AccessWeb

AccessWeb Discussion List

This list fosters ongoing discussion about accessible website design, management, policy, and practice. It is open to anyone with an interest, but was particularly established as a means of fostering communication and collaboration on web accessibility among higher education entities in the Northwest region of the United States. The list is supported by the Northwest Alliance for Access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (AccessSTEM) at the University of Washington.

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Resources on Accessible Web Design

The Web contains vast amounts of information about accessible web design. This page provides a starting point, with select resources hand-picked and organized by our staff of web accessibility exprts

Select Resources from DO-IT and the UW

World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design - DO-IT's publication and video with general information on how to make web pages accessible to people with disabilities.
Creating Video and Multimedia Products that are Accessible to People with Sensory Impairments - a DO-IT publication on how to design video presentations that are accessible to individuals with disabilities.
Making UW Web Sites Accessible to Everyone - guidelines for the University of Washington.
Web Accessibility: Guidelines for Administrators - guidance for non-technical administrators regarding how to assure that websites in their organizations are accessible to everyone.
Access to Technology: An Online Tutorial - an overview of assistive technology as well as the design of accessible electronic and information technology.
Technology and Universal Design - a collection of resources on the procurement and development of accessible technology.

General Web Accessibility Resources

DO-IT Knowledge Base - hundreds of articles featuring answers to common questions, case studies, and promising practices regarding accessibility of technology, college, graduate school, and careers for individuals with disabilities.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative - hub for accessibility activity within the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
WebAIM - Something for everyone, including an introductory tutorial, more advanced techniques documents, and an active blog
EASI - Podcasts, Webinars, and online courses focused on web accessibility in education

Training and Tutorials

Dive into Web Accessibility - free, self-paced online tutorial where material can be arranged by type of disability, design principle, web browser, or publishing tool, by Mark Andrew Pilgrim.
ITTATC Web Accessibility Course - free, self-paced, online course written to teach techniques for creating accessible websites that comply with Section 508 standards for accessible web content, by Jim Thatcher.
Introduction to Accessible Information Technology in Education - free, self-paced online course focusing on accessibility issues that relate to information technology and related law and policy issues in education, offered through the National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education (AccessIT).
Web Accessibility 101 - free, self-paced, online course focusing on web accessibility policy, standards, and design from the University of Wisconsin.

Guidelines and Standards

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 - the definitive set of web accessibility guidelines, from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 - update to WCAG 1.0, still a working draft
Section 508 - the law, Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility Standards, and accompanying tutorials

Adobe PDF Accessibility

Adobe Flash Accessibility

Adobe Accessibility Resource Center
Adobe: Flash Accessibility
Adobe Accessibility Blog - tends to focus on Flash, Flex, and multimedia accessibility issues
AccessIT article: Is Flash Content Accessible?

Microsoft PowerPoint Accessibility

PowerPoint & Friends: Accessible Slides on the Web - ongoing results of Terry Thompson's accessibility tests

AJAX/Web 2.0 Accessibility

Dynamic Accessible Web Content Roadmap - Direction from the W3C
Roles for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA Roles)

States and Properties Module for Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA States and Properties)

Proceedings: Web Accessibility Capacity Building Institute - this event in November/December 2006 brought together representatives from W3C, IBM, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, and GW Micro, as well as 27 web managers and programmers from 11 colleges and universities to identify accessibility solutions related to emerging technologies.
Accessible Web 2.0 Applications with WAI-ARIA - Excellent overview by Martin Kliehm, on A List Apart
WAI-ARIA Live Regions - Excellent article by Gez Lemon, on Juicy Studio

Multimedia Accessibility

MAGpie - Free tool for adding captions and audio description to videos, from National Center on Accessible Media at WGBH
HiCaption - captioning software from HiSoftware, Inc.
Captionate - tool from Manitu Group, embeds caption data directly into a Flash Video file
Automatic Sync Technologies - upload videos and transcripts and have them captioned automatically within minutes
CC For Flash - another NCAM product, tools for supporting closed captioned video via Flash
Adobe Accessibility Blog - features several articles on adding captions to Flash video
Camtasia Studio - TechSmith's screen recorder and video editor, includes captioning features
Adobe Captivate - Adobe's screen recorder and video editor, includes captioning features

Policy Development

How can our school or district go about developing an accessible information technology policy? - AccessIT Q&A.
Is it reasonable to use an ad hoc approach to accessibility of electronic and information technology? - AccessIT Q&A.
Which educational entities have developed web accessibility policies? - AccessIT Q&A.
Which set of web accessibility standards or guidelines should I comply with? - AccessIT Q&A.

Web Accessibility Evaluation and Repair Tools

Evaluating Websites for Accessibility - a W3C WAI site devoted to this topic, includes a Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List Search to help with selecting tools from among the dozens that are available.
Functional Accessibility Evaluator - free online tool from University of Illinois
WAVE - free online tool from WebAIM
Web Accessibility Checker - latest checker from the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre at the University of Toronto
WebXACT - this website quality assurance product from Watchfire now incorporates the accessibility features of "Bobby", the original web accessibility evaluation tool.
Cynthia Says - limited free online tool from HiSoftware, Inc.
WAT-C - Web Accessibility Tools Consortium, developer of several free accessibility tools, including the Web Accessibility Toolbar for IE.
Accessibility Extension for Firefox - developed by the University of Illinois

HTML Validators and Repair Tools

W3C Validation Tools - check whether your web page complies with HTML, CSS, and other specifications; from the W3C, the group who wrote the specifications
HTML Tidy - an open source tool for cleaning up your HTML source code
Dr Watson
Page Valet

Universal Design as a Topic of Instruction

Universal Design of Web Pages in Class Projects - how teachers can integrate universal design into core curriculum.
Web Design and Development I - free course curriculum developed for use in secondary schools; emphasizes standards-based and accessible web design.

DO-IT Resources

DO-IT search

DO-IT home page