Irked & Accessibility: Our Pledge to Try Harder

Millions upon millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the internet.

“Web accessibility” means making sure that people with disabilities can use the Web. It’s that simple.

Web accessibility encompasses all factors that affect access to the internet, including visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.

Currently, most websites have “accessibility barriers” that make it difficult or impossible for many people with disabilities to use the Web.

Irked Magazine is guilty of this. And we’re working on it.

We’re delighted to announce that we have a fully accessible version of IrkedMagazine.com in the works, and we really, really hope to unveil it alongside our next (4th) issue.

We’d also like to emphasize that if you are one of the people who can’t easily navigate our website because it’s inaccessible, please accept our sincerest apologies. Irked Magazine is about inclusion, and about honouring each person’s voice. This should definitely be reflected in our design…and will be soon.

Thank you so much for your patience!

In the meantime, until we get our act together and start publishing an accessible version of Irked, we’ve compiled a list of a few tips that might help people who are having difficulty viewing our site.

Please note: while this site does work with all browsers, Irked Magazine strongly recommends using Mozilla Firefox. The Mozilla Foundation has worked very hard to design a web browser that is accessible for all people. Firefox provides many “assistive technology” products for free on their website. Below are the links to a few of those great products:

Web accessibility if you are using Firefox

Tip#1: Press “Ctrl+” at anytime to increase font size onscreen
(Similarly, “Ctrl-” reduces font size)

Here is a list of suggested Firefox “extensions” that might benefit people with different disabilities. All of the extensions mentioned below are entirely free to download and install. They are specifically compatible with the latest version of Firefox, which is free and can be downloaded here.

(*A giant thanks to Ken Saunders, who created the awesome Access Firefox site. This list would not have been possible without him!)

1. Fire Vox

Fire Vox is a text to speech talking browser extension for Firefox that can not only read web page text, but it can read the Firefox user interface as well including the main menus and sub-menus. This extension is very helpful for those who have poor vision or are blind. The keyboard shortcuts are apparently easy to learn and they are customizable to suit your needs. There is plenty of documentation on the Fire Vox website to help you to easily use and get acquainted with Fire Vox.

2. CLiCk, Speak

The CLiCk Speak extension for Firefox is great because it’s simple to use. At the press of a button, CLiCk Speak will read the contents of a web page that you have highlighted, or it can read the contents automatically. Visit the CLiCk Speak homepage for downloads, FAQ, installation guides, user's manual and more.

3. Accessibar

The Accessibar toolbar for Firefox is a fantastic tool that allows you to quickly and easily change various visual settings of web pages for a more comfortable Internet surfing experience. Toolbar features include the flexibility to: increase/decrease text size; change text color; change font type; change web page background color; increase/decrease line spacing; hide/show images; built-in screen reader. Another great thing about the Accessibar is that changes remain persistent while going from page to page, but are not saved when the browser is closed. Visit the Accessibar homepage to get started.

4. Firefox Accessibility Extension

The Firefox Accessibility Extension is another great accessibility extension for Firefox that offers a good amount of accessibility tools in a single toolbar, or through drop down menus. With this extension, you get virtually full control over web page display and navigation (there are more than 55 features). To download the full list of features in Word, ODT or PDF format, visit the Firefox Accessibility Extension homepage.

5. Mouse Gestures

Mouse Gestures is a Firefox Add-on that allows you to navigate through Firefox and the Internet by simply holding down a mouse button (usually the one on the right), and then you move the mouse in a certain direction to execute the mouse gesture. For example, by holding down the right mouse button and moving the mouse to the left you'll go back one web page. Another great thing about Mouse Gestures is that once you learn it, you can customize the Mouse Gestures to your needs and liking, or install new ones. Visit the Mouse Gestures homepage to download, as well as for tips on how to use and customize this great extension.

6. Colorful Tabs

The Colorful Tabs Firefox extension gives each tab that you open a different color so that not all of the tabs blend in together. This makes it much easier to identify each individual tab and it makes for smoother navigation. The background tabs can be set to be more or less visible by using the Colorful Tabs options menu. Download the Colorful Tabs extension here.

7. Page Zoom

Page Zoom gives you the ability to fully zoom in and out of web pages. All contents on the page including images can be zoomed. You can either use the Page Zoom buttons, or keyboard shortcuts. The Page Zoom download page can be found here.

8. Hi Vis Gnome Jumbo—by: Ed Hume

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Related:

If you are using Internet Explorer: click here for details on Accessibility in Microsoft products.

If you are using Mac OS X Tiger: click here for details on Universal Access in Apple products.

If you are using Opera: click here for details on Accessibility in Opera.

If you are using Netscape Navigator: click here for details on how to personalize the look of the Netscape browser.