Why Build Accessible Pages?
BBC Video on Accessibility. It will give you an insight into the benefits of creating accessible sites.
Tools for Validation.
The how’s and why’s of accessibility http://www.webaim.org/
A very well written article on how people with disabilities use the web. Including scenarios:
- Online shopper with color blindness – user customized style sheets
- Reporter with repetitive stress injury – keyboard equivalents for mouse commands, access keys
- Online student who is deaf – captioned audio from multimedia
- Accountant who is blind – appropriate table markup and alternative text
- Student with dyslexia – use of supplemental graphics, freezing animated graphics, multiple search options
- Retiree with aging-related conditions managing personal finances – screen magnification, stopping scrolling text, avoiding pop-up windows
- Supermarket assistant with cognitive disability – clear and simple language, consistent design, consistent navigation options, multiple search options
- Teenager who is deaf and blind seeking entertainment – accessible multimedia, device-independent access, appropriate table markup
Validating your pages
Bobby is no longer online! Bummer. You can use the validator built in to the FireFox Web Developer Add-On Its under Tools. You’ll want to validate 508 and WAI.
You can also validate through Dreamweaver, please only validate for section 508 and W3C Priority 1.
- Under “Site” go to Reports> Be sure you choose Current Document, or whatever files you aim to validate.
- Under HTML Reports> Check Accessibility> then click the Report Settings Button
- To avoid being too strict in our testing, for this class we will only validate for Level/Priority 1 and ADA/508 accessibility. To set this, click on “ALL” and click Disable, Then click on “508 Accessibility” and click Enable, then “W3c/WCAG P.1 accessibility” and click Enable. Click OK, (this will close the panel) then click run.
- You will see the results in the results panel. Right click on the error for more information, double click to get to the location of the error or warning.
- If it says Manual then it is just a warning, items marked FAILED need to be repaired
Alternative input/reading devices to keep in mind
- Adaptive keyboards and mice (e.g. one-handed keyboards, footboards)
- Voice-recognition systems, text to voice
- Eye-tracking systems
- Automated braille
- Mouth sticks and other mouth/tongue operated devices
- Text enlargers: ZoomText – http://www.aisquared.com/
- Screen readers: JAWS – http://www.freedomscientific.com/
The Laws and Guidelines
- Section 508: http://www.section508.gov/
- Section 508 Explained: http://www.csufresno.edu/webaccess/508/508explained.htm
- Web Accessibility Initiative: http://www.w3c.org/WAI/
- World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3c.org/
- Also, you can download the Firefox Developers toolbar and view your page without CSS and images to see what it would look like. Go to images> disable images> all images and then go to CSS> disable styles> all styles
