Subject: 7/31 Meeting Minutes: Toward Accessibility Standards UWired Usability Committee July 31, 2001 Topic: Working Toward UW Standards on Accessible Web Design 1. The Legal Requirements (Helen Remick) The UW does have legal obligations for its services to be reasonably accessible. Rehabilitation Act of 1973 preceded the Internet and related to physical accessibility, but it contains the basic principle of making services available to persons with disabilities. San Jose State University received a complaint in 1995 that it was not complying with Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and was ordered by the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights to change its practices. (http://www.icdri.org/sjsu.htm) People at the UW (or interested in it) who can benefit by accessible Web designs have a wide range of disabilities: No vision Low vision Cognitive and learning disabilities (dyslexia) Auditory limitations Dexterity and mobility limitations Section 508, passed in 1998, amends the Reabilitation Act, requiring that Federal agency use of electronic and information technology be accessible by June 21, 2001. o Applies to all federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain and use such technology o Includes some language requiring state agencies to meet standard, but can be argued both ways o Does not directly apply to UW but UW programs working with the Federal government may need to consider it, especially if developing services and information under contract with the Feds We have to do our best to make UW sites and services accessible Want to do things right in the first place, especially as Web replaces printed format We do not have standards We should have Inaccesible pages and services are a legal disaster waiting to happen 2. HTML Has Many Features Supporting Accessibility (Rick Ells) The latest version of HTML is more strict and structured in its syntax, allowing more reliable processing by adaptive technologies o Content can be placed into a simple structure of text types (paragraphs, headings, list items, etc.) and presentation (colors, backgrounds, font sizes) can be controlled by style sheets. o Many elements include labelling attributes, such as alt attributes for img elements, summary attribute of table elements, id attributes in th table elements, header attributes in td table elements, and titles for framesets. Such labelling makes complex elements such as tables more navigable. o The separation of content and presentation, plus the labelling, are part of a general reorganization of HTML to allow presentation of information through multiple technologies, including web-enabled phones, PDA browsers, and voice phones, as well as adaptive technologies. Taking these steps is a good strategic direction to go. 3. Design Practices That Improve Accessibility (Dan Comden) The site should be navigable by keyboard shortcuts (if you throw away your mouse, can you get around in your site?) Tables should linearize well (do they make sense when viewed row by row, cell by cell?). Use stylesheets for presentation aspects of your design and be sure each page makes sense when viewed without the stylesheet. Avoid reliance on color to convey essential information Caption multi-media, such as for use by Magpie (NCAM's Media Access Generator, http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie/, which can be used with Quicktime, SMIL and SAMI. Check your pages with accessibility checkers such as Bobby. 4. Discussion A UW standard whould at least require that all pages meeat the WAI Priority One checklist items: (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/checkpoint-list.html Macromedia is offering a free Web Accessibility Seminar in Seattle on Tuesday, September 25 in the Mountaineers Building. See http://dynamic.macromedia.com/bin/MM/event_reg/eventDetails.jsp?key=1480 The best approach would be to integrate accessibility in any class you are teaching, so that everyone gets the message early on. Accessibility should be a routine part of the workflow, not an exception or add-on. What other colleges and universities have developed guidelines/policies? This could be presented as a liability issue. Managers may be much more willing to respond if it is presented as a risk-management situation rather than a design philosophy discussion. Also relates to products we buy. Some vendors offer products that do not have good interfaces. Standards would give Purchasing leverage to require good design. Any body that enters into a contract with UW is included in the standards Texas recently enacted a new state requirement for accessibility of state government Web sites, including state supported higher education: Texas Administrative Code Section 201.12 http://www.dir.state.tx.us/standards/S201-12.htm Guidelines for Web publication have been developed: http://www.dir.state.tx.us/standards/srrpub11.htm Steps We Could Take Speak at support meetings Create an accessibility road show Windows on Technology articles OnTech News blurb on WebAIM Work it into courses as matter-of-course C&C Computer Training UWired workshops UW Home Page Developers Campus-wide Symposium on Accessibility Helen Remick, as Assistant Provost for Equal Opportunity, meets annually with the Deans Currently uses a DoIT handout Could use better material on legal, technical, and practical aspects of accessible Web design Develop a good statement of accessible Web design as a risk management issue Develop a statement of Web accessibility requirements for products and services purchased by the UW, such as Web site designs Review what has happened at other universities Get on Faculty Committee on Educational Technology (FaCET) agenda, Jaime Diaz is currently chair Draft a requirements/standards statement Requirements by category home pages and entry points must complay to categroy one parallel html versions of all document image files (PDF) must be provided 5. DELIVERABLES ACTION: Dan Comden, Scott Macklin, and Melody Winkle will rough out a basic standards statement, based on the W3C WAI checklist, the WebAIM checklist, and standards statements from other higher education institutions. ACTION: Rick Ells will burrow around in the Web for standards statements, accessible web design training materials, and other useful reference sites. Resources found will be assembled on the UWired Usability Committee Accessibility page at http://staff.washington.edu/rells/usability/accessible.shtml ... at least for now. ACTION: Scott Macklin will talk to Jaime Diaz about approaches we could use to encourage that faculty created Web sites are accessible. ACTION: Helen Remick and Dan Comden will continue their work summarizing our legal obligations relating to accessibility of UW Web pages 6. Accessible Web Design Resources Legal Stuff Accessibility and the Web: Implication for Higher Education of the American with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 http://www.alt.usg.edu/EITFolder/accessibility_and_the_web.htm An Overview of Law & Policy for IT Accessibility http://www.icdri.org/SL508overview.html Accessibility and the Web: Implication for Higher Education of the American with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 http://www.alt.usg.edu/EITFolder/accessibility_and_the_web.htm Accessible Design Standards Currently Out There In Academia and State Government State of Connecticut Universal Web Site Accessibility Policy for State Web Sites - Version 4.0 http://www.cmac.state.ct.us/access/policies/accesspolicy40.html MIT Disabilities Resources for Information Technology http://web.mit.edu/atic/www/sw/ Washington State - Web Presentation Guidelines for Digital Government VERSION 3.0 http://www.wa.gov/dis/portfolio/webguidelines.htm How To Access Washington - Website Accessibility http://www.aasa.dshs.wa.gov/access/ WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind http://www.webaim.org/ Accessible Web Design Tutorials http://www.webaim.org/tutorials/ AWARE - Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education Center http://aware.hwg.org/ W3C WAI - Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3c.org/WAI/ Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 http://www.w3c.org/TR/WCAG10/ Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 http://www.w3c.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html DO-IT Accessible Web Page Design http://www.washington.edu/doit/Resources/web-design.html Microsoft Accessibility - Technology for Everyone http://www.microsoft.com/enable/ Federal IT Accessibility Initiative http://www.section508.gov/ |- Rick Ells - 543-2875 - rells@cac.washington.edu - Rm 011S MGH Bldg -| |- http://staff.washington.edu/rells/ -|