Accessibility: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 11:52, 22 October 2009

Websites built with accessibility in mind are flexible in meeting different user needs, preferences and situations. Though these methods can increase usability for everyone who uses the web they are often legally required to be implemented in a specific effort to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.

See the tracker under Accessibility Compliance in Moodle 1.8 and Compliance with Italian Legislation on Accessibility for more information on what we are doing for Moodle 1.8.

Starting points

These are some readable introductions to accessibility that cover; what accessibility is, why it is important, as well as practical advice.

Standards, guidelines and legislation

International & USA

Web Accessibility Initiative
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (draft)
  - An article on the problems with WCAG2 from A List Apart
Section 508

Other countries

UK:

SENDA - Special Educational Needs and Disability Act/Bill

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

Germany:

Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung - BITV

Tools

Firefox Accessibility Extension by the Illinois Center for Information Technology and Web Accessibility (iCITA)
Web developer extension for Firefox
Blank Your Monitor and Easy Reading Extension for Firefox
W3C validation (for HTML in Moodle, CSS and RSS)
Web accessibility evaluation tool
Cynthia Says accessibility checker
Fangs – the screen reader emulator for Firefox
NVDA NonVisual Desktop Access - open source screen reader for Windows

see also this long list of accessibility tools.

Resources

Dive Into Accessibility by Mark Pilgrim

Joe Clark's writings on accessibility

Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark (online version)

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Websites built with '''accessibility''' in mind are flexible in meeting different user needs, preferences and situations. Though these methods can increase [[Development:Usability]] for everyone who uses the web they are often legally required to be implemented in a specific effort to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.
+Websites built with '''accessibility''' in mind are flexible in meeting different user needs, preferences and situations. Though these methods can increase [[Development:Usability|usability]] for everyone who uses the web they are often legally required to be implemented in a specific effort to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities.
 See the tracker under [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-7396 Accessibility Compliance in Moodle 1.8] and [http://tracker.moodle.org/browse/MDL-7860 Compliance with Italian Legislation on Accessibility] for more information on what we are doing for Moodle 1.8.
@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 == Standards, guidelines and legislation ==
-* [http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200001/ldbills/003/2001003.htm SENDA - Special Educational Needs and Disability Act/Bill]
+=== International & USA ===
-* [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/1995050.htm Disability Discrimination Act 1995]
-* [http://www.section508.gov/ Section 508]
 * [http://www.w3.org/WAI/ Web Accessibility Initiative]
 ** [http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)]
 ** [http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag20 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (draft)]
-*** [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2 an article on the problems with WCAG2]
+*** An article on the [http://www.alistapart.com/articles/tohellwithwcag2 problems with WCAG2] from A List Apart
+* [http://www.section508.gov/ Section 508]
+=== Other countries ===
+* UK:
+: [http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200001/ldbills/003/2001003.htm SENDA - Special Educational Needs and Disability Act/Bill]
+: [http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/1995050.htm Disability Discrimination Act 1995]
+* Germany:
+: [http://www.einfach-fuer-alle.de/artikel/bitv/ Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung - BITV]
 == Tools ==
+* [http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu/ Firefox Accessibility Extension] by the Illinois Center for Information Technology and Web Accessibility (iCITA)
 * [[Web developer extension]] for [[Firefox]]
-* [[Accessibility extension]] for Firefox
+* [[Blank_Your_Monitor_and_Easy_Reading_extension_for_Firefox|Blank Your Monitor and Easy Reading Extension]] for Firefox
 * [[W3C validation]] (for [[HTML in Moodle]], [[CSS]] and [[RSS]])
+* [http://wave.webaim.org/ Web accessibility evaluation tool]
 * [http://cynthiasays.com/ Cynthia Says accessibility checker]
+* [http://www.standards-schmandards.com/projects/fangs/ Fangs – the screen reader emulator] for Firefox
+* [http://www.nvda-project.org/ NVDA NonVisual Desktop Access] - open source screen reader for Windows
 see also this [http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/complete long list of accessibility tools].
@@ Line 35: / Line 47: @@
 * [http://alistapart.com/topics/userscience/accessibility/ Accessibility articles from ''A List Apart'']
 * [http://diveintomark.org/archives/2003/08/29/semantics Mark Pilgrim's ''Won’t somebody please think of the gerbils?'']
+: [http://diveintoaccessibility.org/ Dive Into Accessibility] by Mark Pilgrim
 * [http://joeclark.org/access/webaccess/ Joe Clark's writings on accessibility]
+: [http://joeclark.org/book/ Building Accessible Websites] by Joe Clark (online version)
 * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_accessibility Wikipedia article on ''Web Accessibility'']
 * [http://juicystudio.com/article/validity-accessibility.php ''Validity and Accessibility'']
@@ Line 48: / Line 62: @@
 * [http://www.easy.pro.br/ EASY: Interface Between The Virtual Environment Moodle Learning and People with Visual Impairments]
 * [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/03/homepage_accessibilty.html BBC blog post on how their Web 2.0 homepage was made accessible]
+* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/ BBC Accessibility Help]
+* [[Usability FAQ]]
 [[Category:Accessibility]]

Documentation