Unlocking Potential

Assessing materials for accessibility

Dr Neil Witt

Institute for Science Education

University of Plymouth

Unlocking Potential

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.

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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

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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.plym.ac.uk/warp

• And next - the good, the bad and the ugly…………

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Types of Tools

• Accessibility getting commercial

• Don’t 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)

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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

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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.