I’ve now changed the comment form so that its much more accessible. It passed a 508 online validation.

Good stuff. With regard to usability (more so than accessability) a good thing to try is to ask someone to use your site whilst you observe what they do when they are there.

couple of useful links
http://www.sensible.com (the book he publishes titled “dont make me think” is very good indeed)
http://www.useit.com

There are so many factors that make a website accessible or inaccessible that it is important not to get carried away by automated checks. Best thing to do is think about things from a users perspective.

How would a blind person cope with your site? – Close your eyes (or switch of your monitor) and see if you can use the site. Use a screen reader to see how well your site reads.

How would a non-mouse (ie. keyboard only) user cope with your site? Use your key board only to see how well you do.

Think of core tasks that users need to do. What is the purpose of the site? Can people perform these tasks?

And the list can go on, but this should give you an idea of where I am coming from and going to.

I maintain a couple of websites that are updated regularly and may be of interest, in relation to web accessibility and software testing:
http://www.rosiesherry.com/blog
http://www.drivenqa.com/

Yes you are right, I only checked the main page. So this page will probably have a few issues I need to address. And I do appreciate you pointing me on the right direction on this. It\’s good to know that you see accessibility as an art rather than a science. And the difference in all those validators prove that there isn\’t one way of doing things.

I\’m quite new to forms so I dont feel as comfortable as I should with their code. I got everything I know about forms from an article on A List Apart so maybe it\’s time to do some more studying. I\’ll also look into the ACRONYM and ABBR tags too.

Anyway, thanks for your advice. I appreciate all your input.

I’m glad you’re working to make your site more accessible. I just wanted to help out by adding a few constructive comments. In general, I distrust accessibility checkers even more than I distrust markup validators; accessibility’s so complex, so dependent on testing, and above all so contentious that one really needs to consider each guideline and piece of advise on its own merits.

Unfortunately, WordPress makes designers interested in accessibility do a lot of work:

http://www.brucelawson.co.uk/index.php/2005/wordpress-accessibility-hacks/

Correct me if I’m wrong, but judging from problems with your comment form you only checked your homepage. For instance, have a look at its first field:

name (required)

The INPUT element (/>) is closed as you would close it for XHTML not HTML. The LABEL is not explicitly associated with its INPUT using the FOR attribute. Also, enclosing LABEL in P is unnecessary markup bloat. Should be more like:

Name (required)

Your comment form really needs to specify what sort of markup or markdown, if any, can or should be used. As you’re a web designer, it would be worth explaining how to include code samples in comments too.

Another random point is that you should be putting acronyms (initialisms pronounced as a single word like NASA) in ACRONYM and all other abbreviations inside ABBR. It’s best to place the expansion of the acronym or abbreviation in the TITLE attribute for the element. If a visitor is likely not to know the correct expansion, you should expand the acronym or abbreviation in your text too, since user agents are not required to expose the TITLE attribute. For this post, the WAC blog’s recent entry on accessibility acronyms and abbreviations may prove handy:

http://www.rnib.org.uk/wacblog/general/web-accessibility-acronym-starter-pack/

You say: you’re ‘sure that anybody using a device other than a standard web browser will be having a much better experience than they were last week’. Well you may wish to try some non-standard browsing for yourself. Lynx (a text browser) runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and there are several free or demo screen readers you can test with:

http://www.benjaminhawkeslewis.com/www/accessibility/free-screen-readers.html