Richard from Webbism writes a blog describing his effort to find the “accessibility help” resources on Facebook. I wince in pain. With some determination, he finds this paltry excuse for a “help” page which talks about how people using screen reader assistive technology can use the “mobile” version (http://m.facebook.com) of Facebook since it uses only HTML.

Bless you Richard for trying.

Others in the LinkedIn group note how, in an effort work around the accessibility issues in Facebook, some government departments have created “alternatives.” Richard notes: “The Victorian Government (Australia) have a FB page and they replicate the content on another site for accessibility.”

Bless you all as well.

For years, the lack of accessibility of Facebook has been chronicled and commitments made to resolve this injustice:

• April 2009 – Facebook Commits To Making Social Networking More Accessible For Visually Challenged Users
• February 2009 – Making Facebook more accessible. There was even a group of developers who was trying to fix it; I even wrote about it!
• And some gallant folks have attempted to develop workarounds…April 2012 – Facebook more accessible on mobile devices…and Beta testers needed for Accessible Facebook app.

Yet, many setbacks…FaceBook Shuts Down Its Accessible Version.

On this the eve of Global Accessibility Day (May 9th) and with Facebook’s IPO set for May 18th, I think it bears mentioning that this guy could make Facebook accessible in a heartbeat if he wanted to.

—-

Photo credit: Image licensed through Creative Commons by jolieodell

Just want to help spread the word about this effort. Here is what it is all about (from their Facebook page):

About

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is a community-driven effort whose goal is to focus one day to raise the profile of digital (web, software, mobile app/device, touch screen kiosk, etc.) accessibility and people with different disabilities.

Description

The idea started with a single blog post written by a Los Angeles-based developer, Joe Devon . On May 9, 2012 people in communities around the world are encouraged to hold a talk/meetup, organize hands-on demos, or plan another activity that brings attention to some aspect of digital accessibility. You can make it big or small, formal, or less so. You can arrange something at work/school, or open it up to your local community.

In addition to events, for an hour on May 9, we will invite and encourage people to unplug their mice, turn off their screens, and/or turn off their speakers and use their computers. We will provide a place for people to blog about their experiences.

This event is community-driven, that means by you! Like this page to express interest and to stay updated as the day takes shape. Post your thoughts on the idea of a Global Accessibility Awareness Day on the Wall and/or express interest in helping to organize an event in your city. We are going to need people who speak other languages to help us spread word about the day to truly make it global. Follow @GblA11yDay on Twitter and use the #gaad hashtag in your own tweets. E-mail globala11yawarenessday at gmail.com with any questions/thoughts.

Ultimately, the goal is to use one day, May 9, to raise the profile of and expand the conversation on digital accessibility beyond the converted. It is not meant in any way to replace other efforts.

Let’s see if we can do this, and have some fun at the same time.

Feel free to help spread the word by “liking” and following them on Facebook. Maybe someday even Facebook will be accessible!

In the correspondence that followed, my colleague noted that the mobile version of Facebook was “usable” with screen readers but we both agreed that there were a number of things that you could not do on Facebook using the mobile interface or even the iPad/iPod Facebook app.

I wish I had read a December 8th posting from Marco’s Accessibility Blog because he had done all of the work for me, detailing extensively the issues related to the two big social networking sites as well as several more – some of which I’d never heard of before. Marco’s “Social Networking and Accessibility: A rather sad picture” blog does give a pretty comprehensive, sad and up-to-date (he revised the blog several days later with new information) picture of the topic so I highly recommend reading it in its entirety. I like the fact they he did not stop with screen reader AT but also mentioned issues for folks with mobility issues and the requirement to use a mouse/pointing device to access content and perform functions with many of these services.

So, if you are looking here for a good, reliable and accurate review of the major social networking services and their lack of accessibility, head on over to Marco’s and check it out. I will be adding him to my blogroll.

Happy New Year – Let’s hope there are new and good things in store for accessible web design in 2012.

I had this feeling today when I read a series of articles from this week’s Chronicle of Higher Education about accessible and universal design in college websites (links to all articles below). The cover story for the series tells the story of Darrell Shandrow, a senior at Arizona State University at Tempe. Mr. Shandrow is a journalism major who at age 37 would be considered a “non-traditional” student. But what makes Mr. Shandrow all the more non-traditional is the fact that he is blind student who isn’t afraid of making a few waves.

The right place, right time comment has to do with the fact that I had just blogged a few days ago about this exact topic. It’s nice to see some supporting documentation for my position.

If you are interested in the stuff I write about here you should absolutely read these articles. And like most on-line news stories today there is a place to make comments. I find reading the comments to often be more informative than the article. In this case, the comments made by a few people prove the point of why we need to be advocates for accessible and universal design and why we need to be vigilant.

After reading the articles the first thing I did was send the links out to a half-dozen colleagues and put links on Twitter. Then I went and testing the home page of my alma mater. St. Francis College of Brooklyn would probably score in the lower third.

As someone who started their web design career as a university webmaster, I have a particular affection for this topic. But to me web accessibility for a college/university website is a no-brainer.

The series:

Chronicle of Higher Education article “Colleges Lock Out Blind Students Online”

Sidebar: About Cal State’s success

Sidebar: Chart ranking the best and worst college web sites

Universal Design, Usability, and Accessibility

accessible facebook logo

From Dan Jellinek E-ACCESS BULLETIN

A tool to make the social networking site Facebook more accessible to visually impaired users has been created by Project:Possibility, a group of not-for-profit software developers in the US. The application allows visually impaired users to log in, navigate and use the site by combining screen reader technology with other coding techniques.

Brian D’Souza, a team member who worked on the project, explained: “We leveraged an existing technology developed by Google called AxsJax (accessibility + AJAX) which combines use of screen readers and java script and navigation methods to make navigation and modification of content of webpages easier. It provides a lot of value for a blind person.”

Facebook’s popularity has risen dramatically in recent years, with more than 150 million users worldwide. However some users claim it does not fully support assistive tools, with several groups active on the site itself pressing for a more accessible service, such as The Official Petition for a More Accessible Facebook, which contains almost 1,500 members. Some measures have already been taken by Facebook to accommodate the needs of disabled users, such as releasing screen reader-friendly versions of some of its applications.

The Facebook tool was one of a series of projects created at the recent UCLA SS12, an annual ‘code-a-thon’ held at the University of California, Los Angeles. Software developers spend a weekend working on projects for disabled people.

Other projects developed by the same team at this year’s SS12 included Project AWE, a ‘website accessibility tagging tool’, which allows users and third parties to rate the accessibility of web pages. Ratings are automatically retrieving when the disabled user visits the page, allowing them to immediately gain an idea of how easy the page will be to navigate.

NOTE: I’ve sent an e-mail off to the Project:Possibility folks to find out how one actually can acquire Accessible Facebook and will post their response when I receive one.

To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, email eab-subs@headstar.com with ‘subscribe eab’ in the subject header. You can list other email addresses to subscribe in the body of the message. Please encourage all your colleagues to sign up! To unsubscribe at any time, put ‘unsubscribe eab’ in the subject header.

~John B

Originally posted 02/16/09 | Posted by admin | Category Accessibility