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Tuesday at WritersUA, Palm Springs

Wednesday, April 12, 2006 — posted by Sarah

• Section 508 mandates that if you sell products or services to the United States federal government, you must make these items accessible to persons with disabilities. Specifically, the regulation says that access must be comparable to that provided for persons without disabilities.
• Target (yes, the store) is being sued under California law for having a web site that is not accessible.
• Section 508 defines a minimum level of accessibility. You can do more to make content fully accessible instead of just minimally compliant.
• Accessibility means making content available to users who are blind, have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, cannot speak, or have motor control limitations.
• The DAISY Consortium is dedicated to ensuring that "all published information, at time of release to the general population, be available in an accessible, highly functional, feature rich format and at no greater cost, to persons with print disabilities."
• The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) provides a standardized way to assess product accessibility.
• Of the current help formats, Microsoft HTML Help (CHM) files are very accessible. WinHelp is unpleasant and inefficient to use. WebHelp is somewhat accessible; the Java-based table of contents is not accessible. Frames are generally problematic. FlashHelp is not accessible, although it's possible to create an accessible Flash skin.
• Lots of useful stuff at webaim.org, including an accessibility checker.
  

• Mimic -- A better way to captivate (MadCap booth).
• Your Robo....Update (T shirts)
  
• <die>Kadov</die> (another T shirt; my personal favorite)

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