[access-uk] Re: Webmaster Looking for Advice
- From: "Tink Watson" <tink@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 22 Nov 2005 09:49:30 -0000
Darran,
I'm still catching up on email after last week's RNIB Techshare
conference, so apologies if this comes too late.
In terms of some general guides to accessible web design, there are two
that I would recommend:
Joe Clark's Building Accessible Web Sites:
http://www.joeclark.org/book/sashay/serialization/
Mark Pilgrim's Dive Into Accessibility:
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
For general articles and papers on accessibility and usability, these
two may be of some use:
The Usability & Accessibility Working Group (UA-WG):
http://www.ua-wg.org/
Nomensa's Resources Section:
http://www.nomensa.com/resources/articles.html
For tutorials, thought pieces and forums:
Accessify:
http://www.accessify.com/
With respect to the web site you mention, the predominant problem seems
to be that it is built from Macromedia Flash, which itself has not been
created accessibly.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are the globally
recognised benchmark for web accessibility.
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
The WCAG are not the easiest of things to get to grips with, but a
potted outline follows:
They consist of 14 design guidelines, each of which is divided into a
series of individual checkpoints. The idea is to go through each checkpoint,
decide if it is relevant to your web site, and if it is make sure that the
criteria for passing the checkpoint has been met.
In turn, each of those checkpoints is given a priority level. There are
3 priority levels: Priority 1 is the most basic level of accessibility that
should be achieved, Priority 2 is the intermediate level of accessibility
and Priority 3 is the optimum level.
If a web site meets all priority 1 checkpoints it is said to have
achieved Single A accessibility. If the site meets all priority 1 and 2
checkpoints, it is said to have achieved Double A accessibility, and if it
meets all priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints, it is said to have achieved
Triple A accessibility status.
An example of one of the priority 1 checkpoints is the need to ensure
that all graphical content has an appropriate text description. Because this
is priority 1, it is the most basic level of accessibility and should be
covered on every web site.
According to a quick check, the Virtual World site fails many priority 1
checkpoints, which means that it does not achieve the most basic level of
web accessibility, Single A status. There are 22 problems detected by an
automated check and over a hundred additional problems that need a human to
verify them.
These include not providing text descriptions for images, reliance on
scripts such as Flash or JavaScript, and poor use of tables.
This is a major topic to wrap your head around, so don't worry if some
of it doesn't make sense. If the developers of this site are serious about
making their site accessible, then I would advise them to contact a company
who conduct accessibility audits.
Nomensa, the company I work for, do this. What an accessibility audit
does is to evaluate a site against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines,
identify all the issues that arise and offer solutions on how they can best
be fixed.
http://www.nomensa.com/services/accessibility/audits.html
I hope that this helps, but if you have any more questions, just drop me
a line and I'll happily help.
Tink.
In principle I would recommend that the web site owner aim for Double A
status.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Darran Ross" <darran.ross@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Access-UK" <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: "Jaws-UK" <Jaws-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, November 16, 2005 9:27 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Webmaster Looking for Advice
Hi List.
A couple of weeks ago I contacted a webmaster to say that I was finding
his
site quite difficult to access. I pointed out that in particular the
graphical interface being used for members to log in was completely
inaccessible for screen reader users.
I've since been contacted by the site owners who have asked me to explain
in
more detail what is wrong with the website and what more they could do to
make improvements for screen reader users.
As I'm in no way qualified to make these calls, I was hoping a few people
from these lists, with some website building nouse, would pay the site a
visit and let me know what I could pass on in this regard!
Also, are there sites with accessible website building tips I could pass
on
to them to help with any possible redesign they may undertake?
Anyway, all advice, tips and pointers gratefully received. The site in
question is:
www.VirtualWorldDirect.com
Regards.
Darran
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