kathy gips will miller new england ada & accessible it center 800-949-4232 voice/tty funded by...
TRANSCRIPT
Kathy GipsWill Miller
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center800-949-4232 voice/tty
www.newenglandada.org
Funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education
Universal Design and IT: Ensuring that Information Technology is
Accessible to People with Disabilities
Copyright New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, 2005
This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.
One national toll free number connects to the regional centers
800-949-4232 voice/tty
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Agenda
• Who uses accessible information technology, IT & Assistive Technology (AT): Differences
• World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines
• Section 508 Standards• Evaluating existing web sites for
accessibility• Resources
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
“Accessible” information technology is technology whose use does not require any one sense or ability to be functional
What is “accessible” information technology?
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Slide courtesy of ITTATC
Color Blindness
Avoid using color as the only means of distinguishing between choices.
Barriers
PUSH GREEN BUTTON TO STARTPUSH GREEN BUTTON TO START
Color, Contrast, Font
Allow users to utilize their preferred colors, fonts and
styles.
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Slide courtesy of ITTATC
Barriers
If the colors used in a site have poor contrast, it may be difficult
for some users to read.
This text has better contrast, but the heading on this slide is
even better.
Color Contrast
Color, Contrast, Font
Allow users to utilize their preferred colors, fonts and
styles.
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Color, Contrast, Font
Allow users to utilize their preferred colors, fonts and
styles.
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Accessible IT vs. AT: What’s the Difference?
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Assistive Technology (AT)
•“Any item, piece of equipment, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities”
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Assistive Technology (AT)
•Examples: canes, wheelchairs, screen reader software, and voice input software
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Assistive technologyActivating Keys with Head Stick
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Photos courtesy of tiresias.org, deafblind.com and the University
of Maryland
Assistive technologyBraille Display
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska - Fairbanks
Assistive technologyVoice Input
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Photo courtesy of the Boston College EagleEyes Project
Assistive technologyControlling the Cursor with Eye
Movements
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Photo courtesy of the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children
Assistive technologyTouch Screen
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Web Guidelines: W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
(WCAG) Created by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Voluntary compliance (in the U.S.)
Used globally
Three levels of compliance
Includes guidelines for accommodating cognitive disabilities
WAI is also developing guidelines for web authoring tools and for user agents (e.g., browsers)
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
•Federal agencies only
• Information technology must be accessible
•Unless “undue burden”
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Web standards: Section 508
(a) Text Tags
(b) Multimedia Presentations
(c) Color
(d) Readability
(e) Serve-Side Image Maps
(f) Client-Side Image Maps
(g)&(h) Data Table
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Web Standards: Section 508
(i) Frames
(j) Flicker Rate
(k) Text-Only Alternative
(l) Scripts
(m) Applets and Plug-Ins
(n) Electronic Forms
(o) Navigation Links
(p) Time Delays
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Section 508Web standard
• All information conveyed with color must also be available without color, for example from context or markupNeeds Improvement
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Evaluating web pages for accessibility
Easier to build an accessible site from scratch than to fix an existing site
Use testing software like Bobby or LIFT - but won’t find all accessibility errors
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Evaluating web pages for accessibility
Turn off sound
Use a text-only browser such as Lynx or Lynx simulator
Unplug the mouse, use keyboard only
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments
Evaluating web pages for accessibility
Have people with disabilities who regularly use assistive technology test the site and give feedback
New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments