Here's a sneak preview of our next SyberWorks e-Learning Podcast Series episode, an interview with Dave Powell, Documentation Manager for SyberWorks, Inc.
The Paciello Group is doing a series of free webinars on PDF and Flash accessibility. Here are link to the presentation. Next week there are two additional webinars. March 31 the topic is
Flash accessibility and WCAG 2.0, and April 1the topic is PDF forms and
WCAG 2.0. The webinars will be held at noon Eastern time at http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/wcag2.
Found this surfing my rss feeds and thought it would be useful. Here is an excerpt from the page on the Web Designer Pinoy Blog
Leveraging Web 2.0 Design Patterns For Enhanced Accessibility by T. V. Raman (Google)
"HTML DOM+ JavaScript constitutes the assembly language of Web
Applications. Access To Rich Internet Applications — ARIA — adds in a
couple of additional op-codes for helping Web applications better
communicate with adaptive technologies such as screenreaders. How do we
now push the envelope with respect
to Web applications and adaptive technologies such as screen readers and
self-voicing browsers in a manner similar to what we as Web developers
have collectively achieved for the mainstream user?
This session will demonstrate programming techniques that help Web
developers experiment with and build in the latest accessibility
techniques into their Web applications. We will base this session on
project Google-AxsJAX."
While I was combing through my RSS feeds, I found a set of articles (parts 1, 2, and 3) on Designing for Dyslexics by Mel Pedley.
While
this series is written purely from a web development perspective, there
is some really good information that can be applied to improving
e-learning content when developing for dyslexics. The article discusses readability issues resulting from sharp color contrasts and best practices in regards to line widths, fonts, line height, and others when developing online content for dyslexics.
What I like about the article series is that it talks about the W3C accessibility standards in regards to dyslectic needs and the other visually impaired populations.
It's very difficult for us non-handicapped developers to properly put accessibility in its rightful place, not understanding or better experiencing the difficulties of a handicapped user. A common misconception amongst developers is that building a site for accessibility needs only to satisfy usage of a screen reader. Screen reader's assist the blind or other segments of the population with vision problems. But that's only one segment of the population.
What goes by often is the fact that there are people who are color blind, deaf, or who have other disabilities that require the use of unconventional pointing devices and such. It's easy to overlook this part of the population or, more likely, to focus on issues that can be practically solved with a screen reader or other technology.
The interview also ponder's the question of how far away the web has come from it's original and most accessible format to what it is now. The focus on application development on the web is blending the traditional materials of the web with a desktop type application experience that challenges the possibility of accessibility, given the nature of the complexity of the applications online.
Sure, the number of impaired users is a small percentage compared with the rest of the population, but further considerations towards this user base is important in the forward movement of the web.
Updates in Online Accessibility Standards 
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