Speed Test

1
This work is licensed by Patrick Crispen to the
public under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license
2
Accessibility 101 Cutting through the FUD

• a presentation by
• Patrick Douglas Crispen
• NetSquirrel.com

3
Our Goals

• Define accessibility
• Review some accessibility laws and guidelines
• Demonstrate how you can make your content more
  accessible
• Review some accessibility tools and resources
• DO ALL OF THIS IN ENGLISH!

4
WHAT IS ACCESSIBILITY?

• Part One

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FUD?

• Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
• FUD is generally an attempt to influence public
  perception by disseminating negative (and vague)
  information.

2001 Warner Bros., Inc.All Rights Reserved.
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What is Accessibility?

• Accessibility is removing barriers for your
  studentsand the public at largeto perceive,
  understand, navigate, and interact with the
  content you create.
• Usually, this content (web pages, multimedia,
  etc.) is placed on the World Wide Web.
• Your goal is to maximize the number of people who
  can use your content and minimize the number who
  cannot.

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BUT

• Keep in mind that your content will NEVER be 100
  accessible to everyone and it doesnt have to
  be.
• Accessibility isnt a switch.

2002 The New Yorker Collection from
cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved.
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Barriers?

• Visual
• Blind
• Low vision
• Color blind
• Language processing
• Auditory

• Motor/Physical
• Spinal cord injury
• Parkinsons
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Speech
• Cognitive/Learning disabilities

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Déjà vu?

• Okay, so these barriers dont exactly match
  Gardners Theory of Multiple Intelligences but
  theyre kind of close.
• And weve been using that framework for years.

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Accessibility is just a different way of doing
the stuff were kind of sort of doing in our
classrooms already.
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Clearing up Some Common Misconceptions

• Accessibility is not just for people who are
  blind.
• Text-only versions of your content are not an
  acceptable solution.
• Accessibility does not make your content dull and
  boring.
• Making your content accessible isnt all that
  hard or expensive.

From Web Accessibility Web Standards and
Regulatory Compliance (2006) pg. 32-42
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Accessibility isnt about accommodating
disabilities. Its about removing barriers for
everyone.
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The Benefits

• Best practices
• Increases your audience
• Transparent
• Often easier to update and modify

• Streamlines your pages so they load faster
• Better browser compatibility
• Higher keyword density better Google rankings

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Why Is Accessibility Important?

• Up to 15 of the public has some form of
  disability.
• The population is aging.
• Google rewards accessibility.
• (Its the law.)

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HOW DO PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ACCESS YOUR
CONTENT?

• Part Two

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Tools and Techniques

• Assistive Technologies (AT)
• Blind screen readers Braille machines
  magnifiers
• Deaf closed captioning
• Physical Voice recognition, switches and
  pointing sticks, touch screens

• Same technologies but configured differently
• Keyboard navigation
• Browser or system font size
• Browser window size
• Color settings
• Style sheets

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A Short Demonstration

• Fresno State Universitys Know Your Users video
• http//tinyurl.com/2hhy9b
• Requires RealPlayer

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Classroom Activity Fresno Video

• Dont show the video, recreate it.
• Ask community leaders for the names of people who
  are blind, have limited visual acuity macular
  degeneration, colorblindness, etc., are deaf, or
  have limited motor skills and use assistive
  technologies.
• Invite those people to your classroom.
• Record the session.
• Caption the video and post it on You Tube or
  Google Video

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Another Demonstration

• http//www.w3.org/WAI/EO/2005/Demo/before/

• The W3Cs Web Accessibility Initiative group
  created before and after demonstration that shows
  the barriers imposed by an inaccessible web page.
• Search for W3C WAI Before and After
• Notice how the fixes in the after are
  transparent?

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REMEMBER Accessibility isnt about accommodating
disabilities. Its about removing barriers for
everyone.
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THE LAW AND THE STANDARDS

• Part Three

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IANAL
23
The Legal Landscape
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Section 504

• Schools, colleges, and universities are
  prohibited from discrimination on the basis of
  disability in public and private programs and
  activities.

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Section 504

• Sec. 504.(a) No otherwise qualified individual
  with a disability in the United States shall,
  solely by reason of her or his disability, be
  excluded from the participation in, be denied the
  benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination
  under any program or activity receiving Federal
  financial assistance
• (b) For the purposes of this section, the term
  "program or activity" means all of the operations
  of
• (2)(A) a college, university, or other
  postsecondary institution, or a public system of
  higher education or
• (B) a local educational agency (as defined in
  section 14101 of the Elementary and Secondary
  Education Act of 1965), system of vocational
  education, or other school system

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Section 508

• 16 Rules for Web Accessibility

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Section 508

• Section 508 is an amendment to the Rehabilitation
  Act of 1973 and is NOT part of the ADA.
• Section 508 prohibits federal agencies from
  buying, developing, maintaining, or using
  electronic and information technology that is
  inaccessible to people with disabilities.

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508 and You

• Section 508 applies to federal agencies, not
  schools and not you and me.
• Public compliance with Section 508 is completely
  voluntary. You not required to comply with
  section 508 unless your state, district, or
  school requires you to comply.
• Comply anyhow.

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IANAL
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Accessibility and the Classroom

• If the audience is your students and you know
  that none of your students have a disability, you
  can most likely post your inaccessible content to
  the web without fear of reprisals.
• Make your content accessible anyhow.
• If your audience is the world or any group of
  people you dont know, make your content
  accessible.

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IANAL
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Section 508 Checklist

• webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
• Lets hold off on that because I want to compare
  Section 508 to the WCAG standards.

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WCAG

• The W3Cs international accessibility standard

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WCAG

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is an
  international standard developed by the World
  Wide Web Consortium.
• WCAG has 13 guidelines (and 60 success criteria)
  that are technology neutral

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COMPARING WCAG 2.0 TO SECTION 508
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WCAG 2.0 Principles

1. Perceivable - Information and user interface
   components must be perceivable by users
2. Operable - User interface components must be
   operable by users
3. Understandable - Information and operation of
   user interface must be understandable by users
4. Robust - Content must be robust enough that it
   can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of
   user agents, including assistive technologies

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Principle 1 Perceivable

• Information and user interface components must be
  perceivable by users

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Text Equivalents

• Section 508 1194.22 (a)

• Provide text alternatives for any non-text
  content so that it can be changed into other
  forms people need such as large print, braille,
  speech, symbols or simpler language

• A text equivalent for every non-text element
  shall be provided (e.g., via "alt", "longdesc",
  or in element content)

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Synchronized Multimedia

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.2

• Section 508 1194.22 (b)

• Provide synchronized alternatives for multimedia

• Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia
  presentation shall be synchronized with the
  presentation.

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Style Sheets

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.3

• Section 508 1194.22 (d, g, h)

• Create content that can be presented in different
  ways (for example spoken aloud, simpler layout,
  etc.) without losing information or structure

• (d) Documents shall be organized so they are
  readable without requiring an associated style
  sheet.
• (g) Row and column headers shall be identified
  for data tables.
• (h) Markup shall be used to associate data cells
  and header cells for data tables that have two or
  more logical levels of row or column headers.

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Color

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 1.4

• Section 508 1194.22 (c)

• Make it easier for people with disabilities to
  see and hear content including separating
  foreground from background

• Web pages shall be designed so that all
  information conveyed with color is also available
  without color, for example from context or markup.

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Principle 2 Operable

• User interface components must be operable by
  users

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Keyboard Functionality

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 2.1

• Section 508

• Make all functionality available from a keyboard

• N/A

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Timed Responses

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 2.2

• Section 508 1194.22 (p)

• Provide users with disabilities enough time to
  read and use content

• When a timed response is required, the user shall
  be alerted and given sufficient time to indicate
  more time is required.

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Flicker

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 2.3

• Section 508 1194.22 (j)

• Do not create content that is known to cause
  seizures

• Pages shall be designed to avoid causing the
  screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2
  Hz and lower than 55 Hz.

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Navigation

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 2.4

• Section 508 1194.22 (e, f, i, o)

• Provide ways to help users with disabilities
  navigate, find content and determine where they
  are

• (e) Redundant text links shall be provided for
  each active region of a server-side image map.
• (f) Client-side image maps shall be provided
  instead of server-side image maps except where
  the regions cannot be defined with an available
  geometric shape.
• (i) Frames shall be titled with text that
  facilitates frame identification and navigation.
• (o) A method shall be provided that permits
  users to skip repetitive navigation links.

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Principle 3 Understandable

• Information and operation of user interface must
  be understandable by users

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Understandability

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 3.1

• Section 508

• Make text content readable and understandable

• N/A?

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Operability

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 3.2

• Section 508

• Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable
  ways

• N/A?

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Error Correction

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 3.3

• Section 508

• Help users avoid and correct mistakes

• N/A?

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Principle 4 Robust

• Content must be robust enough that it can be
  interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user
  agents, including assistive technologies

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Compatibility

• WCAG 2.0 Guideline 4.1

• Section 508

• Maximize compatibility with current and future
  user agents, including assistive technologies

• N/A?

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Missing 508 stuff

1. A text-only page, with equivalent information or
   functionality, shall be provided to make a web
   site comply with the provisions of this part,
   when compliance cannot be accomplished in any
   other way. The content of the text-only page
   shall be updated whenever the primary page
   changes.
2. When pages utilize scripting languages to display
   content, or to create interface elements, the
   information provided by the script shall be
   identified with functional text that can be read
   by assistive technology.

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Missing 508 stuff

1. When a web page requires that an applet, plug-in
   or other application be present on the client
   system to interpret page content, the page must
   provide a link to a plug-in or applet that
   complies with 1194.21(a) through (l).
2. When electronic forms are designed to be
   completed on-line, the form shall allow people
   using assistive technology to access the
   information, field elements, and functionality
   required for completion and submission of the
   form, including all directions and cues.

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HOW TO MAKE YOUR CONTENT ACCESSIBLE

• Part Four

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How to Make Accessible Web Sites

1. Images animations Use the alt attribute to
   describe the function of each visual.
2. Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for
   hotspots.
3. Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of
   audio, and descriptions of video.

Source http//www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/
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How to Make Accessible Web Sites

1. Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when
   read out of context. For example, avoid "click
   here."
2. Page organization. Use headings, lists, and
   consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and
   style where possible.
3. Graphs charts. Summarize or use the longdesc
   attribute.

Source http//www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/
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How to Make Accessible Web Sites

1. Scripts, applets, plug-ins. Provide alternative
   content in case active features are inaccessible
   or unsupported.
2. Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful
   titles.
3. Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible.
   Summarize.
4. Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist,
   and guidelines at http//www.w3.org/TR/WCAG

Source http//www.w3.org/WAI/quicktips/
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How to Make Accessible Word Documents

• Create structured documents using Word styles
• Provide alternate text for images
• Right-click gt Format Picture
• Click the Web tab
• Enter your text
• Save as filtered HTML

Source http//www.webaim.org/techniques/word/
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Or

• Download and install the Illinois Accessible Web
  Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office.
• This works with Office 2003 or earlier but not
  Office 2007 (yet).

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How to Make Accessible PowerPoint Presentations

• You cant.
• Post the original .ppt or .pptx file
• Convert the file to HTML and post that as well.
• The Illinois Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for
  Microsoft Office converts PPTs to HTML.
• Or, you can create a new HTML version of your
  presentation from scratch.

Source http//www.webaim.org/techniques/powerpoin
t/
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ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS AND RESOURCES

• Part Five

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The Accessibility Bible

• Web Accessibility Web Standards and Regulatory
  Compliance (2006)
• Jim Thatcher et al.
• ISBN 1-59059-638-2
• 49.99

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The Standards

• Section 508http//www.section508.gov/
• WCAG 1http//www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
• WCAG 2http//www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

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Supporting Organizations

• W3C Web Accessibility Initiativehttp//www.w3.org
  /WAI/
• WebAIMhttp//www.webaim.org/
• National Center for Accessible Media at WGBH
  Bostonhttp//ncam.wgbh.org/

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Accessibility Consulting and Training

• Jim Thatcherhttp//www.jimthatcher.com/
• Knowbilityhttp//www.knowbility.org/
• Web Accessibility Principles by Zoe
  GillenwaterISBN 1-5961-395-XOnline training
  movies at Lynda.com49.95 for CD / accessible
  online with a Lynda.com accountFull disclosure
  I am a Lynda.com author

67
Our Goals

• Define accessibility
• Review some accessibility laws and guidelines
• Demonstrate how you can make your content more
  accessible
• Review some accessibility tools and resources
• DO ALL OF THIS IN ENGLISH!

68
Accessibility 101 Cutting through the FUD

• a presentation by
• Patrick Douglas Crispen
• NetSquirrel.com

69
This work is licensed by Patrick Crispen to the
public under the Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 license