Web Site Accessibility
Guidelines for SCS Webmasters
What is Accessibility?
- Making Your Web Site Accessible
Checklist for Accessibility
Must Have Items - Should Have Items
- Try To Have Items
Items for More Experienced Webmasters
Apply These Items if Your Use These Special Features
Did you know?
750 million people worldwide are challenged by disabilities.
Over 8 million Americans have visual impairments.
13.5 million Americans consider themselves visually impaired to some degree.
22 million Americans are deaf or hard-of-hearing.
Nearly 3 million Americans are color blind.
Dyslexia affects over 40 million Americans.
4.6 million Americans use Assistive Technology Devices for hearing impairments.
500,000 visually impaired Americans use Assistive Technology Devices.
Accessible Web sites
We are committed to providing an online resource containing
information accessible by all visitors to our Web site. Our Web site should
be accessible by a person who is blind or visually disabled, color blind,
deaf or hard-of-hearing, cognitively or neurologically disabled, or possessing
of a physical disability or motor impairment. Screen readers, Web readers,
screen magnifiers, and voice recognition applications have been developed
to accommodate people with disabilities. For these technologies to work properly,
the Web sites they are used on must be built using accessibility guidelines.
By using the Web site accessibility guidelines we will be able to create a
Web site that can be a valuable resource to all of our online visitors regardless
of disability.
What is Accessibility?
Successful access to information and use of information technology
by people who have disabilities is known as "accessibility." Following
these guidelines will ensure webmasters understand why and what they need
to do to make all of their information accessible to people who have disabilities.
Making your Web Site Accessible
Checklist for Web site accessibility
Use these checkpoints to make your portion of the Web site accessible.
This list is based on guidelines from the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
found at www.w3.org/WAI. Print this list.
Have it available as you review each page of your Web site.
Many of the checkpoints are linked to separate web pages which provide a detailed
rationale, techniques, and test strategies to help you develop and test your
Web site for accessibility. To review the detailed information, select the
linked text in the checkpoint.
Must Have:
These are the basic things you must do to
make your web pages accessibile to all visitors.
- Every image should have an appropriate "ALT"
attribute. If the image is one that conveys a message, the ALT should
convey the same message. If the image is redundant or simply decorative,
give it a blank ALT tag (ALT=""). If the alternate text is very
long and detailed, as it often is with graphs
and charts, consider using the LONGDESC
or D link.
- Do not use color
to convey information unless you also convey that information in the content
of the page. Visitors who are blind, visually disabled, color blind, or
using a non-color monitor will not be able to interpret the color-dependent
content.
- Do not have any items on your web page which flash
or blink. These items can cause photosensitive epileptic seizures
in susceptible individuals, particularly if the flash has a high intensity
and is within the frequency range between 2 Hz and 55 Hz.
- Use simple and clear to understand language.
- The site should be free of spelling and grammatical
errors.
- Provide a method for skipping
over navigation links to get to the main content of the page. Otherwise,
visitors using screen reader software will be required to listen to your
navigation links as every page of your site is loaded - a very time consuming
and aggravating experience.
- If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible
page, provide a link to an alternative, text-only
page that is accessible by these guidelines. Make certain that the
text-only page is updated each time the inaccessible page is updated.
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Should Have:
These are the things you should make every effort
to do make your web pages accessibile. If these things are not done, a significant
number of visitors will have difficulty using your web page to access information.
- Make sure to use color combinations that are not
too unconventional. Use colors for text and background which are highly
contrasting. Dark text on a light background
is the best choice. Light text on a dark background also provides contrast
but can create printing problems.
- Use text rather than images to convey information
if possible.
- Use relative rather than absolute units (in markup
language attribute values and style sheet property values). Avoid specifying
font sizes. Avoid specifying table height or width in pixels - use percentages
when possible. Leaving these items as relative units allows visitors using
special assistive technology to view the pages as they need to - using
their preferences.
- Use HEADING elements to convey document structure.
Think of it as setting an outline for the page, separating it into easy
to determine sections. Proper use of header elements (H1, H2, H3, H4,
H5, H6) will give visitors using assistive technology more freedom when
navigating your page.
Heading 1
Heading 2
Heading 3
Heading 4
Heading 5
Heading 6
-
Construct lists properly. Use the
"Definition List" for definitions only. Use of "Unordered
List" and "Ordered List" features are fairly trouble-free.
-
Use the BLOCKQUOTE for placing quotations
in your Web page. Do not use the BLOCKQUOTE for formatting effects such
as indentation.
-
-
-
Use a consistent system of site
navigation. This is not only a sign of well-designed web sites. Users
tabbing through links will be able to follow the same procedure from page
to page. Read more about
navigation
in the "Design Tips for SCS Webmasters."
-
When placing items on the Web page,
divide large blocks of information into smaller, more manageable groups
(where natural and appropriate). Read more about
placing
content on your web pages in the "Design Tips for SCS Webmasters."
-
Provide metadata to add information
to pages and sites. Read more about
basic
metadata in the "Design Tips for SCS Webmasters." Using
basic metadata will make your Web site more likely to be found by search
engines. It also gives certain assistive technologies specific information
about how to deal with your Web page. Many web development software programs
provide simple ways to add basic metadata (without having to get up to
your elbows in HTML code).
-
Provide a basic site map for your
site. This allows users to find information easily and can make navigating
your site simpler for disabled visitors. For Web pages containing a great
deal of information, provide a "Table of Contents" for that
page at the top of the page.
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Try to Have:
These are the things should be done if at all possible
to do make your web pages accessibile. If these things are not done, some
visitors will have difficulty using your web page to access information.
- Use the same design layout and style for every page
in the Web site. Visitors using special software will find it musch easier
to get around the Web site if this checkpoint is met. It is also a sign
of a well-designed Web site.
- Many visitors to the Web site will simply use the
TAB button on their keyboard to move down the Web page. Put those links
on the page in a logical order and visitors will find the page more accessible.
For example, if linking to different chapters, place those links on the
page so they are in numerical order.
- When placing a number of links beside each other
on a page (like the text links at the bottom of your Web page), separate
those adjacent links with a non-link, printable character (surrounded
by spaces).
Examples:
Must Have - Should Have - Try
to Have
Must Have | Should Have | Try
to Have
Must Have ~ Should Have ~ Try
to Have
- Supplement text with graphic or auditory presentations
where it will help visitors understand the content.
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Things to do as you become a more experienced Webmaster