Website Accessibility
Accessibility is not just about making sure that people with disabilities can use our site. It is also about allowing a wide variety of users and devices to have access to information, thus maximizing our potential audience by letting users experience the website as they choose. Designing for accessibility means accepting that, for online information, there is:
- no standard user on the web, and
- no standard device for browsing information.
An accessible website doesn't exclude visitors due to their abilities, or the method they choose to access the web.
Accessible websites make clear content, structure, and ease of navigation a priority over the frillier aspects of design. This doesn't mean they are visually unattractive, nor does it mean they are prevented from using the latest web technologies, provided that all information is still accessible to users.
We strive to provide web content that meets accessibility guidelines as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3).
Basic Criteria for Keeping a Site Accessible
- Images. Use the ALT attribute to describe the function of each visual.
- Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
- Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here."
- Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure.
- Graphs and charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
- Scripts, applets, and plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
- Non-HTML documents. When using a non-html document (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) also offer a PDF version.
- Frames. Do not use frames. Frames have many accessibility and usability issues.
- Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize.
- Check your work. Make sure your code is validated. Cross-browser compatible XHTML has the best chance of being accessible to the greatest number of browsers.
- Checking Your Web Pages for Accessibility: Jim Thatcher discusses programs that help you experience your pages from different accessibility perspectives.
- Cynthia Says: Software designed to identify errors in your content related to Section 508 standards and/or the WCAG guidelines.
Last updated on Friday, August 1, 2008.
