Open Source Firefox
In recent years, two words are uttered with great enthusiasm and excitement. Those words are "Firefox Accessibility". Firefox is becoming a favorite choice for developers, experts and common users wishing to see web content in a most convenient manner.
The Firefox user interface is user-friendly for keyboard users and is key for many customization options, that include customizable styles (for setting contrast, font color, size, etc.), large print themes, high contrast. Firefox readily supports accessibility features built in the web content when clubbed with up to date screen reader versions and other supportive technologies. The excitement about the accessibility of Firefox is attributed to its nature, which is open source, extensibility, and focus on standards.
As an open source program, Firefox is designed and developed by members of the open source community. Every one can contribute and make Firefox a better browser. The wants and needs of the community are reflected in the product. It means that accessibility enhancements need to be put into practice for the users and by the users. The plan at Mozilla external link, which takes care of the efforts of many open source projects, has community members that write code for accessibility in Firefox and accessibility experts and individuals. Common users and experts having disabilities, come together and all of them contributed in making Firefox a better accessible browser.
Because of the nature of Firefox, which is open-source, and the large number of contributors, Firefox accessibility continues to be implemented briskly. Till date, accessibility of screen reader has been available by using Internet Explorer (IE) on Windows. This meant that fresh set of accessibility features were made available only in the new versions of Internet Explorer; that too, if Internet Explorer development team felt like implementing them. After all these conditions were satisfied, accessibility features were implemented in that new release of IE browser. Window-Eyes provide the best support currently, but ZoomText and JAWS are extended to maintain the accessibility features of Firefox in a better way. As Mozilla Firefox is a cross platform program, it opens up many possibilities for accessibility on operating systems other than Windows. Mozilla Firefox is compatible with Mac, Linux, and UNIX operating systems with tools, accessibility features, and extensions.
Keeping up the high standards is a driving force for the Firefox open source development community. Guidelines have been implemented for the development of the architecture. With more than 1000 contributors to Firefox in the previous year, these guidelines provide a smooth mechanism to be sure that the product exceed the demands of all users. As Firefox is a open-source projects with set guidelines, every one can contribute to make these authoring frameworks much more accessible and designing Firefox extensions and other tools for accessibility.
Using accessibility guidelines for web content-authored needs to be easily reachable to the user agents and the end user (assistive technologies and browsers) must support W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. For example, it does no good to add alternative text to any image if the screen reader can’t read it within the browser itself. The development community of Mozilla has authored Firefox to support web content accessibility, and CSS and HTML standards. Firefox goes way beyond typical accessibility features outlined in accessibility guidelines. Firefox also will soon support accessibility of multimedia (MM) content like Dynamic HTML, Flash, and AJAX submission as and when available authoring strategies are set for the content.
In plain and simple words, Mozilla Firefox is a team effort. Developers and users across the globe are part of that one big team. Entry to the team is not restricted. Anyone who is ready to work in given guidelines is welcome! It is not a product designed, developed and marketed by one company but it an effort by all to create a great product! Happy surfing!
Tags: Firefox Help
