1. Web accessibility
Exeter Web Meetup July 2013
Steve Lee
steve@opendirective.com
@SteveALee

2. What is Accessibility
“The Web is fundamentally
designed to work for all
people, whatever their
hardware, software, langua
ge, culture, location, or
physical or mental ability.“
W3C WAI (not TBL)

3. Arguments for Universal Access
• More users or bigger market
• Coz it’s the right thing to do
• It’s the Law (DDA in UK, Section 508 in USA)
• Mobile = diverse devices and access modes

4. Access for all

5. Access for all

6. Access for all

7. Access for all

8. Access Variations

9. Access Variations

10. Access Variations

11. Access Variations

12. Access Variations

13. Access Variations

14. It boils down to…

19. So much variation

20. So much variation

21. Learn the Basics
www.w3.org/WAI

22. Learn the Basics
www.w3.org/WAI
webaim.org

23. WCAG 2.0
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Be Aware of the Standards

26. POUR – quoi?
• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

27. Make life easy for yourself
• Use HTML native controls
• Use accessible frameworks/libraries
• Consider ‘mobile 1st’
• Use progressive enhancement

28. Progressive Enhancement
• Add successive working layers
–HTML – semantic structure
–CSS - presentation
–Javascript - behaviour
• Think ‘content out’

29. eg Forms
• HTML + real URL + server processing
– A label for every input field
• CSS – make it look smooth
– Care with display: none
• Javascript – client cleverness
– HTML5 has declarative validation

30. 1,2,3 Testing
• Unplug that mouse
• W3C HTML validation service
• Accessibility validation tools
• Smoke test with NVDA screen reader
• Real user testing!

31. Remember…