Barbara Taylor's List: Web Accessibility

Very readable article from WebAIM at Utah State that gives an overview of opportunities the Web offers for the disabled, barriers they face, and how institutions can implement web accessibility. Scroll down and check out two excellent videos: "Keeping Web Accessibility in Mind" and "Experiences of Students with Disabilities."

This video is narrated by Neal Ewers, who is blind and uses screen reader software to have electronic content read aloud to him. He shows how he interacts with content via the screen reader and discusses challenges visually impaired individuals face when accessing electronic documents including the Web.

Listen to blind and partially sighted people of all ages explain how technology has made their lives easier

Neal Ewers explains how to format text so it is more accessible to someone using screen reader software. He explains how you can create electronic content to convey the structure that sighted users can see - the importance of using heading levels.

Handout created by Barbara Taylor - Easy-to-follow guidelines for making SchoolWires webpages accessible to differently abled individuals. Includes explanations, "rules" to follow, SchoolWires screenshots, and links for more information. Whether you use SchoolWires or not, this handout is a good overview of principles and guidelines to follow when creating electronic content.

Colleen is blind and in this episode of her podcast (Blind Inspiration Cast), she demos what it's like for a blind person to use a screen reader. Start at time 7:57 and watch up to 11:51 to grasp the most relevant tips for making your Web content more accessible.

This page from NC State University has a table with quick tips on how to create accessible content in many different programs/scenarios as well as a link to a more detailed explanation for each type of technology.

Good article from WebAIM on how to make images accessible.

Great easy-to-read article with a set of "rules" about how to write good text for links and how to format them so they are easily recognizable.

Good overview of why link text is so important. Gives explanation of how screen readers work.

Tips on formatting link text to make links accessible

"Watch videos with subtitles in your language, upload your videos, create your own subtitles." Search for videos that may not be captioned in other places like YouTube, and you may find them here.

"A collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces, including touch screens, the IntelliKeys with custom overlays, and 1 to 3 switches... You may write your own books using pictures from the huge collection at Flickr or pictures you upload."

"Web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities and learning difficulties is one of the most overlooked subtopics of general web accessibility, despite it affecting the largest numbers." This article covers ''problems users with cognitive disabilities may have that can affect their ability to use the Web, as well as the things that developers can do to alleviate these problems and things they should avoid."

Check out the "Resources and Tools link." Trace Center Mission Statement: "To prevent the barriers and capitalize on the opportunities presented by current and emerging information and telecommunication technologies, in order to create a world that is as accessible and usable as possible for as many people as possible." TRACE is part of the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Great selection of videos from University of Washington.

Great list of myths debunked - reasons people give for why they should not have to make their websites accessible to all and a responses for why they should! From University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Information Technology

Uses City Lights page - same as one used in lynda.com video on accessibility. Annotations show problems with "before" pages and corrections made on "after" pages.