An Introduction to Web Accessibility

1
An Introduction to Web Accessibility

• Presentation 1
• Accessibility, the Law and
• the learner.

2
Pre-requisite knowledge

• Before exploring this pack you should have looked
  at
• What is Accessibility?
• An Introduction to the Disability Legislation

3
Accessibility and UK law

• Disability Discrimination Act (1995).
• Amended in 1999 to include Part III.
• Education Exclusion removed in 2002 with the
  introduction of Special Educational Needs and
  Disability Act (SENDA).
• Human Rights Legislation.
• includes a section on an individuals rights to
  education.

4
DDA and SENDA

• Part III of the DDA applies to Goods, Facilities
  and Service Providers.
• illegal for goods and service providers to
  unjustifiably discriminate against individuals as
  a result of their disability.
• SENDA legislation extended DDA to cover
  educational institutions from Sept 2002.
• This introduced Part IV of the DDA.
• So provision of education now a service covered
  by DDA.
• NB the term SENDA compliance has no legal
  definition its DDA compliance we are concerned
  with.

5
Responsibilities under the DDA

• Goods, Facilities and Service providers must take
  reasonable steps to avoid unjustified
  discrimination against individuals on account of
  a disability.
• Unjustified discrimination is defined as
• Refusal to provide a service.
• Provision of a poorer service.

6
Web Accessibility and the DDA

• No explicit mention of web accessibility in the
  terms of the Act.
• But a website is mentioned as an example of a
  service in accompanying Code of Practice.
• Aim of Code of Practice is to help avoid breach
  of legislation, and is not law itself.

7
DDA Implications for Web Content Providers

• Many legal commentators agree that web access
  problems could result in a breach of DDA
  legislation.
• Sloan (2001), Willder (2002)
• Recommended follow the W3Cs Web Content
  Accessibility Guidelines.

8
Implications for Web Designers

• Make sure the design of a web or e-learning
  resource does not unjustifiably
• Deny disabled users access to information or
  functionality.
• Provide a poorer service to disabled users.
• Take reasonable steps by designing with
  accessibility in mind from the start.

9
Issues for users - overview
Extent of control by end - user Low
High
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
10
Issues for users text and font
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Users with visual impairment or
dyslexia may find the ability to change to the
font size very helpful. Choose relative font
sizes (eg 100, 120) when constructing the web
page rather than absolute font sizes (eg 10
point). Pages constructed this way will easily
resize when the user chooses View gt Text size in
Internet Explorer. Teaching implication By
teaching the user how to set the accessibility,
colour and font options under Tools gt General in
Internet Explorer the user can over-ride the
fonts and text sizes chosen by the designer.
11
Issues for users - colours
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Users with visual impairment, colour
blindness or dyslexia may find websites with low
contrast colours difficult to interpret. Ensure
colour choices for text and background are
contrasting and avoid the use of tiled images or
textures as a background. Professional web
developers should attempt to provide alternative
colour schemes using style sheets. Teaching
implication By teaching the user how to set the
accessibility, colour and font options under
Tools gt General in Internet Explorer the user can
over-ride the colour schemes chosen by the
designer.
12
Issues for users - images
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Users with visual impairment, colour
blindness or blindness may find images difficult
even impossible - to interpret. Ensure colour
choices in diagrams are appropriately
contrasting, avoiding the use of combinations
that are commonly confused for colour blind
users. Images on the web should have informative
Alt tags which describe their purpose in the
learning context. Decorative images and spacers
should have a silent Alt tag (alt). Images
should be optimised for loading speed since many
users may depend on slow Internet
connections. Teaching implication Visually
impaired users may find it useful to magnify
images with Windows built-in magnifier software
(StartgtProgramsgtAccessoriesgtAccessibilitygtMagnifie
r).
13
Issues for users -multimedia
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Users with visual impairment can find
it difficult to pick out visual information while
users with hearing loss can find it difficult to
interpret audio information. It is possible to
add captions to describe the audio or transcripts
to describe the video but consider the learning
objectives of the material before making a
decision on the best route forward. The nature
and purpose of the materials may make an
alternative learning experience more valuable for
disabled users than a fix for the sake of it.
Teaching implication Blind users may be able to
make good use of video sound tracks if they are
taught how to navigate the screen reader around
the media player and switch between the browser
and the media player. Learners with hearing loss
may need teaching on maximising headphone volume.
14
Issues for users -navigation
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Users with cognitive difficulties (eg
poor short term memory), learning difficulties
can easily get lost in a sites structure unless
the navigation is clear, logical and consistent.
Users relying on screen-readers can get
frustrated if they have to listen to a long list
of links before they hear the page content. These
users can also find skim-reading articles
intensely frustrating if link text is
uninformative and repetitive (eg Click here for
contact details is less informative to a screen
reader tabbing through the links than Click here
for contact details ). Teaching implication Many
users can benefit from learning how to navigate
with keystrokes for example Tab to move through
successive hyperlinks, Enter to select Alt and
left arrow for Back, Alt and right arrow for
forward.
15
Issues for users tables and layout
Text and font Colours Images Multimedia Naviga
tion Tables and layout
The issues Tables are often used to format pages.
This can work well for a sighted user but can be
very difficult for a blind user relying on a
screen reader.Similarly, data tables which can be
interpreted visually can be a lot less meaningful
when read row by row and column by column since
the user has to remember the column headings and
remember how far along they have now read.
Visually impaired users relying on magnification
software can find it difficult to correlate
between different parts of a table when much lies
outside their field of view. Teaching
implication Visually impaired users can benefit
from effective training in the use of
magnification software so they can adjust the
size and shape of the magnification pane to suit
the materials presented.
16
Conclusion
No single design is likely to satisfy all
different learner needs the dyslexics desire
for effective imagery and short text contradicts
the blind users desire for strong textual
narrative with little imagery. A well designed
web site is accessible to a much wider range of
users than a poorly designed web site. Different
training needs exist for different roles.
Appropriate training for full time web developers
is different from training appropriate for
occasional web page creators (e.g. subject
teachers or library/learning centre staff).