oz: the blog of glenda sims ( the goodwitch)

After a decade of working in the field of web accessibility, I still hear people who think that creating accessibile multimedia for the web is too expensive and too hard to do. I’ll admit, I was initially overwhelmed by the challenges. But today, I know that accessible multimedia is doable and smart business. You just […]

...continue reading How do You Solve the Accessible Video and Audio Challenge?

Today is the very first Global Accessibility Awareness Day. To be a part of this virtual event, I chose to deepen my understanding of accessibility by spending an hour using the web by keyboard alone. You see, for people with visual disabilities (that use screenreaders) they don’t have the opportunity to use a mouse. A […]

...continue reading Accessibility Awareness – My 1 Mouseless Hour on the Web

Mark May 9 on your calendar for the first Global Accessibility Awareness Day! Purpose: Get people talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and users with different disabilities, especially among the design, development, usability, and related communities who build, shape, fund and influence technology use and change. While people may be interested in the topic, […]

...continue reading May 9 is Global Accessibility Awareness Day

My new year’s resolution, upgrade my VMWare to the latest version, and add a Windows 7 virtual machine…so I can test on Mac, Windows XP and Windows 7…all on my magical mac. So, I was happily running VMWare 3.x with no issues and still on Windows XP. JAWS was working like a charm with video […]

...continue reading Beware of Video Intercept in VMWare 4.1.1

Want to do something meaningful for the holidays? How about sending an email to an inaccessible web site, asking them to make their site accessible? I just did it, myself! If you want to do this too, head to the great list just published over at WebAim of Accessibility Errors Found on the Alexa Top 100 Web Sites.

I picked a site, pulled it up in my browser, and found their customer service email form. Then I sent the message below (this is a generic version in case you want to copy and use it yourself):

...continue reading All I want for Christmas is a More Accessible Web – Be an Accessibility Elf

The Sims family is ever increasing. Marriages followed by new baby Sims have left the mantel at Christmas overflowing with stockings. This year we will be adding two stockings, one for baby Brynnley and one for Yana. As thrilled as I am about the newest baby in the family, I’m even more excited about the newest addition, Yana.

Yana is a beautiful 14 year old who grew up in Russia. She lived in an orphanage in Zhytomyr, which is closing. Her only living relative is an older sister, who is 18 and just barely able to support herself.

...continue reading The Beginning of Something Beautiful – Yana Sims

My mom will be turning 80 this month. My aunt and I are cookin’ up some great plans to make her birthday as special as she is. I’ve arranged to have a hot air balloon ride on the morning of her birthday. And my awesome aunt is flying in from California to help us celebrate […]

...continue reading Mom’s 80th Birthday Cake

I’m often asked to create the business case for building accessibility in to your web process. Most organizations are very responsive when I explain the benefits of universal design, the crossover between accessibility and usability, as well as accessibility and mobile design. By the time I explain the search engine optimization benefits, they are often salivating and ready to commit to accessibility. But, what happens when I’m working with a company that is inaccessible but already has decent SEO? I remind them that the litigation risks are real and the cost of retrofitting for accessibility is significantly higher than designing with accessibility in mind from the beginning. The thoughts I want etched into their minds are:

...continue reading Design with Accessibility in Mind