Following last month's warning by the Disability Rights
Commission that web designers need to ensure they have the skills
to make websites accessible to disabled users, usability
consultancy Webcredible has issued a simple guide to check whether
sites meet these needs.
The Disability Discrimination Act states that websites must be made
accessible to disabled people. However, in a survey of 1,000
government, business and leisure sites conducted by the Disability
Rights Commission last month, only 19% of websites met the minimum
standards set out by the commission.
Organisations that fail to meet the guidelines risk facing legal
action from disabled users. IT professionals can gain some quick
brownie points and potentially save their organisation money in
legal costs through five quick checks:
Check your website in the Lynx browser
The Lynx browser is a text-only browser that does not support many
of the features common in the likes of Internet Explorer. You can
check how your site looks in this browser with the Lynx Viewer,
available at
www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html.
If your site makes sense and can be navigated through the Lynx
browser, it will be fulfilling many of the web accessibility
guidelines.
Check informational images for alternative
text
Place the cursor over an informational image - for example, the
organisation's logo. Does a yellow box appear with a brief,
accurate description of the image? For users whose browsers do not
support images, this alternative text is what they will see (or
hear) in place of the image.
Check that you can access all areas of your website without
the use of a mouse
Can you navigate through your website using just tab, shift-tab and
return? If not, then neither can keyboard-only or voice-only
users.
Check there is a site map
Can you find a site map? This can be an essential aid to
navigation.
Check your web pages with an automated
program
Two programs available for free on the internet are Bobby
(http://bobby.watchfire.com)
and Wave
(www.wave.webaim.org).
They are unable to provide you with all the information that you
need, as some checks must be done by humans, but they can tell you
some of the areas where your site might be going wrong.
Accessibility design tips from the
W3C
Images and animations. Use the alt attribute to
describe the function of each visual
Image maps. Use the client-side map and text
for hotspots
Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts
of audio, and descriptions of video
Hypertext links. Text should make sense when
read out of context. For example, avoid "click here"
Page organisation. Use headings, lists and
consistent structure. Use Cascading Style Sheets for layout and
style where possible
Graphs and charts. Summarise or use the
longdesc attribute
Scripts, applets and plug-ins. Provide
alternative content in case active features are inaccessible
Frames. Use the "noframes" element and
meaningful titles
Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible.
Summarise
Check your work. Validate. Use the tools,
checklist, and guidelines at
www.w3.org/TR/WCAG
Source: World Wide Web Consortium