Svatava Website Design: Accessibility

Accessibility

This Page focuses on the trends to make pages as much as possible accesible to people with disability in order to comply with the W3C World Wide Web Consortium's current accessibility guidelines for people with disabilities.

Accessibility standarts

The following World Wide Web Consortium's resources are intended to provide basic information for people who are new to Web accessibility.

WAI::Accessibility Resources Web Accessibility Initiative develops strategies, guidelines and resources to help make the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

WCAG::Checklist of Checkpoints includes a series of checkpoints (referred to as Priorities) that may be used to review the website's content for accessibility. Web "content" generally refers to the information in a Web page or Web application, including text, images, forms, sounds, and such.

Adobe and accessibility

http://www.adobe.com/accessibility

Adobe also provide a PDF conversion tool that converts PDF files either to HTML 3.2 or text format. You can then use either a browser, a word processing software program such as Microsoft Word, or a screen reader to access the file's content.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/access_onlinetools.html

The Adobe Acrobat Reader allows you to read Adobe Acrobat files - a hypertext document format (PDF "Portable Document Format") which has become a popular format for distribution of online helps and documents. Users can e.g. use zoom tool and resize pages.

In order to view these documents through your browser you will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader software.

BBC Accessibility

BBC::Accessibility

BBC provides detailed information about specialist browsers (e.g. IBM Home Page Reader), screen readers and various speach output packages (used with your browser or separately) to cater for those with little or no vision.

BBC::Seeing websites

Links to text to speach software:

ReadPlease
Browsealoud (technology)
ReadSpeaker (technology)
Microsoft Narrator::basic text to speach software available in Windows 2000 and XP

Deaf and hard hearing people can use Avatars (digitally created people) using sign lanquage. Also Subtitling and Transcripts is strongly recommended.

BBC::Hearing websites

Access keys

Access keys are specifically defined keys that are assigned to hyperlinks or other elements (such as a search field) within a web page. In short, a hyperlink or form field for example may have a letter or number associated with it, which when used targets that link, removing the need to use a mouse to navigate, click or (for example) select a particular field. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) advocate use of access keys through their Web Accessibility Initiative. We have defined access keys as follows: -

Access key '0' - Accessibility Page information (this page)
Access key '1' - Home
Access key '2' - Skip to Main Content
Access key '3' - RSS
Access key '4' - Search Technorati

How to use access keys

The table below shows which key combinations to use for different browsers. Not every browser or version supports access keys. In addition, behaviour differs from browser to browser; IE in later versions requires use of the Enter key after using an Alt key.

Key combinations for different browsers
Browser	Operating System	Key Combination
Firefox, Mozilla	PC	Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key
Firefox, Mozilla	Linux	Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key
Firefox, Mozilla	Mac	Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
Firefox 2, Mozilla	PC	Hold down the SHIFT + ALT key and press the number of the access key
Internet Explorer 5+	PC	Hold down the ALT key, press the number of the access key, release then press ENTER
Internet Explorer 4	PC	Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key
Internet Explorer 5+	MAC	Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
Internet Explorer 4.5	MAC	Access keys are not supported
Opera	All	Hold down the Shift key and press Escape, release, then press the number of the access key
Konqueror	Linux	Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the Access key
Safari and Omniweb	MAC	Hold down the CTRL key and press the number of the access key
Netscape 6 and earlier	PC and MAC	Access keys are not supported
Netscape 7	PC	Hold down the ALT key and press the number of the access key

WGBH::Radio, TV and Web Media (Boston Massachusett)

WGBH Services (Accessibility)

NCAM is part of the Media Access Group at WGBH. "The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a research and development facility dedicated to the issues of media and information technology for people with disabilities in their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities."

National Centre for Accesible Media (NCAM)

Media Access Generator (MAGpie)

"Developers of Web- and CD-ROM-based multimedia need an authoring tool for making their materials accessible to persons with disabilities. The Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) has developed two such tools, version 1.0 and 2.01 of the Media Access Generator (MAGpie), for creating captions and audio descriptions for rich media."

NCAM MAGpie: Media Access Generator

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