Accessible Yahoo! widgets

A couple of days ago I have attended a presentation by Yahoo! discussing their User Interface Library, which contains a large number of widgets. This library has been very accessible over the years, but there is even more to come.

the Yahoo! User Interface Library (YUI) is the perfect addition to your tools. For the last several years I have been recommending it to developers. Yahoo! develops this library with accessibility in mind, and they are quick to respond with fixes when inaccessibility is discovered. Moreover, while Yahoo! does not make any claims on being Section 508 compliant, most of the widgets would stand a rigorous Section 508 testing.

In the past their approach was to provide a set of tools which are not inaccessible, and additional accessibility features would be easy to add. These days, however, it is important to release tools which are by default more accessible, and even if developers are not aware of accessibility requirements, the tools would not allow them to be inaccessible. The next release of the YUI will do just that.

If you are interested about the YUI's future, follow its blog.