Web Site Accessibility: Too Difficult To Implement?

1
Web Site Accessibility Too Difficult To
Implement?

• Brian Kelly, UKOLN
• David Sloan, University of Dundee
• Dr Neil Witt, University of Plymouth

2
Why is it an issue?

• The desirability of Web site accessibility has
  been featured regularly at ILI conferences.
• Delegates are likely to be familiar with W3C's
  Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) and
  legislation such as
• SENDA and DDA in the UK
• Section 508 in the US.

3
Why is it an issue?

• The desirability of Web site accessibility is
  widely acknowledged.
• A legal and moral obligation?
• However the difficulties and costs of measuring
  and implementing accessibility are often ignored.
  
• It can be difficult to raise such concerns
  without appearing to be 'politically incorrect'.

4
Session Aims

• To stimulate debate by illustrating
• The problems found in the UK HE community
• Usability, legal and policy issues
• The need for inclusivity of all stakeholders.

5
Panel members

• Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus - a JISC-funded post
  which advises the UK's higher and further
  education communities on Web developments
• David Sloan is Project Lead of the Digital Media
  Access Group, a Web accessibility research and
  consultancy group based in the Division of
  Applied Computing at the University of Dundee.

6
Panel members

• Dr Neil Witt is coordinator of the Communications
  and Learning Technologies Research (CoLT) group
  at the University of Plymouth. Neil is currently
  seconded to the Institute for Science Education
  (ISE) and is a TechDis Associate.

7
An introduction to WAI

• Web site developers should be aware of the World
  Wide Web Consortium (W3C) which develops
  interoperable technologies
• specifications,
• guidelines
• software tools
• to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum
  for information, commerce, communication, and
  collective understanding' (W3C, 2002).

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WAI

• ensuring that Web technologies support
  accessibility
• developing guidelines for accessibility
• developing tools to evaluate facilitate
  accessibility
• conducting education and outreach
• coordinating with research and development.

9
WAI

• W3C have researched and developed extensive
  guidelines for the use of Web technologies such
  as HTML, XML and CSS
• These should be used to generate products that
  are not only good for users with disabilities,
  but also interoperable across a multitude of
  platforms.

10
WCAG

• W3C have produced a list of Checkpoints for Web
  Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0.
• This is a hierarchical structure consisting of
  three priority levels.

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Priority 1 (Level A)

• 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.

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Priority 2 (Level AA)

• 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.

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Priority 3 (Level AAA)

• 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.

14
Using WAI

• Adherence to the WAI guidelines does not
  guarantee accessibility for a specific
  individual.
• WAI guidelines may be open to interpretation and
  debate..