this problem. Common patterns There are several common patterns where…
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Accessible emoji
Emoji help us communicate complex ideas very easily. When used in native apps and applications, emoji are reasonably accessible to screen readers, but on the web we need to do a little more to make sure everyone can understand emoji. An emoji is an ideogram (a picture that represents an idea or concept…
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Using Narrator dev mode
Narrator is the integrated screen reader for Windows 10. The August 2nd Windows 10 Anniversary update introduces several new Narrator features, including a Narrator mode designed specifically for developers. When you develop accessible apps, webapps or websites, one of the challenges is understanding…
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And yet somehow we’re all still here
When my friend Tim Norris posted this to Facebook recently, it made me stop and think. One of those "thinks" was that his words were worth sharing, so here (with Tim's permission) they are... The earliest "historical" thing I can vaguely remember was the tail end of the Vietnam War. I have vivid memories…
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Understanding semantics
Эта статья на русском The word “semantic” is regularly used in the context of web development. We talk about “semantic code” and the “semantics” of a given element, but what do we really mean by it, and why is it important? The word semantic comes from the French sémantique, meaning non-comparable. In…
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Proposed ARIA password role
Let me ask you a question: Would you enter your password into a password field, if you couldn’t be confident it was protected from being viewed by other people? The answer is probably not, but a proposed ARIA role could put screen reader users in exactly this position. When you use to create a native…
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Using the ARIA application role
The ARIA application role changes the way screen readers interact with web content. Several good articles explain (rightly) why the application role should be used with caution, but this post looks at a use case where the application role is used to good effect. Screen readers sometimes intercept keystrokes…
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Flexbox & the keyboard navigation disconnect
CSS Flexbox can create a disconnect between the DOM order and visual presentation of content, causing keyboard navigation to break. For this reason, the CSS Flexible Box Layout module warns against resequencing content logic, but asking authors not to use flexbox in this way seems illogical in itself…
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Mulled cider
This is one of my favourite winter things. You can make it at any time of year of course, but there is something about the smell of apples and spices that makes me all warm and fuzzy. You might put that down to the cider, I couldn't possibly comment... Information Makes: Eight servings Time: 15 minutes…
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Adrian Rosellli's Strawberry & balsamic sorbet
The 12th in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This versatile dessert is from Adrian Roselli. Information Makes: Two quarts Time: 1 hour Ingredients Measurement…
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Using the aria-owns attribute
When a parent/child relationship is evident on-screen, but it isn’t represented in the DOM, the aria-owns attribute can be used to establish that relationship in the accessibility layer. The parent/child relationship is a cornerstone of HTML structure. Every element in an HTML document is the parent…
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Losing sight
Deutsche Übersetzung I don’t know who will read this. I don’t even know why it has suddenly become important to write it, but for whatever it’s worth, this is an account of an event in my life that changed everything. I lost my sight over the course of 12 months from late 1999 to late 2000. It was mostly…
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Fixing the Jaws cursor in Firefox
When keyboard access doesn't work, the Jaws screen reader makes it possible to explore content using simulated mouse movements instead. This function is broken in Firefox, due to changes made (some time ago) in its graphics rendering engine. This post describes a workaround that has proved successful…
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Using the Web Speech API to simulate CSS Speech support
Updated on 4th February 2018. The CSS Speech properties are intended to give content aural style, in the same way other CSS properties give content visual style. The CSS Speech module is largely unsupported in browsers, but the Web Speech API can be used to demonstrate something of the way CSS Speech…
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Crème brulée
When a friend generously gave me some saffron recently, it presented me with an opportunity to make crème brulée with a little extra magic in it. crème brulée is ridiculously easy to make, exudes classic style, and even has an element of danger about it... so even if (like me) you rarely eat dessert…
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Time to revisit accesskey?
Many websites provide keyboard shortcuts for common tasks. Keyboard shortcuts are useful things to have, but the way in which they’re provided is often problematic for Windows screen reader users. Websites like Facebook, Twitter and Google provide keyboard shortcuts for repetitive tasks, like posting…
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Accessibility support for CSS generated content
The CSS before/after pseudo-selectors can be used to insert content into a page. In some situations this technique is a useful thing to do, but how do browsers and screen readers handle the generated content? Quick recap: The before/after selectors insert content either before or after an element’s existing…
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Using Schema.org with Microdata
Search engines have ways of extracting meaning from content, but they're prone to error because information on the webb can be presented in so many different ways. Marking up information so it's easier for search engines to index is a good thing to do, and thanks to the vocabularies available from schema.org…
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Accessible timeout notifications
When a web application has a session timeout, it’s a good idea to warn users about the impending timeout and give them the opportunity to do something about it. It’s therefore important to make sure that all users know when the warning notification appears. When you set the timeout initially, don’t forget…
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Henny Swan's 5 spice beef 5 ways
The 11th in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This bundle of awesome Chinese dishes is from Henny Swan. Information Makes: Six helpings Time: 30 minutes…
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Using the aria-controls attribute
There are a handful of ARIA1.0 attributes that can be used to indicate relationships between elements, when those relationships can’t be ascertained easily from the DOM. One such attribute is aria-controls. The aria-controls attribute creates a cause and effect relationship. It identifies the element…
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W3C TPAC: Lightning talks
TPAC is the annual gathering of the W3C. It was held at the Santa Clara Marriott between 27th and 31st October 2014. It was the week that HTML5 became a W3C Recommendation, the week we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the web, and 20 years of the W3C itself. It was also a week where people and ideas…
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Scrambled eggs on toast
Breakfast at the weekend can be delightfully indulgent, and sometimes the simple things are the most tempting of all. Throw in some interesting company, a little conversation and this uncomplicated breakfast, and that's my idea of heaven on a Sunday. Information Makes: Two helpings Time: 15 minutes Ingredients…
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Understanding screen reader interaction modes
Traduction française Windows screen readers have multiple modes of interaction, and depending on the task being carried out they’ll automatically switch to the most appropriate mode. This post explains why Windows screen readers behave the way they do, and how your code can influence that behaviour.…
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Thoughts on screen reader detection
The subject of screen reader detection has been under discussion lately. It isn’t something I’m comfortable with, so I’d like to share the reasons why. I don’t want to share personal information with websites I visit My disability is personal to me, and I share that information at my discretion. Proponents…
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Inaccessible Cyber Streetwise website
The Cyber Streetwise website was launched by the UK Home Office in January. Developed by Nudge Digital, Cyber Streetwise is a high profile website intended to change attitudes towards online security. It is also a complete travesty when it comes to accessibility. The Cyber Streetwise website has already…
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Potato dauphinoise
Potato dauphinoise is ridiculously easy to make, gloriously indulgent and absolutely delicious. It goes well with anything from a lamb roast to a good steak, but my favourite is potato dauphinoise with confit of duck! Information Makes: Four helpings Time: 1 hour 45 minutes Ingredients Measurement converter…
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Jaws, IE & the Forms region bug
There is an unusual problem with Jaws and Internet Explorer that causes the word "region" to be announced before every field in a form. Fortunately there is a workaround until the problem itself is resolved. The situation arises when you have a form inside a container with role="main" applied to it.…
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Joseph O'Connor's Spaghetti & meatballs
The tenth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This beautifully written Italian recipe is from Joseph Karr O'Connor. Information Makes: Enough for three…
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Screen readers, ARIA & HTML5 (too much information)
Most current screen readers support ARIA to one extent or another, and many now support some features of HTML5 as well. With ARIA and HTML5 making increasing amounts of semantic data available to screen reader users, it’s really easy to inadvertently overload people with too much information. Let's take…
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Graham Armfield's Aubergine pasta
The ninth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This easy pasta dish is from Graham Armfield. Information Makes: Two or three helpings Time: 30 minutes…
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Solving the longdesc problem
The Image Description extension re-introduces the longdesc attribute to HTML. Although most people recognise that longdesc is flawed, finding a viable alternative has proved surprisingly difficult. For now longdesc is the best solution we have, but in the interests of finding a better option perhaps…
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Screen reader support for HTML5 sections
HTML5 includes a handful of sectioning elements that give documents a robust semantic structure. The header, footer, nav, article, section and aside elements give different regions of a document meaning. Amongst other things, that meaning can be understood by screen readers, and the information used…
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Eggs benedict (with real Hollandaise sauce)
This recipe is fabulous for brunch on Christmas eve, or any lazy weekend when you’re feeling indulgent. Cheating is perfectly acceptable if you don’t want to make the Hollandaise sauce from scratch, but it tastes even better when you’ve done it all yourself! Information Makes: Four helpings Time: 45…
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Jaws scripts for the HTML5 `main` element
Updated: 1 November 2018 Jaws scripts no longer available. A shortcut ("q") for moving directly to the main element is now available in Jaws as standard. The main element extension specifies a way to markup the primary content area of a web page in HTML5. There are several good reasons for introducing…
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Accessible forms with ARIA live regions
When a form is used to update information on the page, it can be troublesome for screen reader users. Unless the screen reader is focused on the relevant bit of the page, the update goes by un-noticed. ARIA live regions are a simple way to improve the experience for screen reader users. Quick recap:…
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Cheeseburgers & sweet potato wedges
With Guy Fawkes’ night coming up, these cheeseburgers and sweet potato wedges are great to eat before you head out to enjoy the fireworks. They’re incredibly easy to make, and madly versatile, so you can rustle them up anytime throughout the year. Information Makes: Two cheeseburgers Time: 1 hour Ingredients…
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Using the HTML5 `placeholder attribute
HTML5 has changed the way we build websites and online applications. It introduces lots of new features, many of which make inclusive design much more achievable. Happily you can start making your HTML5 more inclusive with a minimum of effort. One simple way is to make your forms easier for people to…
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Useful Windows 8 Narrator commands
Windows 8 introduces several improvements to Narrator, its built in speech capability. Like VoiceOver in the early days, there is much that Narrator doesn’t do, but it already has many of the characteristics you’d expect to find in a screen reader. The challenge with using any new screen reader is learning…
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Useful Windows 8 shortcut keys for keyboard users
Windows 8 is a big change from Windows 7. With features like the Metro start screen and charm bar, the interface has been completely reworked and the focus is on touch screen devices. That also means a whole new set of shortcut keys for keyboard devices too. Return to start screen: Windows key Windows…
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Enhancing ARIA landmarks with aria-labelledby
ARIA landmark roles provide a useful way for screen reader users to navigate through web pages, and to understand the purpose of different sections of content on the page. With just a little bit more ARIA you can make landmarks even more helpful to blind and partially sighted people. If you haven’t come…
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Using tabbed interfaces with a screen reader
Tabbed interfaces are increasingly common on web pages. They make good use of space, and they can be visually intuitive. Using tabs with a screen reader is a different experience though. When it comes to tabbed interfaces on web pages, there are two disadvantages for screen reader users. The visual clues…
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Jeremy Keith's Pork chop with anchovies
The eighth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This tasty recipe is from Jeremy Keith. Information Makes: One helping Time: 30 minutes Ingredients Measurement…
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David Sloan's Venison casserole
The seventh in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This hearty feast is from David Sloan. Information Makes: 6 helpings Time: 3 hours Ingredientss Measurement…
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Jared Smith's Cheesy bacon potatoes
The sixth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This fabulous outdoors recipe is from Jared Smith. Information Makes: 8 to 10 helpings Time: 1 hour 45…
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Windows 8 Narrator overview
This post was updated on 8th July 2012, to reflect changes in the Windows 8 release edition. Windows 8 has several accessibility improvements. One of the most noticeable is Narrator, Windows’ built in speech capability. Narrator has grown up in Windows 8, and now comes with a lot more to offer. Narrator…
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Dennis Lembree's Beer fondue
The fifth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This tasty fondue recipe is from Dennis Lembree. Information Makes: 3 to 5 helpings Time: 45 minutes Ingredients…
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Gez Lemon's Broccoli pesto pasta
The fourth in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This tempting vegetarian recipe is from Gez Lemon. Information Makes: 2 helpings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients…
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Wendy Chisholm's Chocolate pudding
The third in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This beautiful chocolate pudding is from Wendy Chisholm. Information Makes: 4 helpings Time: 1 hour Ingredients…
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Bruce Lawson's Plaa menow (Fish in lime)
The second in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This sumptuous Thai recipe is from Bruce Lawson. Information Makes: 2 helpings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients…
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John Foliot's Salsa
The first in a series of posts that bring together the two sides of my blog: Food and technology. I’ve asked the great and the good from the web standards community to share their favourite recipes. This gorgeous salsa recipe is from John Foliot. Information Makes: A lot of salsa Time: 4 hours Ingredients…
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Bacon & marmalade sandwiches
I inherited my love of bacon and marmalade sandwiches from my mum, along with much else. They’re one of the many ways I’ll always remember her. Information Makes: 2 sandwiches Time: 15 minutes Ingredients 4 slices wholemeal bread 4 thick rashers back bacon Marmalade Butter English breakfast tea Method…
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Using the HTML5 `nav` element
HTML5 introduces the nav element for marking up sections of a page that contain navigational links. Used wisely the nav element is a big help to screen reader users, as well as a step forward in semantic meaning. HTML4 navigation With HTML4, a typical navigation block might look like this: div> ul> li…
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Caramelised onion chutney
Caramelised onion chutney is the "little black dress" of the condiment world. You can use it anywhere. Chuck it on pizza with some goats cheese, add a spoonful to your gravy, spread it on melted cheese on toast, or try a little with a plate of cold cuts, olives and fresh bread. Information Makes: 5x…
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Using HTML5 headings
Updated: 26th November 2015. Originally I recommended using a flat h1 heading structure. Four years later the HTML5 outline algorithm is still not supported in browsers, and without that an h1 only heading structure is meaningless. Better to use explicitly ranked HTML headings and take care to get the…
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Chargrilled basil chicken
The weather is glorious at the moment! It’s perfect for eating al fresco, and this recipe is great for lunch or dinner. Team it up with a crisp white wine, then sit back and enjoy the sunshine. Information Makes: 2 helpings Time: 2 hours 20 minutes Ingredients Measurement converter 2Tbsp olive oil .25Tsp…
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Design like you give a damn!
Inclusive design is an aspirational concept. It isn't particularly inspirational though. Inclusive design is a phrase for client meetings and government papers. No harm in that, but it isn’t a phrase that rocks the world and inspires us to challenge the accepted status quo. Inspiration comes courtesy…
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Marking up the current page with HTML5 links
Updated on 3rd July 2017: this post is out of date, please read Using the aria-current attribute instead. When you’re browsing a website using its primary navigation, it’s helpful to know which page you’re on, and which pages you can go to. HTML5 makes it simple to do this, but the technique moves away…
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How do ARIA landmark roles help screen reader users?
This video demonstrates how ARIA landmark roles help screen reader users understand the purpose of different areas of a web page. ARIA landmark roles can be used to navigate through a page and easily identify the purpose of key areas such as navigation, search or main content. How ARIA landmark roles…
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Text descriptions and emotion rich images
This article was first posted in 2007 on the eAccess blog, now available courtesy of the Internet Archive. Three years later and I still believe that emotion rich images are important to blind people, particularly those who once had sight (and that's most of us). Results from the third WebAIM screen…
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Advice for life
In 1997, Mary Schmich published a guide to life in the Chicago Tribune. In 1999, Baz Lurhmann turned it into a chillout anthem called Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen). It was, and remains, some of the best advice for life I've ever heard... Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97: Wear sunscreen…
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Slow cooked chicken casserole
With the first signs of spring upon us, it’s time to get out into the garden at weekends. It’s often still chilly in the evenings though, so this slow cooked chicken casserole is fabulous for those busy outdoor days! It’s easy to throw together before you head outside, and the smell of rosemary and tomatoes…
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CSUN 2011 Web highlightse
The California State University Northridge 26th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, referred to simply as CSUN, was an extraordinary few days. People from all over the world gathered to share knowledge and discuss ideas. Here are a few highlights from the web stream…
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NVDA needs us
NVDA is one of a new generation of access technologies for blind and partially sighted people. It's given thousands of blind people a chance to use a computer, and it's the darling of the open standards community, but on 19th January NVDA's developers sent out an urgent SOS. NVDA (Non Visual Desktop…
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Papa Sangre game review
You are lost, deep in the darkness of the land of the dead. Your eyes are useless to you here — but your ears are filled with sound. Thus the scene is set for Papa Sangre, one of the most stylish (and screen reader friendly) games on the iOS platform. Papa Sangre is a video game with no video. It’s a…
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Leek & potato soup
When the cold winter weather sets in, there’s nothing like a bowl of home made soup and some Ffresh bread to warm you up. Leek and potato soup is one of my favourites and I love spending an hour or so on a Sunday morning putting a batch together. Ingredients Makes: Four helpings Time: 1 hour Ingredients…
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Screen reader support for HTML tables
Screen reader support for tables is something of a curiosity. Although tables are among the most common of HTML elements, they’re often misused and poorly coded. To some extent this has influenced screen reader support, but even so the variations in screen reader behaviour are quite remarkable. Possibly…
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Warm bacon and potato salad
With a little bit of sunshine and blue sky recently, I’ve been thinking about salads again. Although the evenings are set to get lighter now, there’s still a chill in the air, so this warm potato and bacon salad does the job beautifully. Information Makes: Four helpings Time: 30 minutes Ingredients Measurement…
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Screen Reader Support For Disabled & Read Only Form Fields
Some while ago I was asked how screen readers handle disabled and read only form fields. Despite forms being commonplace on most websites, there's remarkably little information available on the subject. It turns out that there's also very little consistency in the way different screen readers behave…
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Contacting Organisations About Inaccessible Websites
Contacting an organisation to explain why you find their website difficult to use, can seem a bit daunting. Who should you talk to? What should you say? How should you approach it? Contacting Organisations About Inaccessible Websites is a splendid new resource from the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI…
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Confit of duck
Confit of duck is a classic French dish and it’s absolutely scrumptious! If you like duck with a crispy skin and meat that just falls off the bone, this is the food for you. It takes a little bit of preparation, but it’s worth it. Information Makes: 4 helpings Time: 1 day + 4 hours 30 minutes Ingredients…
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Windows 7 Accessibility Features
Windows 7 has an Ease of Access Center, which was originally introduced in Windows Vista. It’s a single place where all of the accessibility features and settings can be found. Windows 7 includes some new accessibility tools, and improvements to existing ones. Magnifyer Magnifier is a simple screen magnification…
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Google Wave Screen Reader Accessibility
Google Wave is the latest innovation in online communication. It's caused a great deal of interest across the industry, and may well herald a new era in online social interaction. It's new, it's cutting edge and it's exciting. It's also a catastrophic accessibility failure for screen reader users. As…
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KNFB Reader Review
Imagine getting home from work, collecting the post from the mat and sitting at the kitchen table to go through it, while you wait for the kettle to boil. For most people that's domestic normality. For many blind people, it's a process that involves a computer, scanner and OCR package. Hardly the setup…
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Accessibility 2.0
Accessibility 2.0 is a one day conference hosted by AbilityNet. With six presentations and two panel discussions, topics ranged from mobile interface design and accessibility beyond the desktop, through to HTML 5, WAI ARIA and Silverlight accessibility. Considerations for Accessible Mobile Application…
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Standards.Next Cognition & Accessibility
Standards.Next is an informal meetup hosted by Opera, and attended by anyone with an interest in web standards and beyond. On Saturday 19th September focus turned to one of the most unchartered areas of user experience: Cognition and Accessibility. Cognition covers an incredibly wide range of conditions…
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Jaws 11 ARIA Drag & Drop Support
Jaws 11 public beta introduces support for drag and drop with WAI ARIA. Although Jaws has included desktop drag and drop capability for some while, the same functionality on a web page has always been more difficult. Jaws 11 now indicates which elements on the page can be dragged, and where they can…
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Vinux: Linux for Blind & Partially Sighted People
Vinux is a Linux distribution optimised for blind and partially sighted people. Originally based on Ubuntu, Vinux 2.0 beta was released earlier this month based on the Debian distribution. Vinux boots with screen reader and Braille support fully loaded, and with screen magnification available at a simple…
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Slow roast pork & wholegrain mustard mash
Sunday lunch is a time to indulge yourself. Gather up your friends and family, catch up on all the news, and enjoy a sumptuous roast. For years I wondered how to roast pork so that the crackling came out just right. The secret is slow cooking, proving that all good things including the perfect crackling…
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Chorizo, Taleggio & polenta bake
Like most good recipes, this one has evolved over the years. It's one of those dishes that you can play fast and loose with, without worrying about it at all. Two of my favourite foods are chorizo and cheese, so this recipe comes perilously close to heaven as far as I'm concerned! Information Makes:…
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Screen Reader Support for ARIA Live Regions
Rich Internet Application (RIA) websites encourage people to generate content, collaborate online and make choices about the information they receive. Unsurprisingly, RIA websites can represent a considerable challenge for screen reader users. The WAI's Accessible Rich Internet Applications (ARIA)is…
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Accessible Twitter Applications
There's simply no denying it. Twitter is one of the web's killer applications of the moment. It's not uncommon to hear of people buying a computer and getting online, just so they can start tweeting. Twitter is also proving popular with blind and partially sighted people. The Twitter website itself is…
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Jaws Scripts for Accessibility Links
Bruce Lawson recently asked whether adding rel=accessibility to the HTMl 5 specification was a good idea. Among the initial comments, Jared Smith noted that getting assistive technologies to support the idea might be a problem. For the major screen readers at least, I thought it could be easily solved…
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Guide to Emoticons
Emoticons are short strings of punctuation intended to express emotions in type written text. Text can be a very antiseptic way of communicating and without the ability to see the facial expressions of the person you are talking to, it can sometimes be difficult to correctly interpret the meaning of…
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Guide to WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). The WAI is a branch of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the organisation that provides guidelines and specifications for many web technologies. The mission statement for the W3C explains the organisation's…
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