UN Report on Website Accessibility

Accessibility agency Nomensa tested the leading websites in five different sectors across 20 countries

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico,

Morocco, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United

States of America.

Nomensa tested representative websites from five key sectors - travel, retail, banking, government and media.

Of the 100 sites tested, only 3 conformed to the most basic standards for accessibility.

• The British Prime Minster's site

• The Spanish Government site

• The German Chancellor's site

Details of the Report

• 98% did not follow industry web standards for the programming code

• 97% did not allow people to alter or resize pages

• 93% failed to provide adequate text descriptions for graphics

• 89% offered poor page navigation

• 87% used pop-ups causing problems for those using screen

magnification software

• 73% relied on JavaScript for important functionality

• 78% used colours with poor contrast, causing issues for those with

colour blindness

"This is a global failure and we are very disappointed with the results,”

"It is important for commercial, legal and moral reasons that websites put in place a strategy for accessibility, both

in terms of quick wins and longer term improvements.”

U of G Website Accessibility Review

2006 / 2007

Part I: Web Design Contracts

• The University of Guelph endorses the philosophy

that professional web design is synonymous with

accessible web design.

• The following steps will be taken to insure web design

work undertaken by external agencies and designers

meets professional standards.

Contract Language

• Formalized contract language will be developed by

Purchasing Services to include the requirement for all

Web Design work and Web Applications purchased

by the University of Guelph to meet all Priority 1

checkpoints from the World Wide Web Consortium

(W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

Contract Language

• Websites will also be required to meet

University of Guelph standards for security,

interoperability, and maintainability.

Quality Assurance

• A process will be developed to audit any new

website or application for compliance with

University of Guelph accessibility

requirements before acceptance of work final

payment is made.

Part II: Website Audit

• The University of Guelph’s website is

composed of a large number of smaller

websites and web applications, which need to

be audited to determine the overall level of

accessibility, and allocate resources to assist

with correcting deficiencies.

Scope

• Communications & Public Affairs will work with

Computing & Communication Services to develop a

comprehensive list of University of Guelph websites

to be included in the audit.

• Websites that are part of the uoguelph.ca domain

space will be included in the audit unless they are

designated as unofficial sites by the inclusion of the

tilde (~) character.

Scope

• Other websites with domain names owned by the

University of Guelph and bearing the University of

Guelph identifier will be identified and included in the

audit.

• Websites with unique domain names that are hosted

at the University of Guelph for 3rd parties will not be

included in the audit.

Methodology

• Websites being audited will be tested

using automated tools to check for basic compliance

with Priority 1 checkpoints from the World Wide Web

Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility

Guidelines.

• Indeterminate results of automated testing may

require additional manual testing.

Methodology

• High profile websites

and web applications

will receive additional

manual testing

– University of Guelph

– University of Guelph-Humber

– College Homepages

– WebMail

– WebCT

– WebAdvisor

– Open Learning

– My Portico (Portal)

– Start Online

Reporting

• Results of the website audit will be collected into a

spreadsheet to be referred to during the Education

and Improvement activities, and serve as a reference

for subsequent website audits undertaken in the

future.

• The results of the full website audit will be made

available to ISC and ADPAC.

Timeline

• The expected completion of the Website

Audit is early 2007.

Part III: Education and Improvement

• Some website accessibility education and

improvement activities can be undertaken

immediately, while those dependent on

completion of the website audit will begin

some time in early 2007.

Presentations

• An information session on website accessibility will

be organized and presented to the University of

Guelph community.

• Additional effort will be taken to ensure staff

responsible for the management of websites

identified as not meeting University of Guelph

accessibility requirements are in attendance.

Presentations

• The information session will include a demonstration

of how user’s with visual impairments interact with

the University of Guelph website using Screen

Readers.

• Having a high profile member of the senior

administration demonstrate the challenges of using a

screen reader could be an effective demonstration for

faculty and staff attending the information session.

Resources

• Staff responsible for managing University of Guelph

websites will have the following resources available

to them to help ensure all official websites meet all

Priority 1 checkpoints from the World Wide Web

Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility

Guidelines.

Resources

• These resources will be communicated to all staff

responsible for official websites.

• Additional effort will be taken to ensure staff

responsible for the management of websites

identified as not meeting University of Guelph

accessibility requirements are made aware of these

resources.

Literature

• The following books on website accessibility are

recommended for staff responsible for web design

and development, and will be made available through

the University of Guelph Library.

– Dive Into Accessibility, by Mark Pilgrim

– Building Accessible Websites, by Joe Clark

– Designing with Web Standards (2nd Edition), by Jeffrey

Zeldman

Software

• Adobe Contribute and DreamWeaver include all the

tools necessary to build a fully accessible website, as

well as tools to audit existing sites.

• The CCS Software Distribution site allows for

purchase of licenses at a reduced cost.

– Contribute: $53

– DreamWeaver: $116

Support

• Staff in Communications & Public Affairs, in

collaboration with the Library Centre for

Students with Disabilities, are available to

liaise with website owners to help develop a

strategy to make their website accessible.

Templates

• Web Templates that meet all requirements of the

University of Guelph’s Graphic Standards Guide,

including all Accessibility requirements, will be made

available through Communications & Public Affairs.

• These Templates are compatible for use with

Contribute and DreamWeaver.

Testing

• Communications & Public Affairs, in

collaboration with the Library Centre for

Students with Disabilities, is available to

coordinate ongoing website accessibility

testing for any official University of Guelph

website.

Training

• All Faculty and Staff Development opportunities

offered by Human Resources that involve training in

Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Contribute or

DreamWeaver will be updated to include instruction

on using the software to create accessible websites.

• Based on the findings of the the Website Audit,

additional training for staff may be required.

Preliminary Accessibility Audit

December 11th, 2006

Website Accessibility Review

• Sites Reviewed : 131

• Official Sites

– Accessible : 13

– Accessible with errors : 34

– Not Accessible : 69

• Unofficial Sites

– Accessible : 3

– Accessible with errors : 3

– Not Accessible : 9

Accessible Sites• University of Guelph

• Arts, College of

– Fine Arts & Music, School of

• Bachelor of Arts and Sciences

• Bachelor of Science Academic Advising

• Biological Science, College of

• Board of Governors

• Chemistry, Department of

• CIO, Office of the

• Communications & Public Affairs

• Historical Walking Tour

• Provost, Office of the

• Student Financial Services