CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 2 of 42 Topics Overview
Web Accessibility Guidelines Authoring Tool Accessibility
Guidelines User Agent Accessibility Guidelines How the different
guidelines fit together For next week
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 3 of 42 What is web
accessibility? Web accessibility means quite simply that those with
disabilities can browse the web People with disabilities can
navigate, understand, and interact with websites People with
different disabilities Visual Auditory Speech Cognitive
Neurological Remember different people perceive information
differently Different disabilities affect the ability o the user to
access your site
Slide 4
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 4 of 42 What is web
accessibility (cont) Most sites in existence today pose some type
of accessibility problem to those with a certain disability Web
accessibility also benefits those with disabilities Not limited to
visual and audio browsers Can also benefit those with slower
internet connections Also help those with temporary disabilities
(broken arm, finger), only can use one hand to type Also good PR
for your organization to take those less fortunate into account
Take all potential users into account when designing your site
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 5 of 42 Why is it
important? The web is becoming an increasingly important part of
everyday life Health care Nutrition News Recreation Vacation
Planning Entertainment People with disabilities need to perform
many of this items People want access to information, easiest and
cheapest way to access information is on the Web Those that are
paralyzed or blind that cannot read newspapers or books can use the
web to access information Required by some laws that you provide
access to all users Remember, everyone should have access to the
information you would like to present
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 6 of 42 Making the web
accessible Traditional focus has been on web developers to design
accessible sites However, different users require different designs
to be able to effectively understand the site The Web Accessibility
Initiative (WAI) is considered the international standard for Web
Developed by the W3C Think about all the different disabilities
that your user base could be experiencing Making Your Web Site
Accessible Developing an accessible site could be easier than you
think Depends on what type of technologies you used to develop the
site Many accessible sites must be developed from the start as
sites that are not coded with standard html can be difficult to
change Videos, fancy animations cannot be seen by those with visual
impairments
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 7 of 42 Checking your
site Should check site to conform to guidelines Mostly done through
human checking but some software exists to help Access Color
Accessibility Check Accessibility Wizard Should run a number of
different scenarios to see how the site works
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 8 of 42 Content
Accessibility Web Content Guidelines What the user sees Authoring
Tool Accessibility Developing content for web pages User Agent
Accessibility Broader scope than just web pages Of these, Web
Content Accessibility is most important Specialized tools exist for
other applications
Slide 9
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 9 of 42 Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG) Explain how to make content accessibility to everyone,
including those with disabilities and impairments Web content
refers to anything you see on the Web including images, text, html
Should design your pages to be accessible to those with impairments
Bring your content to a much wider audience
Slide 10
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 10 of 42 Who is it for?
WCAG is intended for: Web content developers (page authors, site
designers, etc.) Web authoring tool developers Web accessibility
evaluation tool developers Policy makers, managers, etc. Developed
by W3C
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 11 of 42 Quick Tips Quick
tips to make the web accessible to all users Images &
animations: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each
visual. Images & animations Image maps. Use the client-side map
and text for hotspots.client-side maptext for hotspots Multimedia.
Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of
video.captioning and transcripts of audiodescriptions of video
Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of
context. For example, avoid "click here." Hypertext links
Slide 12
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 12 of 42 Quick Tips Quick
Tips continued Page organization. Use headings, lists, and
consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
Page organizationheadingslists CSS Graphs & charts. Summarize
or use the longdesc attribute. longdesc Scripts, applets, &
plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are
inaccessible or unsupported.alternative content Frames. Use the
noframes element and meaningful titles.titles Tables. Make
line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize. Tables Check your work.
Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG Check your
workValidatehttp://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG See the WCAG checklist on the
course website
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 13 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and
visual content Use the alt tag in images Identify applets, images,
sound, video descriptively Text can be easily converted to audio
Also good design when maintaining your html code Using video may
help some users process information instead of text
Slide 14
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 14 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 2. Don't rely on color alone Remember those with
visual impairments cannot see color Do not use color to highlight
important text or headings Remember text is better to get your
point across than a flashy page design
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 15 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly
Always identify important text Do not use a header information to
change a font size when the information is not a header If you are
using a table, do not use tabs to separate the elements Use style
sheets to control formatting (keep formatting changes out of the
page) Makes it easier to make site wide changes without changing
every page
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 16 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 4. Clarify natural language usage Speech
synthesizers and Braille devices should be automatically able to
switch to the new language Provide explanations of acronyms the
first time they are used Identify the language that is used on the
page If the language changes, clearly state the change Identify key
words and headings on the page (also helps search engines to
catalog your content) Improves readability of pages for all users,
including those that can access the site normally Can also aid in
the translation of pages to other languages When abbreviations and
natural language changes are not identified, they may be
indecipherable when machine-spoken or brailled
Slide 17
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 17 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 5. Create tables that transform gracefully Use
descriptive headings in all tables Try to avoid using tables
whenever possible Help those that only access part of the page at a
time Use tables when displaying data in a tabular form, not for
layout
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 18 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies
transform gracefully Try out your pages using several common
accessibility technologies Authoring tools can help you develop
accessible pages New technologies like Flash may not be screen
reader friendly
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 19 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content
changes Think of moving text or JavaScript that redirects you to a
page after a certain time Those with cognitive disabilities may not
be able to comprehend fast moving text or images Audio browsers may
not be able to keep up with fast moving text
Slide 20
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 20 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user
interfaces Think of putting flash on your site Must allow the user
to find the hyperlinks and select them in your flash applications
Better to use html to hold link information and flash to display
video
Slide 21
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 21 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 9. Design for device-independence Think of all the
different devices that can access the web today PDAs Phones Laptops
Desktops Style sheets can help with this! Try different items,
screen sizes, resolutions to make sure your content is
accessible
Slide 22
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 22 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 10. Use interim solutions Ensure that older
versions of browsers can understand and access your content May
need to design different sites for different versions of browsers
CSSs come in handy for doing this Older browsers read lists of
links as a single link Test, test, test
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CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 23 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines Use the
checklist that is on the course website to ensure that your site
can be more accessible to those with disabilities Priority 3 is the
highest and most accessible level, Priority 1 allows for much
greater access and requires the least amount of work
Slide 24
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 24 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 12. Provide context and orientation information
Try to show where they are on the page The user should be able to
determine where to click to access important information The user
should not get lost browsing through your site
Slide 25
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 25 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms Use links
that are descriptive Do not use a name like click here, rather use
CIS373 course website The urls will be read to those with visual
impairments Highlight more important links Use actual html for
links, not flash
Slide 26
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 26 of 42 Web Content
Basic Guidelines 14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple Use
descriptive and simple headings Do not use large rambling text
Remember, those who are blind need to access the site using sound
Highlight the most important links and information so the user can
jump directly to the relevant items
Slide 27
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 27 of 42 Authoring Tool
Accessibility Guidelines Authoring tools are used by those that
develop websites and related applications The Authoring Tool
Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) define how authoring tools should
developed so that everyone, including those with disabilities, can
have access to and use websites developed using these tools Part of
the Web Content Accessibility guidelines Just need to know they
exist
Slide 28
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 28 of 42 What does ATAG
do? Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) Overview
Authoring tools are software and services that people use to
produce Web pages and Web contentcontent Aid web developers in
making compliant websites that are accessible to all Provides a
series of guidelines for those that develop compliant software
Slide 29
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 29 of 42 ATAG is useful
to Editing tools specifically designed to produce Web content,
(Frontpage) Tools that can save content to web pages (Save as Web
Page) Transform documents into web formatTools that produce
multimedia, especially where it is intended for use on the Web, for
example, video production and editing suites, SMIL authoring
packages Video editing tools to describe to the user what is going
on the page Content Management System software CSS formatting tools
Sites that allow for user content (blogs)
Slide 30
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 30 of 42 What is in ATAG?
28 Checkpoints that provide guidelines to Produce accessible output
(that is, Web pages) Prompt the content author to make their
addition accessible Provide suggestions as to improve the current
web content to make it complaint Integrate accessibility into the
look and feel of the site, not just content Designing the authoring
tool to be accessible to those with disabilities
Slide 31
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 31 of 42 User Agent
Accessibility The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG)
describe how to make user agents accessible to everyone Broader
scope than just web accessibility Include media players, operating
systems, etc. We are mainly concerned with web content
Slide 32
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 32 of 42 Who is it for?
UAAG is primarily for developers of Web browsers, media players,
assistive technologies, and other user agents. UAAG and supporting
resources are also intended to meet the needs of many different
audiences, including policy makers, managers, and others. People
who want to choose user agents that are more accessible can use
UAAG to evaluate user agentsevaluate user agents People who want to
encourage their existing user agent developer to improve
accessibility in future versions can refer the user agent vendor to
UAAG
Slide 33
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 33 of 42 What can it do?
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines explain how to make user agents
accessible to those with disabilities Include web browsers, media
players, and assistive technologies Checkpoints to cover Access to
all content, including content tied to events triggered by the
mouse or keyboard User control over how content is rendered User
control over the user interface, with documentation of
accessibility features Standard programming interfaces, to enable
interaction with assistive technologies
Slide 34
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 34 of 42 How different
guidelines work together Different components of web development
must work together content - the information in a Web page or Web
application, including: natural information such as text, images,
and sounds code or markup that defines structure, presentation,
etc. Web browsers, media players, and other "user agents" assistive
technology, in some cases - screen readers, alternative keyboards,
switches, scanning software, etc. users ' knowledge, experiences,
and in some cases, adaptive strategies using the Web developers -
designers, coders, authors, etc., including developers with
disabilities and users who contribute content authoring tools -
software that creates Web sites evaluation tools - Web
accessibility evaluation tools, HTML validators, CSS validators,
etc.
Slide 35
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 35 of 42 How different
technologies work together
Slide 36
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 36 of 42 How technologies
work Web developers will use authoring tools The user will use
accessibility aids geared to the particular disability Requires a
combination of all of these features in order to work effectively
If one component is weak, then workarounds will need to be
developed for other components as well
Slide 37
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 37 of 42 Developing
workarounds Use different pages for different disabilities
Slide 38
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 38 of 42 Generally a
circle As assistive technologies become more effective, browsers
and authoring tools will incorporate those changes Leads to Greater
Accessibility for all
Slide 39
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 39 of 42 Fitting it all
together
Slide 40
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 40 of 42 Conclusion
Design your sites to be accessible to a wide audience Some laws
govern the ability to bring your site to your users Target sued
because site not designed well to allow access to blind users Use
the checklist for web accessibility to ensure your website is most
available to all users
Slide 41
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 41 of 42 For Next Week
Read about Cool URIs Read the WCAG Priority Guidelines Papers and
presentations due in 2 weeks Next week will be available to meet
with those that may have questions about the paper /
presentations
Slide 42
CIS 373---Web Standards-Accessibility 42 of 42 In Class
Exercise Split into groups of 2 Take a copy of the Web
Accessibility Guidelines Select a website Go through the guidelines
to see which ones are met and which items need to be improved State
whether the site conforms or not Brief presentation at end of
class