EASI Online Course Starting April 7: Beginner Barrier-free Web Design
Schedule and registration at: http://easi.cc/workshops/easiweb.htm
EASI does not believe that any of its students are "dummies", but the title
is so popular that we are using it to make a point. EASI specializes in
making technical information easy to understand by people who are
non-technical. EASI has found most of its Web design students know little
technical HTML and that they use authoring tools like Dreamweaver,
FrontPage or Netscape Composer to create Web pages. This course is
designed to meet those needs. EASI believes that technology is to empower
human life not to dehumanize it.
Web pages can be created using Universal Design principles permitting their
use by people with different browsers, different connection speeds, palm
pilots, PDA's and by people with disabilities using adaptive computer
technology. They can also be created in ways that exclude many of the above
users. Barrier-free
Web Design will prepare you to create web pages that are visually appealing
and still permit full access by users with disabilities.
Our goal is that every participant who completes the course will take away
concrete, practical information and will have developed skills that are
immediately useable through hands on experience. By the end of the course,
every participant will:
1. understand the basic principles of accessible Web design embedded in the
Web Accessibility guidelines and in the Access Board's Section 508 standards.
2. design accessible Web pages using WYSIWYG authoring editors or using
minimal HTML code.
3. have developed the skill of understanding the report of an accessibility
checker and will have actually used a repair tool to repair that page.
The workshop will be delivered by e-mail for regular interaction, and the
content will be available online from the web. Instructors will schedule
weekly synchronous voice chats, but these are optional. Our goal is to help
participants discover Internet resources that will let them remain current
with the rapidly changing technologies and use it to promote accessibility.
Course lessons and Assignments
Lesson 1: Introduction
Part 1 How do people with disabilities surf the web?
Part 2 Why should you adapt your web site?
Part 3 What is web site accessibility anyhow?
Part 4 How accessible does my site have to be?
Lesson 1 assignment: share something about yourself with the class and tell
us why you are interested in accessible web design. Use the online Bobby
web accessibility checker on several web pages to check them for how well
the meet the Section 508 standards and learn to understand a Bobby report.
Lesson 2: Images, animations and image maps.
Part 1 WAI Quick Tip 1. Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to
describe the function of all visuals.
Part 2 Quick Tip 2. Image maps. Use client-side MAP and text for hotspots.
Lesson 2 assignment: look at your web site with your browser's images
turned off and navigate it withthe the tab key instead of the mouse.
Lesson 3: Multimedia
Part 1 Quick Tip 3. Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of
audio, descriptions of video, and accessible versions in case inaccessible
formats are used.
Lesson 3 assignment: Check out preset sites on your RealPlayer to see if
they are dealing with accessibility.
Lesson 4: Hypertext links and page orientation.
Part 1 Quick Tip 4. Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read
out of context. For instance, do not use "click here."
Part 2 Quick Tip 5. Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent
structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
Lesson 4 assignment: Check web sites to see if links make sense out of
context and if their page organization is consistent. Select a web page you
want to learn how to repair and decide whether you want to meet the WAI or
the Section 508 qualification.
Lesson 5: Graphs and charts.
Part 1 Quick Tip 6. Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
Lesson 5 assignment: look at assigned graphs and charts and discuss how you
would make them more accessible.
Download and install repair software on your computer. A-prompt from the
University of Toronto is an excellent free repair tool.
Lesson 6: Scripts, applets, & plug-ins.
Part 1 Quick tip 7. Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative
content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
Lesson 6 Assignment: look at assigned scripts, applets and plugins and
discuss how you would make them more accessible. Do a assigned repair
exercise aimed primarily at familiarizing you with how your repair software
works.
Lesson 7: Frames and tables.
Part 1 Quick Tip 8. Frames. Label with the title or name attribute.
Part 2 Quick Tip 9. Tables. Make line by line reading sensible. Summarize.
Avoid using tables for column layout.
Lesson 7 Assignment: look at assigned pages using frames and tables and
discuss when they were used effectively and when they were not. This final
assignment extends over lessons 7-8. Use the repair software to make the
page you selected accessible and discuss your successes and problems with
the class.
Lesson 8: Check your work.
Part 1 Quick Tip 10. Check your work. Validate the HTML. Use evaluation
tools and text-only browsers to verify accessibility.
Part 2 Accessibility checkers: Bobby, Wave, Aprompt
Lesson 8 assignment: run one or more accessibility checkers on your
selected web page and submit both the original page and the repaired page
for your final project.
EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) is a non-profit
organization, and our mission is to make information technologies more
accessible to users with disabilities.
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Norman Coombs, Ph.D.
CEO EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)
http://www.rit.edu/~easi
http://easi-elearn.org
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