Recherche avancée

Sur d’autres sites (4479)

• I Really Like My New EeePC

  29 août 2010, par Multimedia Mike — General

  Fair warning : I’m just going to use this post to blather disconnectedly about a new-ish toy.

  I really like my new EeePC. I was rather enamored with the original EeePC 701 from late 2007, a little box with a tiny 7″ screen that is credited with kicking off the netbook revolution. Since then, Asus has created about a hundred new EeePC models.

  Since I’m spending so much time on a train these days, I finally took the plunge to get a better netbook. I decided to stay loyal to Asus and their Eee lineage and got the highest end EeePC they presently offer (which was still under US$500)– the EeePC 1201PN. The ’12′ in the model number represents a 12″ screen size and the rest of the specs are commensurately as large. Indeed, it sort of blurs the line between netbook and full-blown laptop.

  
  
  

  Incidentally, after I placed the order for the 1201PN nearly 2 months ago, and I mean the very literal next moment, this Engadget headline came across announcing the EeePC 1215N. My new high-end (such as it is) computer purchase was immediately obsoleted ; I thought that only happened in parody. (As of this writing, the 1215N still doesn’t appear to be shipping, though.)

  It’s a sore point among Linux aficionados that Linux was used to help kickstart the netbook trend but that now it’s pretty much impossible to find Linux pre-installed on a netbook. So it is in this case. This 1201PN comes with Windows 7 Home Premium installed. This is a notable differentiator from most netbooks which only have Windows 7 Home Starter, a.k.a., the Windows 7 version so crippled that it doesn’t even allow the user to change the background image.

  I wished to preserve the Windows 7 installation (you never know when it will come in handy) and dual boot Linux. I thought I would have to use the Windows partition tool to divide work some magic. Fortunately, the default installation already carved the 250 GB HD in half ; I was able to reformat the second partition and install Linux. The details are a little blurry, but I’m pretty sure one of those external USB optical drives shown in my last post actually performed successfully for this task. Lucky break.

  
  
  The EeePC 1201PN, EeePC 701, Belco Alpha-400, and even a comparatively gargantuan Sony Vaio full laptop– all of the portable computers in the household
  

  So I got Ubuntu 10.04 Linux installed in short order. This feels like something of a homecoming for me. You see, I used Linux full-time at home from 1999-2006. In 2007, I switched to using Windows XP full-time, mostly because my home use-case switched to playing a lot of old, bad computer games. By the end of 2008, I had transitioned to using the Mac Mini that I had originally purchased earlier that year for running FATE cycles. That Mac served as my main home computer until I purchased the 1201PN 2 months ago.

  Mostly, I have this overriding desire for computers to just work, at least in their basic functions. And that’s why I’m so roundly impressed with the way Linux handles right out of the box. Nearly everything on the 1201PN works in Linux. The video, the audio, the wireless networking, the webcam, it all works out of the box. I had to do the extra installation step to get the binary nVidia drivers installed but even that’s relatively seamless, especially compared to “the way things used to be” (drop to a prompt, run some binary installer from the prompt as root, watch it fail in arcane ways because the thing is only certified to run on one version of one Linux distribution). The 1201PN, with its nVidia Ion2 graphics, is able to drive both its own 1366×768 screen simultaneously with an external monitor running at up on 2560×1600.

  The only weird hiccup in the whole process was that I had a little trouble with the special volume keys on the keyboard (specifically, the volume up/down/mute keys didn’t do anything). But I quickly learned that I had to install some package related to ACPI and they magically started to do the right thing. Now I get to encounter the Linux Flash Player bug where modifying volume via those special keys forces fullscreen mode to exit. Adobe really should fix that.

  Also, trackpad multitouch gestures don’t work right away. Based on my reading, it is possible to set those up in Linux. But it’s largely a preference thing– I don’t care much for multitouch. This creates a disparity when I use Windows 7 on the 1201PN which is configured per default to use multitouch.

  
  
  The same 4 laptops stacked up
  

  So, in short, I’m really happy with this little machine. Traditionally, I have had absolutely no affinity for laptops/notebooks/portable computers at all even if everyone around was always completely enamored with the devices. What changed for me ? Well for starters, as a long-time Linux user, I was used to having to invest in very specific, carefully-researched hardware lest I not be able to use it under the Linux OS. This was always a major problem in the laptop field which typically reign supreme in custom, proprietary hardware components. These days, not so much, and these netbooks seem to contain well-supported hardware. Then there’s the fact that laptops always cost so much more than similarly capable desktop systems and that I had no real reason for taking a computer with me when I left home. So my use case changed, as did the price point for relatively low-power laptops/netbooks.

  Data I/O geek note : The 1201PN is capable of wireless-N networking — as many netbooks seem to have — but only 100 Mbit ethernet. I wondered why it didn’t have gigabit ethernet. Then I remembered that 100 Mbit ethernet provides 11-11.5 Mbytes/sec of transfer speed which, in my empirical experience, is approximately the maximum write speed of a 5400 RPM hard drive– which is what the 1201PN possesses.

• Q&A : An interview with Matomo founder, Matthieu Aubry

  20 novembre 2018, par Joselyn Khor — About, Community

  Hey everyone ! Joselyn here. As always the views of our community remain top of mind. So to make sure you guys know the thinking behind these new projects, we reached out to Matomo’s founder, Matthieu, to ask questions you might want answered. Please check it out below !

  Hi guys, it’s Matthieu ! Here to answer some questions about the rebrand and the future of Matomo and Innocraft.

  What’s upcoming ?

  We’ve been busy implementing our rebrand into all aspects of Matomo and there’s also our new website, which is launching today ! The new website will help people better understand what Matomo is and how they can benefit from using modern web analytics.

  Why was Matomo and Innocraft brought onto one website ?

  In the past the separation caused a bit of confusion so we’re taking this as a chance to unite both the business brand, Innocraft and community brand, Matomo, on one website. Putting our focus on one brand, Matomo, makes it easier for people to see us with fresh eyes. We have a community side as well as a business side and while the community is still incredibly important to us, we find we have a powerful analytics tool that is capable of helping businesses too.

  Is Matomo becoming commercial or turning corporate ?

  No. nothing is changing. Matomo is still an open-source project and community. Although we’ll have a pricing page and “start free trial” on the new website brought over from Innocraft.cloud, the Matomo community will still play the biggest part on the Matomo website. We have dedicated sections focused on Community and On-Premise.

  The rebrand exercise helped us gain a refreshed perspective. After reflecting on how far we’ve come, we can feel more confident about Matomo Analytics itself as a platform. We believe it’s a great chance to bring that confidence into the brand and vision. We are proud that it’s an awesome open-source platform and at the same time it’s also powerful as a tool for businesses.

  Why is there no ‘download for free’ button on the homepage ?

   

  
  We feel many users coming to the site will get confused about our hosting options (Cloud and On-Premise) which is something you don’t usually consider when choosing an analytics tool.

  The reason for us to not have that button is when people see a “download for free” button on the homepage next to a “try it for free” button, it creates confusion. For those who do choose to download Matomo often become confused when they are left with a .zip file unaware how to install it and the technical requirements of self-hosting. We feel presenting our users with the simplest installation option first will give them the best chance possible to try Matomo to its full potential, without cost.

  And you can still find the link to Download Matomo in the footer of each page.
  

   

  Is Matomo still free to download and have forever ?

  Absolutely. The free open-source download can be found on the On-Premise section of the website, or download Matomo here.

  Why is it important to have a business behind the project ?

  There’s the reality that we have to make money in order for the Matomo project to survive … and thrive. The reason we still need a business side (Innocraft) is to fund and sustain the Matomo project. Whenever people purchase premium features, this helps finance the development of Matomo for our community.

  Because of the business we’re able to continually maintain and develop Matomo for you guys as well as future users. For example, the next release Matomo 3.8.0 is already mostly developed and will bring lots of interesting features too, like the two-factor authentication, Brute Force Protection, failed tracking requests reporting, lots of JavaScript tracker improvements, a new total summary row below reports, and many more security fixes, bug fixes, and other new features.

  So we see a business being very helpful in supporting our open-source community. Without a business side, our free, open-source project would not be able to survive.

  How will you protect the Matomo project ?

  We’ve ensured the Matomo project will be protected for the future as we wish to turn it into a not-for-profit foundation.

  We’ve also got a safeguard where the open-source code will stay under a GPL license forever. This is so we can guarantee, that no matter what happens, the Matomo project itself will stay completely free software.

  Is there a way for people to help ?

  There are heaps of ways to help ! You can help other Matomo users in the forums, contribute to fixes on GitHub, leave a great review (e.g. alternativeTo), help look for bugs with our Security Bounty Programme or participate and spread the word about Matomo in our community social media pages – Mastodon, Facebook, Twitter. Telling your friends about us would be very helpful too !

  What’s planned for the future ?
  We’ve worked hard to become the #1 open-source analytics platform (1.4 million websites use Matomo today), but now we need to empower even more individuals and businesses to take back control of their own data.

  Showing our community that we have a powerful platform is crucial, but alongside that our values are what define us. User privacy is still of utmost importance and we’re here to make it known that power needs to rest in the hands of people and not large corporations.

  You can rest easy knowing you’re doing your part in using trustworthy and dependable tools. By joining many other companies who are growing this movement to decentralise the Internet, we can build a safer, online world together.

  Join this analytics revolution and let us know what you think about Matomo !

• A systematic approach to making Web Applications accessible

  22 février 2012, par silvia

  With the latest developments in HTML5 and the still fairly new ARIA (Accessible Rich Interface Applications) attributes introduced by the W3C WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative), browsers have now implemented many features that allow you to make your JavaScript-heavy Web applications accessible.

  Since I began working on making a complex web application accessible just over a year ago, I discovered that there was no step-by-step guide to approaching the changes necessary for creating an accessible Web application. Therefore, many people believe that it is still hard, if not impossible, to make Web applications accessible. In fact, it can be approached systematically, as this article will describe.

  This post is based on a talk that Alice Boxhall and I gave at the recent Linux.conf.au titled “Developing accessible Web apps – how hard can it be ?” (slides, video), which in turn was based on a Google Developer Day talk by Rachel Shearer (slides).

  These talks, and this article, introduce a process that you can follow to make your Web applications accessible : each step will take you closer to having an application that can be accessed using a keyboard alone, and by users of screenreaders and other accessibility technology (AT).

  The recommendations here only roughly conform to the requirements of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), which is the basis of legal accessibility requirements in many jurisdictions. The steps in this article may or may not be sufficient to meet a legal requirement. It is focused on the practical outcome of ensuring users with disabilities can use your Web application.

  Step-by-step Approach

  The steps to follow to make your Web apps accessible are as follows :

  1. Use native HTML tags wherever possible
  2. Make interactive elements keyboard accessible
  3. Provide extra markup for AT (accessibility technology)

  If you are a total newcomer to accessibility, I highly recommend installing a screenreader and just trying to read/navigate some Web pages. On Windows you can install the free NVDA screenreader, on Mac you can activate the pre-installed VoiceOver screenreader, on Linux you can use Orca, and if you just want a browser plugin for Chrome try installing ChromeVox.

  1. Use native HTML tags

  As you implement your Web application with interactive controls, try to use as many native HTML tags as possible.

  HTML5 provides a rich set of elements which can be used to both add functionality and provide semantic context to your page. HTML4 already included many useful interactive controls, like <a>, <button>, <input> and <select>, and semantic landmark elements like <h1>. HTML5 adds richer <input> controls, and a more sophisticated set of semantic markup elements like such as <time>, <progress>, <meter>, <nav>, <header>, <article> and <aside>. (Note : check browser support for browser support of the new tags).

  Using as much of the rich HTML5 markup as possible means that you get all of the accessibility features which have been implemented in the browser for those elements, such as keyboard support, short-cut keys and accessibility metadata, for free. For generic tags you have to implement them completely from scratch.

  What exactly do you miss out on when you use a generic tag such as <div> over a specific semantic one such as <button> ?

  1. Generic tags are not focusable. That means you cannot reach them through using the [tab] on the keyboard.
  2. You cannot activate them with the space bar or enter key or perform any other keyboard interaction that would be regarded as typical with such a control.
  3. Since the role that the control represents is not specified in code but is only exposed through your custom visual styling, screenreaders cannot express to their users what type of control it is, e.g. button or link.
  4. Neither can screenreaders add the control to the list of controls on the page that are of a certain type, e.g. to navigate to all headers of a certain level on the page.
  5. And finally you need to manually style the element in order for it to look distinctive compared to other elements on the page ; using a default control will allow the browser to provide the default style for the platform, which you can still override using CSS if you want.

  Example :

  Compare these two buttons. The first one is implemented using a <div> tag, the second one using a <button> tag. Try using a screenreader to experience the difference.

  Send	<style> .custombutton cursor : pointer ; border : 1px solid #000 ; background-color : #F6F6F6 ; display : inline-block ; padding : 2px 5px ; </style> <div class="custombutton" onclick="alert(’sent !’)"> Send </div>
  Send	<button onclick="alert(’sent !’)"> Send </button>

  2. Make interactive elements keyboard accessible

  Many sophisticated web applications have some interactive controls that just have no appropriate HTML tag equivalent. In this case, you will have had to build an interactive element with JavaScript and <div> and/or <span> tags and lots of custom styling. The good news is, it’s possible to make even these custom controls accessible, and as a side benefit you will also make your application smoother to use for power users.

  The first thing you can do to test usability of your control, or your Web app, is to unplug the mouse and try to use only the [TAB] and [ENTER] keys to interact with your application.

  

  Try the following :

  • Can you reach all interactive elements with [TAB] ?
  • Can you activate interactive elements with [ENTER] (or [SPACE]) ?
  • Are the elements in the right tab order ?
  • After interaction : is the right element in focus ?
  • Is there a keyboard shortcut that activates the element (accesskey) ?

  No ? Let’s fix it.

  2.1. Reaching interactive elements

  If you have an element on your page that cannot be reached with [TAB], put a @tabindex attribute on it.

  Example :

  Here we have a <span> tag that works as a link (don’t do this – it’s just a simple example). The first one cannot be reached using [TAB] but the second one has a tabindex and is thus part of the tab order of the HTML page.

  (Note : since we experiment lots with the tabindex in this article, to avoid confusion, click on some text in this paragraph and then hit the [TAB] key to see where it goes next. The click will set your keyboard focus in the DOM.)

  Click	<style> .customlink text-decoration : underline ; cursor : pointer ; </style> <span class="customlink" onclick="alert(’activated !’)"> Click </span>
  Click	<style> .customlink text-decoration : underline ; cursor : pointer ; </style> <span class="customlink" onclick="alert(’activated !’)" tabindex="0"> Click </span>

  You set @tabindex=0 to add an element into the native tab order of the page, which is the DOM order.

  2.2. Activating interactive elements

  Next, you typically want to be able to use the [ENTER] and [SPACE] keys to activate your custom control. To do so, you will need to implement an onkeydown event handler. Note that the keyCode for [ENTER] is 13 and for [SPACE] is 32.

  Example :

  Let’s add this functionality to the <span> tag from before. Try tabbing to it and hit the [ENTER] or [SPACE] key.

  Click	<span class="customlink" onclick="alert(’activated !’)" tabindex="0"> Click </span>
  &lt;script&gt;<br /> function handlekey(event) {<br /> var target = event.target || event.srcElement;<br /> if (event.keyCode == 13 || event.keyCode == 32) { target.onclick(); }<br /> }<br /> &lt;/script&gt; Click	<span class="customlink" onclick="alert(’activated !’)" tabindex="0" onkeydown="handlekey(event) ;"> Click </span> <script> function handlekey(event) var target = event.target || event.srcElement ; if (event.keyCode == 13 || event.keyCode == 32) target.onclick() ; </script>

  Note that there are some controls that might need support for keys other than [tab] or [enter] to be able to use them from the keyboard alone, for example a custom list box, menu or slider should respond to arrow keys.

  2.3. Elements in the right tab order

  Have you tried tabbing to all the elements on your page that you care about ? If so, check if the order of tab stops seems right. The default order is given by the order in which interactive elements appear in the DOM. For example, if your page’s code has a right column that is coded before the main article, then the links in the right column will receive tab focus first before the links in the main article.

  You could change this by re-ordering your DOM, but oftentimes this is not possible. So, instead give the elements that should be the first ones to receive tab focus a positive @tabindex. The tab access will start at the smallest non-zero @tabindex value. If multiple elements share the same @tabindex value, these controls receive tab focus in DOM order. After that, interactive elements and those with @tabindex=0 will receive tab focus in DOM order.

  Example :

  The one thing that always annoys me the most is if the tab order in forms that I am supposed to fill in is illogical. Here is an example where the first and last name are separated by the address because they are in a table. We could fix it by moving to a <div> based layout, but let’s use @tabindex to demonstrate the change.

  Firstname : Address : Lastname : City :	<table class="customtabs"> <tr> <td>Firstname : <input type="text" id="firstname"> </td> <td>Address : <input type="text" id="address"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lastname : <input type="text" id="lastname"> </td> <td>City : <input type="text" id="city"> </td> </tr> </table>
  Click here to test this form, then [TAB] : Firstname : Address : Lastname : City :	<table class="customtabs"> <tr> <td>Firstname : <input type="text" id="firstname" tabindex="10"> </td> <td>Address : <input type="text" id="address" tabindex="30"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>Lastname : <input type="text" id="lastname" tabindex="20"> </td> <td>City : <input type="text" id="city" tabindex="40"> </td> </tr> </table>

  Be very careful with using non-zero tabindex values. Since they change the tab order on the page, you may get side effects that you might not have intended, such as having to give other elements on the page a non-zero tabindex value to avoid skipping too many other elements as I would need to do here.

  2.4. Focus on the right element

  Some of the controls that you create may be rather complex and open elements on the page that were previously hidden. This is particularly the case for drop-downs, pop-ups, and menus in general. Oftentimes the hidden element is not defined in the DOM right after the interactive control, such that a [TAB] will not put your keyboard focus on the next element that you are interacting with.

  The solution is to manage your keyboard focus from JavaScript using the .focus() method.

  Example :

  Here is a menu that is declared ahead of the menu button. If you tab onto the button and hit enter, the menu is revealed. But your tab focus is still on the menu button, so your next [TAB] will take you somewhere else. We fix it by setting the focus on the first menu item after opening the menu.

  Menu item1 Menu item2 Menu &lt;script&gt;<br /> function displayMenu(value) {<br /> document.getElementById(&quot;custommenu&quot;).style.display=value;<br /> }<br /> &lt;/script&gt;	<div id="custommenu" style="display:none ;"> <button id="item1" onclick="displayMenu(’none’) ;">Menu item1</button> <button id="item2" onclick="displayMenu(’none’) ;">Menu item2</button> </div> <button onclick="displayMenu(’block’) ;">Menu</button> <script> function displayMenu(value) document.getElementById("custommenu").style.display=value ; </script>
  Menu item1 Menu item2 Menu &lt;script&gt;<br /> function displayMenu2(value) {<br /> document.getElementById(&quot;custommenu2&quot;).style.display=value;<br /> document.getElementById(&quot;item1&quot;).focus();<br /> }<br /> &lt;/script&gt;	<div id="custommenu" style="display:none ;"> <button id="item1" onclick="displayMenu(’none’) ;">Menu item1</button> <button id="item2" onclick="displayMenu(’none’) ;">Menu item2</button> </div> <button onclick="displayMenu(’block’) ;">Menu</button> <script> function displayMenu(value) document.getElementById("custommenu").style.display=value ; document.getElementById("item1").focus() ; </script>

  You will notice that there are still some things you can improve on here. For example, after you close the menu again with one of the menu items, the focus does not move back onto the menu button.

  Also, after opening the menu, you may prefer not to move the focus onto the first menu item but rather just onto the menu <div>. You can do so by giving that div a @tabindex and then calling .focus() on it. If you do not want to make the div part of the normal tabbing order, just give it a @tabindex=-1 value. This will allow your div to receive focus from script, but be exempt from accidental tabbing onto (though usually you just want to use @tabindex=0).

  Bonus : If you want to help keyboard users even more, you can also put outlines on the element that is currently in focus using CSS”s outline property. If you want to avoid the outlines for mouse users, you can dynamically add a class that removes the outline in mouseover events but leaves it for :focus.

  2.5. Provide sensible keyboard shortcuts

  At this stage your application is actually keyboard accessible. Congratulations !

  However, it’s still not very efficient : like power-users, screenreader users love keyboard shortcuts : can you imagine if you were forced to tab through an entire page, or navigate back to a menu tree at the top of the page, to reach each control you were interested in ? And, obviously, anything which makes navigating the app via the keyboard more efficient for screenreader users will benefit all power users as well, like the ubiquitous keyboard shortcuts for cut, copy and paste.

  HTML4 introduced so-called accesskeys for this. In HTML5 @accesskey is now allowed on all elements.

  The @accesskey attribute takes the value of a keyboard key (e.g. @accesskey="x") and is activated through platform- and browser-specific activation keys. For example, on the Mac it’s generally the [Ctrl] key, in IE it’ the [Alt] key, in Firefox on Windows [Shift]-[Alt], and in Opera on Windows [Shift]-[ESC]. You press the activation key and the accesskey together which either activates or focuses the element with the @accesskey attribute.

  Example :

  Send &lt;script&gt;<br /> var button = document.getElementById('accessbutton');<br /> if (button.accessKeyLabel) {<br />  button.innerHTML += ' (' + button.accessKeyLabel + ')';<br /> }<br /> &lt;/script&gt;

  <button id="accessbutton" onclick="alert(’sent !’)" accesskey="e"> Send </button> <script> var button = document.getElementById(’accessbutton’) ; if (button.accessKeyLabel) button.innerHTML += ’ (’ + button.accessKeyLabel + ’)’ ; </script>

  Now, the idea behind this is clever, but the execution is pretty poor. Firstly, the different activation keys between different platforms and browsers make it really hard for people to get used to the accesskeys. Secondly, the key combinations can conflict with browser and screenreader shortcut keys, the first of which will render browser shortcuts unusable and the second will effectively remove the accesskeys.

  In the end it is up to the Web application developer whether to use the accesskey attribute or whether to implement explicit shortcut keys for the application through key event handlers on the window object. In either case, make sure to provide a help list for your shortcut keys.

  Also note that a page with a really good hierarchical heading layout and use of ARIA landmarks can help to eliminate the need for accesskeys to jump around the page, since there are typically default navigations available in screen readers to jump directly to headings, hyperlinks, and ARIA landmarks.

  3. Provide markup for AT

  Having made the application keyboard accessible also has advantages for screenreaders, since they can now reach the controls individually and activate them. So, next we will use a screenreader and close our eyes to find out where we only provide visual cues to understand the necessary interaction.

  Here are some of the issues to consider :

  • Role may need to get identified
  • States may need to be kept track of
  • Properties may need to be made explicit
  • Labels may need to be provided for elements

  This is where the W3C’s ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) standard comes in. ARIA attributes provide semantic information to screen readers and other AT that is otherwise conveyed only visually.

  Note that using ARIA does not automatically implement the standard widget behavior – you’ll still need to add focus management, keyboard navigation, and change aria attribute values in script.

  3.1. ARIA roles

  After implementing a custom interactive widget, you need to add a @role attribute to indicate what type of controls it is, e.g. that it is playing the role of a standard tag such as a button.

  Example :

  This menu button is implemented as a <div>, but with a role of “button” it is announced as a button by a screenreader.

  Menu	<div tabindex="0" role="button">Menu</div>

  ARIA roles also describe composite controls that do not have a native HTML equivalent.

  Example :

  This menu with menu items is implemented as a set of <div> tags, but with a role of “menu” and “menuitem” items.

  Cut Copy Paste

  <div role="menu"> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem">Cut</div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem">Copy</div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem">Paste</div> </div>

  3.2. ARIA states

  Some interactive controls represent different states, e.g. a checkbox can be checked or unchecked, or a menu can be expanded or collapsed.

  Example :

  The following menu has states on the menu items, which are here not just used to give an aural indication through the screenreader, but also a visual one through CSS.

  Left Center Right

  <style> .custombutton[aria-checked=true]:before content : "\2713 " ; </style> <div role="menu"> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" aria-checked="true">Left</div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false">Center</div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" aria-checked="false">Right</div> </div>

  3.3. ARIA properties

  Some of the functionality of interactive controls cannot be captured by the role attribute alone. We have ARIA properties to add features that the screenreader needs to announce, such as aria-label, aria-haspopup, aria-activedescendant, or aria-live.

  Example :

  The following drop-down menu uses aria-haspopup to tell the screenreader that there is a popup hidden behind the menu button together with an ARIA state of aria-expanded to track whether it’s open or closed.

  Justify Left Center Right &lt;script&gt;<br /> var button = document.getElementById(&quot;button&quot;);<br /> var menu = document.getElementById(&quot;menu&quot;);<br /> var items = document.getElementsByClassName(&quot;menuitem&quot;);<br /> var focused = 0;<br /> function showMenu(evt) {<br />    evt.stopPropagation();<br />    menu.style.visibility = 'visible';<br />    button.setAttribute('aria-expanded','true');<br />    focused = getSelected();<br />    items[focused].focus();<br />  }<br />  function hideMenu(evt) {<br />    evt.stopPropagation();<br />    menu.style.visibility = 'hidden';<br />    button.setAttribute('aria-expanded','false');<br />    button.focus();<br />  }<br />  function getSelected() {<br />    for (var i=0; i &lt; items.length; i++) {<br />      if (items[i].getAttribute('aria-checked') == 'true') {<br />        return i;<br />      }<br />    }<br />  }<br />  function setSelected(elem) {<br />    var curSelected = getSelected();<br />    items[curSelected].setAttribute('aria-checked', 'false');<br />    elem.setAttribute('aria-checked', 'true');<br />  }<br />  function selectItem(evt) {<br />    setSelected(evt.target);<br />    hideMenu(evt);<br />  }<br /> function getPrevItem(index) {<br />    var prev = index - 1;<br />    if (prev &lt; 0) {<br />      prev = items.length - 1;<br />    }<br />    return prev;<br />  }<br />  function getNextItem(index) {<br />    var next = index + 1;<br />    if (next == items.length) {<br />      next = 0;<br />    }<br />    return next;<br />  }<br /> function handleButtonKeys(evt) {<br />    evt.stopPropagation();<br />    var key = evt.keyCode;<br />    switch(key) {<br />      case (13): /* ENTER */<br />      case (32): /* SPACE */<br />        showMenu(evt);<br />      default:<br />    }<br />  }<br />  function handleMenuKeys(evt) {<br />    evt.stopPropagation();<br />    var key = evt.keyCode;<br />    switch(key) {<br />      case (38): /* UP */<br />        focused = getPrevItem(focused);<br />        items[focused].focus();<br />        break;<br />      case (40): /* DOWN */<br />        focused = getNextItem(focused);<br />        items[focused].focus();<br />        break;<br />      case (13): /* ENTER */<br />      case (32): /* SPACE */<br />        setSelected(evt.target);<br />          hideMenu(evt);<br />          break;<br />      case (27): /* ESC */<br />        hideMenu(evt);<br />         break;<br />      default:<br />    }<br />  }<br />  button.addEventListener('click', showMenu, false);<br />  button.addEventListener('keydown', handleButtonKeys, false);<br />  for (var i = 0;  i &lt; items.length; i++) {<br />    items[i].addEventListener('click', selectItem, false);<br />    items[i].addEventListener('keydown', handleMenuKeys, false);<br />  }<br /> &lt;/script&gt;

  <div class="custombutton" id="button" tabindex="0" role="button" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true"> <span>Justify</span> </div> <div role="menu" class="menu" id="menu" style="display : none ;"> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" class="menuitem" aria-checked="true"> Left </div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" class="menuitem" aria-checked="false"> Center </div> <div tabindex="0" role="menuitem" class="menuitem" aria-checked="false"> Right </div> </div> [CSS and JavaScript for example omitted]

  3.4. Labelling

  The main issue that people know about accessibility seems to be that they have to put alt text onto images. This is only one means to provide labels to screenreaders for page content. Labels are short informative pieces of text that provide a name to a control.

  There are actually several ways of providing labels for controls :

  • on img elements use @alt
  • on input elements use the label element
  • use @aria-labelledby if there is another element that contains the label
  • use @title if you also want a label to be used as a tooltip
  • otherwise use @aria-label

  I’ll provide examples for the first two use cases - the other use cases are simple to deduce.

  Example :

  The following two images show the rough concept for providing alt text for images : images that provide information should be transcribed, images that are just decorative should receive an empty @alt attribute.

  Image by Noah Sussman

  <img src="texture.jpg" alt=""> <img src="lolcat.jpg" alt="shocked lolcat titled ’HTML cannot do that !"> <img src="texture.jpg" alt="">

  When marking up decorative images with an empty @alt attribute, the image is actually completely removed from the accessibility tree and does not confuse the blind user. This is a desired effect, so do remember to mark up all your images with @alt attributes, even those that don’t contain anything of interest to AT.

  Example :

  In the example form above in Section 2.3, when tabbing directly on the input elements, the screen reader will only say "edit text" without announcing what meaning that text has. That’s not very useful. So let’s introduce a label element for the input elements. We’ll also add checkboxes with a label.

  Doctor title : Firstname : Lastname : Address : City : Remember me :

  <label>Doctor title :</label> <input type="checkbox" id="doctor"/> <label>Firstname :</label> <input type="text" id="firstname2"/> <label for="lastname2">Lastname :</label> <input type="text" id="lastname2"/> <label>Address : <input type="text" id="address2"> </label> <label for="city2">City : <input type="text" id="city2"> </label> <label for="remember">Remember me :</label> <input type="checkbox" id="remember">

  In this example we use several different approaches to show what a different it makes to use the <label> element to mark up input boxes.

  The first two fields just have a <label> element next to a <input> element. When using a screenreader you will not notice a difference between this and not using the <label> element because there is no connection between the <label> and the <input> element.

  In the third field we use the @for attribute to create that link. Now the input field isn’t just announced as "edit text", but rather as "Lastname edit text", which is much more useful. Also, the screenreader can now skip the labels and get straight on the input element.

  In the fourth and fifth field we actually encapsulate the <input> element inside the <label> element, thus avoiding the need for a @for attribute, though it doesn’t hurt to explicity add it.

  Finally we look at the checkbox. By including a referenced <label> element with the checkbox, we change the screenreaders announcement from just "checkbox not checked" to "Remember me checkbox not checked". Also notice that the click target now includes the label, making the checkbox not only more usable to screenreaders, but also for mouse users.

  4. Conclusions

  This article introduced a process that you can follow to make your Web applications accessible. As you do that, you will noticed that there are other things that you may need to do in order to give the best experience to a power user on a keyboard, a blind user using a screenreader, or a vision-impaired user using a screen magnifier. But once you’ve made a start, you will notice that it’s not all black magic and a lot can be achieved with just a little markup.

  You will find more markup in the WAI ARIA specification and many more resources at Mozilla’s ARIA portal. Now go and change the world !

  Many thanks to Alice Boxhall and Dominic Mazzoni for their proof-reading and suggested changes that really helped improve the article !