Web Accessibility Workshop 2009

Accommodating People with Disabilities

• People with low vision or blindness
• People with limited use of their hands
• People who are deaf or hard of hearing
• People with learning disabilities

Assistive Technologies

• Large Fonts & High Contrast
• Screen Magnifiers (ZoomText, MAGic)
• Screen Readers (JAWS, Window-Eyes)
• Alternate Keyboard & Mouse Devices
• Speech Recognition (Dragon NaturallySpeaking)
• Reading Aids (BrowseAloud)

Your Customers, Your Staff, Your Students

• 10-20% of Americans have or will have a disability
• An aging population has increasing accessibility needs
• Accessibility and usability go hand-in-hand

The Law

• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act

The Lawsuits

• America Online
• IBM (Olympics.com)
• Priceline & Ramada.com
• State of Arkansas, State of Pennsylvania
• Target.com

Target.com

• Repair web site
• Monitoring by the NFB
• Original plaintiff → $20,000
• Class-action fund → $6 million

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

• Complete re-write of WCAG 1.0
• More general
• More testable
• Easier to use and understand (?)
• www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20

WCAG 2.0

• 4 Principles
• 12 Guidelines
• 61 Success Criteria
• 3 Conformance Levels

What's New:

• Audio Control
• Animation Control
• Contrast Ratio
• Predictability (On Focus, On Input)
• Error Identification, Suggestion & Prevention

Where to Start:

• WCAG 2.0 at a Glance
• WebAIM's WCAG 2.0 Checklist

Section 508 "Refresh"

• Complete re-write of technical standards
• "Harmonized" with WCAG 2.0
• Expected 2010 (?)
• www.access-board.gov/sec508/update-index.htm

Illinois Information Technology Accessibility Act

• Illinois Agencies & Universities
• Aligned with Section 508, WCAG 1 & WCAG 2
• Designed for web developers
• www.dhs.state.il.us/iitaa

FAE: The Functional Accessibility Evaluator

• Free on-line testing tool from the University of Illinois
• Tests single pages or crawls up to three levels deep
• Checks for compliance with leading accessibility standards
• fae.cita.uiuc.edu

Firefox Accessibility Extension

• Free testing toolbar from the University of Illinois
• Tests offline and dynamic pages
• firefox.cita.uiuc.edu

"Quick Test" Checklist

• Quick, easy & free manual tests
• No assistive technology necessary
• Finds most accessibility issues
• www.msfw.com/accessibility/tools

What is Flash?

• Animation
• Interfaces
• Video

Flash Animation

Accessibility Panel

• Windows > Other Panels

For decorative animations...

• Uncheck "Make movie accessible"
• Or, set wmode="opaque"

For meaningful animations...

• Check "Make movie accessible"
• Check "Make child objects accessible"
• Enter Description
• Ensure that wmode="window"

For complex meaningful animations...

• Providing an HTML alternative

Note: Flash cannot replace HTML

• No headings
• No lists
• No tables

In Summary

• Decorative animations are fine.
• It may be possible to provide alternate text using "Description."
• Be careful of wmode.

Flash Interfaces

Accessible Controls

• Button
• Text Input
• Text Area
• Checkbox
• Radio Button
• List

Enable accessibility

• Two lines of
  ActionScript
  for each type
  of control

Label controls

• Try "Auto label"
• Rely on "Name"

Set reading/tab order

• Use a simple layout
• Set "Tab index"

Adobe Flex

• Development framework for rich Flash-based applications
• 12-18 accessible components
• Custom JAWS scripts

In Summary

• It may be possible to make simple Flash interfaces accessible.
• Keep it simple.
• Plan to test.
• Watch Flex.

Flash Video

Flash CS4 playback controls

• Keyboard-operable

• Screen-reader compatible
• Built-in caption buttons

FLVPlaybackCaptioning component

• Easily attach external caption file
• Industry-standard Timed Text format

Subtitle-horse

• Free, web-based captioning tool
• Produces Timed Text & SRT (YouTube) formats
• www.subtitle-horse.org

In Summary

• CS4 playback controls are accessible!
• FLVPlaybackCaptioning component makes attaching captions easy
• www.subtitle-horse.org

Make the web easier to use for people with:

• Learning disabilities and dyslexia
• English as a second language
• Low literacy
• Mild visual impairments

Including:

• 10-15% of the U.S. population with learning disabilities
• 18% of Americans for whom English is a second language
• 45+ million people in the U.S. with literacy problems

• Text-to-speech
• Dual-color highlighting
• Simply point and read...

For the end user:

• Software is FREE
• One-time download and install
• Works on all “enabled” sites
• Customizable voices, colors & settings
• Free technical support

For the web site owner:

• NO software required
• Works on any site built with accessibility in mind
• Works with web sites, intranets, and virtual learning environments
• Works over regular or secure (https) connections

• Web page text
• Image “alt” text
• Links
• PDF documents

• Magnified “ticker” display
• Talking dictionary
• Text to MP3

• Over 3000 web sites in the U.S. and Europe
• Over 2.5 million users

Thanks