Accessibility issues for web authors Library and Information Services University of St Andrews

Structure 1. Definition: Accessibility 2. Legal requirement 3. How people access the web 4. Web Accessibility Initiative 5. Checking your web pages 6. Resources

1. Definition: Accessibility Technical aspects hard- & software issues different devices internet connection Varying individual needs people with disabilities use of specialised software

2. Legal requirement SENDA (2001) and DDA (1995): Responsible bodies must not treat a disabled person less favourably than a non-disabled person for reasons related to their disability without justification Responsible bodies will be required by law to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that a disabled person is not placed at a substantial disadvantage.

3. How people access the web Visual disabilities Blindness, colour blindness, other visual impairments Physical disabilities Repetitive stress injury Hearing disabilities Deafness, hard of hearing Cognitive disabilities Dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, intellectual impairments Neurological disabilities Seizure disorders, mental health problems … among others.

3.1. Visual disabilities

Blindness Specialised software: Speech synthesisers, braille browsers Text-based browsers (Lynx) Possible use of “rapid browsing techniques” Potential problems include: Images without descriptive “alt tags” Tables that do not make sense when read serially, i.e. in a “linearised” way Navigational features that rely on mouse, no keyboard navigation Hyperlinks don’t use meaningful text Non-standard document formats

Use meaningful text for hyperlinks (1/2) For more information on how to get to Paris, please click here. Click here to download a map of the city centre. To look at the 2003 statistics on tourism to France, click here. is turned into...

Use meaningful text for hyperlinks (2/2) click here Click here click here

Use descriptive ALT tags Context 1: as a simple graphic of an organisation’s logo appearing on a web page. alt=“ASPC logo” Context 2: image is active link to the home page of a web site. alt=“Home” Context 3: image might be used in a list of properties, as an icon to indicate properties available through the ASPC. Since the image contains an abbreviation, the alt text of the image might now be alt=“Ardcalloch Solicitor’s Property Centre”

Lynx Example web sites: Online lynx viewer:

Colour blindness Lack of sensitivity to certain colours Possible use of personalised style sheets Potential problems include Colour that is used as a unique marker to emphasise text E.g. “click the red button”

Potential problems (cont.) Inadequate contrast between text and background Certain colour combinations No option to override default colours

Examples of colour deficits Protanope one out of 100 males, “red-weakness” Deuteranope five out of 100 males, “green-weakness” Tritanope blue/yellow deficit

Colour perception (1/2) Normal visionProtanope Deuteranope Tritanope

Colour perception (1/2) Normal visionProtanope DeuteranopeTritanope

Other visual impairments Forms include: poor acuity, tunnel vision, central field loss, clouded vision Specialised software: Screen magnifyers, speech synthesisers Possible use of grayscale display

Potential problems include: Absolute font sizes Inability to change colour settings Inconsistent layout that makes navigation difficult Centred display of items on screen Poor contrast Text presented as images Resolution of images conveying important information is too low Depending on type and extend of disability, many of the problems blind people encounter

3.2. Physical disabilities

Repetitive stress injury Happens when too much stress is placed on a joint; same action is performed over and over again Possible use of software that does not require the use of a mouse Potential problems include: Web pages cannot be navigated using a keyboard alone

3.3. Hearing disabilities

Deafness Sign language may be “first language”, i.e. possible problems reading written language fluently Potential problems include: Lack of captions or transcriptions of audio content Lack of content-related images Lack of clear and simple language

Hard of hearing People with mild or moderate hearing impairments Possible problems include: Lack of captions or transcripts for audio content

3.4. Cognitive disabilities

Dyslexia Possible difficulty processing written language or images when read visually, or spoken language when heard, or numbers when read visually or heard Possible use of speech synthesisers Possible problems include: Lack of alternative text that can be converted to audio to supplement visuals Justified text Mixture of fonts & font sizes

Possible problems (cont.): Extensive use of ALL CAPS Words split across lines Large chunks of text No white space between paragraphs

Attention deficit disorder Difficulty focusing on information Possible problems include: Distracting visual or audio elements that cannot be turned off Lack of clear and consistent organisation of web sites

Intellectual impairments May learn more slowly, difficulty understand complex concepts Possible problems include: Use of unnecessarily complex language Lack of graphics Lack of clear and consistent organisation

3.5. Neurological disabilities

Seizure disorders E.g. photosensitive epilepsy Avoid content that flickers at a frequency of between 2 and 59Hz Possible problems: Animated, flickering or flashing content

Mental health problems May have difficulty focusing on information, experience blurred vision or hand tremors owing to side effects of medication Possible problems include: Distracting audio or visual elements that cannot be turned off Use of absolute font sizes

3.6. Complexities Multiple disabilities: e.g. deaf & blind Conflicting needs of people with different disabilities e.g.: People with cognitive disabilities may require graphical rather than textual presentation; blind people rely on text.  You can’t get it right for everyone. Therefore, make sure that people can override your settings!

4. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0, Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Priorities (Levels of compliance): Priority 1 (A-compliant): Criteria a web developer must satisfy Basic requirement for some groups to be able to access web documents Priority 2 (AA-compliant): Criteria a web developer should satisfy Removes significant barriers to accessing web documents Priority 3 (AAA-compliant): Criteria a web developer may satisfy Improves access to web documents

5. Checking your web pages Use validators: HTML validator: Bobby: Cynthia Says TM : Apply visual checks: Use of colours Use of fonts (font-family, relative sizes, …) Meaningful ALT tags … Check your web pages in various browsers

6. Resources Vischeck Colour vision simulator: W3C: validators and technical standards: Teachability: Techdis SENDA/DDA JISC legal … and many more

Accessibility issues for web authors Library and Information Services University of St Andrews