Download Web access

Universal Design &
Web Accessibility
Iain Murray
Kerry Hoath
Universal Design, Usability and Accessibility
 Universal Design focuses on
ensuring that everyone can access
the same products and services.
 Usability in terms of web design is
generally associated with navigation
and ease of use.
 Accessibility focuses on web design
issues specifically for people with
disabilities. Usability is an
important part of accessibility.
Disability Statistics
 Approximately 3,6 million
Australians (19%) have some form
of permanent disability (ABS,
1998).
 Granted not all of these people need
accessible web sites, but a large
percentage of your target audience
may not be able to view your site.
Case for Accessibility
 Social case:
 Primary reason for use of Internet is
for information retrieval.
 Corporate case:
 Inaccessible web sites may prevent
customers from purchasing goods and
services.
 Legal case:
 SOCOG example
Assistive Technology
 Important:
 Vision impaired computer
users do NOT use the mouse
 Zoom and high contrast
 Screen review software
Demonstrations shortly
W3C Guidelines
 Three levels:
 Single-A (Level 1) for minimal
compliance
 Double-A (Level 2) for preferred
compliance
 Triple-A (Level 3) for sites specifically
developed for people who are blind or
vision impaired
 These guidelines were used in the
Bruce Maguire vs. SOCOC case
 The US Rehabilitation Act of 1973’s
Section 508 uses these guidelines to
ensure that any web development
products sold to the US government
conform to an accessible standard.
Single A Level 1 Compliance
 Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element (e.g., via "alt",
"longdesc", or in element content).
 Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available
without color,
 Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets.
 Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the
dynamic content changes.
 Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing the
screen to flicker.
 Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's
content.
 Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server side
image map.
 Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps
except where the regions cannot be defined with an available
geometric shape.
Single A Level 1 Compliance
 For data tables, identify row and column headers.
 For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column
headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells.
 Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.
 Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other
programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not
possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible
page.
 Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of
a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important
information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation.
Single A Level 1 Compliance
 For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a
movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives.
 If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page,
provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C
technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or
functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible
(original) page.
Additional Recommendations
 Keep in mind the viewing area of
magnification software. It’s helpful to
have the menu options in the top left-hand
area
 Ensure that web sites can be viewed in
800x600 resolution
 Try to avoid frames wherever possible
 Use san-serif fonts for web design, such as
Verdana in Windows or Helvetica in
MacOS. Serif fonts are better on paper
but the serifs run into each other on the
screen from the perspective of a vision
impaired person
 Use BOBBY, aDesigner etc to
check your site for accessibility
Links & Resources
 http://www.w3c.org/WAI
 http://bobby.watchfire.com/
 http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech
/adesigner
 http://www.freedomscientific.com/