Accessibility Quick Reference Guide
Contents:
Accessibility means removing barriers that can prevent people with disabilities from participating in life activities, including the use of services, products, and information.
Approximately 40 million Americans have some type of disability. Accessibility is a requirement in all current federal contracts as required by section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, and in the commercial sector, The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) calls for similar considerations.
Product accessibility is mandated by law but guaranteed only when it has been usability tested and all widget and object labels in programs and web pages have been reviewed. You should:
- Unplug the mouse and make sure keyboard access is provided to all active objects such as buttons and scroll boxes.
- Make sure tab elements such as links, tool bars, and form fields are load out in logical order.
- Provide meaningful names in the application and web page code for all text and graphics based elements.
Comprehensive keyboard access is essential for users with physical and visual disabilities who cannot utilize a mouse:
- Provide comprehensive keyboard access to application features.
- Follow the key mapping guidelines in your environment's style guide.
Users with disabilities may have configuration requirements that only they can anticipate. For example, applications that do not allow flexibility in presentation of fonts and colors can block access for visually impaired users. Tips below:
- Do not hard code application colors or graphic attributes such as line, border, and shadow thickness.
- Do not hard code font sizes and styles.
- Do not rely exclusively on audible cues, and where appropriate allow users to choose between audible or visual cues.
- Allow users to configure frequency and volume of audible cues.
Do not conflict with key mappings reserved for access features: Windows AccessPak, Motif AccessX, Mac Easy Access:
- 5 consecutive clicks of Shift key (On/ Off for StickyKeys)
- Shift key held down 8 seconds (On/Off for SlowKeys and RepeatKeys)
- Ctrl-Shift-NumLock (On/Off for MouseKeys)
Note: These tips are an excerpt from Design of HTML Pages to Increase their Accessibility to Users with Disabilities by Wendy Chisolm, Neal Ewers, and Gregg Vanderheiden.
Text Anchors
- Make text anchors (also known as links) descriptive enough so that they make sense when read out of context.
- Place a dividing character between links which occur consecutively. Vertical bars are often used to prevent a list of links from being read as one link by a screen reader.
Image Maps
- Provide an alternate text description ( ALT-TEXT). Otherwise, the user with a text-based browser sees a note saying there is a graphic but doesn't know what it is.
- Provide text anchors for all links accessible through an image map. Usually provide by a list of text anchors just below the Image Map.
- Provide an alternate text-only page which translates all of the graphic and text information into text only.
Note: Client side image maps are rapidly coming to the fore. Text descriptions for each URL in a client side image map will be required.
Style suggestions:
- Make your ALT-TEXT descriptions short yet descriptive.
- For bullets use a lower case "o" as the ALT-TEXT.
- For horizontal rules use the words "horizontal line" as the ALT-TEXT.
GIF and Other Inline Graphics
- Provide a text description (ALT-TEXT) for decorative graphics such as borders and logos.
- Include a text anchor to a separate page with a full description of significant graphic elements, pictures etc ( recommend a capital "D" or a short phrase located next to the picture).
- Provide an alternate text-only page which translates all of the graphic and text information into text only.
Color
- Background patterns and color should contrast well with the lettering to maintain readability (background refers to both backgrounds of pages and backgrounds of images).
- Select colors that will make your pages easy to read by people with color blindness. One good test is to see if your pages are readable in black and white.
Forms
- Provide a form which can be downloaded then mailed or e-mailed, or a phone number someone can call to provide the requested information.
Tables
Tables cause problems for screen reading software (used by people who are blind) since the screen readers tend to read across the screen in a way that runs all of the text on a line together. If an entry in a cell occupies more that one line the first line of each cell would be read, then the second etc. If you can avoid using the TABLE structure that is best.
JPEG and Other External Viewer Graphics
- Include a text anchor to a separate page with a full description of significant graphic elements, pictures etc ( recommend a capital "D" or a short phrase located next to the picture).
- Provide an alternate text-only page which translates all of the graphic and text information into text only.
Audio Clips
Maintain a link to a page with a transcript or description of the sound file. Use a phrase such as "or a transcript of xxxx" or "hear the speech or read the transcript" with "read the transcript" acting as the link to the transcript.
Non-standard Page and Document Formats
- Avoid non-standard HTML formats, special tags, etc. They often cause problems for Braille translation, screen readers and some browsers.
- Always provide HTML, or at least ASCII forms, of all documents presented in Frame,PDF, PS or other formats.
Center on Information Technology Accommodation (CITA)
Room 2022, KGDO 18th & F Streets, NW Washington, DC 20405
(202) 501-4906
Trace Research and Development Center
S-151 Waisman Center 1500 Highland Avenue Madison, WI 53528
(608) 262-6966
