The Forgotten Barrier

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The Forgotten Barrier

• The School/Classroom Web Site

Linda Carmona-Bell Joseph F. Seaman New Jersey
Department of Education Office of Educational and
Informational Technology
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Overview

• Introduction
• What is accessibility?
• Background
• Accessibility examples
• Resources
• Questions Answers

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Self Assessment

• Please take a few moments

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Imagine

• Being hearing impaired
• And watching a video clip on the internet

• Without captions

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Imagine

• Being visually impaired
• And navigating a website

Only through sound
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• Are most websites designed to be spoken?

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Imagine

• Being physically challenged
• And not using a mouse -

Can most websites be navigated without one?
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Reality, Not Imagination

• Such are the realities for over 200,000 special
  needs students in New Jersey
• They can access their schools but not the school
  information posted on the web
• They can navigate a textbook but not the
  classroom homepage
• They face internet barriers rarely considered

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W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

• "The power of the Web is in its universality.
  Access by everyone regardless of disability is an
  essential aspect."
• -- Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor
  of the World Wide Web

W3C World Wide Web Consortium
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What Is Accessibility?

• Everyone can use the site or services
• Peoples differences do not matter
• Happens by design and implementation

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Reasons for Accessibility
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The Law

• The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and
  Sections 504 as well as 508 of the Rehabilitation
  Act, prohibit discrimination against people with
  disabilities in all aspects of daily life
• This includes education and work

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Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

• no qualified individual with a disability shall,
  by reason of such disability, be excluded from
  participation in or be denied the benefits of the
  services, programs, or activities of a public
  entity (Title II, ADA, 1990)

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Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

• Organizations that receive money from the federal
  government are prohibited from discriminating on
  the basis of disability
• Public schools receive federal monies

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Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

• All federal electronic information technology
  (IT) goods and services that are purchased must
  comply with specific and established
  accessibility standards (29 U.S.C. 794d)
• By doing this, the federal government is creating
  industry standards for accessibility
• So although other organizations, such as states,
  are not mandated to use 508 standards for all
  technology purchases states are beginning to do
  so by passing their own 508 standards

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Why Section 508

• To remove barriers in information technology
• To make new opportunities available for people
  with disabilities
• To encourage the development technologies that
  focus in achieving these goals

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To Whom Does 508 Apply

• All federal agencies as they develop, procure,
  and maintain or use electronic and informational
  technology
• Other agencies that receive federal monies
• You?

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Section 508 and New Jersey

• New Jersey Accessibility statement
• http//www.state.nj.us/accessibility.htm
• New Jersey state agencies subject to this policy
  shall take reasonable steps to design and develop
  Web sites and Web services so that they are
  accessible to people with disabilities as well as
  those without disabilities.

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The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
of 1997 (IDEA)

• Requires that schools provide students with
  disabilities an equivalent, appropriate education
• Not providing information on a school/classroom
  website in an accessible format may be a legal
  concern if the information is necessary for
  coursework, homework, library services,
  distance-learning

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Other Considerations
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Considerations

• Districts/Schools/Classrooms should design
  accessible web sites for reasons other than just
  The Law
• A website is an organizations best face to the
  world
• Students
• Parents
• Grandparents
• The community
• Roughly 10 percent of the population, possibly up
  to 20 percent who surf the net are disabled

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Considerations

• Accessible design is good design
• Faster pages
• Easier to navigate
• Wider audience (e.g., cell phones, browser
  differences, graphics turned off, slow modem
  connections)

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Considerations in New Jersey

• Since 1997, Educational Technology Unit has
  required web sites as an outcome for all its
  grant programs
• As of November 2004, web sites will be required
  to be accessible for its grant programs

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Web Accessibility Issues

• Graphical User Interface main issue
• Visual
• Using the mouse
• Affects mostly those with visual disabilities

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(No Transcript)
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Web Accessibility Issues

• Other issues
• Movement (epilepsy)
• Colors (vision contrast)
• Sounds (captions)
• Organization and complexity on page (cognitive)
• Keep structure of a page the same throughout the
  site
• Is the site too busy?

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Simulations

• Low Vision
• http//www.webaim.org/simulations/lowvision
• Cognitive Disabilities
• http//www.webaim.org/simulations/cognitive.php
• Color Vision
• http//www.vischeck.com/examples/

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Different Ways to Surf

• Screen readers
• JAWS (Freedom Scientific)
• outSPOKEN (ALVA)
• Window-Eyes (GW Micro)
• HAL (Dolphin Computer Access)
• Talking browsers
• Home Page Reader (IBM)
• WeMedia Browser (WeMedia)
• Screen magnifiers
• Pointers (e.g., head wand, trackball)
• Refreshable Braille readers
• Keyboard only

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Web Accessibility PrioritiesAllowing for
differences

• Priority 1 (A)
• The must haves
• Basic requirements
• Priority 2 (AA)
• The should haves
• Removes significant barriers
• Priority 3 (AAA)
• The may have
• Design considerations
• W3C Checkpoints

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Six Guiding Questions

• Can the site be navigated using only a keyboard?
• Does the site override personal OS settings?
• Accessibility features
• Color and contrast settings
• Are there flashing or blinking images?
• Is color the sole means of conveying information?
• Is there an alternative format for information
  conveyed with images, icons, or animation?
• Is the site compatible with a screen reader?

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How to be accessible

• Present main content first
• Access key navigation
• Alt text
• Relative font sizes
• Use color safely
• Use real text, not graphics of text
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Accessibility Statement

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Present Main Content First

• Viewers can access main information without
  having to scroll or hear navigation links first
  on every page
• Having to wade through links as the first element
  in every page can be burdensome

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Access key navigation

• Allows for keyboard short cuts to be used to
  navigate to links
• lta hrefwww.njdoe.htm accesskey"1"gtHome
  pagelt/agt
• User presses ALT 1 to go to link

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Alt text

• Alt text
• Describes images on a web page
• Allows visually impaired to sense what the
  graphic contains
• ltimg src"house.jpg" height"110" width"320"
  alt"The house is white, with green shutters on
  the windows. "/gt
• Do not just list the name of file
• ltimg src"house.jpg" height"110" width"320"
  alt" house.jpg "/gt

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Relative Font Sizes

• Do not assign fixed or absolute sizes
• font-size 12px
• Use relative or percentages
• font-size small
• This allows for users to manipulate and set
  larger fonts for themselves

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Use Color Safely

• Have enough contrast so that the background and
  text are discernable
• Do not just use color to convey important
  information
• A word/link only highlighted in red may not be
  perceived by a person with color/vision
  challenges
• Use bold, italics, or underline in conjunction
  with color

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Use Real Text

• Making a graphic button with text on it is not as
  visible as real text
• Real text is easier for screen readers
• Real text can be enlarged and remain clear
  graphics blur

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Cascading Style Sheets

• Separates form from content
• All of the formatting is done by the style sheet
  and the web page has only content
• Allows for quicker loading of page (less for
  browser to process)
• Allows for easy way to change styles on all pages

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Accessibility Statement

• Include an accessibility statement on web site
• List the accessibility features that are present
  on the site
• Make it informative but also educative so
  others visiting your site may be inspired to do
  the same

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Too Hard Im Using Only Text

• We understand your pain
• Take everything one step at a time
• Plain text web sites are not very engaging!
• These techniques are not burdensome once they are
  learned
• Building a new site with these considerations is
  easier than retrofitting an established site
• So if redoing a site do it a little at a time

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Software and Accessibility

• Microsoft Word
• http//webaim.org/techniques/word/
• Microsoft Frontpage
• http//webaim.org/techniques/frontpage/
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• http//webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint/
• Flash
• http//webaim.org/techniques/flash/
• Adobe PDF
• http//webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/
• Overall
• http//webaim.org/techniques/

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Accessibility Checkers

• To identify potential accessibility problems on
  Web pages
• Some automatic checks
• Human interpretation always needed still a time
  commitment
• Some Web-based and programs run from your hard
  drive

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Accessibility Checkers

• Bobby
• http//bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
  
• Wave
• http//wave.webaim.org/index.jsp
• Lynx Text Browser
• http//www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
• Vischeck for color issues
• http//www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php

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Building the Process

• Policy is needed to address accessibility issues
  as part of the overall redesign effort of web
  site
• Policy must include
• Checking for accessibility must become part of
  the usual web development process
• A way to ensure that accessibility is being
  incorporated
• And more

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Resources

• Dive into Accessibility
• http//diveintoaccessibility.org/
• Iowa State University Accessibility
• http//www.iastate.edu/guide/access/tests.html
• University of Maine Accessibility
• http//www.umaine.edu/insider/accessibility/resour
  ces.htm

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Questions?
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(No Transcript)