[nabs-l] Info on Accessible websites?

[Tony Olivero]

Chrys,

My responses are below.

On 6/7/12, Chrys Buckley <cbuckley at pdx.edu> wrote:
> I am looking into putting together a website but I want to make sure it is
> accessible to everyone.

Excellent to see that you are interested in making sure your site is
accessible to everyone.

> Are there any definite do's and don'ts?

There are definitely an entire set of guidelines for web developers
that talk about what to do and what not to when building websites. The
entire Web Content Accessibility Guidelines can be found at
http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20. However, since you are talking about a
blog platform, and not coding things from scratch you may find that
document overwhelming. It may be of use if you ever branch out and
expand your web design skills.

> I'm thinking of starting out on
> wordpress (simply because I don't have any web design skills) - does anyone
> know if wordpress is accessible?

The default theme that is loaded when you install Wordpress is fairly
accessible. If you want to explore the theme gallery and choose your
own I would make sure you find one that has a good heading structure
so your visitors can navigate to different sections and content items
quickly. Also, I would check to see that the blog comment fields are
labeled for blind users (if you load VoiceOver on your mac and tab to
the fields VoiceOver should speak the name). Additionally, I would
avoid using the RECAPTCHA plugin for spam elimination. I have had very
good success removing spam with the Akismit plugin and no extra test
to see if the comment is posted by a human. If you post images, make
sure you include a description of the image as well.

Those are just a few thoughts. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have.

Tony