Deja vu all over again
Coding kvetch: A perusal of the Apple Developer notes for designing websites to be compatible with the iPad shows that one of the guidelines discourages exclusive use of mouse-specific event handlers such as mouseover and mouseout. Instead, they encourage use of Safari-specific DOM Touch events. Would it be possible for us to all get along on a universal scale by using hardware- and browser-independent event handlers such as onfocus and onblur?
Guten ’nuff
Project Gutenberg is a long-standing project that transfers out-of-copyright books into electronic text formats–usually classic fiction, but there are some oddball gems scattered in as well. Now comes word that some fraction of these titles will be available through the iBooks store for iPad users from the get-go, presumably compatible with the built-in VoiceOver screen reader. So for the first time, people who are blind or have learning disabilities will be able to access The Story of Crisco at the same time as everyone else.
Wired: iBooks Store Loaded with Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch
Like a Virgin?
We’re mulling over the news that Virgin America has decided to remove Flash from its site (well, from some of the site, anyway…as noted on the TUAW comments, it’s still on the Route Map page at least) because it won’t run on iPhones. Is this a good thing for accessibility? Would it be better to keep Flash but also follow the guidelines for providing accessible Flash alternatives? And while we’re at it, could Virgin address some of their other issues, such as the inaccessible navigation bar?
TUAW: Virgin America dumps Flash over lack of iPhone support
As it is Twitten
Carmen Gonzales has come up with a summary of pretty convincing arguments about why Twitter has made a huge difference for people with physical disabilities. Some of these involve the potential for generating and receiving information with little effort, but there is also the fact that if everyone is communicating in 140 characters, assistive tech users or slow typists will be able to generate messages of an acceptable length with less effort than, say, typing a full email. There are parallel arguments to be made for cognitive access as well.
Twitup: Twitter remaking the persona of the physically challenged
Shortcuts, people, got every reason to live
The history of the graphical user interface, in one sentence: The mouse is introduced, then people keep looking for more and more keyboard shortcuts so they don’t have to use the mouse–particularly if their impetus is a dexterity disability. So we’re happy to report that our first Windows 7 post links to a rundown of a bunch of shiny new shortcuts, covering a range of functions from creating a new file to starting up any of the first ten items pinned to your Start menu.
Can you feel the glove tonight?
TouchTec is a new technology that allows creation of gloves that meet user standards of warmth and stylishness, while allowing activation of both capacitive and resistive touch screens–for the significant price of $200-$300. Any way to make and inexpensively distribute smaller squares of the fabric for mounting on mouthsticks?
ChipChick: TouchTec iPhone Gloves for Women, They’re Finally Here!
Book ‘em, Marian
Brave new world: libraries are now circulating e-books. Although some attention has been given to copyright concerns (e.g., only one patron can be reading a specific e-book copy at a time, and it automatically disappears from their reader after a few weeks), there are still a number of practical issues to iron out–e-reader compatibility, retaining publisher profitability, etc. While they’re at it, can we ask to throw in considerations for accessibility, on both the technical level (will the circulating books work with standard assistive technology?) and the policy level (will assistive tech users be able to have extended borrowing periods, as they often do for hard copy materials?). If so, it could mean major steps forward in availability of alternative formats for people who can’t read or hold standard books.
New York Times: Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending