Opening Web 2.0 Doors for People with Disabilities

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One of the problems with Web 2.0 (and more specifically AJAX’ed applications) is their lack of usability for people with different types of disabilities. AJAX (aka Asynchronous Javascript over XML aka snazzy things done behind the browser screen) is an example of technology that has been adopted widely with graceful accessibility trying very hard to catch up.

Not all is bad news, Google for one is working very hard (and so are other companies such as Yahoo! and Sun) on adding accessibility features to browsers and websites to make them more accessible aware. They’ll be hosting a seminar next Monday at the googleplex which ought to be very informative if anyone is interested in going. Google even has an accessible version of their Search.

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-source-developers-goo…

From their post:

Want to learn more about creating accessible Web 2.0 applications from the creators of Fire Vox and Emacspeak? If you are nearby Google’s Mountain View, California, USA Headquarters on Monday, July 14th, please join us for Charles Chen and T.V. Raman’s presentation Enhancing Web 2.0 Accessibility via AxsJAX. They will take you through a hands on tutorial on Google-AxsJax, an Open Source framework for injecting usability enhancements into Web 2.0 applications. Among other topics, Charles and T.V. will cover an overview of AxsJAX’s developer tools, enabling eyes-free interaction for web applications and iterative design processes for accessibility improvements. They will also let you know the secret to getting a cool t-shirt with the Google logo printed in Braille.