Web Accessibility & AODA Compliance

By: Nilenth Selvaraja

Sahan Ratnayake

What is Web Accessibility?

“The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of any disability is an essential aspect”

“One web for anyone, everywhere, on anything ”

-Sir.Tim Berners-LeeInventor of the World Wide Web

Main Categories of disabilities affected by web accessibility

• Vision- Blindness, Low-vision, Colour Blindness• Hearing- Deaf, Hard of hearing • Motor• Cognitive- Intellectual, Developmental, Learning• Photosensitive Epilepsy

What is AODA

AODA stands for “Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act”. The purpose of the AODA is to ensure that all Ontarians have fair and equitable access to programs and services and to improve opportunities for persons with disabilities.

The intent of this requirement is that the Government of Ontario, the Legislative Assembly, designated public sector organizations, as well as private & not-for-profit organizations with more than 50 employees make their websites accessible to people with disabilities by conforming to international standards for website accessibility.

All obligated organizations’ websites, and the content on those websites, must conform with WCAG 2.0. This requirement applies to new websites first, and then over the next several years to all websites.

What is WCAG

• WCAG stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines • It is an internationally recognised benchmark for accessibility of

web content.• Developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) which is part

of W3C• The first version, WCAG 1.0, was released in 1999. WCAG 2.0

was released in 2008.

• WCAG 2.0 Level A and Level AA refer to a series of technical checkpoints that make websites and their content increasingly accessible to a broader range of users with disabilities.

• Level AA builds on Level A’s checkpoints.

What is an Accessible Website According to WCAG 2.0 • Perceivable- Users must be able to perceive the information

being presented (It cannot be invisible to all their senses.• Operable- Users must be able to operate the interface (The

interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)• Understandable- Users must be able to understand the

information as well as the operation of the user interface (the content or operation cannot be beyond their understanding)

• Robust- Users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)

❏ Conformance to a standard means that you meet or satisfy the 'requirements' of the standard.

In WCAG 2.0 the 'requirements' are the Success Criteria and there shouldn’t be

any content which violates the Success Criteria.

❏ Conformance Level is given on the levels of conformance is met in full. (A, AA, AAA)

❏ Conformance (and conformance level) is for full Web page(s) only, and cannot be achieved if part of a Web page is excluded.

❏ When a Web page is part of a process, all pages of that process should conform at the specified level or better..

Conformance to WCAG 2.0

❏ All form controls should be clearly labeled and should not have implicit labels.

❏ Content such as tags should be complete, web pages should be well-formed.

IDs of elements should be Unique.

❏ If an error is detected, the element iis identified and the error is described to the user in text.

WCAG 2.0 Conformance Level - A

❏ Headings and labels describe topic or purpose.

❏ Text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality.

❏ Navigational mechanisms are consistent throughout the site.

❏ If input error is detected, suggestions are provided to the user.

❏ Text is used to convey information rather than images of text.

WCAG 2.0 Conformance Level - AA

❏ Context-sensitive help is available.

❏ Site should be or have a version that does not require reading ability more advanced than the lower secondary education level.

❏ A mechanism for identifying the expanded form or meaning of abbreviations and definitions for idioms and jargon.

❏ A mechanism to understand purpose of each link to be identified from link text alone.

❏ User’s location within a set of Web

pages(e.g:breadcrumbs)

WCAG 2.0 Conformance Level - AAA

The conformance icon refers to a single page.

If the claim is meant to apply to more than one page, the conformance icon must be accompanied by explicit scope information of which pages are covered.

Content providers are solely responsible for the use of these logos and should also ensure that anyone maintaining or updating the site is familiar with logo use

Claiming Conformance

Reasons for Accessible Websites

• Around 300000 people in Sri Lanka have a disability• Nearly 8% of Sri Lankans have below average literacy • Rate of Disability increases with age• More than 50% of people who are more than 60+ have a disability• By 2026 majority of people with disabilities will be 60+

Thank You