WebAIM: Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review

Google Wave Preview Accessibility Review

Totally inaccessible.

That’s the most accurate way that Google Wave (not to be confused with the original WAVE) accessibility can be summarized. It must be disclaimed that this is a very early preview release of Google Wave, and functionality and accessibility will certainly be improved along the way. Still, it is rather disheartening to see no attention paid to accessibility. For example:

  • Alternative text is not provided for any images.
  • Background images are used to convey content.
  • Roles, states, and other accessibility properties are not defined.
  • There is no document or heading structure or semantics. None! Not even a list!
  • Form elements do not have labels or titles.
  • Keyboard focus indication is hidden, making keyboard navigation nearly impossible.
  • Most interactive elements are not in the tab order or do not respond to keyboard activation.
  • Keyboard focus is often trapped, requiring the page or browser to be closed to resume keyboard navigation.
  • The application becomes unusable and unreadable when text size is increased only slightly.

… and I think you get the general idea. One positive point – the welcome and introductory videos are captioned.

Possibilities

Despite it’s rudimentary nature, e-mail continues to pose a relatively significant accessibility [...]

Read article at webaim.org

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