Access on Main Street

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

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

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.

Lifehacker: The master list of new Windows 7 shortcuts

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!

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

So why is our attention piqued by Windows 7 XP Mode, which will let “small and medium-sized businesses running Windows 7 Professional or higher leverage their existing investments in Windows XP applications”? Well, some assistive technology products never came out in a Vista version, and many others will take awhile to release Win7-native versions. If XP Mode is a way for businesses to upgrade to Win7 without interrupting accessibility, it will prevent a lot of migraines.

TechNewsWorld: Microsoft Puts Final Polish on XP Mode

We’ve maintained for years that universal design is unfortunately also represented by constructions that are inaccessible to as many individuals as possible. Case in point: commercial sites that deliberately draw the attention of your eyes and/or your assistive technology to links where they want you to go, such as a place to buy an upgrade rather than download a freebie. The article cited below points out how this complicates navigation for everyone, not just people with print disabilities.

SearchEngineLand: The Dark Side Of Usability: When Business Goals & User Goals Collide