Accessible

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Accessible Compliant - Sean A Corfield Web Team

• A brief look at accessibility and web standards
  compliance on macromedia.com

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Agenda

• Policy Goals
• How to get there
• Where are we now?

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Who is Sean Corfield?

• Joined Macromedia in July 2000 as Director of
  Architecture for IT
• Founded Web Technology Group in August 2001 to
  rebuild macromedia.com applications
• Advocate for standards and new technology

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Accessibility Policy /i

• "Macromedia supports the creation of great Web
  experiences by encouraging Web developers to
  produce rich, engaging content that is accessible
  to all."
• http//www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility
  /policy.html

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Accessibility Policy /ii

• Macromedia has a dedicated accessibility
  specialist (Bob Regan)
• We have a partnership with NCAM - National Center
  for Accessible Media
• We work closely with NFB - National Federation
  for the Blind

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Compliance Goals

• XHTML Compliance
• XHTML 1.0 Transitional
• We aim for Section 508 Compliance
• We aim for W3 WCAG "Double-A" Conformance
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Priority 1 - "must"
• Priority 2 - "should"

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How To Achieve Compliance /i

• Tools Techniques
• Use XHTML and Accessibility validators
• Use of CSS to separate presentation and layout
  from actual content
• Follow accessibility guidelines
• Section 508 Web Development Guidelines
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

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How To Achieve Compliance /ii

• Training
• Both at a high level - "What is a screen reader?"
  - and at a low level
• Create local experts by working with small groups
• Enforcement
• Non-compliance needs to be "painful"
• Encourage feedback - accessibility page on
  macromedia.com has feedback form

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Tools For Compliance /i

• Dreamweaver can help
• Accessibility (alt tags etc)
• Code Format (lowercase tags etc)
• New Document (Make document XHTML compliant)
• Validator (XHTML 1.0 Transitional)
• These are our basic Web Team settings for
  Dreamweaver!

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Tools For Compliance /ii

• Dreamweaver Templates also help
• Start with an XHTML compliant template
• Even pages based on non-XHTML compliant templates
  can get closer when you update the template
• Use validation services
• http//validator.w3.org/ (XHTML)
• http//bobby.watchfire.com/ (Bobby)
• http//www.usablenet.com/ (LIFT)

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Accessibility Guidelines

• Developed in partnership with the Department of
  Information Technology at the University of
  Wisconsin
• http//www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility
  /508_guidelines.html

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This Stuff Is Hard! /i

• The hardest thing?
• Helping designers understand what a site is like
  with a screen reader!
• DW bug allows bare in href links
• It's very easy to forget to close some of the
  simple tags like ltbr /gt especially if you've
  forgotten to tell DW to make files XHTML
  compliant!

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This Stuff Is Hard! /ii

• Wide range of browser issues
• Our customer base is large so even 'minority'
  browsers have a loud voice
• Complex CSS layouts require many browser-specific
  hacks
• It requires constant policing
• We're investigating automated XHTML compliance
  checking on key pages

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This Stuff Is Hard! /iii

• Our desired core user experience requires
  JavaScript and/or Flash
• JavaScript often breaks accessibility (and has
  cross-browser issues)
• Flash 6 / V1 Components are not easy to make
  accessible
• Flash 7 and V2 Components make this easier

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How Are We Doing? /i

• Our home page is XHTML compliant!
• Some of our top-level pages are also XHTML
  compliant
• The vast majority of our 40,000 pages are not
  yet valid XHTML
• A lot of our pages still use legacy templates
  that are not XHTML compliant

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How Are We Doing? /ii

• Macromedia Exchange is not accessible Flash 6 /
  V1 components
• Each site redesign gives us a chance to rebuild
  old templates and get closer to compliance
• Regularly consult NFB / NCAM for feedback