iMatt :: The Blog of Matt Clare

I’ve assembled my list of things to look for when preparing content for the web with an eye to accessibility. I would like to add to this advice that I’ve always found that accessible web pages are the easiest way to create content that is well indexed by a search engine – as both serve the goal of helping a machine interpret the content better.

This list is written assuming that most modern tools that help construct content directly for the web help individuals create accessible content by default, and that this is the primary way content makes its way to the web. Tools like WordPress for blogs, or Learning Management Systems (LMSs).

Multimedia content is particularly challenging, as it can require the use multiple senses, and unless accommodations such as transcription or description are added, some individuals may not be able to access multimedia content.

Evan more than with most posts; I’d love to read your comments and suggestions about this list and these practices.

My Checklist for Preparing Accessible Content

This list was created by Matt Clare with resources from World Wide Web Consortium. ^[1] The W3C has a simular checklist document: http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-WCAG20-20060427/appendixB.html ^[2]

Simple Formatting

• Divide large blocks of information into smaller blocks when possible. This is both technical advice and advice for writing content that is likely to be skimmed by readers.
• Headings for documents, or sub-sections should use pre-defined heading options. They should not be regular text made larger, bolder, etc. The pre-defined headings help assistive software present content.
• When creating a table be sure to identify what cells are headers and what are actual data.
• Never use a table for layout purposes alone.
• Use the existing quotation mark-up for quotations if possible, Never use the blockquote option for layout purposes alone.
• When creating a list use the number of bulleted list options, DO NOT crete your own bullets. There are ways to insert your own bullets into a proper unordered list, or hide the bullets.
• Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without color. For example by bolding coloured text as well.
• Make linked text meaningfull.
  • Example1: Option one would make much more sense when a screen reader were to read aloud all the links on a page rather than option two:
    1. Read the Creating Accessible Content Wiki Article.
    2. Creating Accessible Content Wiki Article Click here.
  • Example 2: Consider where in an alphabetical list of links these two links would appear:
    1. Important article [PDF]
    2. Important article PDF
• Maintain a high level of colour contrast, be mindful of background colours.
• Avoid, blinking, flickering or excessive motion.

Alternative Information/Formats

Programatic access to information is the only guarantee that the highest level of access can be achieved. This is best achieved through providing information in the simplest text-based format without extraneous items.

• Images should be given a meaningful text description if the image is relevant to the content. If the image is decorative or otherwise irrelevant the description information should be left blank.
• Avoid Images of text. If an image is presented containing text the text or a description should be provided in an alternative format. Text not in an image is far more transformable and scaleable than anything represented in an image.
• Audio and video content should have an alternative textual version provided.

Advanced/Technical Formatting Issues

Information for more advanced formatting or for situations where an individual is creating their own HTML and is not using a WYSIWYG editor.

• Make sure your mark-up is valid syntactically meaningful. Most creation tool ensure this, but validation can be tested for public on-line content at http://validator.w3.org
• Avoid the use of frames.
• Don’t use images as spacers or for other purely layout proposes.
• Content that you don’t want to be seen, but read by a reader, should be positioned as CSS absolute: ie style=”position: absolute;left:-2000;”- left and a whole bunch of negative — not style=”display:none” because screen readers are wise to this.
• Make sure content degrades gracefully:
  • Ensure that pages are usable when scripts etc. are off and provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page if appropriate.
  • Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets.
  • Make your HTML syntactically meaningful and not dependent on any one browser.
• Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes. With AJAX/DHTML/JavaScript keep in mind how a screen reader may ready the content. Keep in mind the idea of links with title properties offering to skip to a later anchor, or better yet review WAI-ARIA roles, state and focus information in the W3C Candidate Recommendation Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) ^[3]
  • Example best practices: When you load a dynamic content element via jquery to make a screen reader see it do a $(“my_thing”).focus();
  • Do not append() to the end of the body and then reposition via CSS – just append it to the actual item/div

Checking the Accessibility of Content

While it is hard to replace the insights an individual that uses assistive tools to access the web can offer one can use assistive software ones self to gain insight. Some assistive software is very expensive, however what follows are a list of Firefox extensions that are very useful for assessing the accessibility of web content. Remember, an automated report can never replace a proper inspection of web content.

Firefox Extensions

• Evaluation Toolbar
• Fangs Screen Reader Emulator
• Web Developer

Notes and References

1. ↑ Chisholm, Wendy Trace R & D Center, University of Wisconsin — Madison, Vanderheiden, Gregg, Trace R & D Center, University of Wisconsin — Madison, Jacobs, Ian, W3C
   (1999) List of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 19:44, February 18, 2011, from http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/checkpoint-list.html. Copyright held by W3C, 1999
2. ↑ Caldwell, Ben, Trace Research & Development Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison — Chisholm, Wendy, W3C — Slatin, John, Accessibility Institute, University of Texas at Austin — Vanderheiden, Gregg, Trace Research & Development Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2006) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, W3C Working Draft 27 April 2006. World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 19:41, February 21, 2011, from http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/checkpoint-list.html. Copyright held by W3C, 2006
3. ↑ Craig, James, Apple Inc. — Cooper, Michael, W3C (2011) Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0, W3C Candidate Recommendation 18 January 2011. World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 19:48, February 21, 2011, from http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/ . Copyright held by W3C, 2011

The draft of the AODA Integrated Accessibility Standards is currently posted on the Ministry of Community and Social Services web site. The section on “Accessible websites and web content” subsection 4 was what I was most interested in. There were only minor changes from what was in the last draft that I saw, but the changes were significant.

Update: Friday April 1, 2011

Looks like the link is dead, but Google still has a copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:W2_8OUCWcYAJ:www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/publications/accessibility/standards_iar/part2_iar.aspx

Running key phrases through the Ministry’s search tool yields some really interesting results. Here is an example search.

What is the same is that it references the WWW Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/

The draft AODA Integrated Accessibility Standards document applies to Ontario public web sites on the internet and in intranets (university LMS’ would be in either definition) and outlines targets for NEW content to be WCAG Level A accessible and then level AA and eventually ALL content to being Level AA.

The change is that there will be exceptions for online audio and video content. That is, content that would require Captions (Live) and Audio Descriptions (Pre-recorded) as outlined in the WCAG2 specification here http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv

The WCAG2’s Captions (Live) and Audio Descriptions (Pre-recorded) requirements are unlike other content formatting previsions in the WCAG2 in that these are not items that content authors can simply modify how they format their content to achieve this high standard of accessibility. The Captions (Live) and Audio Descriptions (Pre-recorded) require many orders of magnitude more hours of labour to comply with than is often needed to produce the original artifact. To quote Stuart Robertson, webmaster, http://UofGuelph.ca and contributor to http://alistapart.com at the 2009 Aiming for Accessibility conference at Guelph University “[the] Transcription requirement represent a serious disincentive to publish audio/video content to the web”.

Those who host audio and video on the web need to figure out how to provided captions and descriptive audio to content. I want this to be a positive process of adding value to audio and video content, not a chilling effect preventing it.

After making my stand on what I think is reasonable for those creating content for the web I figure that my next steps should be to share my own informal check-list for posting and reviewing content for the web. My next post will be What to Look for when http://mattclare.ca/blog/2011/02/21/what-to-look-for-when-trying-to-author-accessible-content-my-list/ Trying to Author Accessible Content: My List.

If you’ve ever wondered what happens when you wipe an iPhone via MS Exchange here’s my video.

I hope you don’t find yourself in a situation where you need to wipe your MS Exchange linked iPhone because you lost it or it was stollen, but I think everyone who has their phone connected to Exchange at work or Apple’s MobileMe service appreciates this kind of piece of mind. I know I really value knowing that if someone’s got my phone they at least don’t have my data like E-Mails, contacts, pictures and whatever else is on my most personal device.

In the case of MS Exchange 2010 here is what the confirmation E-Mail looks like afterwards.

If you don’t have your phone linked to Apple’s MobileMe service I’d recommend the Exchange based options that you might have through work (or a BlackBerry Enterprise server) or Microsoft’s hosted Exchange services or Google’s Apps for domains premium services.

The Conservative party’s take on Copyright reform, Bill C-32, is working its way through the parliamentary process. The last two copyright reform bills in Canada have died on the order paper, so it’s about time we revisit copyright as the Conservative government looks long in the tooth.

The Bill C-32 Legislative Committee has invited Canadians to share their views. The Committee has set the following parameters, as summarized by Michael Geist:

In order for briefs on Bill C-32 to be considered by the Committee in a timely fashion, the document should be submitted to the Committee’s mailbox at [email protected] by the end of January, 2011. A brief which is longer than 5 pages should be accompanied by a 1 page executive summary and in any event should not exceed 10 pages in length.

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5577/125/

I couldn’t write that much, but I thought I’d take an other opportunity to send my thoughts on the need for an educational take on fair dealing (fair use) that deals with only who has access and not how (dead trees versus electrons) and doesn’t suggest that anyone should help enforce a company’s “digital lock”.

Here’s what I’ve sent to my MP and modified for the committee. I encourage you to send something similar to your member or parlament and perhaps to the committee.

Honourable Ms. Raitt
Member of Parliament for Halton

Dear Ms. Raitt,

I am writing you with respect to Bill C-32, Canada’s copyright reform bill. I want to urge you to help ensure a fair approach to Canadian copyright works used in education and that respects the rights of those who purchase copies of copyrighted works. I would further urge you to ensure that the Canadian government does not create a copyright regime that centres around fundamentally flawed concepts and technologies that create “digital locks”. This type of approach is no more appropriate than when politicians first tried to control access to the printing press.

When Canada updates its copyright act it should acknowledge the difference between educational uses and commercial use or public performances. A distinction for using copyrighted works in education can be made by either loosening of restrictions of copyright for educational use or in imposing fair costs to students and educators.

For creators, to custodians to consumers of copyrighted works; “digitals locks” are too cumbersome, rarely effective and need to be written into law in order to give them an artificial validity. Please do not adopt any concept of “digital locks” into Canadian law.

Thank you for your consideration,

.\.\att

Matt Clare – mattclare.ca

You can learn more about the changes coming to Canadian copyright and the threat it poses to fair dealing (fair use) and what almost all consumers assume to be fair at http://www.speakoutoncopyright.ca/

The convoy hauling six giant beer vats passed our house. You can follow https://twitter.com/ChallengerMF to track their progress.

This was one of my first attempts at night photography with the DSLR.