Working to Section 508: Understanding Web Pages

1. Working to Section 508: Understanding Web Pages Lori Gillen McKesson Health Solutions

2. Agenda • Demo: Processing information slowly • Cognitive barriers to the Web • How to conquer these barriers • Section 508 • Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

3. Demonstration

4. Cognitive barriers to the Web • Reading disorders: • Inability to relate new ideas to those stored in memory • Inability to distinguish or separate sounds in spoken words • Inability to focus attention on reading material • Slow to process information from reading tasks

5. Section 508 • Refers to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 • Requires federal agencies or companies working with federal agencies to provide accessible electronic and information technology to federal employees and to the public that these agencies service

6. Section 508 • Consists of 16 individual standards that must be met for improved accessibility • Most standards pertain to accessibility for people with low-vision • Two standards pertain to people with cognitive disabilities • Flicker • Timed responses

7. Section 508 • Flicker • Avoid causing the screen to flicker. It can cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy • People with an attention disorder are too distracted to concentrate when they see flicker • If you must have flicker, it should not be greater than 2 cycles per second

8. Section 508 • Timed responses: • When a timed response is required, alert the user and give a sufficient amount of time • Some people may need more time to read a page than is given in the timed response • Some accessibility experts suggest that you allot 15 minutes for a timed response

9. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • First recommended by the World Wide Consortium (W3C) in 1999 • Section 508 was drawn from these guidelines • Within guidelines are checkpoints for determining accessible technology • Checkpoints are categorized by priority to facilitate implementation into existing web sites

10. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • Priority 1 indicates that a web site MUST satisfy a specific checkpoint • Priority 2 indicates that a web site SHOULD satisfy a specific checkpoint • Priority 3 indicates that a web site MAY satisfy a specific checkpoint

11. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • These WCAG guidelines pertain to people with cognitive disabilities: • Provide context and orientation information • Provide clear navigation mechanisms • Ensure that documents are clear and simple

12. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • Provide context and orientation information • Why should you follow this guideline? • To help users who cannot relate new ideas to those stored in memory • What should you do? • Group related elements together using labels, headers, names for frames

13. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • Provide clear navigation mechanisms • Why should you follow this guideline? • To keep users who are easily distracted or who process information slowly from getting lost in the web site • What should you do? • Provide a way to return Home • Provide breadcrumbs • Provide a site map • Use navigational icons, ex. front and back arrows

14. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) • Ensure that documents are clear and simple • Why should you follow this guideline? • To help people who have trouble processing information quickly • To facilitate usage for people whose native language may not be used on your site • What should you do? • Use clear and concise language • Present information in small manageable chunks

15. Resources • URLS • http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.htm • http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG • http://diveintoaccessibility.org • http://jimthatcher.com/webcourse1.htm • http://www.boston-ia.org • http://www.paciellogroup.com • http://www.trace.wisc.edu

16. Contact Information Lori Gillen McKesson Health Solutions 275 Grove Street, Suite 1-110 Newton, MA 02466 617.273.3167 lori.gillen@mckesson.com