[blindkid] blindkid Digest, Vol 89, Issue 13

Eleanor Robinson erobin8725 at aol.com
Mon Sep 19 13:52:10 UTC 2011


Hi Eric - your initiative is a really good idea.  I'm sure there are consultants who can ensure that a website is both compliant and attractive.  But it is a good idea to find out what is needed to meet the compliance standards to be sure that the person you are working with really knows the field.  
There are four basic parts to a compliant website - I just did a talk on this at the A11yBOS(that is the  AccessibilityBoston) unconference on Saturday. 
First:  All illustrations or graphic components must have a label.  All controls must have some text associated with them either visible or only seen by a screen reader such as NVDA, JAWs, VoiceOver, or Window-Eyes, or be self voiced.
Second: The tab order is extremely important - it should be left to right, top to bottom.  Context is essential.  All controls and headings must be in the tab order.
Third: Any control that must be selected to do anything on the website must be able to be selected by keyboard, not just by mouse clicks.  Buttons, drop-down menu controls, URL's links, all need to be given focus and selected, usually by the enter key.
Fourth: Keep your website simple and uncluttered.  When you try to stuff too much into a page it is difficult to navigate and understand where you are.

The other thing you should be aware of is that there are several free tools available to check your website for 508 compliance.  One of the ones I have used is Cynthia.  But you can probably find others by using google to look for 508 compliance tools.  When we do our annual review of the top 25 websites for gamers who are blind, we check each website for compliance and report that as part of our review.  Our website is compliant, but it is focused on computer games and so is designed to be a games website, not a general website.

Using these principles and a tool to find out what is and is not compliant, a competent website producer can develop a website that meets the "attractive" criteria and yet be 508 compliant.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me direct - eleanor at 7128.com

Eleanor Robinson
7-128 Software
www.7128.com

 

 

 


 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindkid-request <blindkid-request at nfbnet.org>
To: blindkid <blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sun, Sep 18, 2011 1:23 pm
Subject: blindkid Digest, Vol 89, Issue 13


Send blindkid mailing list submissions to
	blindkid at nfbnet.org

To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
	http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
	blindkid-request at nfbnet.org

You can reach the person managing the list at
	blindkid-owner at nfbnet.org

When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of blindkid digest..."


Today's Topics:

   1. Seeking Advice & Concrete Suggestions on School District
      E-Accessibility (DrV)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2011 09:14:04 -0700
From: DrV <icdx at earthlink.net>
To: "NFBnet Blind Kid Mailing List, (for parents of blind children)"
	<blindkid at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [blindkid] Seeking Advice & Concrete Suggestions on School
	District E-Accessibility
Message-ID: <CA9B66DC.76E2%icdx at earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="ISO-8859-1"

Hi Everyone,
We are trying to be proactive & would like for our district to take into
account accessibility issues up front as they more forward with further
web-designs & as they move into the next phase of the electronic era. I have
already shared the 2 Dept of Ed & Dept of Justice letters & FAQ. The
district has expressed openness to discussing how to move forward.
Towards this goal, I have an initial meeting with our district in the near
future.
To facilitate the process, rather than having the district get frustrated
with expectation of having to try to figure it out on their own, I would
like to be able to specific recommendations, leads, & contacts.
I am thus seeking your advice.
I?m working under the assumption that few individuals hired to do mainstream
tech support & manage websites for school districts have much experience or
training in how to best assure full accessibility.
Is there a ?Model School District? somewhere in the country that has already
effectively achieved compliance with the guidelines? If so can you share
their website?
Can you share examples of ?Model Websites? (any type of website) that are
both visually-attractive & fully compliant & functional?
Do you have recommendtions for a specific website(s), business(es), or
individual(s) that could guide the Tech developers in our district in how to
create a website & links that are both visually-attractive & fully compliant
& functional? It would be ideal to be able to connect the web-designers with
an individual or group that knows how to do this well.
Teachers will eventually also need to be informed/trained on e-accessibility
issues as well. Is there a website, PDF, or YouTube-type video that can do
this well?
Some teachers have their own websites & blogsites. Is there a
?Build-A-Compliant-Website? tool or easy step-by-step instructions that
would be understandable/useable to the average teachers who hasn?t been
trained in the more complex techno-speak?
How have you locally have approached this with your districts?
If you represent or know of an organization, business, or individual who
would be willing to invest the time & resources into partnering with a
willing school district to create a ?Model District? with respect to
compliance please let me know.
Any additional insights & suggestions are very welcome.
Sincerely,
Eric V




------------------------------

_______________________________________________
blindkid mailing list
blindkid at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindkid_nfbnet.org


End of blindkid Digest, Vol 89, Issue 13
****************************************

 



More information about the BlindKid mailing list