Transcript Presentation (MS Powerpoint format)

Assessing materials for
accessibility
Dr Neil Witt
Institute for Science Education
University of Plymouth
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How to achieve accessibility?
• WCAG Level A (Priority 1) should be seen as
the starting point for the development of an
accessible academic website.
• For an inclusive website Level AA (Priority 2)
and Level AAA (Priority 3) need to be
investigated and efforts made to fully exploit
adoption of these guidelines
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Use common standards
• WCAG Guideline 3. Use markup and
style sheets and do so properly.
• Mark up documents with the proper
structural elements.
• Control presentation with style sheets
rather than with presentation elements
and attributes.
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CSS
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Cascading Style Sheets
W3C initiative
Valid CSS2
Can be user defined
If a formal grammar is being used CSS
will be embedded within the page
design
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CSS
• CSS has a much wider array of
attributes than HTML and gives a
greater choice of page elements.
• Gives the designer greater choice and
makes the page accessible.
• However care still needed
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CSS
• Link to non-scaling text
• Link to scaling text
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How to check for accessibility
• There are a large number of tools which
can be used to support web page
development, these include:
• Evaluation tools.
• Repair tools.
• Filter and transformation tools.
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Are these tools of use?
• Yes and No!
• A full audit can be found at
http://www.science.plym.ac.uk/warp
• And next - the good, the bad and the
ugly…………
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Types of Tools
• Accessibility getting commercial
• Don’t believe all you read
• Differentiate between accessibility and
usability
• Accessibility tools not what they seem
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Types of Tools
• Utilities – specific to one checkpoint or
issue. Either installable or online
• Online diagnostic (S508 or WAI)
• Stand alone solution (S508 or WAI)
• Third party embedded solution (S508 or
WAI)
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Section 508
• Market is dominated by S508
• Useful indication but is it relevant to
SENDA?
• Use S508 tools with care – minus some
P1 checkpoints, plus some P2
checkpoints
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Health Warning
• None of these tools will guarantee
accessibility
• Human intervention is compulsory
• Care is needed – marketplace is very
commercial
• Education and understanding is vital
• Beware of the logo – it may bite back
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Types of Tool A-Prompt
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Types of Tool - Bobby
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Online Diagnostic
• Bobby – http://bobby.watchfire.com/
• HTML Validator - http://validator.w3.org
• CSS Validator http://jigsaw.w3.org/cssvalidator/
• Lift Online
http://www.techdis.ac.uk/usablenet/
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All-in-one Toolbar
• Accessible Information Solutions - Web
Accessibility Toolbar
• http://www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/
toolbar/
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Conclusions
• There is no simple solution for SENDA
and electronic information
• W3C WAI gives us a benchmark
• Inclusive design must be a priority
• It is not a mechanistic process, it is
strategic and embedded.
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