In a recent post I used a video to demonstrate How people access the Web. It profiled one user but my intention was to encourage people to think outside the box and not assume every person has common abilities. When designing a Web site the only thing you can take for granted (for now) is that every end user is human, period.

I’m not going to sit here, preach and list various disabilities. Instead, I’ll continue to post more videos to continue to demonstrate how people access the Web. For all you know, one of your Web sites is someone else’s favourite.

While picking my daughter up from school today the parents were told the school is setting up a Web site. Obviously this trigged an interest from me, I asked if it would be accessible.

One mother looked and me and asked what I meant, so to dumb it down and sum it up quickly I said “If a Web site is built correctly, anyone should be able to access the information upon it, including blind people”. Her jaw dropped. I didn’t want to single out blind people, but I knew she understood.

Give a man a fish and he will eat for one day.
Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life

Its not as simple as give a blind person a screen reader and they can access all information on the Web. The software is designed to work best with complaint Web sites, so for all the little pains you might feel having to use the correct mark up and structure if you stop and think about it, those little efforts are seriously improving someone else’s virtual experience, which in some case can be better than real life.

You could be forgiven if your initial answer to that question is Dialup, Broadband or Mobile. For most, its a case of simply “turn it on”, but for others its more that than.

I’ve heard people say “the Web is my lively-hood”. But, for some, reliance on the Web is much more than that. Some people believe accessibility is about giving Deaf/Blind people access to information on their Web site.

In the video below you’ll get a better understanding for how some use the Web. You’ll see a woman who runs the house hold, ordering groceries, managing the bank balance, paying all the bills and in her spare time, helping her hubby. She also finds the time to keep in touch with friends. She plays a pivot role in the house hold.

Marie has Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) a.k.a Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and credits the computer for saving her life. Marie uses SwitchXS to access her computer, KeyStrokes for word prediction and Proloquo for communication.

This is just one of many examples of how some people access the Web, more to come.

Marie uses SwitchXS to access her computer, KeyStrokes for word prediction and Proloquo for communication.

In a recent post about a Peters Pink Boat I came across a Web site which has to be the most inaccessible Web site I have ever seen.

“Bloom in the Park is the largest and most spectacular gardening event in Ireland, hosted by Bord Bia. Its a competition of sorts where gardeners can get creative as they like.”

The Bloom in the Park Web site should get a Golden Razzie. The site is one big image thats probably been run through a Dreamweaver chopping shop. Everything is an image right down to the text.

The competition is all about “getting creative” and obviously the organisers like things that look nice. (Note to organisers not everyone who uses the Web can see.)

I’ve seen a lot of bad sites and most could be put down to lack of knowledge and experience. In such cases the developers usually demonstrate that they did their home work and with a little research they did their best to make their Web site as accessible as they new best.

Chances are the developer marked up headings incorrectly, hard coded a few spacer gifs and forgot to provide alt text for images, but they gave it their best shot. With a little encouragement these developers can only get better and they do.

Part of the problem with accessibility is understanding, some people just cant think outside the box while others are not paid to think outside of the box. I’d love to know what their excuse is. It was the same last year.

This Web site clearly demonstrates the wool being pulled over the clients eyes, but is that good enough excuse, surely in this day and age they could manage to pull of a Single A compliant Web site?

This morning I took a trip to the tax office to renew my bike tax. Its been a while since Ive been to the motor tax office mainly because we now have the added benefit of being able to renew your car/bike tax online.

I was happy NOT having to make a trip into town but instead headed to the new motor tax office which is housed in the Ballymun Civic Centre, sweet.

The old rules still apply, you must complete a renewal form and take your place in the queue. My ticket number was 106, the ticket being served was 46… bit of a wait a head of me I was thinking, bugger!

I decided to take a stroll within the Civic Centre. To my delight there was a nice little coffee shop (deadly) serving really good lattes. You can sit and chill, enjoy a coffee without having to worry about missing your place in the queue as there is a display showing which number is being served next, in fact the only thing missing was a wifi connection.

My number was coming up, to my surprise I was there no time at all. On heading back to the queue I decided to look up, the interior layout is very like the AOL CC2 building in Virgina, Dulles. When I turned my head I saw the best form of recycling of car parts ever!!

Sorry the quality isn’t the best, took this picture with my Nokia 6300. It would make a good guessing game to figure out which cars these belong to

Just playing a little virtual online on-the-volley to keep afloat, promote and help extend the reach of a message that came in this evening from Hugh O’Neil (Irl-Dean).

Next week Nov 8th the Irish Design for All e-Accessibility Network is hosting an interactive user centric exhibition around the greatest design challenge of our day: how to make a design usable to everyone, including people with disabilities.

Last years event was a huge success, so to find out more information about the 2007 event and its fantastic location you’ll have to check out the following:

Irish Design For All week 2008

Regular readers of this blog will know all about the Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP). Paul’s previous post on the subject raised a few hackles and sparked a lengthy debate. I don’t propose to revisit the Mobile Web vs Mobile Internet debate in this post but, rather, raise peoples awareness about the MobileOK (MOK) Basic Test cases which are about to be published as a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Candidate Recommendation.

MOK is a claim that anyone can make if their Web site conforms to a defined subset of MWBPs. It comes in 2 flavors, Basic and Professional.

MOK Basic is a series of machine determinable tests and demonstrates that a Web site owner has made reasonable steps to create a mobile friendly user experience.

MOK Pro covers the best practices which are not necessarily machine testable. These are not yet available for public review.

W3C Candidate Recommendation means that the Mobile Web Inititiative (MWI) Working Group is happy with the document as it stands and is publishing it with the goal of getting real world implementation experience.

The MWI Working group has a task force who is charged with delivering a tool for checking MOK Basic conformance. This tool is currently in alpha and can be found here. Try it out yourself and see if your Web site is MOK compliant.

In my next post I’ll commentate on the test cases for the MobileOK Professional Trustmark which I’m heavily involved with. Making conformance claims to both levels of MobileOK will come in the form of a Content Label (AKA POWDER to the W3C).

A big congrats to Peter Donegan and his team upon winning the ALCI 2007 awards (again). Peter, both a rural neighbour and friend has been into gardening all his life. He is very qualified and respected in his field (bad joke!) a funny thing is (which is no joke) Peter borrowed the tools for his first Job from a friend of his, a civil engineer!

Anyway, Peter (second left in photo) and his team are constantly demonstrating their creativity and in what was a fascinating story over a cup of tea, Peter walked/talked me through the history and design of a five acre private estate and gardens of North County Dublin (Formerly known as Brackdenston Demesne) for which they have won the award.

The Donegan Landscaping team have finally completed what is a piece of Irish history, the estates is 350 years in the making and was previously owned by The Burnell Family [16th Century]. Looks like Peter got into a bit of trouble but you can find out more on Peters blog.

Again, Peter congrats to you and your team and best of luck in South Africa.