Accessible Design
The first, and most important step towards making the Web accessible for all people, regardless of their circumstances or disability, is adherence to guidelines for proper design techniques when developing web content. Any effort made through assistive technology to give web users with disabilities a fulfilling experience on the Internet is rendered null and void by the prevalence of poor web design. In order to remedy this condition, we are providing this page as a gateway to information and resources for web developers seeking to make accessible content.
The implementation of accessible elements into a web document is at times straight forward and at others, more difficult. Media and Communication has provided a series of workshops so as to assist with the integration of accessibility into websites and will host more when necessary. For those intending to work independently or start early, DSS recommends HTML savy individuals start with WebXact set to 508 standards for a breakdown of accessibility issues. For those with less experience, A-Prompt is a wonderful tool that will walk an individual through the repairing of accessible issues within a particular document. For those interested in a more functional level of conformance, the Functional Accessibility Evaluator is available for free use.
Common Evaluation, Repair, and Development Resources
WebXact will evaluate and generate an evaluation report on the accessibility of HTML web pages based on the U.S. Section 508 Guidelines or W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. There is web based version and a downloadable version. The downloadable version offers more options to check entire web sites.
A-Prompt is a free downloadable program that will evaluate and prompt you to repair HTML web pages based on the U.S. Section 508 Guidelines or W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Functional Accessibility Evaluator analyzes web resources for markup that is consistent with the use of CITES/DRES HTML Best Practices for development of functionally accessible web resources that also support interoperability. It does so by following a set of techniques for implementation of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and United States Federal Government Section 508 standards.
W3C HTML Markup Validation Service is a free service that checks documents like HTML and XHTML for conformance to W3C Recommendations.
W3C css-validator is a free service that checks CSS documents for conformance to W3C Recommendations.
Illinois / W3C Checklist in conjunction with Bobby can assist with creating electronic media that is compliant with Illinois Web Accessibility Standards (IWAS). Currently, there is no program that directly checks for IWAS compliance and while accessible by design is encouraged, it has been found that a good starting point is to use W3C Priority 1 and Priority 2 (as checked with Bobby) and IWAS checkpoints 9.2, 9.3, 12.2, 15.1, 20.1, and 21.1 when developing electronic media. ***Note, this does not apply to 508 standards and has been included for those intending to achieve the higher IWAS standard.
**DSS also supports accessible plugins for authoring tools such as Dreamweaver or FrontPage (links for these can be found on the shareware page). We recommend contacting the tool's company to find out if it has an accessibility plugin.
Other common Tool Links
- W3C's Evaluation, Repair, and Transformation Tools for Web Content Accessibility is a comprehensive well described list of valuable resources.