Designing web sites that are accessible to all

There is a general reason why educational web sites need to be readable by the widest possible audience of students using a variety of equipment: Widening Participation. Increasingly, students use the World Wide Web to access learning resources, course information, and interaction with tutors and other students. As the variety of students (hopefully) grows, the variety of ways of using web pages will grow: through different network connections (e.g. intranet, cable, modem, mobile phone), on different equipment (e.g. monitor sizes, PCs, WebTV, Braille pads), using different software (e.g. browser versions, audio screen readers, screen magnifiers, browser plugins, text-only environments, mouse-less PCs), by students with different abilities and impairments (e.g. older students, dyslexics, blind students), and in different circumstances (e.g. study bedrooms, noisy cyber cafés, trains, boats and planes). Many of us will have suffered the frustration of trying to use web sites designed for fast connections and the latest browsers and plugins to provide something that might look good on TV but which fails to work in a reasonable time, or at all.  Usability is the battle cry against the dark forces of frustration, under the influence of authors such as Jacob Nielsen (see www.useit.com). However, even generally usable web sites (intuitive and user friendly) are not necessarily accessible (allowing people with impairments equal access to content).

This brings us to a specific reason to worry about web design now: the Disability Discrimination Act requires us to provide 'reasonable adjustments' to allow access to the curriculum from September 2002 (see the draft code of practice). These adjustments must be in anticipation of their being needed - we cannot wait for someone to complain! Access includes all stages of contact with a student and all features of the learning environment, including the web. A few students will need specific equipment to help with their specific impairments, but both they and many others with less severe impairments need well designed web pages and sites for them to be accessible; for example, can the text be resized, can it be used without a mouse, or with the graphics turned off? Badly designed sites will be a source of frustration or a complete barrier to some students, and ultimately may put the institution at risk of legal action.

The good news is that, in common with many of the changes to learning and teaching that are needed to widen accessibility, usable and accessible web pages will help all students.  It is usually possible for a single design to  satisfy all: so-called universal design. After all, we are not selling soap powder online: we are providing access to content, quickly and without problems. Only rarely might we have to have a 'text only' version for those using an audio screen reader, for example, because they cannot use the images, audio, animation or other multimedia we are including. But it is, in any case, good practice to provide multimedia in more than mode to accommodate different learning styles.

1. The usual starting point is the World Wide Web Consortium and its Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). A  good place to browse is the WAI Resources page. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, however, are too long and technical for the occasional web author. Shorter and more use is the  Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and even shorter and more useful are the 10 Quick Tips. You can even get them on a card and become a card-carrying accessibility web author!
2. More readable is the advice on the web site of the Royal National Institute of the Blind. Their page on Accessible Web Design is obviously aimed at designing for users with visual impairments, but the advice is about universal design. The RNIB is currently running a Campaign for Good Web Design aimed at commercial web sites.
3. The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) funds TechDis, the Technology for Disabilities Information Services which, with the Generic LTSN, has published Accessible Curricula - good practice for all  by Carol Doyle and Karen Robson in pdf format. This is 74 pages including appendices and covers all aspects of the curriculum. Section 9, pp. 52-60, concerns web accessibility and is a good account of the design issues and solutions. TechDis also has a section on Seven Precepts of Usability and Accessibility, for example 'Web site navigation design and page layout'. There are instructions on how to evaluate a web site using the precepts.
4. The National Disability Team (NDT) manages and co-ordinates projects to enhance disability provision in higher education institutions. It has links to all the legislation but it does not have its own guidance on web accessibility.
5. WebAble is 'the authoritative Web site for disability-related internet resources' . It is oriented to the US legal situation but has many useful documents, tools and utilities. These include advice for making  accessible multimedia and proprietary format resources, such as Flash and Acrobat.
6. The Making Connections Unit (MCU) is an independent organization with some useful guidance and articles on accessible web design.
7. WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind - has many useful materials including a comprehensive introduction web accessibility, some samples of good HTML for accessibility and emulators for a screen reader and a low vision access to an example page - try them!
8. AWARE is Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education, part of the HTML writers guild. It has lots of information for web authors for learning about web accessibility, and sources of useful software.
9. The manufacturers are joining increasingly aware of disability. The IBM Accessibility Center has a checklist and Microsoft Accessibility has articles and resources. Particularly useful are guides to accessibility for each version of Windows, Internet Explorer, and other MS software. With Adobe Acrobat PDF files so widely used, it is worth noting the accessibility problems they create. The Acrobat Reader may not be readable by audio screen readers or susceptible to the degree of customization that a browser will allow. In any case it is a different environment from a browser, and one geared to screen and printer displays. The Adobe Acrobat accessibility site provides a pdf-to-html conversion facility  for any PDF web address you give it. However, it will not over-ride document security settings if these have been set.
10. The Autumn 2001 issue of Interactions (vol. 5, no. 3) at Warwick University was a special issue on Web accessibility, with four articles on legislative aspects and design for visual impairment and other disabilities.
11. Ability is the magazine of the British Computer Society Disability Group and is now online. If you want to look to the future, the current issue (44) has an article by Marianne Hickey about voice controlled mobile web browsing, When talking is not enough
12. Developing and Accessible Web Page by Ann Wilkinson (1999) is a good introduction at the Centre for Human Service Technology, University of Southampton.
13. WebReview.com is a technical online journal currently serializing the book Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities (2000) by Michael G. Paciello.
14. To evaluate the accessibility of your web site you can check the good practice lists in the sources above. You can also use semi-automatic validation of pages. The best known is Bobby but WAVE is easier to use. In either, you enter a web address and you are presented with your page annotated with comments about features that are not, or may not, be accessible. Such tests cannot be complete or foolproof but they can spot features that you missed or never knew your web authoring tool was generating for you.
15. For visual impairment (and other reasons) some people use a free text browser Lynx or, if you do not want to install that software, you  can use the Lynx Viewer that emulates what a web page looks like in Lynx.
16. Further sources on web accessibility can be found at the sites above, at the TRACE Centre at the University of Wisconsin on its page Designing More Usable Web Sites.