Web Accessibility Toolbar

RNIB Surf Right Toolbar Released

2008-06-25T03:30:00.000+09:30

A beta version of the RNIB Surf Right Toolbar (for IE) is now available. This is a tool for users to help them modify web content presentation to suit their needs. The toolbar brings built in Internet Explorer Accessibility features to the fore, as well as providing enhanced custom styles support and and easy access to the Windows Accessibilty Control Panel. Many thanks to Jun for working with me and the RNIB team (past and present - Bim, Henny, Andrew, Anne and Donna) on this project.

Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0 Chinese Language version

2008-03-20T20:33:00.000+10:30

I am pleased to announce the release of the Traditional Chinese language version of the WAT 2.0 (including a Traditional Chinese version of the Color Contrast Analyser 2.0) The software translations were provided by Jedi. He is still working on the documentation, which will be available shortly. I don't have any knowledge of the awareness or interest of web accessibility in China and Taiwan, but hopefully access to free tools such the WAT and Color Contrast Analyser will help. Thanks to Jedi for his hard work.

Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0 - Traditional Chinese Version (.exe, 1.3 mb)

Contrast Analyser (Traditonal Chinese) standalone version (zip, 367 kb)

Color Contrast Analyser 2.0 Czech Version

2007-12-21T23:57:00.000+10:30

Petr Stohwasser has kindly provide a Czech version Analyzér kontrastu barev verze 2.0 of the color contrast analyser 2.0

CSS Editor bookmarklet For Internet Explorer

2007-12-01T00:44:00.000+10:30

CSS Editor bookmarklet for IE - For times when CSS styles need to be tested, on the fly, in Internet Explorer, the CSS editor bookmarklet can come in handy.

German language Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0

2007-12-01T00:36:00.000+10:30

Now available - German language Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0 Deutsch: Web Accessibility Toolbar DE - version 2.0 (1.3 mb installation file)
Thanks to Benjamin Griessmann from Web For All and Martin Kliehm for their work on the translation.

Contrast Ananlyser 2.0 Windows and MAC OSX

2007-07-11T17:04:00.000+09:30

The new version of the CCA 2.0 is now available.
new features:

Improved interface
choice of sample area sizes for color picker
Updated contrast ratio algorithm
It can be used to check for conformance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1 and 2 checkpoints relating to contrast issues using the colour brightness/colour difference formulas and the contrast ratio algorithm.
Detailed or summary results view

A huge thanks to Jun for all his work on this project and thanks to Cedric Trevisan for the MAC version

The Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0 beta

2007-06-15T01:06:00.000+09:30

The Web Accessibility Toolbar 2.0 beta is now available.

Whats new version 2.0

Compatible with IE 7 and Vista
All functions (except third party) no longer rely upon external scripts.
Most functions now work when javascript is disabled
Most functions (where applicable) work across frames & iframes
HTML validator - checks files from a local server or folder.

New functionality:

log window: when the log text box is opened, any messages that a
function provides are written to the log window (instead of an alert
box). Text can also be entered into the log text box. this info can be
saved to a text file.
Open in Firefox and opera buttons: opens the current page in firefox
or Opera (if installed)
HTML validation quick check: returns summary check results from the
W3C validator.
frames list: provides access to any framed documents
generated source highlighter: generated source views with elements highlighted.
Focus highlighter
Functional Accessibility Evaluator
plus others and upgrades to existing functions

WAT for Opera 1.1 now available.

2006-12-14T05:57:00.000+10:30

The Web Accessibility Toolbar for Opera 1.1 [WAT for Opera] now available.

Opera recently made some new tools available, which I have included within the WAT for Opera. I have also done some bug fixing (a never ending task)

Web Accessibility Toolbar ES 1.2: Spanish language version now available

2006-09-18T03:05:00.000+09:30

Alan Chuter from Technosite has collaborated with WAT-C to develop the Spanish language version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar 1.2
Descagar - La barra de herramientas de accesibilidad Web (759 KB, exe file)

JavaScript event tests part 1: onmouseover

2006-07-31T15:06:00.000+09:30

JavaScript event tests part 1: onmouseover

This is the first part of a series of articles investigating support for
JavaScript events in popular screen readers. This article investigates
the onmouseover event.
Big thanks to Gez Lemon for his support and input!

Ten questions for Steve Faulkner

2006-07-31T15:04:00.000+09:30

Steve Faulkner talks about accessibility, the Web Accessibility toolbar, the Web
Accessibility Tools Consortium, title attributes, AJAX and WCAG2.

The Web Accessibility Toolbar for Opera [WAT for Opera] now available.

2006-07-11T07:51:00.000+09:30

The Web Accessibility Toolbar for Opera [WAT for Opera] now available.

Web Accessibility Tools Consortium members; Cedric Trevison of The Paciello Group (TPG) and Steve Faulkner of vision australia have developed a version of the popular testing tool, the Web Accessibility Toolbar , that can be installed on the Opera web browser.

Read more and download the WAT for Opera

Web Accessibility Toolbar SE 1.2: Swedish language version now available.

2006-07-08T06:14:00.000+09:30

Peter Krantz has collaborated with WAT-C to develop a Swedish language version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar 1.2

Download: Web Accessibility Toolbar SE 1.2 [exe file, 789 KB]

Many thanks to Peter who is an active Web Standards and Accessibility advocate, amongst other things he has developed a Screen Reader emulator [Fangs: The Screen Reader Emulator] and has two web sites that provide useful resources for web developers: Standards Shmandards and peterkrantz.com.

Web Accessibility Toolbar DE 1.2: German language version now available.

2006-06-02T15:41:00.000+09:30

Walter Kiessl and his colleagues from WEB for ALL have worked with WAT-C to produce the German localisation of the Web Accessibility Toolbar: Download WAT DE version 1.2 (758 KB , exe file)

Making Ajax Work with Screen Readers

2006-06-02T15:38:00.000+09:30

Gez Lemon and Steve Faulkner have collaborated on research and testing to investigate techniques for making AJAX applications accessible to screen reader users:
Making Ajax Work with Screen Readers

Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 - Italian language version now available.

2006-05-09T09:48:00.000+09:30

Steve Faulkner and Roberto Castaldo have collaborated to produce an Italian language version of the CCA 1.1: Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 - Versione italiana application.

Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1: Portuguese [Brazilian] language version now available

2006-05-09T09:45:00.000+09:30

Mauricio Samy Silva has contributed to WAT-C by translating the Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 into Portuguese: Analisador de Contraste de Cores 1.1.

New Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 now available

2006-04-13T19:09:00.000+09:30

The new version of the CCA is now available.
Packed with new features:

choice of algorithms (luminosity and colour brightness/difference)
Input hex or RGB values
RGB sliders to tweak colours on the fly and get results instantly.
Simulation functions that allow application of colour blindness andother simulations to screen captures, existing images, and real time simulations via a draggable "simulation window"
Button to "copy results" to clipboard for insertion in documents.

A huge thanks to Jun for all his work on this project and thanks to Gez, Sofia, Andrew and pixeldiva for their feedback during development, and a minor pat on the back to my humble self....

Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1

French: Web Accessibility Toolbar FR 1.2 - Now available

2006-04-13T19:05:00.000+09:30

French: Web Accessibility Toolbar FR 1.2, Information and Download - La barre d'outils Accessibilité du Web FR 1.2. Thanks to Sylvie Duchateau and Tanguy Loheac from Braillenet for the localisation.

Web Accessibility Toolbar PT-BR 1.2 now available

2006-03-07T21:08:00.000+10:30

Portuguese [Brazilian]: Web Accessibility Toolbar PT-BR 1.2 Information and Download Barra de Ferramentas para acessibilidade à Web.
Thanks to Mauricio Samy Silva for the localisation.

2006-02-27T10:00:00.000+10:30

A version of Gez's excellent Colour Contrast Analyser firefox extension has been added to the english version of the WAT (in the colour menu).
Please update using the toolbar's "accessibility toolbar options > update toolbar" function in order to use it.

Tags: accessibility, web accessibility

Toolbar date specific bug

2006-01-03T02:32:00.000+10:30

The Web accessibility toolbar stopped functioning for one day (the 30/12/2005). This was a one-off occurance, it was due to a date specific bug in the source code. Apologies for any inconvenience caused....

Tags: accessibility, web accessibility

Web Accessibility Toolbar 1.2 Dutch language version

2005-12-28T02:36:00.000+10:30

Stichting Bartiméus Accessibility have worked with WAT-C to produce the Dutch localization of the Web Accessibility Toolbar: Nederlandse versie Web Accessibility Toolbar

Many thanks to Iaco for all all her hard work on the translation!
Tags: accessibility, web accessibility

Colour Contrast Analyser: Bulgarian language version now available

2005-12-20T10:17:00.000+10:30

Vladimir Georgiev has contributed to WAT-C by translating the Colour Contrast Analyser into Bulgarian. Colour Contrast Analyser BG 1.0

Tags: accessibility, web accessibility

Colour Contrast Analyser: Portuguese language version now available

2005-12-13T09:22:00.000+10:30

Maurício Samy Silva has contributed to WAT-C by translating the Colour Contrast Analyser into Portuguese. Versão em português do Brasil: Analisador de Contraste de Cores. - Monday, December 12, 2005

Tags: accessibility, web accessibility

feedback and questions

2005-11-04T12:43:00.000+10:30

Please post comments and feedback here and if you would like a response include an email address or email me directly [steven.faulkner@nils.org.au]

NEW - Web Accessibility Toolbar EN 1.2

2005-10-27T13:24:00.000+09:30

At long last I have managed to release the new English version of the Toolbar!
The Web Accessibility Toolbar EN 1.2 is now available.
There are a heap of new and updated features including:

Integrated colour contrast analyser application.
New source menu with some old favourites and new functionality: including source highlighters and 3rd party DOM inspectors.
Bug fixes galore
New functions such as, show blockquote and Q, Show internal links, Show Titles,Show Tbale headers and Navigation via link element.
A new IE options dialog interface for screen reader and keyboard only users.
Popup blocker detection for functions that open in new windows.
Enable/disable hot keys for users who encounter key combination conflicts.

Links:

Many thanks to all those who helped, especially JUn and Sofia Celic, Andrew Arch and Brian Hardy

Toolbar Installation issue with XP SP2

2005-03-23T09:43:00.000+10:30

A few users have emailed me, saying that when they have installed the toolbar they have been unable to activate it from the Internet Explorer 'View > Toolbars' menu. They reported that the accessibility toolbar menu item is there but it is "greyed out". I have tracked down the problem. To solve this issue:

In Internet Explorer, go to the 'tools > internet options > programs > manage add-ons' dialog
Ensure that the accessibility toolbar status is set to enabled.
restart IE and the 'accessibility toolbar' menu item will now be available.

ARCHIVED WAT EN 1.1 Posts

2005-02-17T10:42:00.000+10:30

Web Accessibility Toolbar EN 1.1

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Colour Contrast Analyser 1.0 & Versione italiana 1.0

The Italian translation of the Colour Contrast Analyser has been completed by the multi-talented Roberto Castaldo (many thanks!!) Informazioni & download for the Colour Contrast analyser Versione italiana 1.0.The (english) .09 version only lasted for a few days it has been updated to 1.0 and includes an upgraded simulation algorithm, better user interface and extra colour pallets.- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:48 AM

Friday, February 04, 2005

Colour Contrast Analyser 0.9

JUn (with a bit of help) has developed a colour contrast analyser application. It is available as a stand alone application, but will also be available as an integrated application in the next release of the web accessibility toolbar.- posted by steve faulkner @ 3:49 PM

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

minor modification to 'show lang attributes' function

The 'show lang attributes' function didn't pick up the 'hreflang' which it should, so now it does. thanks to Iaco for pointing this out.I have now unmodified it because i was not thinking clearly, i became confused about the hreflang. thanks again to Iaco for pointing this out.Another minor modification has been made (08/02/05) due to IE's lack of support for the ABBR element. that should be it for now..........- posted by steve faulkner @ 1:36 PM

Friday, January 21, 2005

1 more function plus new additional documentation

The recent flurry of activity (additons to the toolbar) has been due to the preparation of a document called The Web Accessibility Toolbar and WCAG 1.0 which is now finished and published.

This document indicates which toolbar function (if any) is helpful in assessing conformance to the WCAG 1.0 Checkpoints.

Each time i looked a particular checkpoint I thought

"it would be good if the toolbar could help check for that"

and proceeded to try to cobble together some code to do it, or scrounge around for some code to modify or best of all hassle Sofia or JUn to do some development.The newest function is:Structure > JavaScript / New Window LinksIt Displays an icon next to links that contain JavaScript in the href attribute. The links are also given a dashed border and background colour.

it Displays an icon next to links that contain an onclick event handler and common words used in new window scripts in the href and/or the onclick attribute. The links are also given a dashed border and background colour.

It Displays an icon next to links that have their target attribute specified (_self & _top are excluded) . The links are also given a background colour.

Aknowledgement to Autark who created the script this is based on.

Thanks to Sofia Jun and Andrew Arch for their help and hard work.....- posted by steve faulkner @ 4:24 PM

Thursday, January 20, 2005

2 more functions added

The last of the major functions added..... until the new version comes out!

'Doc Info > Identify Multimedia Files'

Displays (in a new window) the code of any object/embed elements found. it also lists links to Multimedia files (Examples: mp3, mov, swf, ram etc) found on the current page. Developed by Sofia Celic

'Doc Info > Identify Scripts & Applets'

Displays (in a new window) any applets found and the associated code. It also lists embedded and external scripts found and in most cases allows the viewing and downloading of external scripts linked from current page.Developed by Sofia Celic with aknowledgement to Lioren.

Also started adding better error handling on some functions.- posted by steve faulkner @ 4:35 PM

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

3 functions modified + 1 removed

The 'doc info > list pdf's' has been reborn as the doc info > 'list downloadable files' it still list PDF files, but also lists a heap of other downloadble files if found. Big thanks to Sofia Celic for allowing me and helping me to mangle her code in order to create this function anew.The frames related functions "structure > frame borders" & "structure > frame name / title" have been improved (now identify iframes if present)I have removed the "simulations > greyscale" function as it is a duplicate of the "colours > greyscale" function- posted by steve faulkner @ 11:48 AM

Thursday, January 13, 2005

3 new functions added plus 2 modified

New functions have been added:

'Structure > Show tab order' - numbers (in tab order) and puts a background colour & border around all active elements on the page. If the element has a tabindex attribute this is indicated.Note: applets/multimedia/ image maps/iframes are treated as one increment in the tab order.
'Doc Info > Show DOCTYPE' - simple function that shows an alert box indicating the DOCTYPE (if present)
'Doc Info > Show Lang attributes' - Displays on the current page any lang attributes found along with their associated elements. With acknowledgement to: Bartimeus Accessibility Foundation

Also two functions have been modified, one has been removed.

The 'CSS > CSS on/off' & the 'CSS > Inline styles off' functions have now become one:'CSS > Disable CSS'. this function now disables external style sheets and removes inline syles as well.
the 'CSS> test styles function' has been updated to include a dropdown list of style rules found in style sheets associated with the page, which can be inserted into the edit area. the styel changes can also be cleared using the 'clear' button. The functions interface has also been prettied up a tad.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 3:36 PM

Friday, January 07, 2005

New Function - Complex Table Inspector

Gez from Juicy Studio has kindly agreed to let me add the Complex Table Inspector favelet he developed to the other Juicy Studio tools available on the Web Accessibility Toolbar. Information about the Complex Table Inspector and lost of other interesting stuff can be found at Juicystudio.com.The Inspector can be found on the Toolbar under "Tools > Juicy Studio Tools > Complex Table Inspector".Thanks Gez....- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:06 AM

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

New Functions Added

2 New functions have been added to the toolbar:

Show Image Maps : Checks for the presence of client-side and server-side image maps. if none are found it is indicated by an alert message. If image maps are found, they are displayed in a new window along with the associated area elements. This function was developed by my esteemed colleague Sofia Celic.
Vischeck Colour Blindness Simulator (Deuteranope: common red/green): Submits the URL of the current page to the Vischeck Colour Blindeness Simulator the URL is processesd (may take a little while), a page will open with a link to the simulation (in a new window).

These functions will appear on your toolbar after the next (Weekly) auto update or you can force an update using the Accessibility toolbar options > update feature.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 7:26 AM

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

minor modification to functionality

I have removed the "hot keys" for IE options > toggle CSS and toggle activeX as some people were getting keyboard conflicts and inexplicable activation of these functions, which caused some people some grief as they didn't know why most web pages looked crap (crapper?). These functions can still be accessed via the keyboard by using ctrl + alt + S to open the IE options menu and then using the arrow keys to navigate through the menu items.See the list of "hot keys" for other functions/menus.- posted by steve faulkner @ 4:39 PM

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Function Update: Structure > Event Handlers

My friend and colleague Sofia Celic has been working on updating and improving some of the Toolbar functions (as well as the laborious task of improving the documentation). The first function to get the treatment is "Structure > Event Handlers" which now is much more robust and checks for event handlers and combinations of event handlers on a greater range of elements: The script has been extended to include checking of the following elements: table, th, td, span, textarea,img. It has been also been amended to insert an 'information bubble' instead of a 'warning symbol' for 'onclick' attribute without 'onkeypress' attribute.Many Thanks Sofia.....what's next?- posted by steve faulkner @ 2:35 PM

Bug report: ID attributes and JavaScript variables

I have been flumoxed (not difficult for me) as to why some functions have not been working on some pages. I have worked out why..... If a HTML element in the page contains an ID attribute with the same value as a variable name used within a JavaScript based toolbar function, it won't work, thankfully it don't happen too often. So I will need to go through the process of updating the toolbar scripts with more unique variable names....- posted by steve faulkner @ 1:01 PM

Monday, November 08, 2004

real time CSS editor bookmarklet (alpha version)

I have been working on an updated "CSS > test styles" function for the toolbar, the original was created by Jesse Ruderman. i have always wanted to beef it up and include some extra features, which I have now done. The user can now insert new and existing style declarations on the fly and see the changes take effect instantly, the changes will affect all pages on a site as long as the css editor is open. I will incorporate it into the toolbar eventually, it is available as a bookmarklet for now [IE only] CSS editor bookmarklet (to save right-click and add to favourites). Think IE is crap? An excellent CSS style tweaker for mozilla/firefox is available at slayeroffice.Comments on the css editor appreciated....- posted by steve faulkner @ 4:28 PM

Friday, November 05, 2004

Neu - Deutsch: Web Accessibility Toolbar. Informationen und Download

Walter Kiessl and the good people at Web for All in Germany have released a German version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar. It has been great working with them and thanks for all their effort.- posted by steve faulkner @ 11:48 AM

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Korean version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar.

A Korean version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar is now available. Many thanks to the efforts of JUn, Norio Minato and Makoto Ueki! Also thanks to Lee Narae for his work on the Korean translation.- posted by steve faulkner @ 9:32 AM

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

(More on) Keyboard navigation conflicts

A few users have reported odd behaviours occuring with the toolbar keyboard commands, as mentioned previously I have been hassling JUn to include a function to disable shortcuts, which he has now done.

While I don't plan to include this function [along with a bunch of others] until the next release in the installation package, but if you are experiencing problems you can download the test version of the dll and xml files [test_key.zip, 268Kb] which includes the hot key (de) activation function:

Once downloaded unzip and place these files in the folder where the toolbar is installed (they replace the dll and xml files that are currently there). Be sure that you have all instances of IE shut as you will not be able to overwrite the dll file with any IE windows open. Now when you open up IE in the toolbar options menu you will be able to turn on/off hot keys.Note: The update function has been disabled in the test version.The test version is the English language version only. It will not cause a problem to overwrite other language versions.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 9:46 AM

(More on) the Toolbar and XP SP2

It appears that Toolbar "Tools > View Source" function no longer works when SP2 is installed, we will investigate this and either modify or remove the function for the next release.Sorry for the inconvenience........- posted by steve faulkner @ 9:34 AM

Monday, September 06, 2004

The Toolbar and XP service pack 2

Users have reported that the toolbar stops working or malfunctions when XP service pack 2 is installed.

"I thought that you might like to know there is a small issue for users who use the toolbar and upgrade to Windows XP SP2. The problem is small, and no doubt could be fixed by fiddling about in the Registry. However, post SP2 when you click on 'View Source' on the 'Tools' menu IE reports that the site cannot be found. The right click normal route still works."

I will look into this........A user has also reported:

"The toolbar Appeared on my computer to be disabled by the install of XP service pack 2. Am I alone? "

Then they wrote again:

"Re-installed with the latest version fixed the problem. (Was using 1.0 before SP2 upgrade)"

So if you are having issues after installing SP2 try uninstalling/re-installing the toolbar.- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:39 AM

Suddenly the toolbar started throwing errors...

On Friday (3/10/04) I did a bad thing; I deleted all the toolbar related files from the server, this would have had a temporary detrimental effect upon all versions of the toolbar, being used on friday afternoon. I quickly sorted out the problem, sorry for the inconveneince..........- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:33 AM

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Barra de herramientas de accesibilidad Web. Versión Español 1.0

A Spanish language version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar is now available after much hard work from Alan Chuter of Teleservicios. Introductory documentation is avaliable in Spanish, but Alan is still working on the function descriptions translation.

Descarga

Versión española : Barra de Herramientas de Accesibilidad Web ES 1.0 ([.exe] file 550 kb)

- posted by steve faulkner @ 3:19 PM

Monday, August 30, 2004

Frequently Asked Questions

1. I tried to install the accessibility toolbar and it ran through the setup program but there is no toolbar appearing in IE??

a few things to try:In the internet explorer menu ensure that:

view > toolbars > lock the toolbars is unticked.
Tools > Internet options > advanced > enable third party browser extensions (requires restart) is ticked.
view > toolbars > accessibility toolbar is ticked.
open and close the browser a few times.
look closely in the section of the browser that the toolbar should appear as sometimes the toolbar will initiall appear beside / partially obscured by other toolbars you have installed (e,g, google).

2. The resize function (e.g. 800X600) stops working....

This function is currently javascript based and i have noticed that, since installing the latest windows service packs, the resize functions stop working sometimes. So the toolbar has been updated by JUn so it no longer relies on javascript for this function, which solves the issue. The update will be available next week (about the 3rd of august).

3. Why do I get an error when I close a window in Internet explorer?

This is an issue with some browser version/operating sytem combinations, it occurs sporadically, we are working on a fix for this. we have implemented a partial fix that reduces the problem, but have not completely sorted it yet....

Many thanks to Jim McPherson who has been helping us with the testing of the dll's

4. when opening the IE-Browser i get an alert with the following text: IEEXPLORE "out of system resources".

And in the Toolbar (EN 1.0) any button icon (either this one of the CSS or this one of the Structure etc.) appears destroyed, i.e. not as a clear icon, but as a black or white spot. I'm using XP.....

Resource shortage happens in XP if the user has many applications open at once. the toolbar itself uses a small amount of system resources, but if resources are insufficient, drawing of icons will not be able to be done. If you only find this occurs when you only have a few applications running please contact me with details of the error.

5. Why does the toolbar only work in IE?

There was a gap in “the market,” no tools comparable to those available for Mozilla were/are available for IE.
Our programming expertise is limited (if somebody wants to work with us on versions for other browsers/operating systems we’d be interested),
Our resources are very limited as this project is unfunded so we work on it between paid work and in our spare time
While some people realise that there are better browsers than IE out there, their uptake is still very small, and my original idea was to raise awareness of accessibility issues and provide the tools to “the masses.”
For better or worse, many assistive technology users use IE for web browsing, so I tend to use it for accessibility testing and browsing due to this circumstance
What time I have had to work on developing the toolbar has so far been directed at improving the functionality and collaborating with others to create versions in other languages
A great web developer toolbar for mozilla/firefox is available from chris pederick

- posted by steve faulkner @ 11:19 AM

Friday, August 20, 2004

Keyboard navigation conflicts

Some users have reported issues with the key combinations designated for keyboard navigation of the toolbar menus, and their particular operating system or other software settings.

" On swedish keyboards the @-sign is produced with the keystroke Alt+2. In other words, it's exactly the same as the shortcut for the resize menu in the toolbar. This means that whenever I enter an email adress in a form field on a web page, the resize menu pops up and hinders me from typing."

A quick fix is to edit the accessibility_toolbar.xml file (open in a text editor), which you will find in the folder you installed the toolbar in.

You can remove or modify the attribute 'Accesskey="2" from the resize button element:<button type="dropdown" caption="Resize" hint="Screen Resolution" Accesskey="2" image="resize.bmp">Note: when you use the toolbar update function the xml file is overwritten.

I am hassling JUn to include a function to disable shortcuts (soon) and am also looking at function customization feature (don't hold your breath for this one)

Thanks Henrik for bringing this issue to my attention.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 2:57 PM

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

web accessibility t-bar living peacefully with the Google bar, amongst other things...

Some users have encountered a minor issue (me included) with the google bar:

" When I uncheck View>Toolbars>Google, it is the Accessibility Toolbar that vanishes from sight, and when I uncheck View>Toolbars>Accessibility Toolbar, it is the Google toolbar that disappears from view!"

This appears to be a general problem with the ie toolbar menu. Google has a simple fix for it (worked for me!). Thanks to Walter for bringing it to my attention.

A user has encountered this problem:

"When I right click on IE's toolbar, "Accessibility Toolbar" shows 3times.I tried uninstalling and reinstalling, but it doesn't remove theextra 'Accessibility Toolbar' choices."

I think this problem is because the ie registration system is a bit flaky (easy to blame it on microsoft), I have encountered similar problems with other toolbars / explorer bars. There are several free /shareware utilities out there, that may help you to remove such annoyances (see the links below), you can also try editing the registry yourself (not recommended unless you know what you are doing)

Thanks to Sam for pointing this issue out.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:09 AM

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Is there a version for firefox or Opera??

See the FAQ's question 5.A great web developer toolbar for mozilla/firefox is available from chris pederick. The web developer toolbar has many similar features to the web accessibility toolbar, though it does not have the same emphasis on accessibility testing. It has some features that i would like to incorporate into the web accessibility toolbar in the future..........I found this extension for opera The W3-dev Menu "The W3-dev Menu is an Opera 7 customisation for web developers, providing handy shortcuts to validate and check their pages and some useful links to web standards and tutorials."which sounds promising.- posted by steve faulkner @ 9:56 PM

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Web Accessibility Toolbar JA 1.1 Released

JUn has released and upgrade to the Japanese version of the Web Accessibility Toolbar. Download from wrong html- posted by steve faulkner @ 7:15 PM

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Undocumented Features

The Toolbar has several undocumented features:

The CSS button refreshes the page ('on click' or ctrl+alt+shift+3).
The Structure button activates the Mouseover DOM Inspector ('on click' or ctrl+alt+shift+5) favelet from Slayeroffice.com, see the documenation on SlayerOffice.
Selecting some text on a web page and activating the tools button ('on click' or ctrl+alt+shift+7) will result in the selected text being copied to the clipboard without formatting/styles. I find this useful when I want to copy 'plain text' to a word document. (Note: this is a bit buggy, doesn't cause any problems, but doesn't always work).
The magnify button ('on click' or ctrl+alt+shift+m) resets the magnification to 100%.
The AIS toolbar button links to http://www.nils.org.au/web_access.htm

The reason these features have not been documented are that they are features i have incorporated primarily for my own use, i am documenting them now so that if you come across them in unexpectedly you know what they are. I may add others as time goes on....

- posted by steve faulkner @ 10:27 AM

Monday, August 02, 2004

New features and modifications.

Add any ideas for new features or improvemnts......Example: "show DIVs with their respective IDs and Classes applied."- posted by steve faulkner @ 3:08 PM

Minor Upgrade now available (EN 1.1)

Upgrade released (EN 1.1) to deal with minor issues reported by users.

Resize Function no longer reliant upon JavaScript
Fix for error message that occured sporadically on browser close.

- posted by steve faulkner @ 2:57 PM