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Frequently Asked Questions
- Who can help me better understand disabilities and
accessible Web design?
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A good place to start is the
Adaptive Technology Lab
located in the Mary Gates Hall Computing Resource Center.
The lab is well equipped with adaptive technology. Tours and
demonstrations can be arranged by appointment.
Another place to begin is C&C's Computer Training
classes on the
Fundamentals
of Web Publishing, which cover
the basics of creating sites that work with adaptive technologies.
Questions can also be sent to the
Usability email list at usability@u.washington.edu.
Managed by the
UWired Usability Committee, the list is
for discussions relating to usability and accessibility of
the UW's educational Web sites.
- Where can I find good tutorials on accessible
design?
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The following sites provide the best currently available
online tutorials on accessible Web design.
- Can I use
my favorite Web publishing program such as DreamWeaver
or FrontPage?
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The latest versions of most Web publishing programs
include many features to help you create accessible Web
sites.
- Can I have multimedia on my site?
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Yes, but design your multimedia so that disabled persons
can benefit too. Several methods can be used. For videos,
provide closed captioning. Where the narration does not
need to be synchronized with the video, provide a transcription
of the dialog in a separate file. Further information
on the use of multimedia is available on the
following sites:
- How about PDF, Flash, and Shockwave files?
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PDF, Flash, and Shockwave all have a number of
accessibility features built in. Take the time to learn
about them and about their limitations before using
these products. See the following sites for more information.
- Can I use tables?
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Of course. Keep them simple, whether they are for layout
or to contain rows and columns of information.
Design your tables so they will make sense when read
(heard) "linearly" (cell by cell, left to right, beginning
with the top row). Use THEAD, TFOOT, and TBODY to group rows,
COL and COLGROUP to group columns, and the "axis",
"scope", and "headers" attributes, to describe
more complex relationships among data. Further information
about tables can be found in the
WebAIM tables tutorial.
- How can I test my Web site for accessibility?
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Several online site accessibility evaluators are available.
- WAVE
Accessibility Checker - Temple University.
In addition to pointing out problems with your HTML, WAVE
indicates the sequence in which parts of your page will
be read.
- Bobby -
Accessibility validator.
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