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Introduction to Accessibility and Planning an Accessible Website

Presented by Everett Zufelt & Mike Gifford for Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario August 10, 2010. Introduction to Accessibility and Planning an Accessible Website. Achieving Real Accessibility!. What does it mean to have an accessible website? Who is the target audience of the site?

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Introduction to Accessibility and Planning an Accessible Website

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  1. Presented by Everett Zufelt & Mike Gifford for Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario August 10, 2010 Introduction to Accessibility and Planning an Accessible Website

  2. Achieving Real Accessibility! • What does it mean to have an accessible website? • Who is the target audience of the site? • When should you evaluate your site? • How do we know when it is accessible enough?

  3. What is an Accessible Website? • A site where people with disabilities both read & interact like everyone else • One which meets the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) - perceivable, operable, understandable & robust • One which has been validated both by automated testing tools but also by people with disabilities

  4. Standards & Guidelines • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - (WCAG) • Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines - (ATAG) • Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) • Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) – still being defined • Section 508 – USA federal law – currently being revised

  5. Beneficiaries • People with visual, motor/mobility, auditory, photoepileptic seizures, and/or cognitive/ intellectual challenges • Older & injured individuals • Mobile technology users • Search engines & other data driven machines • NOTE: Some accessibility enhancements benefit some users & disadvantage others

  6. Planning for Accessibility • For anything more than a tiny site, begin by looking for a CMS with a solid accessible framework • Allow time to find accessibility problems & report them back to be resolved • Requires a more integrated approach to web development, identify your team early & allow time to train them properly • Do not allow accessibility to be an afterthought of project implementation

  7. Designing for Accessibility • In working with your designer, ensure that the colour pallet they propose has good contrast • Ensure that your design includes skip links & easy means to resize the text up to 200% • Valid Standards Compliant xHTML/CSS should be considered a minimum requirement • Don't use Flash for any design or navigational elements, unless there is an equivalent alternative

  8. Evaluate Your Site Early & Often • Design & layout – choices of colours & fonts • Theme development – valid xHTML structure • Pre-launch – automated accessibility review • Content review & training – content is still king • Focus groups – review by members with disabilities • Looking ahead – user interaction, adoption of new technologies

  9. What Type of Site Do You Want? • Informational – are you looking to support more than just anonymous users? • Interactive & Web 2.0 – will you need lots of web forms & Rich Internet Applications? • Design – colours, graphics & dynamic elements all affect accessibility, what do you want it to look like? • Content – are you creating your site from scratch, enhancing an existing site, or migrating content from an existing site?

  10. Involving Developers • Many web development companies will promise you that they will make your website accessible or meet requirements without full understanding • Some content management systems have accessibility statements but this will not mean that they are accessible • It is worth while seeking a 3rd party opinion on what a system provides & what a developer has created for you

  11. Questions for Developers • What is your approach to accessibility? • How do you deal with conflicting needs of different user communities? • Where have you seen conflicts between usability & accessibility requirements? • Do you work with people with disabilities? • How do you evaluate new technology for accessibility concerns? • Are your sites reviewed with a screen reader?

  12. Evaluating CMS's • Look to see if there is an active community looking at accessibility issues for this product • Run any demo software through basic automated accessibility tools • Look specifically at form elements & how any interactive pages are managed • Review the administration side for potential accessibility challenges • How accessibility friendly are extensions & plug-ins?

  13. Ongoing Steps • Training the staff who are producing the content about accessibility issues is critical • Filtering new content for accessibility concerns & reading level is advised • Asking for input from your community on accessibility is great • Technological change continues to push accessibility requirements, it's never all done

  14. Additional Links Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario: http://cwdo.org WebAIM's Articles: http://webaim.org/articles Web Accessibility Initiative: http://w3.org/WAI Everett Zufelt: http://zufelt.ca Mike Gifford: http://openconcept.ca

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