508 Web Standards Compliance and Universal Design
Cath Stager-Kilcommons
Assistive Technology Resource Center (ATRC)
ACCESS Project
Colorado State University
Topics to be Covered
- A Brief History of Web Standards
- About Universal Design and Why It Makes a Difference
- Section 508 Subpart B -- Technical Standards 1194.22
Web-based intranet and internet information and applications.
- Evaluation Tools and Resources for Achieving Compliance
- Summary
Cath Stager-Kilcommons [Cath.Stager-Kilcommons@Colostate.edu]
Assistive Technology
Resource Center (ATRC) http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/ATRC/
A Brief History of Web Standards
A Brief History of Web Standards (con't)
What it means...
- 508 means all electronic and information technology purchased by Federal agencies, or provided to the public by these agencies, must be accessible as measured by Section 508 Standards.
- 508 provides sixteen rules which apply to web content.
- Adherence to standards helps create maximum interoperability of the web, independent of which specific hardware and/or software is employed.
Accessibility is the freedom or ability of an individual to obtain or make full use of a product or environment. A product is accessible to an individual with disabilities only if he or she is able to use it to carry out all of the same functions and to achieve the same results as individuals with similar skills and training who do not have disabilities.
Universal Design
What it is...
- Universal Design:
- the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.
Sound familiar?
Examples of Universal Design used by all...
- Curb cuts are used with equal ease by most all people and by wheeled transport (wheelchair, carriage, bicycle, shopping cart...).
- Television closed-captioning is used by many people such as when wishing to keep a quiet environment (if on phone), or in a noisy area.
- Suitcases with wheels, which can be carried over the shoulder, lifted by a handle and pulled on wheels - each function not interfering with the other but allowing options.
- Large grip pens can be grabbed even if you have on gloves!
Why Use Universal Web Design?
- Most aspects of universal web site design are simply good web design.
- Designing a well-organized Web site helps visitors navigate through the information presented and better usability for all!
- What works well for assistive technologies also works well for various other technologies such as PDAs and cell phones.
- 54 million people in the United States are challenged by disabilities.
- 13.5 million Americans consider themselves visually impaired to some degree.
- Nearly 3 million Americans are color-blind.
- Dyslexia affects over 40 million Americans.
Universal Design - General Page Hints
- Maintain a simple, consistent page layout throughout your site.
- Keep backgrounds simple. Make sure there is enough contrast.
- Use standard (X)HTML to create and organize your content. Use Cascading style sheets to control your display.
- Caption video and transcribe other audio.
- Make links descriptive so that they are understood out of context, and can be logically spoken.
Universal Design is often about Alternatives
Provide alternatives so your web visitor will not lose information if...
- a picture can't be seen..
- a movie can't be heard.
- a data table can't be visually scanned.
- a form can't be completed.
- a specific color cannot be determined.
Understand What the Rules are Asking
- By understanding the concepts behind the standards, it is easier to see if you are complying.
- Intent of the standards is to increase access for people with disabilities.
- Many of the rules are checking if your visitor will have options and information to successfully navigate your site.
- Automated tools alone cannot verify accessibility: since accessibility is an interactive state human discrimination and judgement are required.
Know the Tools Available
Nationally
Know the Tools Available
Locally
508 Asks if yourWeb Technology Works...
- Forms (n) - Are they clearly labeled? Can you tab through the form?
- Scripts (l) - Can your user determine ahead of time what the script will accomplish? Can they get to all of your content if scripting is turned off?
- Frames (i) - Logical, content related names should identify your frames, rather than positional or nonsense names.
- Image Maps (e,f) - Must be client-side, so can be labeled with alt text.
Demonstrating your effort to comply is key - alternatives such as FAX and phone support can be used, especially when retrofitting websites.
Does your Web Technology Work? (cont'd)
- Applets and Plugins (m) - If providing alternate formats such as PDF, a link to the Plugin, (e.g.download Adobe Reader), must be available and accessible, or the content is also made available in another accessible format.
- Multimedia (b) - Videos require captioning and descrtiptive video.
For video, the soundtrack should be captioned and pertinent video described. Audio should be captioned and transcribed. Additional information on accessibility and multi-media can be found at: http://ncam.wgbh.org/richmedia/.
- Tables (g,h) - Identfiy data table headers using the <th> tag. Table description can be included in the text of the page or should be added through use of the displayed CAPTION element and the non-visual SUMMARY attribute.
How to information: http://www.webaim.org/techniques/.
Section 508 Subpart B
- Technical Standards 1194.22 apply to websites.
- It is often easiest to work from a checklist.
- 508 Checklist
WAVE Accessibility Review Demonstration
Summary
Unless you are using mulitmedia, 95% of most accessibility issues will be addressed if you:
- Label all non-text with meaningful Alt tags: even an empty ALT tag means the graphic has no pertinent meaning.
- Ensure that when scripting is disabled your page is still completely
usable.
- Test your page for accessibility.
- Designing with Universal Design improves access for all users and technologies
(devices such as PDAs and cell phones).