Assessing materials for accessibility

1
Assessing materials for accessibility

• Dr Neil Witt
• Institute for Science Education
• University of Plymouth

2
How to achieve accessibility?

• WCAG Level A (Priority 1) should be seen as the
  starting point for the development of an
  accessible academic website.
• For an inclusive website Level AA (Priority 2)
  and Level AAA (Priority 3) need to be
  investigated and efforts made to fully exploit
  adoption of these guidelines

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Use common standards

• WCAG Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and
  do so properly.
• Mark up documents with the proper structural
  elements.
• Control presentation with style sheets rather
  than with presentation elements and attributes.

4
CSS

• Cascading Style Sheets
• W3C initiative
• Valid CSS2
• Can be user defined
• If a formal grammar is being used CSS will be
  embedded within the page design

5
CSS

• CSS has a much wider array of attributes than
  HTML and gives a greater choice of page elements.
• Gives the designer greater choice and makes the
  page accessible.
• However care still needed

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CSS

• Link to non-scaling text
• Link to scaling text

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How to check for accessibility

• There are a large number of tools which can be
  used to support web page development, these
  include
• Evaluation tools.
• Repair tools.
• Filter and transformation tools.

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Are these tools of use?

• Yes and No!
• A full audit can be found at http//www.science.pl
  ym.ac.uk/warp
• And next - the good, the bad and the ugly

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Types of Tools

• Accessibility getting commercial
• Dont believe all you read
• Differentiate between accessibility and usability
• Accessibility tools not what they seem

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Types of Tools

• Utilities specific to one checkpoint or issue.
  Either installable or online
• Online diagnostic (S508 or WAI)
• Stand alone solution (S508 or WAI)
• Third party embedded solution (S508 or WAI)

11
Section 508

• Market is dominated by S508
• Useful indication but is it relevant to SENDA?
• Use S508 tools with care minus some P1
  checkpoints, plus some P2 checkpoints

12
Health Warning

• None of these tools will guarantee accessibility
• Human intervention is compulsory
• Care is needed marketplace is very commercial
• Education and understanding is vital
• Beware of the logo it may bite back

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Types of Tool A-Prompt
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Types of Tool - Bobby
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Online Diagnostic

• Bobby http//bobby.watchfire.com/
• HTML Validator - http//validator.w3.org
• CSS Validator http//jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
• Lift Online http//www.techdis.ac.uk/usablenet/

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All-in-one Toolbar

• Accessible Information Solutions - Web
  Accessibility Toolbar
• http//www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/

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Conclusions

• There is no simple solution for SENDA and
  electronic information
• W3C WAI gives us a benchmark
• Inclusive design must be a priority
• It is not a mechanistic process, it is strategic
  and embedded.