Workshop 1 Basics of Web Accessibility

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Workshop 1Basics of Web Accessibility

• Web Content Accessibility Project
• Funded by BCcampus
• Natasha Boskic, Kirsten Bole, Nathan Hapke
• University of British Columbia

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Workshop schedule

• Monday August 21Basics of Web Accessibility
• Tuesday August 22Coding an Accessible Website
• Wednesday August 23Accessible Multimedia
• Thursday August 24Creating Usable Content
• Friday August 25Disabilities Assistive
  Technology

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The Plan

• What is accessibility and why is it important?
• E-learning and accessibility
• Who is affected?
• How are they affected?
• How do I make my course more accessible?

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Why does it matter?

• We often make assumptions about our students and
  site visitors
• Disabilities are invisible online
• If we are unaffected, we are unaware of any
  inconvenience

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Consequences in Education

• Inaccessible sites can be slightly inconvenient
  or completely frustrating
• Inaccessible academic sites can have serious
  impact on someones educational experience
• Affects students access to course materials and
  ability to work and participate
• Excluding students is not an option

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Standards

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
• Created by the Web Accessibility Initiative
  section of the W3C
• 2.0 is under review

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Laws

• Section 508 (US)
• UK Disability Rights Commission
• Laws in Canada are not as specific
• Canadian anti-discrimination laws strong

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E-learning and accessibility

• Good
• Learning online bridges huge distances
• Potential for small classes,more interaction
• Opportunities for students who otherwise cant
  attend a physical campus
• Not so good
• Dependent on technology
• Requires careful time management

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Students with disabilities

• Learning disabilities most common
• Dyslexia, ADHD
• Sight
• Partial sight, blindness, colourblindness
• Motor/physical
• Limited control of mouse/keyboard
• Hearing

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Getting around

• Sight learning issues
• Screen readers
• Screen magnifiers
• Braille devices
• Physical issues
• Adaptive keyboards
• Alternative pointing devices
• Many students with disabilities navigate by
  keyboard only.

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Our Focus Group students

• Ted teacher with problems focusing memorizes
  programs rather than using visual cues
• Robert nerve damage to right hand uses FrogPad
  instead of keyboard
• Samuel hard-of-hearing ESL student prefers
  videos to text

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Donovan

• English major at UBC
• Blind since birth
• Uses a screenreader called JAWS to access the web

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Making your course accessible

• Many accessibility changes to your site
• benefit all learners.
• Be consistentKeep navigation the same on each
  page
• Be redundantPresenting information in multiple
  ways helps all learners

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What to consider text

• Is the font big enough, with enough contrast?
• Can the user change the font size in their
  browser?
• Are there distracting colours or animations?
• Is there alternative text for every important
  graphic? (Dont forget charts graphs!)

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What to consider links

• Screen readerscan take linksout of context
• Do links makesense on theirown? (Dontuse
  click hereas link text!)

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What to consider other elements

• Forms, tables and frames should be labeled
• Audio, video transcripts should be available
• Flash and PDF often require extra effort
• When in doubt, offer same information in plain
  text format as well

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What do I use?

• Do NOT use Words Export to HTML feature!
• Beginners Course Genie will export a valid,
  accessible site from Word
• Intermediate use a good WYSIWYG editor such as
  Dreamweaver
• Expert hand-code XHTML and CSS

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Checking for accessibility

• Online checkers help find problem areas
• http//webxact.watchfire.com
• Good tool, but no substitute for human testing!

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Its not difficult

• Most code changes are fairly minor
• Many changes benefit all students, not just those
  with disabilities
• Many terrific resources available online

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Go forth accessify

• Try running your own site (or your favourite
  website) through a validator. How does it rate?
• Download a trial version of JAWS. What does your
  website sound like?

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Thank you for coming!

• Join us tomorrow for Coding an Accessible Website
  - 12 pm PST
• Natasha Boskic (natasha.boskic_at_ubc.ca)
• Kirsten Bole (kirsten.bole_at_ubc.ca)
• Nathan Hapke (nhapke_at_interchange.ubc.ca)