Five Tips to Improve Web Accessibility Presenter — Laurie Quon Los Alamos National Laboratory 2003 InterLab Conference Stanford Linear Accelerator Center November 6, 2003 UNCLASSIFIED

Obstacles to Web Accessibility Elements invisible to assistive technology or add confusion/disorientation Disjointed flow of content No elements to communicate page structure

Tip 1 — Test Your Site Tab through links on site pages View pages on text browser such as Lynx Read pages using assistive technology such as JAWS or IBM Homepage Reader

Tip 1 — Test Your Site Look for Missing alt attributes in image tags Links do not appear in the intended order

HTML for Image Alt attribute For graphic images or graphic links

HTML for Image Alt attribute For spacer images or design images that do not communicate information

Tip 2 — Add “Skip Nav” Links To skip repeating content To jump directly to secondary site navigation To jump directly to page content

HTML for “Skip Nav” Links Skip Nav link using transparent gif Named Anchor Five Tips to Improve Web Accessibility

Tip 3 — Use Header Tags Communicates page structure Assists in page navigation Important to use appropriate-level headers — for Level 1 headers, etc.

Tip 4 — Clear and Logical Flow of Content Tables used for layout must not disrupt Place elements positioned with CSS in consecutive order Descriptive headers and links

Table — BAD Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Table — GOOD Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Tip 5 — Just Say “NO” NO image maps NO frames NO pop-up windows

Accessibility Resources World Wide Web Consortium WebAIM — accessibility project at Utah State University Lynx Viewer Lynx Install Downloads JAWS IBM Homepage Reader

Questions? Laurie Quon (505)