Summary
TPG are working with the Mozilla foundation to develop accessibility testing tools. Specifically, we're developing WAI-ARIA tools, as well as improving accessibility of mainstream tools such as Firebug and providing ARIA testing features in mainstream developer tools.
As part of that work, this Firefox extension examines WAI-ARIA's Live Regions (this functionality will eventually be incorporated into a WAT for Firefox extension). The live regions extension is currently available in a toolbar with the latest versions of the colour contrast analyser and table inspector extensions.
Author: Gez Lemon
I plan to add a set of accessibility auditing functions to this toolbar to make it easier for people to test websites for accessibility. At the moment, the toolbar consists of just three functions:
Live Regions
The live regions function adds elements with live regions defined into the tab order. When the elements are examined, a dialog is presented with 3 sections.
- The ARIA markup
- A table containing the relevant ARIA attributes
- An explanation of the ARIA markup
Visit iCITA live region examples to see live regions in action.
There are currently only a handful of websites that include live regions, so this functionality needs more testing. If you have examples or suggestions for improvements, please contact me.
Colour Contrast Analyser
The colour contrast analyser examines the foreground and background colours of text nodes, and produces a report to determine if the contrast is adequate according to the AERT algorithm and the WCAG's luminosity colour contrast algorithm.
Table Inspector
The table inspector reveals the accessibility properties such as the summary and headers for table cells.
Download the Extension
Download the Juicy Studio Accessibility Toolbar from Firefox Add-ons. Unfortunately, the extension is sandboxed at the moment, which means you have to have an account in order to download the extension. Hopefully, the extension will be reviewed by someone that understands the purpose of the extension and remove it from the sandbox section (although the reviewer of the colour contrast analyser reviewed it and decided to leave it in the sandbox).
Category: Accessibility.
[examining-wai-aria-live-regions.php#comment1]
the whole sandboxing thing is annoying...mozilla needs to seriously reconsider this "feature"
Posted by patrick h. lauke on
[examining-wai-aria-live-regions.php#comment2]
Something that might make reviewers more positive about the extension is including options to customise its appearance (ie being able to remove text and just have icons) and location by adding buttons to the Customise toolbars window.
Posted by John Faulds on
[examining-wai-aria-live-regions.php#comment3]
The extension is in the sandbox until a reviewer determines whether or not it's a security risk. Making it customizable or prettier won't help won't make it less of a security risk (not that I'm suggesting it is a security risk).
Posted by James on