Introduction to Accessibility and Planning an Accessible Website

Presented by Everett Zufelt & Mike Giffordfor

Citizens With Disabilities - Ontario

August 10, 2010

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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?

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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

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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?

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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?

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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

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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