Looking beyond blindness

Opera

the Best Internet Experience
on Any Device for Everyone

Charles McCathieNevile - Chief Standards Officer

chaals@opera.com

Some of the cast

• Anders Markussen (screen reader, Mac)
• Julien Picalausa (screen reader, Windows)
• Yenny Otero (user interface, Unix)
• Gerður Jónsdóttir, Chiara Cardamone and team (Symbian)
• Johan Schön and team (Opera Mini)
• Karl Anders Øygard and team (handling content)
• Erik Dahlström and team (SVG)
• Petter Nilsen (accesskey, desktop functions)
• Kenneth Maage, Yenny and team (usability)
• Tim Altman, Tommy Olsen, Claudio and others (testing)
• Anne van Kesteren, Chaals, Jonny Axelsson (specifications)
• Jorunn D Newth, Mark "Tarquin" Wilton-Jones (documentation)
• Krister, Fabian, Deborah, Gregory (beta-testing)
• Jon von Tetzchner, Kenneth, Christen Krogh (management, resources)

There is one Web

But many ways to use it

A world of Opera Users

• About 40 million projected desktop downloads in 2006
• more than 40 million cell phones
• more than 8 million Opera Mini users
• TVs, Game consoles, Airplane seats, Communicators, ...

Many types of users with many types of needs

Some accessibility strengths

• Zoom, Fit-to-width
• Keyboard control
• Voice control
• Voice output
• Shortcuts and nicknames
• Powerful configuration
• User Stylesheets
• Site-specific preferences

Accessibility challenges

• Keeping to Opera code requirements
  - Small, Portable, Efficient, Secure
• So many device interfaces
• Platform-specific APIs
• User Testing
• Explaining the power

Some current work

• Accesskey
• Screen Reader Compatibility
• SVG content accessibility
• New usability work
• ARIA - the best way forward?