Web Accessibility
Need for Change
With the rapid growth in provision of academic resources via electronic media, the need to establish and implement approved standards of accessibility has become a pressing concern. Far too many university websites and IT resources are still created with insufficient consideration of accessibility issues.
Since the DDA (1995) and SENDA (2001) Acts of Parliament, accessibility has acquired full legislative force, in addition to important ethical and business motivations. Whilst many resources fail to even meet bare minimums, the law has moved on to require effective parity of access, in some cases well beyond such perceived minimums.
Identifying Problems
Slides from the seminar on Improving Accessibility to Web Materials for Visually Impaired Users, December 2001.
- Accessibility
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152kb - Accessibility
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Before committing to a new site design, check the following:
- Does the design display properly in most currently popular browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera?
- Is the design at least readable, if not perfectly attractive, in older browsers?
- Does the design validate against a W3C standard?
- Can the text size be changed in the browser (eg: View - Text Size)?
- Does the design meet minimum W3C WAI Conformance Level "A" standards, or higher?
Finding Solutions
The LTG offers advice and assistance in assuring accessibility for educational electronic media. This may include evaluation of current web site design, suggestions for enhanced accessibility and best practice, or onward referal to other specialist services. In most cases, accessibile designs are also efficient designs, offering ease of editing, cost savings, and simplicity in use.
Please get in touch for a free consultation.
Quick tips to make accessible web sites
- Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
- Image maps. Use the client-side map element and text for hotspots.
- Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
- Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here".
- Page organisation. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
- Graphs & charts. Summarise or use the longdesc attribute.
- Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case acrtive features are inaccessible or unsupported.
- Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
- Tables. make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
- Check your work. Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://w3.org/TR/WCAG.
NB: Taken from the W3C WAI Quick Tips card.
Accesskeys
2.4.4 UK Government accesskeys standard
[Source: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/resources/handbook/html/2-4.asp#2.4.4
(13 June 2005)]
The accesskey attribute, introduced in HTML4.0, is intended to provide keyboard shortcuts in that they provide an alternative form of navigation.
This attribute should be added to the hypertext link element within an HTML page as follows.
<a href="whatsnew.htm" accesskey="2"> What's New </a>
This addition allows users with limited physical capabilities to navigate the organisation's website more easily. There are some drawbacks, for example:
- functionality depends on the type of operating system you are using,
- the attribute is only supported by MS Internet Explorer 4 and above and by Netscape 6x versions,
- with Windows-based systems the user has to press the 'Alt key' and the accesskey, and
- with the Macintosh system the user has to press the 'Ctrl key' and the accesskey.
In the example above, the organisation's What's New page has a '2' value given which should be used consistently throughout the Website.
When a user visits your department's website for the first time they bring their collective experience gained from all other sites. It is, therefore, important that UK Government Websites adopt a constant accesskeys standard. Variations from this will make it more difficult for users as they have to learn new navigational skills each time.
Listed below is the recommended UK Government accesskeys standard:
S - Skip navigation
1 - Home page
2 - What's new
3 - Site
map
4 - Search
5 - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
6 - Help
7
- Complaints procedure
8 - Terms and conditions
9 - Feedback
form
0 - Access key details
When this navigational system is made available, it is important to inform your website users, as soon as they enter. Otherwise, users who are least able to do so will be faced with a mouse-dependent navigational system that could have been bypassed. Each page could display a message, e.g. 'UK government accesskeys system'
Web managers can extend this system by attributing any one of the other 25 alphabetic characters to pages within their website but should ensure that the core elements listed above are used. It is important to ensure that the additional keys selected do not compromise shortcut keys used by various browsers, e.g., Microsoft Internet Explorer 'alt h' drops down the help menu.
Accessibility Links
- UEA Services
- Web Standards
- Advisory Services
- Online Design Tools
- Screenreaders
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