Designing Accessible Web Content

Brian BrautigamAlternate Media Specialist

Riverside City College

What does Accessibility Mean? Accessibility enables a student with a

disability to use the Web in a manner similar to someone without a disability.

In other words, we are providing equal access.

How do students with disabilities access the web?

Students with disabilities can access the web using specialized hardware and software called Assistive Computer Technologies.

Users who are blind……may use screen reading software to hear the content of the screen

Users who are deaf……require audiovisual resources to be captioned for accessibility

Users with Mobility Impairments

…may use speech recognition technology to access web content

Users with learning differences…

Will benefit from a logical, well-laid out site with consistent markup

QUICK TIPS

Quick Tips for Web Accessibility

Pictures Use the “alt” attribute to describe the picture.

Graphs, Charts and other complex imagesUse the “Longdesc” attribute.

Quick Tips for Web Accessibility

Heading Styles Use “H1, H2, etc.” when marking

up text.

Disabled Student ServicesOffice HoursThe office is open from 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m. for your convenience…

Staff We are staffed with friendly people who love their jobs.

Quick Tips for Web Accessibility Hyperlinks.

Use text that makes sense when read out of context.

For example, avoid “click here.”

For Example… Instead of this:

To read an article about World War II pilots click here

Or this:World War II Pilots Article:(http://www.cnn.com/2008/wwii/20/wwii.pilots/index.htm)

DO THIS:Read World War II pilots article on CNN.com

Quick Tips for Web Accessibility Tables.

Mark up tables with the “Scope” and “Header” attributes

Use the “Summary” attribute to explain the contents of the table.

Layout tables vs. Data tables

Layout tables vs. Data tablesWeek Chapters Homework

Sept. 1 Brown ch. 1 Answer odd numbered questions in back of chapter

Sept. 7 Brown Ch. 2 Answer even numbered questions in back of chapter

Sept. 14

Brown Ch. 3 Answer odd numbered questions in back of chapter

Sept. 21

None Quiz on Chapters 1-3

Quick Tips for Web Accessibility

Multimedia.

Provide captioning of video and transcripts of audio.

Why is all this necessary?Accessibility is not a new concept. Ramps, wide doorways, elevators and accessible restrooms are an accepted part of campus architecture.

Accessible web site design simply makes our “virtual architecture” accessible too.