Website Accessibility
Kathleen Anderson & Sharon Clapp
State of Connecticut, Office of the Comptroller &
Connecticut State Library
Kathleen.Anderson@po.state.ct.us
sclapp@cslib.org
What is Accessibility
- Accessibility
- is a general term used to describe the degree to which a system is usable by as many people as possible without modification... One meaning of accessibility specifically focuses on people with disabilities and their use of assistive devices such as screen-reading web browsers or wheelchairs.
- Web accessibility...
- means access to the Web by everyone, regardless of disability whether it be physical, visual, hearing, and cognitive or neurological disabilities. An accessible Web site allows all users to access it, regardless of their browser, resolution, settings, or eyesight.
Why is Accessibility Important to Libraries?
- Public institution - service to patrons
- Improving Accessibility = Improving Usability of our web sites
- Aging population (See: "The Aging Workforce is Changing the Demand for Technology that is Accessible")
- Local requirements
- Failure to provide accessible resources may be actionable in court, e.g., through the Americans with Disabilities Act
Funding & Accessibility
Accessibility may be required by funding authorities (LSTA
Grant Evaluation criteria);
LSTA Grants for Connecticut Libraries - http://ct.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=6159
Rules, Regulations & Standards
What accessibility standards and/or legal requirements might library websites be subject to?
- Section 508 (Federal guidelines - Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973)
- WCAG - W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Americans With Disabilities Act
- State of Connecticut Accessibility Guidelines
Section 508 - http://www.section508.gov
W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v1.0 - http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.0 [DRAFT] - http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
Americans With Disabilities Act - http://www.ada.gov/
State of Connecticut Web Site Accessibility Policy - http://www.access.state.ct.us/
Section 508
Section 508 requires that information technology developed, procured, used, or maintained by all agencies & departments of the Federal Government be accessible both to Federal employees with disabilities and to members of the public with disabilities...
From
the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center:
Does my university, city, county, or state website have to conform
with Section 508?
Section 508 law applies only to federal agencies and departments. The standards,
however, are available for anyone to incorporate in whole or in part. Thus,
for example, state law may require state entities to comply with the standards.
Wikipedia's entry on Section 508 -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508;
Wikipedia's Frequently Asked Questions about Section 508 page -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_508#Frequently_asked_questions
The Federal Access Board's Section 508 information:
http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm
Section 508 official site - http://www.section508.gov (from the it accessibility & workforce division (itaw), office of governmentwide policy, u.s. general services administration )
Summary of Section 508 Standards -
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Content&ID=11#web
WebAIM Section 508 Checklist -
http://www.webaim.org/standards/508/checklist
Legal Info on 508 from Access-Board.gov -
http://www.access-board.gov/508.htm;
Guide to Section 508 on Internet and Intranet Applications is at
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/guide/1194.22.htm
Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center -
http://www.ittatc.org/technical/experts/answers.php?qa_id=23
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (W3C)
The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) works with organizations around the world to develop strategies, guidelines, and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities. [international & voluntary]
- WCAG v1.0 - http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/
- W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v2.0 [DRAFT] - http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
WCAG 1.0 establishes Priorities 1 through 3. If Priority 1 issues are not satisfied, one or more groups will find it impossible to accesss information in the document. There are 3 conformance levels: "A", "AA", and "AAA".
Americans With Disabilities Act
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) states that
...no qualified individual with a disability shall be subjected
to discrimination or excluded from the benefits of the services, programs,
or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination
by any such entity due to his or her disablity. A "public entity" can
be any state or local government or any department or agency thereof.
The lack of accessibility or certain services can be considered discrimination,
regardless of who it actually affects. [Wikipedia]
Lawsuit against Target & D.O.J. activities...
ADA Site - http://www.ada.gov/
DOJ's ADA Home Page - http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
Lawsuit against Target news report - Mazen M. Basrawi, Equal Justice Works Fellow at Disability Rights Advocates, noted that: 'the court clarified that the law requires that any place of public accommodation is required to ensure that it does not discriminate when it uses the internet as a means to enhance the services it offers at a physical location.'" - http://www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php; from October 2006;
from September 7, 2006 - http://www.dralegal.org/cases/private_business/nfb_v_target.php
Remarks of Attorney General Gonzales at a conference, Oct. 5, 2006 - http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=73812
Accessiblity of State and Local Government Websites to People with Disabilities - http://www.ada.gov/websites2.htm
ADA Guide for Small Towns - http://www.ada.ufl.edu/ADAcd/cdpages/htm_pubs/smtown.htm
State of Connecticut Website Accessibility Guidelines
State of Connecticut Web Accessibility Committee Website
Policy, including checklist of design requirements - http://www.access.state.ct.us/policies/accesspolicy40.html
Is My Website Accessible? Online Validation Tools
- WebXact (formerly Bobby): 508, WCAG (by level(s)), other quality tests
- Cynthia Says: 508, WCAG (by level(s))
- TAW (Web Accessibility Test): WCAG (by level(s))
Cynthia Says - http://www.icdri.org/test_your_site_now.htm
TAW - http://www.tawdis.net/taw3/cms/en
Is My Website Accessible? Using Dreamweaver/FrontPage
Testing your website using validation tools found in web-editing software (WYSIWYG):
- Macromedia Dreamweaver (see http://www.webaim.org/techniques/dreamweaver/; http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/dw8/overview.html)
- Microsoft FrontPage 2003 (see http://www.webaim.org/techniques/frontpage/; http://www.brainbell.com/tutorials/ms-office/FrontPage_2003/Accessibility.htm)
Browser Plug-In Accessibility Tools (Open Source)
- AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar for Internet Explorer (v. 5 +, Windows)
- Firefox Accessibility Extensions
- FireVox for Mozilla Firefox
- Fangs - the screen reader emulator plugin for Mozilla Firefox (creates textual representation of a web page similar to how the page would be read in a modern screen reader)
Firefox Accessibility Extensions - http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu
Fangs Site - http://www.standards-schmandards.com/fangs/
FireVox - http://firevox.clcworld.net/
Is My Website Accessible... Emulating the User Experience
Testing your website by emulating the User Experience - going beyond automated validation tools.... is the site usable by people with disabilities?
- Text-only viewing: view your page in a Lynx-like text-only browser; turn off images/graphics support in your regular browser
- Seeing what a color-blind user would see of your website using
VisCheck online
Download Lynx for text-only viewing from your PC/Mac - http://csant.info/lynx.htm
VisCheck (see what a color-blind user would see when viewing your website) - http://www.vischeck.com/
Emulating the User Experience: Screen Readers
- JAWS (trial version free)
- IBM HomePage Reader (trial version free, but cannot be used with your own site)
- Connect Outloud Reader for Internet Access
- Windows-Eyes Screen Reader
IBM HomePage Reader - http://www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html
Connect Outloud Reader for Internet Access - http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_connect.asp
Windows-Eyes Screen Reader - http://www.gwmicro.com/
Miscellaneous Web Accessibility Testing Tools
- http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/ - Complete, Searchable Listing of Website Accessibility Tools as compiled by W3.org's Web Accessibility Initiative
- WAT-C tools, including web accessibility toolbars for Opera & IE browsers
- Testing for color contrast (online see Juicy Studio Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyser; downloadable software see WAT-C Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 tool)
Juicy Studio Luminosity Contrast Ratio Analyser online - http://juicystudio.com/services/luminositycontrastratio.php
Colour Contrast Analyser 1.1 tool - http://www.wat-c.org/tools/CCA/1.1/index.html
Accessibility Resources for Specific Products
- Mozilla's Accessibility Page; Accessibility in Mozilla Online Presentation
- Adobe Accessibility Center (e.g., for PDFs) - http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/
- Making PDFs Accessible (tag PDFs and/or provide html alternative): http://www.webaim.org/techniques/acrobat
- Microsoft's Accessibility Site - http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
- Making Microsoft Office Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) Accessible
Using the Illinois Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft® Office - http://cita.disability.uiuc.edu/software/office/index.php :
PowerPoint Accessibility Issues - http://www.webaim.org/techniques/powerpoint/ (see also: our final slide re: this presentation)
Library-Specific Accessibility Resources
- Accessibility and usability of online library databases.
Author: Stewart, Ron; Narendra, Vivek Schmetzke, Axel
Source:Library Hi Tech 23, no. 2 (2005): p. 265-286; Web Accessibility, E-Learning, and Academic Libraries. - http://www.ijpis.net/issues/no1_2006/IJPIS_no1_2006_p1.pdf - Example of one library's "Best Practices" for Web Accessibility Guide - http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/html-best-practices/reqs.php
- Accessible Webpage Design: Resources - http://library.uwsp.edu/aschmetz/accessible/pub_resources_p.htm
The "Accessibility and usability of online library databases" article noted that most online databases today are rated as being at least minimally accessible according to automated validation methods, however, in reality, they are often unusable or difficult to use when tested through the use of actual screen reading technology. It also noted that metasearch engines have not yet been tested for accessibility. It also noted that some versions of articles found using the online databases (e.g., some PDF versions of articles/digitized materials) are not accessible.
Making Your Website More Accessible
How do I begin? The first step is awareness - spread the word - help your organization make this a priority. Consider legal and ethical obligations. Create an Accessibility Policy / Statement if you do not already have one. Create a checklist of issues to remediate, beginning with those discovered through validation tools. Other checklists you may want to use:
- State of Connecticut Checklist of Design Requirements
- W3C's Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
10 Quick Tips for WCAG from W3C - http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips/
30 Days to an Accessible Website!! - http://diveintoaccessibility.org
For Additional Information: Website Accessibility Resources
- Web Accessibility In Mind - http://www.webaim.org/
- W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative's Evaluating for Web Accessibility pages - a how-to for the evaluation process, including templates for formal evaluation reports
- JimThatcher.com - http://jimthatcher.com/index.html - offers a Section 508 online tutorial/course
- Web Site Accessibility Blog - http://www.accessibilityblog.com/
- A List Apart blog - http://www.alistapart.com/ (General Website Usability & Accessibility covered)
Website Usability Resources
- How to Design Library Web Sites to Maximize Usability - Elsevier - http://www.elsevier.com/framework_librarians/LibraryConnect/lcpamphlet5.pdf
- Designing for Usable Web Sites - http://trace.wisc.edu/world/web
- Research-based web design & usability guidelines. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services: U.S. General Services Administration: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., [2006]
What Next - Ongoing Accessibility Initiatives
- Keep up with news about Section 508 / WCAG / Americans With Disabilities Act[Remember: WCAG 2.0 will soon be in effect! WCAG 2.0 issues - see To Hell With WCAG 2.0 from A List Apart blog]
- Google's Web Accessible Search & Accessibility Initiative - http://labs.google.com/accessible/faq.html
- Web Accessibility Survey Site - http://library.uwsp.edu/aschmetz/accessible/websurveys_p.htm (keep up with studies in the area of library website accessibility)
- When in doubt, try it out... OR - better still, have an end-user provide feedback (e.g., See "Four Web Accessibility Myths - Busted")
http://labs.google.com/accessible/
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/access/page5784.cfm
A Quick Aside: Making this Presentation Accessible
Instead of PowerPoint, use web technology. Build on CSS, XHTML & you
can easily create a fully accessible presentation. Free & open source.
S5 Slideshow tool -
http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/s5/
You can
also use HTML Slidy -
http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/