Kathy Gips Will Miller New England ADA & Accessible IT Center 800-949-4232 voice/tty Funded by the National Institute on Disability.

Kathy GipsWill Miller

New England ADA & Accessible IT Center800-949-4232 voice/tty

www.newenglandada.org

Funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education

Universal Design and IT: Ensuring that Information Technology is

Accessible to People with Disabilities

Copyright New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, 2005

This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Ten Regional ADA & Accessible IT Centers

One national toll free number connects to the regional centers

800-949-4232 voice/tty

New England ADA & Accessible IT Center, a project of Adaptive Environments

Agenda

• Who uses accessible information technology, IT & Assistive Technology (AT): Differences

• World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility Initiative Guidelines

• Section 508 Standards• Evaluating existing web sites for

accessibility• Resources


“Accessible” information technology is technology whose use does not require any one sense or ability to be functional

What is “accessible” information technology?


Slide courtesy of ITTATC

Color Blindness

Avoid using color as the only means of distinguishing between choices.

Barriers

PUSH GREEN BUTTON TO STARTPUSH GREEN BUTTON TO START

Slide courtesy of Knowbility, Inc

Color Alone - Example

Slide courtesy of Knowbility, Inc

Color - OK

Color, Contrast, Font

Allow users to utilize their preferred colors, fonts and

styles.


Slide courtesy of ITTATC

Barriers

If the colors used in a site have poor contrast, it may be difficult

for some users to read.

This text has better contrast, but the heading on this slide is

even better.

Color Contrast



styles.




styles.


Accessible IT vs. AT: What’s the Difference?


Assistive Technology (AT)

•“Any item, piece of equipment, or product system that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities”


Assistive Technology (AT)

•Examples: canes, wheelchairs, screen reader software, and voice input software


Assistive technologyActivating Keys with Head Stick


Photos courtesy of tiresias.org, deafblind.com and the University

of Maryland

Assistive technologyBraille Display


Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska - Fairbanks

Assistive technologyVoice Input


Photo courtesy of the Boston College EagleEyes Project

Assistive technologyControlling the Cursor with Eye

Movements


Photo courtesy of the Pinellas Association for Retarded Children

Assistive technologyTouch Screen


Web Guidelines: W3C/WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines

(WCAG) Created by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of

the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

Voluntary compliance (in the U.S.)

Used globally

Three levels of compliance

Includes guidelines for accommodating cognitive disabilities

WAI is also developing guidelines for web authoring tools and for user agents (e.g., browsers)


Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act

•Federal agencies only

• Information technology must be accessible

•Unless “undue burden”


Web standards: Section 508

(a) Text Tags

(b) Multimedia Presentations

(c) Color

(d) Readability

(e) Serve-Side Image Maps

(f) Client-Side Image Maps

(g)&(h) Data Table


Web Standards: Section 508

(i) Frames

(j) Flicker Rate

(k) Text-Only Alternative

(l) Scripts

(m) Applets and Plug-Ins

(n) Electronic Forms

(o) Navigation Links

(p) Time Delays


Section 508Web standard

• All information conveyed with color must also be available without color, for example from context or markupNeeds Improvement


http://www.fly.faa.gov/

Evaluating web pages for accessibility

Easier to build an accessible site from scratch than to fix an existing site

Use testing software like Bobby or LIFT - but won’t find all accessibility errors



Turn off sound

Use a text-only browser such as Lynx or Lynx simulator

Unplug the mouse, use keyboard only



Have people with disabilities who regularly use assistive technology test the site and give feedback


Where to go for more information

New England ADA & Accessible IT Center

800-949-4232 v/tty

www.NewEnglandADA.org


Kathy Gips Will Miller New England ADA & Accessible IT Center 800-949-4232 voice/tty Funded by the National Institute on Disability.

Documents

color contrast slide

disabilities slide

regional ada accessible

color ok slide

slide courtesy of knowbility

assistive technology

better contrast

preferred colors