Web Access Symbol (for people with disabilities) Web Page Design:
Disability Access Recommendations.

Computing & Information Services Dept.
instructor: jim.cerny@unh.edu


http://www.unh.edu/NIS/Courses/Access/

Description.

This course is offered on a one-time basis on March 23, 1999, 2-4 p.m., Hewitt Annex Room 2, with ongoing maintenance of the online materials and links on this page.

"Specific recommendation on ways to make your Web pages more accessible to persons with hearing, visual, and learning disabilities. Ways to provide "electronic curbcuts."
The instructor's approach is that of an experienced Web designer without any special expertise in disability access, relying on the extensive work in progress on this topic on the Web.

  • Specific disability access design recommendations.

    These are a first draft and are distilled from the resources listed in the Links section below (particulary the San Jose standards and the W3C WAI Quick Tips). Emphasis is on making the most accommodation for the least effort, i.e., to incrementally modify your Web pages, not to completely recode them. In making such a list it is possible to get lost in detail, something the W3C recognizes by creating separate documents for Guidelines, Techniques, and Quick Tips. Most of what follows is common-sense, if not commonly implemented!

    1. Design pages to support the Lynx text browser. And familiarize yourself with what Lynx can do.
      • Lynx technique   • Lynx-me technique

    2. If a document is in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, include an alternative format in HTML or plain text (ASCII).
      • Acrobat.Access technique

    3. Every graphic image (including image maps) needs an ALT attribute with a short description of the image (see the access logo at the top of this page).
      • WAI technique

    4. For hyperlinks, use text that makes sense when read out of context, e.g., not the infamous "click here."

    5. Provide an alternate mechanism to access material that is not accommodated by an online alternative, e.g., a phone number to call or an e-mail address. This is a simple but powerful addition.

    6. Use Tables with care, to make sure that the material still makes sense when read line by line as text only.
      • WAI technique  • SCOPE attribute

    7. Don't rely on color alone. Expect some visitors who can't differentiate colors and some who have non-color displays.

    8. If you use Frames, use them with great care to avoid confusion and navigation problems.
      • WAI technique   • Search technique

    9. Photographs that contribute to the content of the page should be accompanied by a "D" hyperlink to a description of the photograph. Include a return hyperlink at the end of the description. See the author's photo at the end of this document.

    10. All audio and video clips need accompanying transcipts or descriptions if they contain substantive material.

    11. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully, primarily by providing an alternative presentation.
      • WAI guideline 7

    12. Design for consistency and simplicity. Despite the widespread temptation to use flashy features on Web pages and extreme design, simple and direct presentation and language work wonderfully well.
      • Design technique

    13. Validate, validate, validate. Each browser, search engine, or other software that parses the HTML varies in how strict it is and how it handles mistakes. With a strict parser, an error could be a show-stopper. Use Bobby to find a syntax mistake that occurs at the end of this document (a missing quote mark).
      • Validation technique

  • General implementation and compliance issues.

    • We in CIS/SMOG and University Publications are doing unofficial background work on Web publishing design and production recommendations and guidelines and see support of disability access as an integral part of that.

    • Look at disability access as only one part of a broader goal of planning for access that allows for many different contexts, e.g., browser versions, screen size and type, inability to see/hear/move, keyboard/mouse not usable, etc.

    • Build access improvements into your revision and update cycle. You do have such a cycle?  ;^)

    • Evaluate your pages and if you can't fix everything, fix the more important items, as in the recommendations above. Links to Bobby, Web Site Garage, and the W3C CSS and HTML tools are on our AuthorAuthor page. In addition we in CIS need to implement local versions of several of these tools to allow for easier and more comprehensive checking.

    • Effective integration of Cascading Style Sheets into Web publishing is a longer-term way to provide disability access. CSS offers the ability to separate structure and presentation and to have separate styles for different presentation modes. Consider this example.

    • There is no easy answer to the trade-offs of degree of publishing effort vs. degree of access accommodation when faced with evolving standards, implementation of those standards in multiple browsers, and the different tools and versions of tools that visitors have. See the CITA home page as an ambitious example, that provides a standard Web page, a low vision version, and a text only version.

    • You can check on the browser software used for information requests on UNHINFO by looking at the Browser Report section near the end of the weekly log summary.

  • Links to resources.
    Red asterisks * indicate major resources or starting points.

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jim.cerny@unh.edu (photo of Jim Cerny) D  Stop me before I click again!

rev. 28-MAR-1999