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Web accessibility

Web accessibility. A practical introduction. A working definition…. Web accessibility is about designing sites so as many people as possible can access and interact with them effectively and easily. “. “. Why is it an issue?. Lack of standards in the early days of the web

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Web accessibility

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  1. Web accessibility A practical introduction

  2. A working definition… Web accessibility is about designing sites so as many people as possible can access and interact with them effectively and easily “ “ Presentation title and date

  3. Why is it an issue? • Lack of standards in the early days of the web • Ignorance of the needs of disabled web users • Development tools were very poor at creating accessible websites • Limited advice and support available … Fortunately this has started to change Presentation title and date

  4. Key Benefits • Reach a wider audience – up to 10 percent • Makes your site more useable for everyone (35% better) • Reduces site maintenance – lower bandwidth and hosting cost • Device/platform independence (estimated 1 in 3 devices handheld by 2010) • Improves search engine rankings • Provide Social responsibility and achieve better reputation • Future-proofing your online presence. Presentation title and date

  5. Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) • The DDA covers employment and the provision ofgoods and services to disabled people • The DDA has been rolled out in stages to give organisations time to adjust – grey areas clarified by case law • An accessible Website is given as an example of a‘reasonable adjustment’ in the goods and services DDA code of practice – law since 1999 • A service that is only available over the web is arguably most at risk from this legislation; Presentation title and date

  6. Issues with disabilities The groups that have specific Issues with web and intranet accessibility are: • Vision – including blindness, colour blindness and tunnel vision • Hearing – both total deafness and hard of hearing • Mobilityproblems with hands and arms • Cognitive, Mental and learning disabilities ~ Many have more than one disability Presentation title and date

  7. Access technology - Vision • As a very visual medium, the Web presents unique problems to the millions who have low, restricted or no vision. • There are 4 broad categories of vision impairment: • Colour blindness – red/green impairment most common, affects 5% of male population and 1% female – test at vischeck.com • Mild vision impairment – larger font size, different background • Moderate vision impairment – screen magnification software • Blind/severe vision impairment – screen readers Presentation title and date

  8. Mild vision impairments – Adjust the Browser Presentation title and date

  9. Enabling Technology Presentation title and date

  10. Assistive technology - Vision • Screen readers are used for non-visual access to Windowapplications and the Web. A screen reader allows users who are blind to hear what is happening on their computer by convertingthe screen display to digitised speech. • Window-Eyes and JAWS are examples of screen readers. Presentation title and date

  11. Hand/arm Adaptive technology People with mobility impairments face challenges when navigating and interacting with web pages. They may experience difficulty moving the cursor with the required precision or may lack the manual dexterity or hand-eye co-ordination required to use a standard keyboard or mouse. Some people will use voice recognition to navigate and interact with web pages. Presentation title and date

  12. Assistive Technology Presentation title and date

  13. Alternative Pointing Devices Presentation title and date

  14. Alternative keyboards Presentation title and date

  15. Hearing Hearing impaired people have particular problems with inaccessible multimedia, including video and audio clips on the web, which lack captioning and transcripts. Additionally for those whose first language is BSL (British Sign Language) there are words in English that do not exist in their vocabulary. For example recent research by the BBC found terms such as ‘marinade’ in their recipe section were not understood by BSL users, highlighting the need to provide a glossary for key words. Presentation title and date

  16. Guidance for Managers Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 Guidelines created in 1999 to explain how to make websitesand intranetsaccessible to people with disabilities. They are prioritised into three levels: Priority Level 1 - 'Must' or level ‘A’Minimum - key issues: images, language, Multimedia Priority Level 2 - 'Should', or level ‘Double-A’Good practice - key issues: layout, hypertext, forms Priority Level 3 - 'Ought' or level ‘Triple-A’Beyond best practice Presentation title and date

  17. Web accessibility audits • Accessibility audits have three steps: • Step 1: Compatibility testing with various browsers. • Toggle images • Toggle sound • Test Font size • Observe Color Contrast • Use Tab Control Presentation title and date

  18. Web accessibility audits Step 2: Automated testing • Using tools such as WebXact & “Cynthia Says” • Requires interpretation Presentation title and date

  19. Web accessibility audits Step 3: Manual accessibility evaluation • Most time consuming • Most critical • Manually test accessibility based on guidelines: • W3C WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, WCAG 1.0; • RNIB “See it Right” Accessible Website Guidelines; • ISO/AWI 16071 “Ergonomics of human-system interaction -- Guidance on software accessibility” Presentation title and date

  20. Planning for an accessible Website • Obtain top management and trustee commitmentmake them aware there is a legal requirement to make your site accessible under the DDA • Find out how accessible your site is now • Decide on what level of accessibility you want to achieve – W3C WCAG level 2 is increasingly becoming a goal of many organisations Presentation title and date

  21. Planning for an accessible Website • Create an internal team to identify accessibility objectives - this might just be you! • Make sure the relevant people in your organisation understand about accessibility • Create an accessibility policy… Presentation title and date

  22. Web accessibility policy • If any part of your website has specific accessibility issues that will impact on the ability of disabled people to use your site. You must document the problem and explain how you are working towards fixing it, and if possible give a time frame for this solution. • For those services that are inaccessible you need to explain how disabled people can access this information or these services via alternative means • Encourage feedback from disabled people • Put a summary of your policy on your Website Presentation title and date

  23. Accessibility issues for editors Below are some key areas to consider when writing content for the web: • Use the simplest and clearest language appropriate for a site’s content. • Use short line lengths and paragraphs. • Use pictures and symbols in addition to text. • Provide a text equivalent for each non-text element / ensure pictures have descriptive text (alt attributes). • Avoid putting ‘too much’ information on a page - as a guide don’t have more than three pages worth of content as you scroll down. Presentation title and date

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