Chapter 7 Accessibility and Internationalization

1. Chapter 7 Accessibility and Internationalization

2. Accessibility • Introduction • Accessibility is a fundamental aspect of Web pages • Web use affects all areas of society • Barriers on the Web must be resolved • One goal of HTML 4.01 is to ensure accessibility • Requires unilateral browser support • Americans with Disabilities Act • May require public pages to conform to accessibility requirements • If not, discrimination may follow • Accessibility a marketplace issue, as well

3. Accessibility • Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines • Provide equivalent alternatives • Rely on more than color for emphasis • Design for ease of comprehension • Design for device independence • Use markup and style sheets properly • Make tables, new technologies transform gracefully • Let users control time-sensitive data • Provide access to user interfaces • Provide context and orientation screens

4. Accessibility • Visual disabilities • Text • Use <H1> for headings and <H2> for subtopics (allows users to skip sections) • Make enlarging fonts easy (use relative (%) sizing) • Color • Provide high contrast between background and text • Graphics • Use ALT tags for all meaningful graphics • Use blank ALT tags (Alt=“”) for decorative graphics • Use MathML or EzMath for coding mathematical expressions

5. Accessibility • Auditory disabilities • Transcripts should be available of spoken portions of pages • Video clips should be close-captioned • Follow NCAM guidelines • National Center for Accessible Media • WBGH (PBS) in Boston, MA

6. Accessibility • Motor disabilities • Avoid image maps with precise hot spots • Avoid applets and Flash files that require mouse operations • Realize that accessibility should impact all venues

7. Accessibility • Cognitive disabilities • Make navigation as easy and clear as possible • Simplify headings • Summarize text • Allow for scalable fonts

8. Accessibility • Speech disabilities • Web is moving toward speech activation • Chat rooms • Speech to text • Important to consider implications for those with speech challenges • Internet telephony • Integration of voice and text to ensure communication

9. Accessibility • Accessibility in HTML 4.01 • Link tag • Provides for alternative version of page • Title attribute • Adds extra context to links • Clarifies Abbreviation and Acronym elements • Tab order • Tab key defines path in links and forms • Fieldset and Legends • Group input areas and provide extra information • Tables with caption, summary and axis features

10. Accessibility • Assistive technology • Ensure pages conform to assistive devices • Screen magnifiers and readers • Refreshable Braille, voice recognition • Keyboard and mouse alternatives • Screen readers • Connect Outloud • JAWS

11. Accessibility • Validation and review • Ask the assistance of a visually impaired reader • W3C (validator.w3.org/ ) • LIFT (www.usablenet.com/home.htm) • Bobby (www.cast.org/bobby) • Optimal validation and review requires both human and online assistance

12. Accessibility • Legal issues • ADA and ARA both require compliance • All electronic and information technology must be available to disabled persons • Accessibility must be guaranteed by government-funded institutions • All info published on Web is public knowledge and public have right to share it • Colleges and public schools must comply as well • Telecommunications Act and Assistive Technology Act also require compliance

13. Accessibility • Case study • David Oberhart, communications specialist • Blind since 1983, has been working on Unix-based computers since 1983 • Biggest accessibility problem is with current information, such as news • HTML gives us power to accommodate people with visual and other impairments

14. Accessibility • Resources • HTML Writers Guild • W3C’s WAI Initiative • Publishing Tools • A-Prompt Toolkit • Reviews for accessibility during authoring process • HotMetal PRO • offers accessibility checking, prompting, and pop-up warnings

15. Accessibility • Practical accessibility solutions • Create secondary text-only pages • Provide ALT tags with all graphics • Provide transcripts for audio and video • Provide scalable text with CSS: • 12em, emphasis, relative size - recommendable from accessibility standpoint • 12pt, minimum static size – recommendable from design standpoint

16. Localization and Translation • Internationalization Def: the creation of materials whose design and content are culturally neutral • W3C concerted effort • Increasing awareness among Web designers and browser developers • Stressing the importance of Unicode • Creating study groups to consider international concerns

17. Localization and Translation

18. Localization and Translation • Unicode and language attributes • Ensuring that characters are available for multiple languages • Unicode • Solves problem of representing multilingualism • Provides capacity to encode all characters used for the written languages of the world • Language attribute • <HTML lang="es"> establishes Spanish language for Web page • Still somewhat limited browser support

19. Localization and Translation • Designing for localization Def.: Locale: combination of a language and a culture Def.: Localization: tailoring a website design and its content to a specific locale • Translating the content • May require a local, human translator • Content needs to be adjusted to fit the cultural background • Reshaping it to fit the local culture • Must be tested with local potential users, if possible

20. Localization and Translation • Design considerations • Symbol, Graphic and Icon use • Should be universally symbolic and global in meaning • Use of a commonly-used symbol in America may be meaningless in other countries • Web designers have responsibility to use universal symbols on Web pages

21. Localization and Translation • Color symbolism • Identical colors symbolize different concepts for different countries/cultures • Example: the color purple • in Latin America, associated with death • in China, suggests barbarity • in Europe, associated with royalty • Web designers have responsibility to use appropriate colors, given their audience

22. Localization and Translation • Web-specific issues • Design goals should accommodate 80% of global users’ technology • Technological considerations • Various speeds and costs of connection • CPU speed • Various monitor sizes • General tip: limit graphics to 30K/page

23. Localization and Translation • Formatting issues • Translation of English into other languages expands text up to 100% • Solutions • Use smaller fonts in versions with translated text • Adjust leading and tracking • Add pages to translated versions • Use fewer columns and eliminate illustrations • Text expansion • Text in narrow columns may need to be smaller • White space may need to be reduced

24. Localization and Translation • More formatting issues • Tables: text expansion challenges: • May cause awkward hyphenation • May force a one-page table to need two pages • Resist "tweaking" formatting by inserting manual line breaks. • Design tables with expansion in mind • Make cells wide enough to accommodate expansion • Keep in mind that table height or width might increase

25. Localization and Translation • More formatting issues • Avoid small caps • Avoid underlining text • Use non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;) instead of line breaks • Choose standard fonts • Use wide columns to avoid word-breaking problems • Design for flexibility with: • Telephone numbers and addresses • Numeric expressions and delimiters • Currency and time • Dates and calendars • Weights and measures

26. Localization and Translation • Text in images • If possible, place descriptive text outside of the image • If necessary, use call outs to identify elements in an image while being language neutral

27. Localization and Translation • Writing guidelines • Assume that English is not the first language of your users • Follow these tips • Clarify your writing • Avoid ambiguity • Focus on your writing style • Ensure relevance for your audience

28. Localization and Translation • Clarify your writing • Maintain consistency between various components of the website • Visibly structure document’s organization • Clearly define headings and text • Use illustrations • Organize information in tables • Use bulleted lists • Number steps within a procedure • Expand Abbreviations, Acronyms, and Mnemonics • Clarify numbers • Follow sound syntax

29. Localization and Translation • Avoid ambiguity • Rewrite strings of modifiers • Eliminate ambiguous words • Look for possible misrepresentations of words and rewrite when necessary • Use sentences with parallel construction • Break long sentences into shorter, simpler ones

30. Localization and Translation • Focus on writing style • Shorten sentences • Break them up into smaller sentences • Make a bulleted list from three or more items • Leave “that” in for clarity • especially important in sentences with past participle and present participle constructions • Confusing without "that": • AccessPath Manager is a Web-based access management system designed to deploy and manage complex, distributed dial pools. • Clarified with "that": • AccessPath Manager is a Web-based access management system that is designed to deploy and manage complex, distributed dial pools.

31. Localization and Translation • Ensuring audience relevance • Measurement • Metric vs. non-metric measurements • Using . or , for thousands separator • Time • 12-hour vs. 24-hour notation • Addresses and phone numbers • US format may not fit a world-wide standard • Avoid nation-centric language • Assume a world-wide audience

32. Localization and Translation • Other issues • Ambiguity, jargon, confusing phrases, and humor • May cause confusion and misunderstanding • Preferable to “play it straight” • Analogies and figurative language • Effective only in local culture, not worldwide • Audio concerns • Use specific sounds, according to country • Use specific voices, according to culture