Web Accessibility

Why Design with Accessibility in Mind?

• Accessibility and Usibility go hand in hand
• Your HTML code will be cleaner and more professional.
• Search engines will be able to index your site more easily (search engines look only at the text elements).
• You protect yourself. Although a minority, Web users with disabilities are interested consumers just like you, with a good deal of political clout. Don't underestimate the legal implications of ignoring this group.

Accessibility Myths

• To make a site accessible you have to go back to the Stone Age.
• Web Accessibility is very complex and difficult.
• Implementing Accessibility is very expensive.
• Web Accessibility can be learned in five minutes.
• To make a site accessible just means taking out all the images and multimedia.

Addressing Special Needs

• Accessible and interoperable design
• Major accessibility problems
• Using adaptive technology
• Digital divide
  • technologically unsophisticated
  • technologically disadvantaged
• Using adaptive technology
  • Screen readers
  • Braille display.
  • Screen magnifiers
  • Keyboard navigation
  • Alternative browsers

• Bandwidth
  • Modems
  • Rural Australia
  • Network congestion

Accessible Methodology

• 13 Guidelines
• 65 Checkpoints
• 3 Priority levels of checkpoints

Three levels of conformance with WCAG 1.0 are possible: SINGLE A, DOUBLE A, and TRIPLE A. Each level represents compliance with the Priority guidelines set out by the WAI. These are:

• [Priority 1] SINGLE A conformance ranking A Web content developer must satisfy these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints are a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.

• [Priority 2] DOUBLE A conformance ranking A Web content developer should satisfy these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.

• [Priority 3] TRIPLE A conformance ranking A Web content developer may address these checkpoints. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying these checkpoints will improve access to Web documents.

Conformance Goals

Conformance to level TRIPLE A includes overcoming all access barriers associated with each of the priority levels. Conformance to level DOUBLE A includes overcoming all Priority 1 & 2 barriers, and conformance to level SINGLE A includes overcoming all Priority 1 barriers. Developers should set realistic goals for attaining a given level of conformance. It would be realistic for developers to set a goal of SINGLE A or DOUBLE A conformance.

• Device Independent Design
• Valid HTML – 4.01/XHTML/CSS
• Images – ALT text & descriptions
• Links & Navigation– meaningful
• Scripts and Applets- accessible
• Tables & Forms – reading-order, labels
• PDFs – alternative formats
• Multimedia - accessibility (Flash, video,audio)

Device Independent Design

• Works with assistive technology
  screen readers, magnifiers, mouse emulators
• Works on different browser types and versions
  Lynx, Netscape, Internet Explorer, Opera, Homepage Reader
• Works on different hardware
  12inch/monochrome monitor, 386 computer, 28k modem
• Works on different operating systems
  Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux

Deprecated HTML

Authors should avoid using deprecated elements and attributes. However, user agents should continue to support them for reasons of backward compatibility.

• ELEMENTS
• APPLET (replaced)
• BASEFONT (presentation)
• CENTER (presentation)
• DIR (structure)
• FONT (presentation)
• ISINDEX (structure)
• MENU (structure)
• STRIKE & S (presentation)
• U (presentation)

Images

• Issues
• Minimise the problem
• Text as text
• Good content writing
• ALT text, longdesc, "D" link
• Image function or meaning
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

ALT Text

• Long Alt Text may not fit within the image box
• Background colour can make it unreadable
• All images must have an ALT text

• Longer text equivalents
• ‘longdesc’ attribute - not widely supported yet
• "D"escription link
• Stylish Text
• Text with style applied (CSS)

Cascading Style Sheets

• CSS1, CSS2, CSS3, XSL
• Relative vs absolute measurements
• Browser support
• Graceful degradation

Links

• do they make sense?
• Clearly identify the target of the link
• "...More" or "Click Here"
• include link titles (plus Alt text if using images as links)
• "broken" links

Navigation

• navigation bars (text vs images)
• scripted drop-downs and combo-boxes
• tabbing order
• heading levels & lists for structure
• blockquote vs margin for indents
• provide information about site layout (eg. site map)
• provide information about accessibility aids

Tables

• relative vs absolute widths
• use sparingly and avoid nesting
• reading order
• Summary and Caption
• TH vs TD
• use of ID and HEADERS attributes

Forms

• navigation & tab order
• linearity
• focus
• association & labelling
• compulsory fields
• conditions & clarification

Scripts and Applets

• Keyboard access
• Non Javascript browsers
• Security
• Browser type/version
• Alternative content

PDF & Acrobat

• Acrobat reader
• Conversion tools
• Acrobat 5
• structured documents
• technology lag
• Alternatives

Flash

• non-mouse access
• audio
• video
• interactivity
• need player

Accessible Multimedia

• Multilingual audio tracks and captions
• Described images & actions
• Text to speech conversion
• Multi-device access, eg. keyboard navigation

Design Considerations

General

• Understand the primary goal of your web site.
• Your audience is the group of people best able to help you meet your goal.
• Content is what attracts people to your web site.
• Plan for updates. Make this process as simple as possible.
• Choose a format that enhances your message while being accessible to your audience.

Technical

• Screen resolution
• Download times
• Colour
• Browser Considerations
• Others

Evaluation & Repair

• Browser settings
• Bookmarklets
• Built-in checking
• Bobby
• The Wave
• A-Prompt
• Tidy
• HTML validator
• CSS validator
• Others

Browser Settings

• Change the font to a larger size
• View your pages without images
• View your pages with styles sheets and pages colours/fonts disabled
• View your pages with an alternative, high contrast, colour scheme
• Unplug the mouse and use the keyboard to navigate
• Disable scripts, applets and/or plugins
• Different browsers & versions

Links to External Sites

Bobby
This free service will allow you to test web pages and help expose and repair barriers to accessibility and encourage compliance with existing accessibility guidelines

JAWS
Probably the most popular screen reader worldwide, JAWS® for Windows® works with your PC to provide access to today’s software applications and the Internet. With its internal software speech synthesizer and the computer’s sound card, information from the screen is read aloud, providing technology to access a wide variety of information, education and job related applications. JAWS also outputs to refreshable Braille displays, providing Braille support of any screen reader on the market. JAWS Software is made by Freedom Scientific.

Read please
Reads any web page, makes .mp3/.wav, zooms any page, text only version web pages, translates etc.

MultiWeb
MultiWeb is an Internet browser for Windows 3.x/95 aimed at improving access to the World Wide Web (WWW) for users with a disability. Developed by the Equity Access Research and Development Group at Deakin University under a grant from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services, MultiWeb is freely available for distribution but cannot be sold for profit.
More information about MultiWeb

MultiMail
MultiMail is an electronic mail (email) program that includes word prediction and gives you a range of interface and user options. MultiMail should improve email communication opportunities for Internet users with a disability. MultiMail has been originally designed for Windows 3.x/95 so that consumers with older computer equipment can use this free product. A 32- bit version is planned for the future.
More information about MultiMail

MultiWeb and MultiMail Homepage

Designing for useability and accessibility
The seminar topics discussed include: what website visitors like and want, and how to design your site with their needs in mind. Download Seminar Powerpoint presentation.