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Putting It All Together
Lisa Seeman, Global Formats
Content
- Disabilities and the Web
- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
- The WAI and Legislation
- Guidelines, checkpoints, and techniques
- Priorities and conformance
- The Market
- Putting it all together
The Web And Disabilities
- The potential of the web to help people with
disabilities:
- Communicate, work, learn, shop, participate
- The reality of the web for people with disabilities:
- Limited performance achieved with tools such as screen
readers, Braille readers, voice activated keyboards, screen
magnifiers, etc.
The Problem:
- Most sites are inaccessible to the motor-impaired,
vision-impaired, and others
- Unable to navigate sites
- Unable to access images, no text equivalent
- Difficulty filling in forms
Different people have different problems:
- Visual Disabilities:
- undescribed graphics and video, poorly marked-up tables
or frames
- Hearing Disabilities:
- lack of captioning for audio, lack of visual
signposts
- Physical Disabilities:
- lack of keyboard or single-switch support for menu
commands
- Cognitive or Neurological Disabilities:
- lack of consistent navigation, complex presentation or
language, lack of illustrations, flickering
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
- Created to lead the Web to its full potential by
developing common protocols that promote its evolution and
ensure its interoperability.
- An international industry consortium jointly hosted by
the MIT Laboratory in the USA, the National Institute for
Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France
and Keio University in Japan.
- More than 350 organizations are Members of the Consortium
(February 2000).
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
The WAI is pursuing accessibility of the Web through three
primary areas of work:
- Addressing accessibility issues in the technology of the
Web.
- Creating guidelines for browsers, authoring tools, and
content creation.
- Promoting education and outreach.
The Web Accessibility Initiative and Legislation
- The WAIs aim is to represent the maximum number of
people in the maximum number of scenarios.
- The WAI relies on external research, and on personal
experiences of the working group members.
- The W3C can implement technologies recommended by the WAI
to provide support.
- Legislators can use the guidelines created by the WAI to
form a basis for legislation.
The Web Accessibility Initiative
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Guidelines
- General principles of accessible design
- Checkpoints
- To dos - instructions how to apply a
guideline
- Specific and verifiable
- Techniques
- How to implement the checkpoints
- Technology specific
The Web Accessibility Initiative
Priority Levels And Conformance For Checkpoints
- Priority Level 1 > Conformance single A
- Users can access information with
difficulty
- Priority Level 2 > Conformance double A
- Users can access information with some
difficulty
- Priority Level 3 > Conformance triple A
- Users can access information with ease
Some help from
- Automated accessibility tools
- Bobby by CAST
- HTML Validator by W3C
- SWAP by Global Formats
- Consultants
- Software vendors
Handle with care: They do not all guarantee an accessible
result
SWAP by Global Formats:
- Alternative renderings for different user groups
- Creates sites with optimal accessibility
- No need to re-engineer the existing website
- Real-time service always current
- Maintain special effects and site look & feel
- Full compliance with W3C standards
The Market Drive
- Capture significant market niche by offering services to
those that benefit most from home-based alternatives
- Social responsibility / PR
- Regulatory requirements
- Lawsuits: AOL, Australian Olympics website
- Accessibility from PDAs, wireless devices, etc.
Putting Accessible Sites In Touch With The New Market -
AbleFish
- Accessible results search engine
- Accessible e-mail
- Downloadable tools
- Accessible portal
- Getting The Ball Rolling ...
Links:
OZeWAI 2001 home page
|
presentations