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, we have made efforts to use certain accessibility guidelines.

What is Accessibility?

Successful access to information and use of information technology by people who have disabilities is known as "accessibility."

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.

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.
Do not create periodically auto-refreshing pages.
Do not use markup to redirect pages automatically.
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.
When placing items on the Web page, divide large blocks of information into smaller, more manageable groups (where natural and appropriate).
Provide metadata to add information to pages and sites. 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.

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).
Supplement text with graphic or auditory presentations where it will help visitors understand the content.

Things to do when possible

Clearly identify the target of each link by adding the "title" attribute. This is another feature which more experience webmasters should begin to incorporate as soon as possible.

Less experienced webmaster may need to take more time to incorporate targets with links - especially if your web development software makes it difficult to manipulate the HTML code. The "title" of each link is not shown on the Web page but is very helpful to visitors using voice recognition software to view your site.

Example of HTML using target for links:
<A href="my-doc.html">My document is available in HTML</A>,
<A href="my-doc.pdf" title="My document in PDF">PDF</A>,
<A href="my-doc.txt" title="My document in text">plain text</A>
Use the ACRONYM and ABRR tags to provide information on acronyms and abbreviation used in your Web page.
More experienced webmaster should try to incorporate basic keyboard shortcuts into their Web page code. Keyboard shortcuts to important links (ex. to the home page), form controls (ex. hit "S" to Submit), and groups of form controls.

Use the "accesskey" attribute with the A element. Example of the code: <A accesskey="C" href="default.html" hreflang="en" title="CHS home page">CHS Home Page</A>
Group related links, identify the group and provide a way to bypass the group. Group links in logical sets. This item really falls into giving careful thought into placing content on your page. Do give visitors a way to skip over sets of links (similar to the ways described to skipping naviagtion links and jumping directly to the main content of the page).

These Items Apply When We Use These Features

Style Sheets

Make certain the page will operate correctly if the visitor's browser does not allow style sheets.
When possible, use style sheets to control layout and presentation. This is a skill that may take time to master. Online tutorials on simple style sheets are available on many web development Web sites. This should be a long-term goal for new webmasters. More experienced webmaster should try to include the use of style sheets in their Web pages.

Applets/Scripts

Make certain that any content displayed in the applet/script is available in some other way (a text-only page, in content on the page, etc.) If the applet/script does not display content no text-equivalent is needed (reconsider whether it is really needed or not).
Ensure that event handlers are input device-independent. Visitors should not be required to use a specific piece of hardware to activate portions of the applet or script.
Many applets and scripts create movement in pages. This should be avoided for the same reasons given to avoid animated, flashing or blinking images.
Ensure that any element (applet or script) that has its own interface can be operated in a device-independent manner. Just remember that many visitors do not use a mouse or a keyboard when visiting your Web page.
For scripts, specify logical event handlers rather than device-dependent event handlers. Again, novice webmasters need not worry about this because this checkpoint is not applicable to your Web pages. If you are involved in using scripts, carefully investigate all aspects of accessibility related with scripting.

Multimedia

If using multimedia (QuickTime movies, Flash movies, etc.), provide an auditory description of the visual representations made in the movie. Make sure that the content shared in the multimedia presentation is also available in another form (text-only file, summary of movie, transcript, etc.).

Image Maps

Make certain that each hotspot has an "ALT" attribute that is descriptive of the hotspot.

Tables

Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Otherwise, if the table does not make sense, provide an alternative equivalent (which may be a linearized version). Screen readers read straight across the page (row by row) causing many tables to make absolutely no sense at all - especially if the tables are being used to control the layout of the page.
If a table is used for layout, do not use any structural markup (<TH> on rows or columns) for the purpose of visual formatting. Do not use the <TH> tag anywhere in this type of table
If tables are used to present data, use the HEADER element (<TH>) in rows and columns appropriately. Make certain that the data presented in the table is summarized in some manner (in the content of the page, in a separate document, etc.).

Frames

Title each each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation. Remember that there are pros and cons to using frames. Consider which method will be most accessible to your visitors.
Describe the purpose of frames and how the frames relate to each other if it is not obvious by frames titles alone.

Forms

Ensure that all form controls with implicitly associated labels have the label properly positioned.

Internal Site Search Engine

If a search engine is provided for your site, give visitors the opportunity to perform different types of searches, depending on the skill level of the visitor and the preferences of the visitor.

ASCII Characters for Art

If using any form multi-line ASCII art, provide a way for visitors to skip over it. Otherwise, screen readers will read the ASCII characters.

Language Changes on the Page

If the language used on your Web page changes, use HTML code to signify the change in natural language. If this is not done, screen readers will read the content incorrectly. This should be done even if only one word of another language is used.