Accessibility

I am looking at "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ for information on how to design an accessible website, for this is part of usability for disabled internet users.

There are a few levels of compliance recommended:

Conformance Level "A": all Priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied;
Conformance Level "Double-A": all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints are satisfied;
Conformance Level "Triple-A": all Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints are satisfied;

The priorities:

[Priority 1]
A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it impossible to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint is a basic requirement for some groups to be able to use Web documents.
[Priority 2]
A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will remove significant barriers to accessing Web documents.
[Priority 3]
A Web content developer may address this checkpoint. Otherwise, one or more groups will find it somewhat difficult to access information in the document. Satisfying this checkpoint will improve access to Web documents.

Ideally I shoul design to cover all priorities if I am going to 'showcase' in my own site how design aesthetics, usability and accessibility can all mesh and work well. There are 14 guidelines mentioned and I have added a 'short' summary of each, the site also has techniques available to help developers achieve compliance, I will look to that in next post with my own site and how to apply guidelines:

Guideline 1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content.

for example use the 'alt' tag for images to explain the image purpose etc.. as a basic checkpoint up to providing auditory descriptions.

Guideline 2. Don't rely on color alone.

Don't rely on color to convey information and backgroung and foreground colours cannot be too close in hue.

Guideline 3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.

an example is using tables for layout and header to change font size makes it harder for specialised software to read pages. The majority of these checkpoints deal with correct use of code.

Guideline 4. Clarify natural language usage

this is about identifying the documents language.


Guideline 5. Create tables that transform gracefully.

Only use tables for tabular information, and alot of checkpoint here if you intend to use them.


Guideline 6. Ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully

Design with older browsers and for users that turn off feature in mind etc.


Guideline 7. Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes

Moving text cannot be read by some programmes and disabled users.


Guideline 8. Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces.

make things like applets and scripts directly accessible and /or compliant with assistive technologies.


Guideline 9. Design for device-independence.

This is about allowing users to interact with what ever they choose, mouse, wand etc.. rather than it being dictated certain elements can only be used by a mouse, for example.


Guideline 10. Use interim solutions.

Aspects of this priority involve not opening or causing pop up with out first informing user. Some older browsers real list of links as one link.

Guideline 11. Use W3C technologies and guidelines.

pages will be more accessible if we avoid using non w3c compliant programmes, like shockwave.


Guideline 12. Provide context and orientation information

grouping elements and providing contextual information, title frames etc.


Guideline 13. Provide clear navigation mechanisms.

consistant and clear navigation, identify the target of each link, include a sitemap etc.


Guideline 14. Ensure that documents are clear and simple.

consistent layout, simple language and consisent style.


Alot there, a good guide at that site to refer back to when designing as different sites will have different accessibility issues.