Mark Stoner,
Communication
Studies
California State University, Sacramento
Some Useful Resources to Enhance Web Page and Instructional Material
Accessibility
Topics on This Page
[Content]
CSUS Office of
Services to
Students With Disabilities
Services to
Students with Disabilities
(SSWD) offers a wide range of
support services and accommodations to students
in order to ensure
equal access and opportunity to pursue their educational goals.
CSU Professional
Development for Accessible Technology
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/access/
This site is a project of the Accessible
Technology
Initiative
(ATI) of the California State University system. The mission of
the
ATI is for the CSU system
of universities to excel and provide
national
leadership in using technology that is fully accessible through
universal design to its students, faculty, staff
and the general public.
Assistive Technologies
Inventory
These technologies have been used by
students when building up
strategies to make working with on-line materials easier and quicker.
http://www.lexdis.org.uk/technology
Accessibility
Standards
and
Page
Validators
Cynthia
Says
Cynthia is a web
content accessibility validation
solution designed to identify errors in design related to Section 508
standards and the WCAG guidelines. The main purpose of this portal is
to educate web site developers in the development Web Based content
that is accessible to all. I find the validation reports to be
clear and useful.
http://www.contentquality.com/
WAVE
(Web Accessiblity
Versatile Evaluator)
Developed
at
Temple University for the Pennsylvania Iniative on
Assistive
Technology, this site provides a
service similar to the WebXACT online
validator. I find the WAVE page evaluator to be a bit
less complex and less technically oriented than Bobby, and the results
more easily understood. WAVE puts more emphasis on
human judgement regarding actual accessiblity than does WebXACT.
http://wave.webaim.org/index.jsp
A-Prompt
Accessibility
Verifier
A-Prompt (Accessibility Prompt) is a
software tool designed to
improve
the usability of HTML documents by evaluating Web pages for
accessibility
barriers and then providing developers with a fast and easy way to make
the necessary repairs. You can download the application to
your computer without charge.
The software is made available
through the joint efforts
of the University of Toronto's Adaptive Technology Resource Centre
(ATRC)
and the TRACE Center at the University of Wisconsin. This works
from your desktop and serves to guide and correct your design as you go.
http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/index.html
Web
Accessibility
Initiative (WAI)
This site explains accessiblity
standards--what the validators above are looking for. The site is a
trove of the best information about accessibility.
It provides links to all sorts of resources for those trying to make
their
pages accessible; it also provides links and information you can give
to
others who are disabled themselves. Reading this site is like
taking
a course on accessiblity--I highly recommend it.
http://www.w3.org/WAI/
Practical Advice
on Accessible Web Design
Universal Design of
Instruction: Definition, Principles, and Examples
http://www.washington.edu/doit/Brochures/Academics/instruction.html
For an interesting video on the
topic, see:
Equal
Access: Universal Design of Instruction
Other
Resources:
EASI (Equal Access to Software and
Information)
http://people.rit.edu/easi/
On-line courses in designing accessible
web pages. I took the basic
course and found it to be worth the investment. This site also
offers
numerous other resources such as weekly web casts of
presentations
or interviews with experts in accessible design. This site is a
basic
resource that will keep you well informed regarding what is going on
nationally
regarding accessibility issues and good practices.
Web
Design Group Accessibility
Pages
This is a brief, and useful
discussion of the topics: reasons why we
should write accessible pages; accessibility tips, and myths about
accessibility.
I think this page is definitely worth a visit; especially for those
relatively
new to the concept of accessibility.
http://www.htmlhelp.com/design/accessibility/
IMS
Guidelines for Developing Accessible Learning Applications
The guidelines developed by the
IMS Accessibility Project
Group
and presented in this document, will provide a framework for the
distributed
learning community. This framework will highlight existing solutions,
discuss
the opportunities and strategies for their implementation and will
identify
areas where further development and innovation are required to ensure
education
that is truly accessible to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
http://www.imsproject.org/accessibility/accv1p0/imsacc_guidev1p0.html
Using Rich Media in
Page Design
The National Center for Accessible
Media, is a collection of resources
for developers and users interested in ways to make rich media
accessible
to people with disabilities. See a Showcase of rich media uses,
authoring
tools, and tutorials on rich media design and use. A very
important
resource if you want or need media elements in your pages such
as
streaming video, animations, slideshows, tickers, etc.
http://ncam.wgbh.org/invent_build/web_multimedia/tools-guidelines
Software
Thunder
Page Reader
Download the Thunder ScreenReader
talking software and your XP or
Vista computer will be immediately usable by someone who can’t
see to read the screen. You will have a talking computer which will
speak as you press keys and read out to you what is on the screen.
http://www.screenreader.net/index.php?pageid=11
LecShare
http://www.lecshare.com/index.htm
LecShare Pro helps you create
accessible, narrated presentations from
Microsoft PowerPoint. Easily record or import audio into your
presentation and export it to a number of different formats.
(Copies available in the Center for Teaching and Learning)
View a recent presentation by Norm
Coombs and Greg Kraus on what
LecShare does. Best viewed using Internet Explorer 6 or 7,
http://easi.cc/archive/capppt/capppt.htm
Invisible
Disablities:
Learning Disability
Many more of our students experience
learning disabilities than
physical,
visual or auditory ones. Resources that help us understand and
meet
the needs of these students who are increasingly confronted with
text-based
learning contexts on the web are useful resources.
http://learningdisabilities.about.com/od/learningdisabilitybasics/qt/invisible_disab.htm