jaws

For Gidi Ahronovich, his visual impairment is not the only thing he has to battle. From social discrimination to dealing with curious queries on how his
‘love life’ would end up, to drawing swords up against the telephone giant Orange in his country, for only having a “drawing of an envelope on the phone
screen” to announce the arrival of a new message instead of the usual voice alerts, Ahronovich’s story is not a blind man’s sob story but that of a winner
in life.

His tone is cynical and touches a strong chord that is both raw and real, making him a perfect voice to be featured in the day’s choice of blog posts under
the heading ‘What you see is what you get’ on inclusiveplanet.com.

It is voices such as these that the founders of inclusiveplanet.com hope will resonate globally, strong enough to send the message across: the visually
impaired can neither be ignored nor their prowess undermined.

When posting documents on web sites, they have to follow the same accessibility requirements that the site does. For example, when the web site needs to comply with Section 508, PDF documents do too. There are a few things which I find are often overlooked when creating accessible PDF documents, in the following you can read about those and ensure that you address those issues as well.

On an increasing number of web sites you can find the phrase "accessibility statement". Sometimes it is very visible and hard to miss, in other cases we can barely find it. Did you ever read any of these accessibility statements? If you ever did, do you read it on all sites where you find them? In this article I will explain what is the accessibility statement, and give you a couple of points to decide if you need it on your web site.

JAWS scripting refers to making applications more accessible for those who use the JAWS for Windows screen reader to interact with their computer. They are mostly totally blind, and some low vision people. JAWS, however, in every day terminology is unfortunately used to refer to screen readers in general. In many instances developers claim that an application works with JAWS, where the claim should be that it works with screen readers. Also, it happens often that applications are tested with JAWS for Windows and it is stated that it supports screen readers.

This article will explain what screen reader scripting and screen reader customization is, when is it the most beneficial to use it, and when should you use other methods of making applications accessible. It will also reveal the facts behinds pros and cons of screen reader customization.

Throughout my accessibility consulting work, Section 508 certification is one of the first questions I get.
many of my clients asked me at the beginning of a Section 508 remediation, if I will provide them with a Section 508 certificate, which states the compliance of their product. In this article, I would like to answer this question, and dissolve misconceptions about Section 508 certification.

Don't forget to download our free web accessibility workbook

During my consulting practice, many times I hear that a site was speaking with JAWS, so it must be accessible/WCAG conformant/Section 508 compliant. In this article I will show how JAWS works, when can we use it for testing, and why testing with JAWS or any screen reader only, we cannot establish the accessibility of a web site. In addition, you can read about JAWS scripting.