WEB CONTENT ACCESSIBILITY (WCA)

What is Web Content Accessibility all about?

The first thing that comes to mind is accessibility for people with disabilities, and that indeed is the main thrust, but most Internet users have only a vague concept of how that applies to the World Wide Web, particularly the rendering of web pages.

As one of my friends put it "I always thought this concept of accessibility referred to wheelchair ramps, hand rails, instructions in Braille and extra wide toilet stalls. How does all this relate to the Internet?" A fair question that deserves a thorough explanation.

As you are creating or reading a web page in the customary way imagine that you:

• Are blind and have to use a special device to read and render the text (Braille) as it appears on the page from left to right, top to bottom. Reference images will be invisible and you will have to rely on explanatory text provided by the page Creator to find out what they depict.
• Are deaf or your hearing is severely diminished and therefor you cannot hear any audio information or music provided by the page Creator.
• Cannot use your fingers or arms due to physical impairment and you are unable to use a mouse. You may have to use a head or mouth held stylus of some kind. You have to hope the page Creator provides for navigating and actuating hyperlinks using the keyboard.
• Are so color blind that many color combinations confuse you. Maybe you cannot distinguish between red and green at all.
• Are so visually impaired that you can only read the screen with a powerful magnifying device or browser. You hope the page Creator has used easily recognizable text fonts and good contrasting backgrounds.
• Only have access to a text reading browser, so that no images are displayed at all.
• Have cerebral/central nervous system dysfunction such as palsy or epilepsy that affects your perceptive and retentive capabilities. Animated gifs with rapid movement can be very distracting.
• Use an old, slow computer, and an old graphical browser that only recognize a few text fonts and a limited color palette.

Web page Accessibility for People with Disabilities is important in many ways, not the least of which is sheer humaneness and consideration for fellow human beings who yearn to freely access and enjoy the many commonplace things that non-disabled people take for granted.

There are other considerations too.

People with Disabilities are disproportionately high users of the Internet for shopping, and it follows that they seek out and frequent Web pages that are notably accessible, those that are considerate of their needs and friendly to them. So there is often a considerable commercial component to Web Content Accessibility.

There are many legal implications attending Web Content Accessibility. Some countries (USA, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, et al.) now have laws requiring full Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities that extends to Government Agency Web pages at all levels. In many instances this also extends to Web pages of public institutions and facilities that receive government financial support or recognition.

There are also incidental benefits inherent in accessible Web page production for Web page authors.

Several years ago I was the Senior Technical Advisor (volunteer) for Access World Design and Development, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to the training and employment of the disabled in accessible web design. Most members were severely disabled, (Deafblind or with respirator dependent Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy), who we trained to become independently proficient Web authors. It was a most rewarding experience and I remain committed to Web Content Acessibility to this day.

The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) document relating to Web Content Accessibility is available as the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

Web pages that are fully accessible to people with disabilities present information in a direct and simple way, navigate with consistency, function satisfactorily in all user agents, and are easy to maintain.

Web authors do not need to change their design approach or methodology in order to produce Web pages that are WCA compliant. In fact, most existing pages can easily be made fully accessible with very little effort or change. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are now used extensively for page layout, thereby separating content from presentation. However, pages should function as intended when Style Sheets are turned off or not usable as is often the case with old Browsers.

Easy things that Web Authors can do to enhance the Accessibility of their pages:

• Provide descriptive text for reference images, (content & purpose via the ALT attribute. Decorative images should employ alt=" ").
• Structure pages utilizing header markup., (use h1 for the page title and h2-h6 for section headings).
• Provide a Site Map or List of internal page links.
• Ensure links make sense out of context, (natural language text descriptions - avoid "Click Here" or text within images).
• Avoid duplication of Link text, (for different anchors on the same page).
• Insure that there is good contrast between text and background colors.
• Use text that is large enough to be easily read by people with diminished vision.
• Do not rely on color alone to convey meaning.
• Employ punctuation that is compatible with screen reader usage.
• Use proportional, rather than absolute, sizing and dimensions, (% and em rather than pixels).
• Design to standards, (for interoperability, ease of maintenance, etc.).

Not providing meaningful alternative text for images is the most frequent Accessibility error committed by Web Authors, fortunately one that is easily corrected. Appropriate Use of Alternative Text by WebAIM is an excellent reference and guide for complying with this essential WCA requirement.

Heretofore, most users were content to accept page layout (presentation) and function the way it was delivered to them by Web authors, browser display preferences were uniformly not easy to change and the user base was generally unsophisticated in the ways of browser use. Now users have the capability to readily manipulate the layout or substitute their own style sheets when viewing pages in order to meet their personal tastes and needs.

For such people the ability to instantaneously substitute such things as their own designations of text size and style, text/hyperlink color combinations, text/background color contrasts and image rendition toggling, is a great feature. Web pages that are inaccessible for them as originally presented can now be made reasonably accessible via Browser configuration choices or by using their own stylesheets.

Free Accessibility textual/audio Browser:

The WebbIE Browser is a Windows based implementation that displays Web pages by default in enlarged text mode. It can be toggled to graphics mode via toolbar selection and also reads and displays RSS feeds. Image alt text display can be specified via toolbar options selection which produces a fully functional textual browser. It can also be configured as an audio screen reader. Note, The lead-off link points to a somewhat outdated page. I did that because it contains illustrations of WebbIE in action. WebbIE functions perfectly in all current Windows versions. Use this download page. The installation is easy and fast. WebbIE is a compact, easy to use, implementation.

Free "Lynx emulation" textual Browser:

The Yellowpipe Lynx (text only) viewer is an excellent utility that emulates the output of the most popular textual Browser.

Inexpensive audio Screen Reader:

My own favorite audio screen reader is TextAloud, which I find very easy to install, set-up, and use. Excellent toolbars are installed for IE & Firefox Browsers. It is a Windows implementation and is available at NextUp.com as a 15 day free trial download. The $29.95 purchase price is very reasonable, especially when compared with $895 for JAWS or Window Eyes, and $795 for Hal, all of which I have used as trial versions. Visit my Screen Reader page for more information relating to screen readers.

Manually checking Web pages for Accessibility:

One way is to Disable images, style sheets (CSS) and, if necessary, page colors. The resultant display emulates how the page renders in Screen Readers and text-only Browsers. It also depicts the structure, including use of headers, of the page.

Automated WCA Checker:

Web Content Accessibility conformance is hard to measure using automatic checkers, which should be considered as just helpful tools. The HiSoftware, "Cynthia Says", Portal is a free Web Content Accessibility Checker. It is based on the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Checklist and indeed displays the Validation results on a depiction of it. Mozilla incorporates Cynthia Says into its Firefox Browser via Tools>Web Developer>Tools>Validate WAI/Section 508. It is also available from the Tools drop-down menu if you have the Chris Pederick Web Developer toolbar installed. Cynthia Says will not insure WCA conformance but it is an excellent aid.

IE Browser Accessibility Toolbar:

In my opinion this is an outstanding extension. It is an excellent facility, reminiscent of Chris Pederick's Web Developer Extension for the Firefox Browser.

• WAT IE Toolbar Information, including download.
• Jim Thatcher's notes relating to this Toolbar.

Firefox and Accessibilty:

In my opinion the Firefox Browser, augmented with the add-ons outlined below, is an excellent development tool for Web authors committed to optimum Accessibility. There is a good selection of WCA oriented add-ons available at:

Firefox Add-on Developer tools (extensions)

I particularly recommend the following:

• Chris Pederick's Web Developer Extension (excellent Toolbar facility).
• Firefox Accessibility extension (Toolbar facility).
• Yellowpipe Lynx viewer (provides dynamic "right click" capability).

The downloads are very easily installed and only a quick re-start of Firefox is needed to activate them.

There are several online references, tools, and resources available to serve committed Web page Authors.

• W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0 Checklist.
• HTML Writers Guild Web Accessibility Standards.
• Australian Government Guide to Minimum Web Standards -- Accessibility.
• US Government Access Board Guide to the Section 508 (1194.22) standards.
• US Government Section 508 Self-Evaluation Web Page Accessibility Questionnaire.

James Gallagher, a good friend of mine, is deafblind from birth and lives in Scotland. He is a remarkable individual in that he composes and publishes his own Web pages!

Please check out his page: A-Z Deafblindness -- http://www.deafblind.com/

This page, which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution, Noncommercial, No Derivative Works, 3.0 United States License was created by JFP (jp29@cox.net) and should be so attributed. Be sure to comply with copyright requirements accompanying externally linked pages and materials.

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