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Designing your Website for Usability and Accessibility

Trainers Name

OrganizationPhone Number

Email/Website

ADA Trainer Network

Module 7f

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DisclaimerInformation, materials, and/or technical assistance are intended solely as informal guidance, and are neither a determination of your legal rights or responsibilities under the ADA, nor binding on any agency with enforcement responsibility under the ADA. The Mid-Atlantic ADA Center is authorized by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) to provide information, materials, and technical assistance to individuals and entities that are covered by the ADA. The contents of this document were developed under a grant from the Department of Education, NIDRR grant number H133 A110020. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

The Internet Provides Access

News

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Work

Information

Commerce

Education

Entertainment

Job Search

Government Services

Civic Participation

Principles of Accessibility

• Perceivable• Operable• Understandable• Robust

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Creating Structure for your web pages

• Separate styling from content using cascading style sheets

• Navigation should be simple to use and readily available on the page

• Provide Skip to Main Content Links

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Headings are Critical to Structure

• Headings are key to accessibility as they allow the user to navigate directly to each major section of the page and search for specific sections.

Example: Usability Testing

• Incorporation of Universal Design Principles, • Compliance with Section 508 of the

Rehabilitation Act;• Adherence to all W3C WCAG 2.0 Guidelines, Level

AA recommended• Conducting repeated accessibility and usability

testing to ensure compatibility with common assistive website technologies

Cornell University, 2011

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Want to test your site?

• WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) by WebAIM– http://wave.webaim.org/

• WAVE indicates errors– green means an element is accessible, red is

inaccessible, yellow indicates a warning• Results are meant to be reviewed by a

human…a computer cannot test accessibility

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Mid-Atlantic ADA CenterTransCen, Inc.

401 North Washington Street, Suite 450Rockville, MD 20850

Toll-Free: 800.949.4232 (DC, DE, MD, PA, VA, WV)

Telephone 301-217-0124Fax 301-251-3762TTY 301-217-0124Email ADAinfo@transcen.orgWeb www.ADAinfo.org

The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the Department of Education, NIDRR grant number H133 A110020. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.