Meryl's Notes Blog

Accessibility Information Solution has released v1.0 of its Web Accessibility Toolbar, which only works with IE. In case you’re wondering why it is for IE only, first… there is already a great toolbar for mozilla/firefox by Chris Pederick.

Steven Faulkner of NILS was kind enough to explain the reasons for the toolbar’s compatibility with IE only:

1. There was a gap in “the market,” no tools comparable to those available for Mozilla were/are available for IE.

2. Our programming expertise is limited (if somebody wants to work with us on versions for other browsers/operating systems we’d be interested),

3. Our resources are very limited as this project is unfunded so we work on it between paid work and in our spare time [Meryl here, thank you for the work!].

4. While some people realise that there are better browsers than IE out there, their uptake is still very small, and my original idea was to raise awareness of accessibility issues and provide the tools to “the masses.” [Valid point]

5. For better or worse, many assistive technology users use IE for web browsing, so I tend to use it for accessibility testing and browsing due to this circumstance [Ain't that the truth?].

6. What time I have had to work on developing the toolbar has so far been directed at improving the functionality and collaborating with others to create versions in other languages [Great reason!].