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What are Web Standards?

  1. Web standards are rules and guidelines for interoperability of technology, available through the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.W3.org/). This international organization’s mission is “To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.”
  2. To reach full potential, the most fundamental Web technologies must be compatible with one another and allow any hardware and software used to work together. The Director of the W3C is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founding creative force behind of the World Wide Web.
  3. The Web Accessibility Content Guidelines (http://www.w3.org/
    WAI/guid-tech.html    )     is one set of internationally accepted standards that establishes rules and guidelines for creating accessible Web content. For the USA, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (http://www.
    access-board.gov/
    sec508/guide/1194.22.htm    )     sets measurable standards for federal and federally-funded projects.

Why Use Web Standards?

  1. To help ensure that the end user can get the information you want to share.
  2. To create content available to the widest number of tools (older computers, newer computers, Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), cell phones, Blackberries.)
  3. To create forward compatibility.

Colorado State University Web Accessibility Standards

  1. What are the CSU Web Accessibility Standards?
    CSU’s Web Accessibility Standards are a combination of both 508 and W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines that cover the major provisions in both.
  2. Where can I find the CSU Web Accessibility Standards?
    http://accessibility.
    colostate.edu/policy.htm

Many people with disabilities may need to use a different type of technology to help them get the information. Creating Web pages based on standards helps ensure that your information will be accessible and usable (see http://www.w3.org/ WAI/guid-tech.html).

What is Accessibility?

Web accessibility is the process of a human being interacting with a Web page: the degree to which someone can find information or perform a task on a page determines how accessible it is. This makes accessibility quite similar to usability.

Very often, accessibility is about having options – more than one way to understand what a picture means, or having captions to read a video if it can’t be heard (whether the user has a hearing impairment or simply cannot play the sound because it is inappropriate to the situation).

Disability types and potential barriers that may affect interaction with the Web.

“Motor” or Physical Disabilities: examples include arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), cerebral palsy (CP), muscular dystrophy, (MD), spinal cord injury, repetitive motion injuries, seizure disorders, amputations.
Users may have problems with small link areas, navigating complex flyout menus, links that all have the same name, (e.g. when using speech input to call for “more”), blinking or moving content, time limitations on submission of forms, etc.
Auditory Disabilities: examples include deafness and hearing impairments.
Users may have problems with videos, podcasts, streaming media, narrated PowerPoint, Flash-based virtual tours, etc.
Visual Disabilities: examples include color blindness, macular degeneration, and other congenital or acquired visual impairments ranging from low vision to blindness.
Users may have problems with graphic based text (text that is a graphic), images, lack of color contrast, videos, mouse-dependent navigation, unclear link text, unorganized content, tables and forms, PowerPoint, Flash-based virtual tours, etc.
Cognitive and Learning Disabilities: examples include brain injury, stroke, central processing disorders, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, scotopic sensitivity syndrome, seizure disorders.
Users may have problems with very busy layouts, flashing or moving content, complex flyout menus, large blocks of text with long sentences, acronyms and abbreviations, unorganized and rambling documents, unclear link text, etc.

Simple Questions to Help Understand about Accessibility

The following is from Evergreen Valley College of California
There is no one way to design a Web site or course that will be universally accessible. Human judgment and input is required because communicating over the Internet is primarily a human activity. So there are many general things to do, regarding universal design. But how they are done may depend on a variety of factors, and the final approach may also vary widely.

Ask the following questions about Web pages:

  1. Is this material/information available in only one format?
    • If yes, does this format include elements for multiple learning styles?
  2. Does this Web page have a learning objective?
    • Does it have any objective?
    • Does it meet that objective?
  3. Who is the target audience for this page?
    • Is the target audience too small?
    • How can you make it reach the broadest audience?
  4. In order to make full use of this page, do I need:
    • good motor skills and eye-hand coordination?
    • good vision?
    • good hearing?
    • good hardware with a fast processing speed and lots of memory?
    • extra software or plug-ins?
    • high-speed connection?
    • a dictionary of terms?
    • a microphone?
    • a mouse?
  5. How many clicks of the Tab key does it take to make one full transit of this page?

Where to find more Information

Who Plans for Accessibility?

Content Expert/Author

  • Write and gather text (watches for unnecessarily verbose or confusing copy, and work to keep it clear and simple.)
    • Write main content.
    • Write link text (link text should give clear indication of destination content and make sense out of context.).
    • Write the alternative texts for all non-text objects.
    • Write a script for multimedia content, using script to create the transcript for developed multimedia.
  • Prepare for the Web.
    • Rewrite into “plain language” watching for “jargon” that may be confusing to users.
    • Make sure all acronyms are explained at first usage – use full expansion followed by the acronym in parentheses.
    • Organize into semantic structure (using headings, paragraphs, lists, etc., to chunk information like an outline).
    • Obtain permission to include copyrighted materials, if any.
    • Write summaries for tables.

Graphic Designer

  • Develops color scheme.
    • Ensure good contrast (watch for pretty but hard to read, like light gray text on white, or low-contrast green or blue schemes).
    • Consider accessibility issues relating to color (color blindness issues, colors that display well on the Web).
    • Provide direction to Web Designer on color issues (do not count on color alone to convey distinct types of information).
  • Weighs the use of moving graphics that can be distracting to users, and are generally associated with advertising.
  • Prepares the graphics and photos for use (properly sized for the Web).
  • Provides the graphics and photos to Content Editor / Author for development of alternative text.
  • Obtains permissions for use of any copyrighted graphics.

Website Designer

  • Develops pages or templates and cascading style sheets (CSS), taking accessibility into consideration.
    • Includes “Skip to main content” link.
    • Tests linearity of content (ensure that content reads in correct order without CSS).
    • Uses logical naming conventions that relate what the content is.
    • Designs forms to ensure logical tab order and associate form fields with their labels. Use element “label” and attribute “for”.
    • Codes tables using column and row headers, as well as the attributes “summary” and “scope.”
    • Checks for keyboard access to all elements (can you Tab to every link?).
    • Provides compliant support for applets (Java accessibility technologies are implemented in the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) and they comprise two separate packages: Java Accessibility API and the Java Accessibility Utilities.)
  • Oversees selection and use of technologies for Website to ensure access (Videos, Flash presentations, Podcasts, and streaming audio need to have another method to make sure their message is conveyed, such as a transcript and descriptions of what might be missed if a user cannot see what is shown).
    • Checks JavaScript usage (use “noscript” and make sure page works without JavaScript enabled).
    • Checks AJAX rendering so users are alerted to changes in content and degrades gracefully if javascript is not implimented.
    • Ensures PDF accessibility. Can use MS Word to add styles to create PDF navigation, and creates PDF with tagging (use “Adobe PDF” option on MS Word toolbar, since “Print as PDF” no longer ensures text in columns will read or reflow properly!)
    • Designs Flash for accessibility (users should have the ability to start and stop Flash, should check for tab key access to content, code for accessibility).
  • Validates CSS and (X)HTML.
  • Checks templates for accessibility and tests site using automated tools and a manual review of elements that require human discretion (such as foreground and background color combinations providing sufficient contrast, etc.).

Web Publisher/Revision Editor

  • Receives prepared electronic text, graphics, alternative text, and long description files.
  • Places content in templates or pages.
  • Ensures forms have logical tab order and are coded to associate form fields with their labels. Checks for the use the element “label” and the attribute “for”.
  • Check data table coding for column and row header useage, as well as checking the attributes “summary” "caption" and “scope.”
  • Publishes / posts to Web server (go live with the site).
  • Validates and checks accessibility of final live site.
  • Checks the use of semantics to structure content organization. (Semantic data extractor http://www.w3.org/2002/08/extract-semantic.)
  • Revises and updates content as necessary, and again validates and checks for accessibility.
Valid XHTML!Valid Cascading Style Sheets!