Best Practices for Accessibility Mike Elledge Assistant Director Usability & Accessibility Center (UAC)

2 Accessibility is about knowledge… Your audiences’ challenges and needs Standards and how to apply them Prepare accessible course materials and websites Repair existing materials and sites

3 Your Audiences’ Challenges Cognitive –Distracted/tired students –Persons for whom English is a second language –Persons with atypical learning styles –Persons with cognitive deficits: ADD, dyslexia Visual –Persons with aging eyes –People who are color blind –Persons with very low vision, eye diseases –Blind persons Hearing –From minor to major Physical –Muscle fatigue, temporary restrictions –Carpal tunnel syndrome –Quadriplegia

4 Your Audiences’ Needs Cognitive –Plain language –Hierarchical content –Visual representations of concepts –Consistency: layouts, navigation, formats Visual –Image descriptions –Resizable fonts and layouts –Meaning independent of color –HTML code describing structure, content, and functionality Hearing –Video captioning –Non-audio prompts Physical –Shortcuts –Efficient navigation –Clickable areas

5 Standards Section 508 Requirements –Federal websites and products used by U.S. Government –16 criteria: (a) thru (p) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) –Universal recommendations –Three levels: Priority One (Must), Priority Two (Should), Priority Three (May) Both being rewritten to fit today’s reality –Interactive applications (AJAX) –Dynamic content (DHTML) –Improved software (JAWS and JavaScript)

6 Applying Standards Depends on organization’s policy Can’t go wrong designing to Section 508 and WCAG Priority One and Two –More you do, the better the result

7 Prepare Accessible Course Materials and Sites Add 10-15% to development time Establish your criteria at the beginning –Level of compliance –MSU website template –MSU styleguide Develop expertise or ask for help –DreamWeaver accessibility prompts, Adobe PDF tags, MS-Word style formats –W3C and WebAIM tutorials –LCTTP courses –Usability & Accessibility Center (UAC) workshops and consultation Anticipate issues and address them Best: Involve audience in website and course design

8 Repair Course Materials and Websites Best to be compliant from the start or start anew But if you need to retrofit… –Identify issues: Evaluate –Identify best practice solutions: W3C, WebAIM, A List Apart, Juicy Studio –Implement throughout

9 Evaluate Course Materials and Websites Evaluate against standards Learn the UAC Accessibility Protocol Use the “Big Three” –Manual checks (AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar, Mozilla Accessibility Extension for Firefox) –Adaptive technology (JAWS, ZoomText) –Accessibility checkers (ATRC Web Accessibility Checker, WAVE, Cynthia Says) Note: Bobby/WatchFire and LIFT no longer available

10 Status of Web Accessibility Standards at MSU Statement of Encouragement since 2002 MSU core values, commitment to diversity and inclusion MSU is moving toward a policy setting minimum standards for core sites