Web Accessibility John M. Call, Coordinator Academic Accommodations and Technology University Accessibility Center Brigham Young University 1520 WSC – (801) in development

“The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

Why Web Accessibility? The Law –Rehabilitation Act of 1973 – Section prohibited all programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance from excluding those with disabilities. –Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – 1990 – All programs, information, and activities will be accessible by students with disabilities –Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 – establish standards for electronic and information technology. Requires that individuals with disabilities, who are seeking information or services from a Federal agency, have access to and use of information and data that is comparable to that provided to those without disabilities.

Web-based Intranet and Internet Information and Applications The 508 standards apply to Federal web Sites but not to private sector web sites (unless a site is provided under contract to a Federal agency, in which case only that web site or portion covered by the contract would have to comply).

Who are we serving? –12.6% of the USA working age (21-64) population have a disability –10/% of Utah’s working age (21-64) population have a disability –2% of the BYU students (535) Winter 2007 declared a disability with the UAC –14% of the students who have declared disabilities at BYU (75) have sensory or mobility disabilities which may affect their ability in some way to use the web –Over 13,000,000 members of the church – est. of over 30,000 members may have sensory or mobility concerns

BYU Web Accessibility Evaluation Commission The University Accessibility Center (UAC) under the direction of the President’s Council, the University’s Web Advisory Board, and the Disability Issues Advisory Committee have been given the charge to assist the University community in the evaluation of BYU web sites concerning web accessibility principles and applications.

Web Accessibility Guidelines Principles 1.Content must be perceivable 2.Interface components in the content must be operable 3.Content and controls must be understandable 4.Content should be robust enough to work with current and future user agents (including assistive technologies)

Web Accessibility Evaluation Evaluation Types –Human Testing performed by an actual person. Quality of results depends on knowledge and experience of tester. –Computer Often very fast and efficient. Can run completely automated. Not everything can be computationally tested! Some things require human evaluation. –Computer-Aided Individual assisted by a computer process.

WAVE-4 Developed by Temple University and maintained by WebAIM Implementation Language: Java, JSP Evaluation Base: HTML Source Content Parser: Custom built, linear (SAX-style) Focuses on computer-aided accessibility evaluation. Provides inline feedback with unique icons and explanatory text.. Able to evaluate password protected, private and intranet documents.

WAVE-4 continued Evaluates documents generated using JavaScript, AJAX or DOM Scripting. Evaluates content not in HTML or XHTML format. Evaluation feedback available in English and Spanish.

WAVE4 – Demo Evaluation Code Scheme All RED icons denote ERRORS that should be fixed. (see note 1) All YELLOW icons are ALERTS that the author should check for possible errors. All GREEN icons are ACCESSIBILITY FEATURES that the author should check for accuracy. All LIGHT BLUE icons are STRUCTURAL, SEMANTIC or NAVIGATIONAL ELEMENTS that may aid accessibility, and which the author should check for accuracy.

Web Audio and Video Accessibility Concerns One of the most expensive and difficult accessibility concerns is converting web content to text equivalent or captioned for audio or video content. 3Play Media offers low cost transcription and captioning service for as low as $1.24 per minute.

Other Resources ADA and Section WebAIM - WAVE - Watchfire - WebXACT - Cast Universal Design - World Wide Web Consortium - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)