If I have website functionality that works in Chrome and Firefox but not in IE11, (basically a keyboard trap in a form). Does that still fail compliance? Or is the end user responsible for choosing browsers that work better?
Yes it would fail compliance. WCAG is browser agnostic and the guidelines are to be followed for all browsers. A significant number of people use JAWS as a screenreader, which is most widely used by Internet Explorer. This would be rendering the page useless for a significant number of users and would be a violation of
Guideline 2.1.
If I have website functionality that works in Chrome and Firefox but not in IE11, (basically a keyboard trap in a form). Does that still fail compliance?
You have to read Understanding Conformance to understand that this is a very complex questions
You can perfectly claim conformance based on tests done on some selected browsers, for instance those used by a company when talking about an intranet application ("Web technologies may only need to be supported by those specific user agents and assistive technologies deployed at a company."). But this will give you a conformance for those browsers, and not for the other one.
So yes, this will be conform using Chrome, and not using IE11. This does not help.
Or is the end user responsible for chosing browsers that work better?
You define your end user. If you can choose the browser used by your visitors (company intranet, touch screen kiosk, ...), then you are responsible for chosing and can set the required environment.
In any other case, if you can't choose the browser used by your visitors you have to give them a conforming version or an alternate conforming version.
You can claim conformance for a set of browsers, but as long as your website is not compatible with IE11, it will not be accessible for those users, and you can't ask them to use another browser (as they sometimes have no choice to)
Related
One customer wanting their website to be WCAG 2.0 AA level compliance is asking the website to be tested using JAWS, Talkback and Voiceover. The compliance needs to be tested for IE, MS Edge, Chrome , Firefox and Safari (in Mac OS, Windows 7, iOS & Android)
We already have NVDA in our approved to use product list.
Can't NVDA alone be used to test our website and certify it for WCAG 2.0 AA level compliance?
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) require that web content conforms to a set of success criteria; they do not explicit require tests with specific browsers and assistive technologies. For example, when you look at the Techniques for WCAG 2.0, each technique and failure has a test procedure that is independent of specific products (except for "technologies" that are proprietary, such as Silverlight, where they suggest the use of UIAVerify or Silverlight Spy).
So the question is actually about defining what user agent support means for your client's site. While NVDA is fairly popular, it works only on Microsoft Windows and it does not always interact in the same way with certain browsers as other screen readers (e.g. Firefox support versus Chrome support). Unless your client's site is a fairly simple site with just static HTML, I would not recommend testing it only with NVDA. On Windows, the combination of JAWS and IE (including Edge) should not be ignored. Mobile is a different experience than desktop or laptop.
Conclusion: If you are evaluating a non-trivial website, do not test with NVDA alone.
I have problem with edge accessibility on window 10.
I see that microsoft edge supported accessibility technology as narrator. It can access and read controls on window 10. I try and see that it works normally.
However, AccExplore32 tool can not access web element in Edge although it still works with IE.
I use accessibility technology like AccTool. Therefore, I can not access control in Edge page.
Chrome has a setting that force chrome enable accessiblity by "--force-renderer-accessibility"
Does Edge have it ?
You can view the accessibility tree of Microsoft Edge using Inspect.exe from the Windows 10 SDK. You'll get the most accurate representation if you choose "UI Automation Mode" and "Control View" from the Options menu in Inspect.
Please see this blog post for more information on accessibility in Edge: Accessibility: Towards a more inclusive web with Microsoft Edge and Windows 10.
Currently (November 19th, 2015) Microsoft still doesn't provide fair accessibility in ApplicationFrame.dll which powers Edge, Calendar, the built-in mail client and some other Windows 10 apps. They actually broke the UIA (User Interface Automation) for assistive technologies.
This exactly is the reason why JAWS for Windows and other great assistive technology players lack support for Edge and other apps based on this library.
We have over 200 web applications. They are used both internally and by our external employees. Our company's standard has been IE8. We are planning on changing that and adopting IE 10 or 11.
Also, our external employees may use the application in their preferred browser (FF, Opera, Safari, diff. versions, etc.).
I know of services such as browershots, but these are mostly to check if layout is consistent across browsers and tell you nothing if the functionality is still working or not. Is there any other way to do an efficient preliminary check for compatibility with newer browsers instead of having to do a full out regression test? If checks fail, the regression tests can follow and then refactoring what is necessary.
We can use tools like Citrix AppDNA or modern.ie and IECT tool as a combination to explore the strategy and update the applications
I've been testing a website I design on my mac and also on windows. To be more specific mac osx snow leopard and windows 7.
Now I'm wondering if I will need to test further e.g. mac osx leopard, tiger ... windows xp, windows vista?
I've been wondering since I started all this browser testing stuff.
Kind regards
The only browser that's an issue IMO is IE as running multiple versions takes some setup and is not completely decoupled from the OS. The Developer Tools in IE 8/9/10 let you choose the rendering mode of earlier versions, but there are sometimes differences in the rendering between the simulated and "native" browser. Users of the other browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari) tend to upgrade quickly and in addition, even early versions of those browsers were fairly compliant (aside from CSS3 capabilities that were codified after they were released, but those usually degrade gracefully)
Great article in Smashing Magazine about setting up testing for IE using virtual machines.
Fonts are dependent on if the user's OS has them installed by default. Fonts have kerning (space between the characters), and if changed to a backup font with different kerning can affect the flow of your page.
Form elements (text inputs, radio buttons, dropdowns, etc.) are rendered by the browser but adhere to the OS standard settings.
In short, it's always good to get your hands on as many environments (OS/browser combinations) as possible to see what your site will look like. If you have a friend with a different set up, check it out, ask them to send you a screenshot or use one of the online services that provide this ability.
So recently Microsoft threw the joke that was IE6 into the recycling bin, and said that users should automatically be upgraded to the latest version of IE, if they hadn't already. Unfortunately for web designers, this means that some people (running XP) will be stuck with IE8.
I recently started redesigning a clients website to bring it up to date, and in order to make loading times quicker, save on disk usage, and on bandwidth, I have implemented the use of CSS3 code and then a big but... IE8 Doesn't support CSS3... :(
Is there a significant amount of users on XP / Vista / 7 who still use IE8, or have they moved to alternative, more up to date browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc?
Should I worry about trying to find a way to keep the website looking correct in all browsers? or is there a way for me to encourage visitors using IE8, to swap it for another browser?
I imagine this depends on how the website is used. Is it an intranet website, a public website, or an web application that the owner dictates the version. IMO the best way to figure this out is to have Google Analytics plugged into the web app.
I can tell you that the project I am currently on doesnt have the luxuary to rule out IE8. 70% of our users that use the web app I work on use IE8. It seems to still be the most used browser in the business world. (at least from my experience) Heck we still need to support IE7.
However if you can guarantee the web users are using an up to date browser, then thats a different story. Or of course you can say, this app doesnt support IE 8 or lower.
Thats my 2 cents.
IE8 is the default browser in Windows 7, so expect it to hang around forever, just as IE6 has because it was the default in Windows XP.
Use http://code.google.com/p/html5shiv/ or http://code.google.com/p/ie7-js/ to ease the pain.
Yes, but according to WC3 the percentage of usage is now only ~8% for IE8.
Thats still a pretty big number to turn your back on however.