Presentation on Web and document accessibility presented to the National Endowment for the Arts' LEAD conference, August 2014.

1. The Accessible Web
Improving the universal experience

2. What is web accessibility?
None of these should be required on a website:
● Keyboards
● Mice
● Monitors
● Desktop computers

3. Interface Independence
The essence of web accessibility: content is
not dependent on the tools used to access it.

4. Section 504: Equal Opportunities
If your web site:
● Is part of your programs or services
● Provides information on programs or
services
● Shares documents required to register for or
get information about your programs
● Then you’re subject to 504.

5. Section 504: Equal Opportunities
Under Section 504: you must provide alternate
formats of information you share.
The ideal web site minimizes the need to create
alternate formats: one web site with universal
access.

6. Principles of Accessibility
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/
● Perceivable
● Operable
● Understandable
● Robust

7. What does that mean?
Web accessibility is for everything on the web:
● Web sites
● PDFs
● .doc, .ppt, .xls, .everything else

8. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Keyboard Accessibility
● Unplug your mouse.
● Hit the tab key
Can you navigate to every link? Can you tell
where you are?

9. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Keyboard Accessibility
Compare these two sites:
● http://themes.joedolson.com/universal/
● http://themes.joedolson.com/iatc/

10. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Form Labeling
● Has a profound impact on web site users
● Is extremely easy to detect.

11. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Form Labeling
Example:
Bad News

12. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Form Labeling
Example:
Good News!

13. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Form Labeling
Compare these two sites:
● http://dev.joedolson.com/form-bad.html
● http://dev.joedolson.com/form-good.html

14. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Alternative Text
● Disable Images
● Is any information missing?
What’s gone with images disabled? Is this an
equal experience for the user?

15. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/image-
block/
● http://www.girlandthegoat.com/

16. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Inclusive Content
It doesn’t matter how
accessible your site is if you
don’t have accessible content.

17. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Inclusive Content
● Accessible text content
● Accessible PDFs
● Accessible Audio and Video

18. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Accessible Text Content
● Scannable: Use headings and bullet points.
● Avoid directional text: where is “left” in a
screen reader?
● Use meaningful link text: what does “Click
here” mean?

19. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Accessible PDFs
● The source document must be accessible
o Alternative text for images
o Use heading structures - don’t just change fonts and
sizes
o Export to PDF, don’t just print to PDF
http://webaim.org/techniques/acrobat/converting

20. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Accessible PDFs - what about scanning?
● Not accessible by default - just big images.
● Use Optical Character Recognition
● Edit the document to add structure
http://wac.osu.edu/pdf/scan/pdffromscan.html

21. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Inspect your PDFs:
With Acrobat X
● Tools > Advanced > Accessibility > Full
Check
● View > Zoom > Reflow
● Tools sidebar > Action Wizard > Make
Accessible

22. Testing Web Sites for Accessibility
Accessible Audio & Video
Two factors: the player and the content.
● Player Accessibility
● Text transcription
● Closed Captioning
● Audio Description

23. In Summary
Web accessibility is complex and subjective;
but there’s still an objective difference between
inaccessible and usable - you too can spot that
difference.

24. Thank you!
Joseph Dolson
http://www.joedolson.com/
joe@joedolson.com
http://twitter.com/@joedolson