Web Accessibility an introduction Patrick H. Lauke

1
Web Accessibility - an introductionPatrick H.
Lauke
ISI presentation - 22/11/2004
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Introduction

• What well cover today
• some of the misconceptions about accessibility
• reasons why accessibility is important
• highlight some web accessibility guidelines
• QA at the end, but please shout out any
  questions.

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So why am I here?

• involved in web since early 90s
• university webmaster since 2001
• responsible for writing and enforcing web
  strategy and guidelines
• involved in global discourse on accessibility

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Some misconceptions

• What is accessibility?
• making sure our web site works for the blind
• There is a wide range of disabilities
• visual impairments
• auditory impairments
• mobility impairments
• cognitive disabilities

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Some misconceptions

• Why bother?
• Marketing executive
• such a small market is not worth the hassle
• Web designer
• no time to create a separate accessible site
• Site owner
• blind people wont be using my web site

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Some misconceptions

• Marketing executive
• such a small market is not worth the hassle
• It is estimated that there are 7 million disabled
  people in the UK and that around 19 of the
  working age population has some form of
  disability.
• Source Disability Rights Commission Disability
  briefing January 2004

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Some misconceptions

• Web designer
• no time to create a separate accessible site
• In majority of cases, no need for special
  disabled only access site.
• Inclusive design, not segregation
• Separation of content and presentation, using web
  standards, structural markup single site,
  accessible to all
• Accessibility included in planning stage, not as
  an afterthought
• Text only is not a solution

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Some misconceptions

• Site owner
• blind people wont be using my web site
• Accessibility not just about the blind, but
• A possible scenario visually impaired customer
  buying photographs or paintings for a sighted
  relative?

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Legal requirements

• If the ethical / moral and financial reasons were
  not enough, there are legal requirements
• UK - Disability Discrimination Act 1995provision
  of goods and services
• Australia Disability Discrimination Act 1992
• USA Americans with Disabilities Act
• USA Section 508 of Rehabilitation
  Actprocurement policy for federal government
  agencies
• Other countries have similar legislation.
• Cases are being brought to court SOCOG, RNIB,
  Ramada/Priceline

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Access for all

• More importantly
• Accessibility is not just about users with
  disabilities
• Provisions and changes made for accessibility can
  benefit all users
• Real world example access ramps
• With regards to web benefits to users of
  alternative browsing devices (PDAs, web phones,
  etc)
• Google worlds largest disabled user
• Crossover between usability and accessibility

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W3C Guidelines

• Sowhats a web designer to do?
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) committed to
  accessibility
• "The power of the Web is in its universality.
  Access by everyone regardless of disability is an
  essential aspect.
• Tim Berners Lee, W3C Director
• W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) produced
  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

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W3C Guidelines

• WCAG 1.0, 5 May 1999
• 14 guidelines (general principles), broken down
  into checkpoints
• Checkpoints categorised into 3 priority levels
• Priority 1 A Web content developer must
  satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more
  groups will find it impossible to access
  information in the document. Satisfying this
  checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups
  to be able to use Web documents.
• Priority 2 A Web content developer should
  satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more
  groups will find it difficult to access
  information in the document. Satisfying this
  checkpoint will remove significant barriers to
  accessing Web documents.
• Priority 3 A Web content developer may address
  this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups
  will find it somewhat difficult to access
  information in the document. Satisfying this
  checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

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W3C Guidelines

• Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and
  visual content.
• Don't rely on color alone.
• Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.
• Clarify natural language usage
• Create tables that transform gracefully.
• Ensure that pages featuring new technologies
  transform gracefully.
• Ensure user control of time-sensitive content
  changes.
• Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user
  interfaces.
• Design for device-independence.
• Use interim solutions.
• Use W3C technologies and guidelines.
• Provide context and orientation information.
• Provide clear navigation mechanisms.
• Ensure that documents are clear and simple.
• Not going to go through all, but give a few
  examples

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WCAG examples

• An example that may be closer to home
  accessing the web on an old laptop.
• 1) Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory
  and visual content.
• 2) Dont rely on color alone
• 6) Ensure that pages featuring new technologies
  transform gracefully
• 9) Design for device-independence

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WCAG examples

• 1) Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory
  and visual content.
• ALTernate text for images

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WCAG examples

• 1) Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory
  and visual content.
• Captions and transcripts for audio/video files

http//www.splintered.co.uk/experiments/66/
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WCAG examples

• 2) Dont rely on color alone
• Coloured buttons without any additional
  information

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WCAG examples

• 2) Dont rely on color alone
• Coloured links surrounded by normal text

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WCAG examples

• 6) Ensure that pages featuring new technologies
  transform gracefully
• Java-based navigation

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WCAG examples

• 6) Ensure that pages featuring new technologies
  transform gracefully
• Javascript popups
• lta href onclickwindow.open(foo.html)gtbarlt
  /agt
• Replace with something like
• lta hreffoo.html onclickwindow.open(this.href)
  return falsegtbarlt/agt

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WCAG examples

• 9) Design for device-independence
• Mouse
• Keyboard
• Voice activation
• Switches
• Headwands
• Dont rely on mouse, e.g. onmouseover/onmouseout
  javascript event handlers. Choose
  device-independent alternatives instead
  onfocus/onblur

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WCAG examples

• 9) Design for device-independence
• Ensure sensible tab order (links, form elements,
  etc)

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WCAG examples

• and many, many more.

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Conclusion

• Hopefully, what youll take away from this
  presentation
• Accessiblity not just about the blind
• Moral, financial and legal reasons to ensure web
  sites are accessible
• Accessibility can benefit all users
• W3C WAI WCAG and some examples
• Worth noting accessibility not about rote
  mastery of a few guidelines. Many cases where
  there is no one single solution requires
  judgement and compromise.

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Resources

• W3C Web Accessibility Initiativehttp//www.w3.org
  /WAI/
• Accessifyhttp//www.accessify.com/
• Accessifyforumhttp//www.accessifyforum.com/
• WebAIM Web Accessibility In Mindhttp//www.webai
  m.org/
• Isolanihttp//www.isolani.co.uk/
• Dive into Accessibilityhttp//www.diveintoaccessi
  bility.org/