All In Your Mind
The biggest obstacle to barrier-free Web design continues to be designer reluctance, says Glenda Watson Hyatt, editor and publisher of Soaring Eagle Communications, a Web design firm in Surrey, British Columbia. She compares Web designers' resistance to learning about accessibility to the early days of the ADA. "Architects balked at having to include ramps and such because it would interfere with their creative design process. Nowadays, some architects have found very creative and non-obtrusive ways of including accessibility features, while others still don't get it. I think it's the same for Web building."
Ultimately, says Kynn Bartlett, principal of Fullerton, California-based Web design firm Idyll Mountain Internet, "Web accessibility is less about a set of checkpoints and guidelines and more about a state of mind."
| Accessibility Design Tools Makers of authoring tools are tearing down the barricades. Many can check for accessibility basics such as missing ALT tags for images, either out of the box or through third-party plug-ins. But research firm Forrester points out that making sure that the alternate text tag doesn't just exist but is correct requires a well-defined design and review process, which few shops have. |
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| Company/Product | Accessibility features |
|---|---|
| Adobe GoLive! 6.0 | Includes a built-in Accessibility Reporter that checks for common errors; InSightLE, a free downloadable plug-in from SSB Technologies, checks Section 508 compliance. |
| Xerox DocuShare | Web-based content management software lets accessibility software such as screen readers work directly with the content repository; Section 508 compliant without customization. |
| Microsoft | Its Microsoft Active Accessibility (MSAA) tools provide a platform that lets toolmakers build in accessibility. HiSoftware's AccVerify SE for FrontPage 2002 provides programmatic and visual accessibility verification, plus a complete tutorial. Visual Studio .Net makes it easier for designers to create accessible sites. |
| Macromedia | Flash MX has built-in support for MSAA tools for both the development software and Macromedia Flash Player 6. This support lets persons with disabilities interact with Flash content and applications using accessibility aids such as screen readers. UsableNet's LIFT plug-in for Dreamweaver MX includes fix wizards for tables, forms and images, a global editor for providing ALT text for graphics, and an active monitoring mode for checking while you build. |
| IBM WebSphere Studio | Includes tools such as keyboard shortcuts that make the authoring process itself accessible, with a built-in checking feature for new or existing files. |
| Checking Your Site After the design is done, these Web tools can check for basic coding flaws that hinder accessibility or offer complete Section 508 compliance evaluations. However, says Glenda Watson Hyatt, principal of Soaring Eagle Communications, "It is still essential to have humans review the site too, as software can't check for some aspects of accessibility." |
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| Company | URL | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Crunchy Technologies | www.crunchy.com | PageScreamer ($1,495) analyzes sites for Section 508 compliance and corrects errors. |
| UsableNet | www.usablenet.com | Free online checker. |
| Watchfire | www.watchfire.com | Sells several professional checking products, including WebQA ($1,495) for small-to-medium-sized companies; Bobby Online checks one page at a time for free. |
| Wave | www.temple.edu/inst_ disabilities/piat/wave/ | Free online checker from Pennsylvania's Initiative on Accessible Technology. |
The W3C and Web Accessibility InitiativeEven in the Web's early days, the World Wide Web Consortium was concerned about equal access. It formed the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in 1999 with a mandate to create three sets of guidelines: one for Web developers, one for browser programmers, and one for companies that make authoring tools. The Web developers' document was released in May 1999, with the authoring tools released in February, 2000. Kynn Bartlett, chief technologist for Idyll Mountain Internet, a Web design and consulting firm and a contributor to the WAI, says that Section 508 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act is almost entirely based on these guidelines. Of course, the Web has changed quite a bit even in that short amount of time. The WAI continues to work on the guidelines to address some of the things missing from the earlier version. For example, according to Bartlett, "While the needs of people who are blind or visually impaired are very well met by 1.0, the needs of people who are cognitively impaired or would benefit from some sort of graphical representation weren't as well expressed." Visit www.w3.org/WAI/ for guidelines, quick tips, and resources on implementing WAI recommendations. —SK
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Susan covers technology, business, and culture from Berkeley, California. Reach her at [email protected].
