Accessibility, Web Standards, and Authoring Tools

It's been a long trip, but we’re almost out of the dark. We finally have browsers that offer substantial support for several technologies established by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and other standards bodies. Designers and developers can use many core features of XHTML and CSS and sometimes DHTML without worrying about the hazards of cross–browser chicanery. As browsers have evolved, it’s become easier to comply with the W3C’s Web Accessibility initiative (WAI) and, in the United States, with the amendments to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974 (commonly called “Section 508”).

Schmitt, Christopher. List Apart, A (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Communication Challenges in the WC3's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines  

In the first part of this article, we analyze a number of communication challenges and relate them to problems in conveying the November draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Based on our analysis, the second part of our article offers a number of recommendations for improving the comprehensibility of the WCAG 2.0 for its various intended audiences. Although our discussion has the November draft as its focal point, the recommendations are more widely applicable to other complex documents with diverse audiences. In the final part, we propose a new vision for the WCAG.

Brys, Catherine M. and Wim Vanderbauwhede. Technical Communication Online (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Draft 2 of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

It's time to take a look at the working draft of WCAG 2.0. You'll see a fresh approach to a formidable challenge.

McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

HERA: Accessibility Testing with Style

HERA is a tool to check the accessibility of Web pages accoridng to the specification Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). HERA performs a preliminary set of tests on the page and identifies any automatically detectable errors or checkpoints met, and which checkpoints need further manual verification.

HERA. Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Interview with DMXzone's Bruce Lawson

Find out why self-confessed non-techie Bruce Lawson has been winning friends and influencing people with his support for web standards and web accessibility.

Lawson, Bruce. Accessify (2003). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

To Hell with WCAG 2

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 were published in 1999 and quickly grew out of date. The proposed new WCAG 2.0 is the result of five long years’ work by a Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) committee that never quite got its act together. In an effort to be all things to all web content, the fundamentals of WCAG 2 are nearly impossible for a working standards-compliant developer to understand. WCAG 2 backtracks on basics of responsible web development that are well accepted by standardistas. WCAG 2 is not enough of an improvement and was not worth the wait.

Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

WCAG 2.0 Baseline Concept

In order to encourage vendors of non-W3C technologies to include accessibility features in their technologies, and in recognition of emerging technologies that are beneficial for the Web, WCAG 2.0 is technology neutral. Rather than list each technology that the guidelines cover, WCAG 2.0 introduces the concept of a baseline. This post attempts to explain what is meant by this baseline concept.

Lemon, Gez. Juicy Studio (2006). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

WCAG 2.0 Preview: So What's New?

This article reviews the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0 and was published in SPIN Magazine. The article summaries the new guidelines and identifies key revisions and changes made to the original WCAG version 1.0.

Palmer, Mark. User Vision (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Web Accommodation for the Vision-Impaired  

Accessibility for vision-impaired users of corporate websites is becoming a critical issue. The federal government requires its agencies to provide effective, equal access to electronically delivered information. The W3C launched its accessibility initiative in 1999 and continues to expand it. Court rulings are mixed, as the judicial system struggles to clarify accommodation in relation to the web environment. Students in the Jack David Armold Honor Society at DeVry University researched, collaborated, and developed a community service website to convince corporations that web accommodation for visionimpaired users made financial sense.

Hawkes, Lory. STC Proceedings (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Why Hiptops are Harmful to Web Standards

Found out why the author has reservations about this handheld device and why it appears not to properly support web standards.

Accessify (2003). Design>Accessibility>Wireless Web>Standards

Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

This document is an appendix to the W3C "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0". It provides a list of all checkpoints from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for Web content developers.

W3C (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Helping Others Understand Web Accessibility

When I hold workshops for people who want to learn more about web standards and accessibility, I often notice that the attendants really have tried to improve their accessibility knowledge. But they get overwhelmed when they go to the official documentation from the W3C and try to understand it.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Accessibility is Part of Your Job

Accessibility is one of the fundamentals of the Web, so how people who claim to be passionate about the Web and say that they deliver high quality can choose to ignore it is beyond me.

Johansson, Roger. 456 Berea Street (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

The Language of Accessibility

Good markup is accessible by default. As long as you’re using HTML elements in a semantically meaningful way—which you should be doing anyway, without even thinking about accessibility—then your documents will be accessible to begin with.

Keith, Jeremy. Adactio (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Creating Accessible Data Tables

This article demonstrates how to code accessible data tables in (X)HTML, enabling visually impaired users who employ assistive technologies to interpret the table data. Two views of a tabular data table are presented and discussed.

Palinkas, Frank M. Opera (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

WCAG and the Myth of Accessibility

Kevin Leitch explains why he feels that the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines have failed in their mission to ensure that web content is accessible to all.

Leitch, Kevin. Juicy Studio (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

How to Meet WCAG 2.0

A customizable quick reference to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 requirements (success criteria) and techniques.

W3C (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general.

Caldwell, Ben, Michael Cooper, Loretta Guarino Reid and Gregg Vanderheiden. W3C (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

A Personal Reflection on the WCAG 2.0 Publication

Let's work together as a community to make WCAG 2.0 a unifying force for web accessibility. There are so many websites and exciting new web applications being created today with accessibility barriers that make it difficult or impossible for some people with disabilities to use them. Let's change that, with WCAG 2.0.

Henry, Shawn Lawton. W3C (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

WCAG 2.0 Checklist

A simple checklist that presents the principles and techniques of WCAG 2.0 in a user-friendly, understandable format. The language has been significantly changed and simplified from the official WCAG 2.0 specification to make it more easily tested and verified for web pages.

WebAIM (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

New Accessibility Guidelines A "Welcomed Update"

The World Wide Web Consortium recently approved new accessibility guidelines. Passed in December 2008, the new "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0" is now the official recommendation for web accessibility for the disabled. This new WCAG 2.0 document, a welcomed update, replaces the WCAG 1.0 W3C recommendation of 1999. This article is part one in a series discussing the impact of WCAG 2.0 on your website.

Dolson, Joseph C. Practical eCommerce (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

New Accessibility Guidelines Part IV: Robustness

The fourth principle of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines requires new web documents to be “robust.” Robustness, future-proofing, user-agent independence, accessibility-supported: All are terms that suggest the same basic idea that your documents should follow standard, supported models for web document types. In many ways, this is the simplest and most testable requirement of the WCAG, but the details can be quite complicated.

Dolson, Joseph C. Practical eCommerce (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Adopting WCAG 2

It is six months since the release of WCAG 2.0 and I thought it might be interesting to see how extensively it has been adopted as a bench mark for determining web content accessibility. Over this time, I have felt that the rate of adoption has been relatively slow and the number of countries and other regulatory authorities now using WCAG 2 is lower than I expected.

Hudson, Roger. DingoAccess (2009). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Common Look and Feel Standards for the Internet, Part 2: Standard on the Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web Sites

This standard is directed toward ensuring equitable access to all content on Government of Canada Web sites.

Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (2007). Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards