Transcript Birkbeck University of London Business Workshop

Birkbeck University of London
Business Workshop
Web Accessibility
Introduction and welcome
Agenda
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Welcome, health and safety and lunch
Introduction to WebCT and workshop
Accessibility awareness
WCAG Guidelines
Ex 1: Evaluating accessibility examples
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Screen reader
Text-only browser
Keyboard only access
Ex 2: Evaluating accessibility of your websites using checklist
adapted from IBM Web Accessibility Checklist
Ex 3: Techniques for converting web page to be accessible
Web accessibility – Why?
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Increase market
Access hard to reach market
Higher ranking on search engines (google)
Comply with law
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DDA Disability Discrimination Act,
SENDA Special Educational Needs Act
Disabilities
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Visual impairments (blindness, low vision, colour
blindness)
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Hearing impairments
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Motor impairments
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Cognitive impairments
Assistive technologies used in
workshop
Specialised hardware/software used to access web
content which can be installed and downloaded at
home/office
 Text-only browser lynx.browser.org/
 HPR IBM Home Page Reader (www306.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html )
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JAWS (www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp)
Browser using only keyboard and/or ENTER and TAB
to access content
Tools used in workshop
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Browser set with images off
Browser set to display grey scale
Vischeck – free colour blind testing tools
www.vischeck.com/
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Dreamweaver MX 2004 Accessibility Checker
Bobby webxact.watchfire.com/
(free version only for testing single pages)
IBM ADesigner (accessibility checker for visual
disabilities
http://www.research.ibm.com/trl/projects/acc_tech/adesigner_e.htm)
Accessibility – common
problems/1
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Images and image map hotspots without appropriate alternative
text
Images used for visual purposes not identified with null
alternative text
Charts and graph information only available visually
Tables used for layout not data
Misleading structural elements on pages
No jumps to main content to skip navigation/breadcrumbs
Tables that are difficult to decipher when read row by row
Accessibility – common
problems/2
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Forms with missing labels
Forms where required fields not indicated
Mouse-defined events without keyboard equivalent
No consistent access keys provided for keyboard
access
No transcripts for audio and video content
No synchronised captions for audio content
Valid HTML/CSS – Why?
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Use W3C validator to ensure valid code – local copy
at www.bbk.ac.uk/ccs/validator
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Renders faster than code with errors
Forces browsers to render to standards and avoids ‘quirks’
mode
Renders better than invalid code
Higher ranking on search engines
More likely to work with assistive technologies
Use CSS not tables to layout
page
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Experiment ‘listening’ to webpage using tables for
layout and equivalent with JAWS and HPR
Review CSS and table layout pages using text only
browser, screen readers
Define consistent set of access
keys
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Review UK Government recommended set of access
keys
Evaluate access keys on sample website
Set simple accessible ‘more’ links
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Review examples of accessible ‘More’ links
Evaluate links on sample website
Set simple accessible tables
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Review examples of accessible tables
Evaluate tables on sample website