Accessibility
Published by Sara Jacobson
Apr 24, 2008 10:55 PM
Accessiblity is essential-and usually if you design a site with accessibility in mind, you also get increased usablity-what a bonus.
30 days to a more accessible web site
URI: http://diveintoaccessibility.org/
This is one of the easiest guides to accessibility I have found. It takes the form of a 30-day calendar, each day giving you tutorials on adding accessible elements, and describing just who is helped by it. If you want to be accessible, but aren't sure where to start, check this site out.
Source: Mark Pilgrim
Bobby
URI: http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp
Have you seen 'Bobby Approved' icons on sites and wondered what they meant?
Bobby is a validator for accessibility. You can test for complaince with Section 508 (the minimum required for government) and WAC priorities 1, 2 and 3.
Gaining full Bobby AAA approval doesn't mean your site is fully accessible-visual checks are needed for that, but it means you are a lot closer to being fully accessible.
Source: Watchfire
Colour Contrast Check
URI: http://www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
Make sure your site colors have enough contrast to be easily read.
Source: Jonathan Snook
Cynthia Says
URI: http://www.contentquality.com/
Like Bobby, Cynthia Says is another accessibility validator. I find it a bit more useful than Bobby as it gives a more detailed report and allows you to check your entire site. You should test your website against both.
Source: Content Quality
Effective Color Contrast
URI: http://www.lighthouse.org/color_contrast.htm
Clear language and graphic examples help this site convey in the importance of designing for accessibility.
Source: Aries Arditi, PhD
Inspect your website in Lynx
URI: http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
If you are unable to use the real Lynx browser to view your pages, try this site. Most accessiblity aids read webpages from top down as it is in the code, not how it displays in a browser. How does your site look?
Source: Delorie.com
Vischeck Low-Vision Website Analysis
URI: http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/
You should always view your site in as many resolutions and color depths as you can, but a person with normal sight can overlook what will be serious issues for the color-blind. This site creates an image of your site so you can see how it would be viewed by persons with three different types of color-blindness.
Source: Vischeck
