Basic Accessibility

• Agenda
• Introductions
• Objectives
• Why is Accessibility Important
• Disabilities Affected by Web Design
• Universal Design
• Accessibility in Law and Policy
• Web Assistive Technology
• AIR Competition
• Core Accessibility
• Basic Accessibility
• Tools
• Resources
• Sponsors

Web Assistive Technology

Examples include:

• Alternative Keyboard
• Alternative Mouse
• Refreshable Braille Display
• Screen Magnifier
• Screen Reader

Examples of Screen Magnifiers/Screen Readers:

• Zoom Text by AI Squared - screen magnifying software that makes computers accessible/friendly to low-vision users.
• JAWS by Freedom Scientific - popular screen reading software. Uses internal speech synthesizer and computer's sound card to read info from computer screen aloud.
• Window Eyes - a Windows screen reader for Microsoft Office applications as well as the web.
• FireVox – a screenreader extension for the FireFox web Browser

How screen readers read a web page

• Screen readers announce the page title (the <title> attribute in the HTML markup).
• Screen readers pause for periods, semi-colons, commas, question marks, and explanation points.
• Screen readers generally pause at the end of paragraphs.
• Screen readers try to pronounce acronyms and nonsensical words if they have sufficient vowels/consonants to be pronounceable; otherwise, they spell out the letters.
• When reading words letter by letter, JAWS distinguishes between upper case and lower case letters by shouting/emphasizing the upper case letters.
• Screen readers will read the alt text of images, if alt text is present. JAWS precedes the alt text with the word "graphic." If the image is a link, JAWS precedes the alt text with "graphic link."
• Screen readers ignore images without alt text.
• If the image without alt text is a link, screen readers will generally read the link destination.
• Screen readers can announce headings. JAWS, for example, precedes <h1> headings with "heading level 1."
• Some screen readers announce the number of links on a page as soon as the page finishes loading in the browser.
• JAWS says "same page link" if the link destination is on the same page as the link itself.
• Screen readers in table navigation mode (users have to activate this mode) inform the user how many rows and columns are in a table.
• Users can navigate in any direction from cell to cell in table navigation mode. If the table is marked up correctly, the screen reader will read the column and/or row heading as the user enters each new cell.
• Screen readers inform users when they have entered into a form. Users have the option to enter form navigation mode.

WCAG 2.0 | Demo of Web Assistive Technology