Workshop 1 Basics of Web Accessibility Web Content Accessibility Project Funded by BCcampus Natasha Boskic, Kirsten Bole, Nathan Hapke University of British Columbia

Workshop schedule Monday August 21 Basics of Web Accessibility Tuesday August 22 Coding an Accessible Website Wednesday August 23 Accessible Multimedia Thursday August 24 Creating Usable Content Friday August 25 Disabilities & Assistive Technology

The Plan What is accessibility and why is it important? E-learning and accessibility Who is affected? How are they affected? How do I make my course more accessible?

Why does it matter? We often make assumptions about our students and site visitors Disabilities are invisible online If we are unaffected, we are unaware of any inconvenience

Consequences in Education Inaccessible sites can be slightly inconvenient or completely frustrating Inaccessible academic sites can have serious impact on someone’s educational experience Affects students’ access to course materials and ability to work and participate Excluding students is not an option

Standards Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Created by the Web Accessibility Initiative section of the W3C 2.0 is under review

Laws Section 508 (US) UK Disability Rights Commission Laws in Canada are not as specific Canadian anti-discrimination laws strong

E-learning and accessibility Good: Learning online bridges huge distances Potential for small classes, more interaction Opportunities for students who otherwise can’t attend a physical campus Not so good: Dependent on technology Requires careful time management

Students with disabilities Learning disabilities most common –Dyslexia, ADHD Sight –Partial sight, blindness, colourblindness Motor/physical –Limited control of mouse/keyboard Hearing

Getting around Sight & learning issues –Screen readers –Screen magnifiers –Braille devices Physical issues –Adaptive keyboards –Alternative pointing devices Many students with disabilities navigate by keyboard only.

Our Focus Group students Ted: teacher with problems focusing; memorizes programs rather than using visual cues Robert: nerve damage to right hand; uses FrogPad instead of keyboard Samuel: hard-of-hearing ESL student; prefers videos to text

Donovan English major at UBC Blind since birth Uses a screenreader called JAWS to access the web

Making your course accessible Many accessibility changes to your site benefit all learners. Be consistent Keep navigation the same on each page Be redundant Presenting information in multiple ways helps all learners

What to consider: text Is the font big enough, with enough contrast? Can the user change the font size in their browser? Are there distracting colours or animations? Is there alternative text for every important graphic? (Don’t forget charts & graphs!)

What to consider: links Screen readers can take links out of context Do links make sense on their own? (Don’t use “click here” as link text!)

What to consider: other elements Forms, tables and frames should be labeled Audio, video transcripts should be available Flash and PDF often require extra effort When in doubt, offer same information in plain text format as well

What do I use? Do NOT use Word’s “Export to HTML” feature! Beginners: Course Genie will export a valid, accessible site from Word Intermediate: use a good WYSIWYG editor such as Dreamweaver Expert: hand-code XHTML and CSS

Checking for accessibility Online checkers help find problem areas Good tool, but no substitute for human testing!

It’s not difficult Most code changes are fairly minor Many changes benefit all students, not just those with disabilities Many terrific resources available online

Go forth & accessify Try running your own site (or your favourite website) through a validator. How does it rate? Download a trial version of JAWS. What does your website sound like?

Thank you for coming! Join us tomorrow for Coding an Accessible Website - 12 pm PST Natasha Boskic Kirsten Bole Nathan Hapke