2. What is Web Accessibility?
Web accessibility refers to the practice of
making websites usable by people of all
abilities and disabilities. When sites are
correctly designed developed and edited
all users can have equal access to
information and functionality.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility
3. What is WAVE?
Web-based tool
Helps make web content
more accessible
Not a substitute for
humans
Reports a11y errors,
possible errors, and other
crisis points
7. Why Web Accessibility Makes Sense
More
Be People
Awesome on Your
Website
It’s the
Be Better
Awesome law or it
Code
will be
More Do The Google
Aging Right Will
Visitors Thing Love You
Easier to
Maintain
19. Accessibility is Simple
Automated Tools and Best Practices
• Lots of great, free tools to measure accessibility
• Lots of great, free info & recommendations
• Using web standards is good for accessibility
• Tools: WAVE, FAE, TAW, FANGS, NVDA
• Info: WAI, WCAG, WebAIM, WaSP
• Use valid, semantic code - Even better, use a CMS
20. Accessibility is Complicated
No Single Path
• How to measure accessibility?
• Automated testing needs user testing
• Websites are not fire &forget – they are a process
• Which Standard? WCAG, 508, AODA
• Lots of platforms: IE, Gecko, Webkit + Mobile
• Content will change & break accessibility
21. Accessibility is Cheap
The Best Stuff is Open & Free
• Being accessible improves search rankings
• Google is a Screen Reader
• CMS tools are a strong investment – Open & free
• The best tools are Open & free
• Development best practices are Open & free
• CMS tools can automated compliance : alt tags
22. Accessibility is Expensive
You’re only as Accessible as your last a11y bug…
• Passing a checklist doesn’t make a site accessible
• Accessibility is challenging and doesn’t end
• Leaving it to the end is costly – in time and money
• Web development is a mature profession
• Accessibility is a critical dimension of webdev
• A11y is expensive to retrofit, like schemas & security
29. Most errors are introduced during requirements analysis and
design. The later they are removed, the most expensive it is to
take them out.
Boehm et al (1975): “Some Experience with Automated Aids to the Design of Large-Scale Reliable Software.”
Diagram Source: http://blogs.windriver.com/vxworks/device-management/
41. WAVE Basics
Testing Web Accessibility
Tool to identify a11y issues
Cannot validate as “accessible”
Adds colour coded comments
Provides 4 types of reports
Errors, Features & Alerts
Structure/Order View
Text-Only View
Outline View
42. WAVE Reports
Errors, Features & Alerts
Default View
Presents your page with the
embedded accessibility icons and
indicators.
If this view is too complicated you
can “disable styles”
Scripting is removed from this an all
other WAVE reports
43. WAVE Reports
Structure/Order View
Displays icons and indicators for
overall structure of the page.
Number indicators show the
reading/navigation order of the page.
Follow the numbers to determine if the
reading and navigation order of the page
makes sense and is logical.
44. WAVE Reports
Text-Only View
Displays only the underlying text of the
page.
Information that is commonly read by
screen readers will be presented.
The visual styling of the page is removed.
This provides a visual view of what a
screen reader would likely read.
Fangs Firefox Add-On
45. WAVE Reports
Outline View
Displays only the headers that are within
your page.
Ensure that your page contains headers
where appropriate
Ensure structure of the page is logical
and appropriate.
46. WAVE Toolbar
Integrating with Firefox
Displays content as it appears within your web
browser.
Allows evaluation of private, intranet, password
protected, dynamically generated, or scripted
web content.
All evaluation happens directly within your
browser.
The toolbar also evaluates content after
scripting has been applied, whereas the server
version of WAVE removes all scripting.
Makingaccessibile websites can be challenging – and we’ll all make mistakesChecklists are not a bad thing – they can be a useful toolHowever, if you rely solely on checklists – you will generate false positive reports that a site is accessibleChecklists are about as smart as a spellchecker – try and keep that in mind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility
Perceivable - Information and interface must be presentable to users in ways they can perceive.This means that users must be able to perceive the information being presented (it can't be invisible to all of their senses)Operable - User interface components and navigation must be operable.This means that users must be able to operate the interface (the interface cannot require interaction that a user cannot perform)Understandable - Information and the operation of user interface must be understandable.This means that 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 - Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted reliably by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.This means that users must be able to access the content as technologies advance (as technologies and user agents evolve, the content should remain accessible)