Website Accessibility

Arizona @ Your Service

© Copyright Government Information Technology Agency 2004

Website Accessibility

October 21, 2004

By Shanna ChalkerState of ArizonaGovernment Information Technology Agency

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Agenda

• Do the 508 guidelines apply to State and local governments?

• State accessibility guidelines, approach, and implementation

• Advice for local governments

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AccessibilitySection 508 -vs- ADA – American Disabilities Act

Do the 508 guidelines apply to State and local governments? If so, how?

http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm

http://www.section508.gov/

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Accessibility

•Federal - Section 508 This is the most recent law relating to accessibility and is often referred to as "Section

508." In 1998, the president signed into law the Workforce Investment Act, which

amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1986 and significantly expanded and

strengthened the technology access requirements of the 1986 act.

In effect, the new law requires that federal procurement of electronic and information

technology after August 2000 must be accessible to federal employees who have

disabilities and to members of the public with disabilities who need to use that technology.

States that receive federal funds under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 are

also required to comply with Section 508. Section 508 also applies to Web sites that

are produced for government agencies.

For additional information about Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, visit:

http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/508/508home.html and http://www.access-board.gov/.

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AccessibilityWhat if you don’t receive federal funds?Would you still want to follow these guidelines?

Everyone Benefits From Accessible Web Sites slow Internet connections devices that do not show color devices such as cell phones that have tiny screens

An increase in your customer base

Compliance with worldwide regulations and standards

Who is using your website?

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Arizona @ Your Service Site Statistics

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source : McNeil (1997), Americans with Disabilities: 1994-95source : McNeil (1997), Americans with Disabilities: 1994-95http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disable/sipp/disable9495.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/hhes/www/disable/sipp/disable9495.html

Disabilities among U.S. adults

54.76 Million disabled54.76 Million disabled(18.7% of US population (18.7% of US population not including learning disabilities)not including learning disabilities)750 million worldwide750 million worldwide

Nation's largest minority groupNation's largest minority groupsource : President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilitiessource : President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities

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Vision impairedVision impaired–low vision:

- may have perception problems

- need enlarged fonts, high contrast, or screen magnifiers

–colorblindness:- unable to see color differences

- need information regardless of color

–blindness: - unable to see the screen or use a mouse

- need a Braille display or screen reader software to "see" the screen and use the keyboard for navigation

Deaf and hard of hearing Deaf and hard of hearing - unable to hear sounds and warning beeps- need captions and show sounds

Mobility impairedMobility impaired- limited or no ability to use hands or fingers

- limited range, speed, strength

- unable to press multiple keys

- unable to control pressing a key

- need access keys and alternative input methods such as speech recognition

Attention/ReadingAttention/Reading- difficulty reading & writing

- difficulty comprehending and expressing thoughts

- need reading, writing, and comprehension aids; speech synthesis for reading; speech recognition or word prediction software for writing

CombinationsCombinations- technologies need to coexist

Disability issues and needs

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What the sighted see

Web Accessibility

What the blind hear

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Accessibility• State accessibility guidelines, approach, and implementation

• Basic approach to making websites accessible

Policies, Standards, and Procedures (PSP)

http://azgita.gov/

http://www.azgita.gov/policies_standards/

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Accessibility PolicyGovernmentInformationTechnologyAgency

Statewide

POLICYP130

TITLE: Web Site AccessibilityEffective Date: May 10, 2004

1.AUTHORITYThe Government Information Technology Agency (GITA) shall develop, implement and maintain a coordinated statewide plan for information technology (IT) (A.R.S. § 41-3504(A (1))) including the adoption of statewide technical, coordination, and IT Policy and Standards (A.R.S. § 41-3504(A (1(a)))).1.PURPOSETo establish a statewide policy that provides an accessibility model for the development and implementation of Arizona State government web sites that minimizes technical barriers to accessibility for individuals with disabilities.1.SCOPEThis applies to all budget units. Budget unit is defined as a department, commission, board, institution or other agency of the state organization receiving, expending or disbursing state funds or incurring obligations of the state including the board of regents and the state board of directors for community colleges but excluding the universities under the jurisdiction of the board of regents and the community colleges under their respective jurisdictions and the legislative or judicial branches. A.R.S. § 41-3501(2).The Budget Unit Chief Executive Officer (CEO), working in conjunction with the Budget Unit Chief Information Officer (CIO), shall be responsible for ensuring the effective implementation of Statewide Information Technology Policies, Standards, Procedures (PSPs) within each budget unit.1.POLICYTo provide an accessibility model in which web content authors, format designers, and software developers within State agencies understand their roles in providing persons with disabilities, access to existing and developing State web sites. This model is designed for the general public with disabilities who are able to handle general-purpose web content under ordinary operating conditions, see Attachment A – Web Site Accessibility Technical Suggestions and Examples, for further specifics.

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The accessibility policy consists of the following web page features that are to be addressed for all State web sites:

GRAPHICSSimple images; linked images; content images; graphical text; ASCII Art; list bullets; spacer images; animated graphics–text equivalent; animated graphics-frame rate. INFORMATION IN COLORInformation in color; color contrast. MOVING CONTENTStatic background color; moving text. DOWNLOADABLE FILESGraphics in downloadable files; PDF files.

REPETITIVE CONTENTSkipping navigation links. DATA TABLESIdentifying row and column headers; using SCOPE to group table cells.

MULTIMEDIASounds 10; speech-short clips (up to 60 seconds); speech-long clips; video-short clips (up to 10 seconds); video-long clips.

IMAGE MAPSImage map graphics-text equivalent; client-side image map regions; server-side image map regions.

STYLE SHEETSStyle sheets.

FORMSForms-label placement; forms-associating labels and controls; forms-time responses.

SCRIPTSScripts-text equivalents; scripts-keyboard accessibility.

APPLETS and PLUG-INSApplets and plug-ins-links; applets and plug-ins-text equivalent information or functionality.

FRAMESFrames-labeling; frames-NOFRAMES elements.

KEYBOARD CONTROLKeyboard control.

TEXT-ONLY PAGESText-only versions.

BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATIONAlternative identification.

EQUIVALENT FACILITATIONEquivalent access.

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Accessibility

• State and Federal requirements are different

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Section 508 of Fed Rehabilitation Act

Requires U.S. federal agencies to purchase information technology that is accessible to people with disabilities

Applies to: Software applications and operating systems Web-based intranet and Internet information and applications Telecommunications products Video and multimedia products Self-contained, closed products (printers, copiers, fax machines, etc.) Desktop and portable computers

Published December 2000, enforced June 2001Risk losing sales if products are not accessible.Opportunity to win more sales if products are accessible.www.section508.gov

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Accessibility

•Worldwide - W3C

Regulatory compliance is also an important reason to produce accessible Web sites in

other countries. For example, the Nordic countries have published their own set of

accessibility guidelines, and Portugal and Thailand have recently introduced legislation that

directly requires Web accessibility. Other countries, such as Australia and Canada, have

legislation that makes it a civil right for individuals with disabilities to be able to access

certain kinds of information.

Additional information about these and other policies is available from the World Wide Web

Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative at: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Policy

http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Policy

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Accessibility• Advice for local governments

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Making IT accessible

•Establish an accessibility policy• Include people who have disabilities and assistive technologies•Assign accessibility coordination on project teams

• Planning, Design, Architecture, Usability, Graphics, Testing, and Development

•Follow accessibility guidelines during design and development• Software (all functions available using the keyboard, ...)• Web sites (alt="text" on all images, ...)• Java applications (use Java Accessibility API, ...)• Notes databases (alternatives for graphical navigators, ...)• Hardware (easy to reach and operate switches, ...)

•Use tools that ensure the output is accessible•Consult with the Accessibility experts

• Interpret existing guidelines and standards, address new situations

•Test - using testing techniques and tools•Share best practices with others

Documents

Website Accessibility