Skywrite.me is all about writing Remarkable Messages and connects your interesting, wise or funny Messages with the place you are writing at and a person you are writing to. access.see.be enhances a normal and sleek Listbox with an individual style and country flags, so it is more intuitive to handle. You can find the usage of access.see.be on the second page of the Signup process or later in your profile if you want to add further cities to your personal list. Here is a screenshot of the Signup process:

This means in detail:

New Features:

• Menu
• Tooltip
• A helper for creating document landmark roles¹

Optimization:

• Source code refactoring (reimplementation of widgets)
• Better integration of flash movies
• Enhanced usage of AJAX-Functionality

Bugfixes:

• Implementing recommended navigation forms based on WAI-ARIA Best Practices
• Preserve the POUR-Principle² if images are disabled (only for standard layout, then it depends also on user specific layouts)

Beside also this Blog-website itself and the documentation of access.see.be will be improved and a new demo and screencast provided.

¹ Preventive! Document landmark roles are not supported by assistive technologies nowadays

² For more details on the POUR-Principle read the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines

Which kind of niche can access.see.be fill, where working isn´t already in progress? access.see.be based on the JavaScript-Framework Prototype, so Web Applications that uses Prototype can be easily enhanced with functions of access.see.be. In the graphic below you can find the development principle I called – to simplify matters – “Development-Triangle” for JavaScript based Accessible Rich Internet Applications.

In detail the graphic means:

• Prototype: Use Prototype as Framework for your Web Application (a lot of already use Prototype or Prototype is integrated in other frameworks like Ruby on Rails)
• script.aculo.us: Many Web Applications uses the Effect-Library script.aculo.us in combination with Prototype to build advanced User Interfaces
• While the combination of Prototype and script.aculo.us is well known, the Accessibility-Library access.see.be can complete this triangle through the service of progressive enhanced controls, that can be understood by assistive technologies like screen readers or alternative input devices. Different to other possibilities the developer doesn´t have to include a complete different library or framework, but can build upon his existing ressources.

The graphic of the “Development-Triangle” also shows one of the next goals of access.see.be: the combination of its widgets with the Effect-Library script.aculo.us. So stay tuned to the progress and the next versions of access.see.be!