Web Accessibility Workshop 2008
November 12, 2008, 9:00am - 12:00pm
MSF&W Accessibility Solutions
Texthelp Browsealoud
Illinois Assistive Technology Program
Accessibility
What is accessibility?
Accommodating People with Disabilities
- People with low vision or blindness
- People who are deaf or hard of hearing
- People with limited or no speech
- People with limited use of their hands
- People with learning disabilities
Assistive Technology
- Large fonts & high contrast
- Screen magnifiers (ZoomText, MAGic)
- Screen readers (JAWS, Window-Eyes)
- Speech recognition (Dragon NaturallySpeaking)
- Closed captions
Accessibility Laws
- Section 504
- Americans with Disabilities Act
- Section 508
- Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act
Lawsuit: Target.com
- Make repairs by February 28, 2009
- Monitoring by the NFB
- $20,000 to original plaintiff
- Attorneys fees
- $6 million class-action fund (up to $7000 per person)
Accessibility Standards
- W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
- Federal "Section 508" Standards
- Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act
Accessibility Standards
What's new in Accessibility Standards?
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
What's new in WCAG 2?
- Generalized
- Contrast Ratio (see our Contrast Ratio Calculator)
- Audio & Animation Controls
- Timing Controls
- Scripting
- Error Messages
What's new in Section 508?
Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act
What's new in the IITAA?
- Aligned with Section 508 & WCAG
- Audio, Video & Multimedia
"...when it is provided to the public and/or required to be viewed by employees"
- Downloadable Documents
- Scripting
Assistive Technology
What's new in Assistive Technology?
JAWS 10
Forms Mode (old)
- Requires users to activate a special mode to complete forms
- Reads only focusable elements (fields & links)
- Required developers to use work-arounds
Auto Forms Mode (new)
- Toggles in and out of forms mode as needed
ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications)
- New W3C framework for Accessible Web 2.0 Applications
- Roles – menu, tree, tabpanel, etc.
- States – required, invalid, etc.
Accessibility Testing
What's new in Accessibility Testing?
Functional Accessibility Evaluator
- Free on-line testing tool from the University of Illinois
- Tests pages or sites
- Being updated for the IITAA
- fae.cita.uiuc.edu
Firefox Accessibility Extension
- Free testing toolbar from the University of Illinois
- Tests dynamic pages
- Being updated for the IITAA
- firefox.cita.uiuc.edu
Manual Testing
- Manual testing still required...
- IITAA Web Accessibility Resources (www.dhs.state.il.us/iitaa)
- Expert Accessibility Audits
- Free 5-minute Accessibility Reviews
PDF Accessibility
What's new in PDF Accessibility?
PDF Accessibility
- Content & Tags
- "Quick Check"
- "Full Check"
- Reflow
- Accessible Text
CommonLook for Adobe Acrobat
- Section 508 Wizard
- Logical Structure Editor (Content & Tags)
- Table Tool
- Reports
LiveCycle Designer
- Builds forms from scratch
- Automates accessibility (labels & tooltips)
- Allows editing without starting over
Multimedia Accessibility
What's new in Multimedia Accessibility?
Flash Captioning
- Accessible Skins
- FLVPlaybackCaptioning component
- W3C "Timed Text" (DFXP) caption format
- Subtitle-Horse (www.subtitle-horse.org)
BrowseAloud
BrowseAloud
Make using the web easier for people who have:
- Mild visual impairments
- Low literacy or reading skills
- English as a second language
- Learning disabilities such as dyslexia
Questions
Questions