WebMaster Solutions
Web Site
Marketing
Make Your
Website Accessible
by Kenneth Catto
In 1990, the
Americans with Disabilities Act was passed by
Congress. The law was designed to protect people
with disabilities from being discriminated
against, because of a physical or mental
disability. The act was put into place to help
guarantee equal opportunity for people with
disabilities in any public area – and it covers
regulations for employment, transportation,
state and local government services,
telecommunications, etc.
But what about
your Website? Have you done all you can, to
assure that your Website is accessible?
Here is a
checklist you can use, to determine if your
Website is as accessible as it could be. (Note:
These actions vary from fairly simple to
complex, and this list is not meant to be
considered the only options or actions you can
take to make your site more accessible).
1. Have you
provided a text equivalent for every non-text
element on your site? Non-text elements include:
images, graphical representations of text
(including symbols), animations (including
animated GIF's), image map areas, programmatic
objects and applets, ASCII art, scripts,
spacers, frames, images used for list bullets,
buttons, sounds (whether automatic or by user
interaction), video, audio tracks of video and
stand alone audio files.
2. Have you
ensured that any information conveyed with color
is also available without it?
3. Are changes in
the natural language of all pages on your
Website and any text equivalents (such as
captions) clearly identified?
4. Are all
documents on your Website organized so that they
can be read without style sheets?
5. Do you update
all equivalents for dynamic content every time
you update the dynamic content itself?
6. Have you
eliminated any special effects from your Website
that cause the screen to flicker?
7. Are you using
clear and simple language in all content placed
on your Website?
8. If you use
images and image maps, are you providing
redundant text links for each active region of
your server-side image map?
9. If you use
images and image maps, are you providing
client-side image maps (instead of server-side)
whenever possible?
10. When using
data tables, have you identified the row and
column headers?
11. If you use
frames, have you titled each frame to make it
easier for users to navigate your site and
identify the frames?
12. When using
applets and scripts, have you made sure that the
pages are useable when all programmatic objects
are not supported, or turned off? (If that isn’t
possible, have you provided the information on
an alternative accessible page?)
13. When using
multimedia, have you provided an auditory
description of the most important visual
information on a multimedia presentation?
14. When using any
time-based multimedia presentation (such as a
movie or animation), have you synchronized the
equivalent alternatives such as captions or
auditory descriptions of the visual track to the
presentation?
15. Have you made
sure that the background and foreground colors
on your Website have enough contrast so that
when someone with a color deficit looks at it
(or your Website is viewed with a black and
white screen) they can still read it clearly?
16. Have you
clearly identified the target of each link?
17. Have you
provided a place to get information about your
site, either through the use of a site map, or
table of contents?
18. Have you
clearly identified the primary language of your
Website?
19. Have you
provided information so that users can choose
how they want to receive documents – by content
type, language, etc.)?
20. Have you
provided summaries for all the tables on your
site?
Here are some
simple steps you can take that don’t require
much work or technical ability:
Graphs and Charts:
When working with graphs and charts, make sure
you’ve provided enough information that any
graphs or charts aren’t needed to understand the
article, but are just supplements to it. You can
also use the “alt” tag to provide information
about them.
Image Maps:
Provide alternative text anywhere that the user
must click on your Website, so that if they’ve
turned off the graphics, or can’t view them,
they can still understand what your site is
about and can navigate around it. (Note: This
method still doesn’t work with all browsers, but
at least you’re trying!)
Tables:
When working with
headers, use the “th” attribute so that users
with a visual impairment can hear the table
headers from their screen reader.
Hypertext Links:
When using
hypertext links, use text that will make sense
when a screen reader reads allowed to a visually
impaired user.
Bold Face
When writing your
sales copy, use the “em” instead of the “b” tag.
By using the emphasis tag, a screen reader’s
tone will change, adding emphasis to what is on
the screen. If you use a bold tag, the screen
reader can’t recognize the change, and all of
the copy will be read in the same tone.
Multimedia (Video,
applets, and Plug-ins):
Try and provide
alternatives when using multimedia. If you’re
using streaming video for example, which has
sounds or dialog, your two best options would be
to either provide closed-captioning for the
video or provide a text version for the
dialogue. (This actually helps non-visually
impaired viewers who have dial up instead of
DSL, or for the times when the amateur video
sound quality is poor.
When you use
applets or plug-ins, look for alternative
methods of presenting information such as text
links, without relying on the applet or plug-in
for navigating around your WebPages.
So, how do you
know if your Website meets the accessibility
guidelines?
You can use the
Bobby Program. “Bobby” is a free Java-based
program that searches through your Website to
check its accessibility. Although it can’t
analyze page content, it can analyze coding and
the readability of your Website.
If you’re
interested in finding out how accessible your
Website is already considered to be, you can go
to: http://webxact.watchfire.com/
WebXACT is a free
online service that lets you test single pages
of web content for quality, accessibility, and
privacy issues.
If you’re
interested in learning more about web
accessibility, or you know someone who needs
information or access to resources for a
disability, you can get more information from
the following links:
http://www.gatech.edu/accessibility/
AWARE: Accessible Web Authoring Resources &
Education
http://www.awarecenter.org/
Bobby Version 3.2
http://www.cast.org/bobby/
CSS2 Tutorial
http://www.dynamicdeezign.com/css/introduction.html
IBM Accessibility Center
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/
IBM: Java Accessibility
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/accessjava.html
Is YOUR Website
Accessible?
http://www.janejarrow.com/tv_station/webaccess/
WAI (Website
Accessibility Initiative)
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
Recommended Reading
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