Pacific Northwest

1
Pacific Northwest Digital Government Summit 2001
Making Web Content Accessible
Rona Zevin
July, 2001
2
What is Accessibility?

• Convenience
• Ease of Access
• Ease of Understanding
• User-friendliness
• Ease of Use
• Openness

3
Another way to think about Accessibility

• How do you organize information so it is easy to
  find
• How do you present the information so it is
  easily understood.

4
Elements of Accessibility

• Organization
• Navigation
• Design
• Technical Elements
• Content

5
Organization

• Your site users do not know who does what, nor
  should they need to know.
• Seattles animal shelter is run by the Finance
  Department.
• The Citizen Service Bureau is part of the
  Department of Neighborhoods.
• Boards and Commissions appointments are staffed
  by the Strategic Planning Office.

6
Organization by User

• One of the most radical things Seattle did in its
  first redesign was to make the site User Centric
• Citizen
• Business
• Visitor
• This typography has become common in other city
  websites

7
(No Transcript)
8
(No Transcript)
9
(No Transcript)
10
What do you find in User Centric Sections

• Living in Seattle
• Doing Business in Seattle
• Visiting Seattle
• Possible Additions for Next Version
• Seniors
• Youth

11
(No Transcript)
12
Functional Organization

• Getting Around Town
• Trade and Development
• Arts and Entertainment

13
(No Transcript)
14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
Navigation

• Create common elements and locate them in
  consistent places.
• Provide several ways for people to find
  information

17
Design

• Good design should make information appealing and
  accessible.
• Most cities have a consistent look and feel
  throughout their site
• Seattle departments have a lot of independence,
  and we have some consistency and some
  individuality

18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Image Title Unintelligible

• http//www.cityofseattle.net/planning/
• Images/UnitBar_r1_c1.gif

23
(No Transcript)
24
(No Transcript)
25
(No Transcript)
26
Technical Elements

• Design for your users, not your web designers
• browsers
• screen resolution
• type face and size
• connection speed/loading time

27
Content

• In the end, it is all about Content. Some simple
  content rules
• Accurate
• Up-to-date
• Last Revised Monday, July 02, 2001 by Steve
  Ripley
• Make government accessible

28
(No Transcript)
29
City Directory
30
Live Video Streaming
31
Mayor at Press Conference
32
Accessibility can also mean other Languages
33
(No Transcript)
34
Content Management Software

• How do we manage all this content?
• 40,000 documents
• 80,000 files
• Hundreds of content providers
• www.cityofseattle.net/doit/contentmanagement
• Proposals Due August 8,2001

35
For More Information
rona.zevin_at_ci.seattle.wa.us