1. Birkbeck University of London Business Workshop Web Accessibility Introduction and welcome

2. Agenda Welcome, health and safety and lunch Introduction to WebCT and workshop Accessibility awareness WCAG Guidelines Ex 1: Evaluating accessibility examples Screen reader Text-only browser Keyboard only access Ex 2: Evaluating accessibility of your websites using checklist adapted from IBM Web Accessibility Checklist Ex 3: Techniques for converting web page to be accessible

3. Web accessibility – Why? Increase market Access hard to reach market Higher ranking on search engines (google) Comply with law DDA Disability Discrimination Act, SENDA Special Educational Needs Act

4. Disabilities Visual impairments (blindness, low vision, colour blindness) Hearing impairments Motor impairments Cognitive impairments

5. Assistive technologies used in workshop Specialised hardware/software used to access web content which can be installed and downloaded at home/office Text-only browser lynx.browser.org/ lynx.browser.org/ HPR IBM Home Page Reader (www- 306.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html )www- 306.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html JAWS (www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp)www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp Browser using only keyboard and/or ENTER and TAB to access content

6. Tools used in workshop Browser set with images off Browser set to display grey scale Vischeck – free colour blind testing tools www.vischeck.com/ www.vischeck.com/ Dreamweaver MX 2004 Accessibility Checker Bobby webxact.watchfire.com/ (free version only for testing single pages) webxact.watchfire.com/ IBM ADesigner (accessibility checker for visual disabilities http://www.research.ibm.com/trl/projects/acc_tech/adesigner_e.htm ) http://www.research.ibm.com/trl/projects/acc_tech/adesigner_e.htm

7. Accessibility – common problems/1 Images and image map hotspots without appropriate alternative text Images used for visual purposes not identified with null alternative text Charts and graph information only available visually Tables used for layout not data Misleading structural elements on pages No jumps to main content to skip navigation/breadcrumbs Tables that are difficult to decipher when read row by row

8. Accessibility – common problems/2 Forms with missing labels Forms where required fields not indicated Mouse-defined events without keyboard equivalent No consistent access keys provided for keyboard access No transcripts for audio and video content No synchronised captions for audio content

9. Valid HTML/CSS – Why? Use W3C validator to ensure valid code – local copy at www.bbk.ac.uk/ccs/validatorwww.bbk.ac.uk/ccs/validator Renders faster than code with errors Forces browsers to render to standards and avoids ‘quirks’ mode Renders better than invalid code Higher ranking on search engines More likely to work with assistive technologies

10. Use CSS not tables to layout page Experiment ‘listening’ to webpage using tables for layout and equivalent with JAWS and HPR Review CSS and table layout pages using text only browser, screen readers

11. Define consistent set of access keys Review UK Government recommended set of access keys Evaluate access keys on sample website

12. Set simple accessible ‘more’ links Review examples of accessible ‘More’ links Evaluate links on sample website

13. Set simple accessible tables Review examples of accessible tables Evaluate tables on sample website