Is Your Site Accessible? Validating Your Web Site

Is Your Site Accessible? OBJECTIVE: The learner will list three reasons to validate a web page

What is “validation?” Usually involves using a computer program to review the HTML code on the page, based on standards Notes deficiencies in HTML Notes deficiencies in design Notes accessibility problems

What is “validation?” If you use a page authoring program, it probably does some validation for you: As this screen shot from Macromedia’s Dreamweaver shows.

Items requiring human judgment during validation Do the page background and text colors provide sufficient contrast to be legible? Is the page using color to provide information? Will the audience be able to understand the terms and language you’re using?

Items requiring human judgment during validation Are acronyms explained? Is the navigation strategy you’re using clear to visitors? Does the site look the same in all browsers?

Items requiring human judgment during validation If the site uses a client-side SCRIPT (e.g., JavaScript), does it also include a NOSCRIPT option providing the same information or function of the script for users without script-handling capabilities? Web-enabled cell-phones and PDAs Web TV (yes, it’s still out there!) “Malware-phobes”

Items examined in validation HTML code – is it correct? Element syntax correct? Are elements requiring both opening and closing tags properly closed? Do elements span paragraphs, etc.? Are elements in proper order? Attribute syntax correct? Attribute contain valid values? Attribute allowed?

Items examined in validation Images Do they include ALT attributes? ALT attribute values sufficiently descriptive? Should the image also have a LONGDESC attribute (i.e., a link to a file containing a more detailed description than will fit in ALT attribute) Is the image being used as a link? Does all of the information still come through if you turn off images in your browser?

Items examined in validation Does the page linearize properly? If table is used for layout, does information flow in the order it is intended to? If a data table is included in page, does information flow in the order it is intended to?

Items examined in validation Do tables include contextual information? Is the SCOPE attribute used for row and column headings? Is the HEADER attribute used with ID to provide context?

Items examined in validation Can the page be understood if the visitor cannot/does not use scripts or style sheets? Can test with (some) browsers Pages relying on scripts should also include provisions for those using no scripts Pages laid out with style sheets must also make sense when user agent does not accommodate style sheets.

Why Validate? Most accessibility errors will NOT be visible on the page Validation catches HTML errors too Can you tell which images on this page are accessible and which are not?

Which images are accessible? NOT accessible! ACCESSIBLE! (HINT: What other problem might this slide have if it were a web page?)

What FREE tools are available? W3C Validator (

What FREE tools are available? Web Design Group HTML Validator

What FREE tools are available? W3C CSS Validator (downloadable)

What FREE tools are available? Bobby (single page only)

What FREE tools are available? Cynthia Says

What FREE tools are available? W3C’s Link Checker

QUIZ