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Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Accessibility and Internationalization
Chapter 7
Accessibility
• Introduction
– Accessibility is a fundamental aspect of Web
pages
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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
Chapter 7
Accessibility
• Web Accessibility Initiative guidelines
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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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
Accessibility
• Cognitive disabilities
– Make navigation as easy and clear as
possible
– Simplify headings
– Summarize text
– Allow for scalable fonts
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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 governmentfunded 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
Chapter 7
Accessibility
• Case study
– David Oberhart, communications
specialist
• Blind since 1983, has been working on Unixbased 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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
Localization and Translation
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
Localization and Translation
• Formatting issues
– Translation of English into other languages
expands text up to 100%
• Solutions
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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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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:
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Telephone numbers and addresses
Numeric expressions and delimiters
Currency and time
Dates and calendars
Weights and measures
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
Localization and Translation
• Clarify your writing
– Maintain consistency between various components of
the website
– Visibly structure document’s organization
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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
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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.
Chapter 7
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
Chapter 7
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