All About Access

I have decided to start Yahoo Week here at All About Access. At least I’m calling it “Yahoo Week” for now. It may wind up becoming “Yahoo Fortnight.” Then again, it might wind up being more like “Guess When Joanie Writes About Yahoo Again Month”—but that’s not the plan. (more…)

As you may have seen in yesterday’s article and subsequent comments, Yahoo has a visual verification system that requires new users to type the characters displayed in a picture in order to be approved for an account. The alternative Yahoo provides for users with visual impairments is a form through which you can request that a customer service representative call you—not as good as being able to access an audio representation of the picture immediately, like Hotmail provides, but still an indication that Yahoo cares about this issue.

[Darrell Shandrow](http://nu7i.blogspot.com/2005/03/ask-google-to-unlock-visua_111012189804844249.html “Blind Access Journal: Ask Google to Unlock Visual Verification for the Blind”) found another barrier to access at Google: visual verification to reset your GMail password. (more…)

There’s been quite a bit of discussion in the blogosphere regarding the [latest version of Google’s toolbar](http://toolbar.google.com/T3/index “Visit the Google Toolbar 3 beta site”), currently in public beta. At the center of the controversy is AutoLink, a feature which may be useful, harmless, or the end of civilization as we know it. It depends on whom you ask. A few samplings from the anti-AutoLink camp include [Dave Winer](http://www.thetwowayweb.com/2005/02/22#a272 “Google’s Toolbar and Content Modification”), [GeekNews](http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/003879.html “Open Letter to Google”), and [Dave’s Ramblings](http://blog.captivereefing.com/2005/02/17/googles-world-domination/ “Google’s Word Domination”). In the pro-AutoLink camp, you’ll find sentiments such as those of [Fred von Lohmann](http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003377.php “Who Owns Your Desktop? You Do!”), [Yoz Grahame](http://cheerleader.yoz.com/archives/001928.html “A response to Dave Winer about Google AutoLink”), and [Anil Dash](http://www.dashes.com/anil/2005/02/17/free_the_user_a “Free the User Agents!”).

As is often the case, I find myself in yet another camp: the Just Make It Talk Camp. (more…)

Like most people, sometimes my cup is half full, and sometimes it’s half empty. On a half-full day, I look at all the accessible web sites out there and consider how much things have improved over the years. On a half-empty day, I imagine my cup traveling faster than the speed of broadband through the window of the webmaster that couldn’t be bothered to make his/her site more accessible. But after the imaginary glass shatters, what am I left with? The same inaccessible web site, and the added challenge of having to drink my coffee straight out of the pot. Enter JAWS’ new Custom Labels feature, which allows you to assign your own labels to things like links (both text and graphical) and form fields. (more…)