WEB ACCESSIBILITY Presentation December 2009 Plovdiv Bulgaria Sébastien LARDEUX, IT Montéclair Institute

Page  2 Definition of accessibility  A universal concept  “To make the whole WEB and its services accessible to all users no matter what material, software, network-infrastructure, language, culture, geographical position and/or physical or mental capabilities”. Internet for all People with a handicap Seniors Internet beginners Internet via all Interfaces Textual et graphical navigator Mobile, PDA Technical support Internet everywhere Independent of the connexion speed

Page  3 World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) et Web Accessibiliy Initiative (WAI)  W3C/WAI  The World Wide Web Consortium works on standardisation presented on the Web.  Has created in1996 the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).  WAI has developed for recommendations and resources on accessibility. WAI is the reference for accessibility of the Web.

Page  4 THE SITUATION IN FRANCE  The Law  In France a law exists for equality of rights and chances of participation for handicapped people. - Put in place on February, 11th Article Public organisations have had 3 years to applie this law. - Referential ADAE ( Agency for the development of the electronic Administration). - For private website: no law is implicated yet

Page  5 A reference called ACCESSIWEB   This reference has been created and need to be followed up (respected) by all organisations.  WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines).  This reference exists out of 95 criteria's and 243 tests  Glossary.  Guideline accessiweb V1.1.  Support tools to apply the reference (source code, Firefox and Internet Explorer, etc…).

Page  6 The label ACCESSIWEB stands for:  Quality and Access to all users  certification of accessibility of a Web site is possible  Valid for 2 years  3 grades/levels: –Bronze –Silver –Gold  Possibility to visit a virtual gallery of Web sites who posses this label.

Page  7 Home page Website as a reference  The audit is only done on the first page of the website, which mainly is the origin of a NON accessible website.  To obtain the Bronze label: - home page needs to contain criteria's like: –Colours, images, multimedia, links, information structures etc. –The 47 criteria’s Bronze are divided into 13 different subjects.

Page  8 The valuation of a Web site page  3 steps necessary:  Is your Web site HTML valid ? –An accessible Web is one that respects the normalisations of the Web.  Does your site respects the WAI recommendations ? –Numerous of tools exist on the Web to evaluate the accessibility of your Website pages.  Is your Web site accessible by a visual impaired person? A sight impaired person consults a Website through support tools like Braille- boards and special vocal synthesized software.

Page  9 Example 1  Every main image needs to be replaceable by vocal text. For example :

Page  10 Example 2  Different images need to have each their separate vocal text. In this example 6 different images contain the same vocal text which makes it impossible for a visual impaired person to stroll through this page. Example :

Page  11 Example 3  The color should not be the only source of information, vocal sound is necessary. Color : Black and white :  The colour plays an important role of information. Colour contrast alone is not clear enough.  The danger exist that important information is lost or even impossible to “read” in case of a black and white screen. Example :

Page  12 Example 4  Are the links explicit enough ?  The links of the type “read” or “to know more” are not explicit enough. Example

Page  13 Example 5  Multi lingual Website  Are the different languages well indicated ?  Different links in the forms of different colored flags are shown to visit the site in different languages. A vocal synthesis reads the alternative text (flags) of each of these images. (example "United Kingdom“ in English for the flag of the UK. So the alternative is to mention each separate flag in its own separate language). Example :

Page  14 Some examples realised in reality Realisation of accessibles programmes in PDF et HTML. Audit of home page. Concept of videos in France sign language.

Page  15 The audit results  Part 1 : In this part of the document you find the “details of the evaluation” which does not integrate technical aspects. It only points out the mayor problems related to the accessibility of the homepage of the Website.  Part 2 : Technical analyses points out each criteria non respected.  Part 3: summary of sources on accessibility of the Website.  Part 4: summary of earlier evaluated Web pages.