COAP:COAP-2170/week6

COAP 2170

COAP:COAP-2170

COAP:COAP-2170/term project

COAP:COAP-2170/week1

COAP:COAP-2170/week2

COAP:COAP-2170/week3

COAP:COAP-2170/week4

COAP:COAP-2170/week5

COAP:COAP-2170/week6

COAP:COAP-2170/week7

COAP:COAP-2170/week8

COAP 2170 Week 6 program

Topic: Accessibility

Monday

(Use IE for Windows format or download the video first)

Introduction (videos and PPT)

• Keeping Web Accessibility in Mind (11.5 min. Flash)
• Experiences of students with Disabilities: Quicktime Windows Media from webaim
• Surfing the Web With a Screen Reader (20 min. AccessIT Video, start a min 4)
• PPT slides from Sharon Trerise, Cornell
• JAWS demo
• Accessibility in User-Centered Design (online book chapter)

Administration

• Homework 5 questions (if any)
• Mid-Term: Grade average was high (worst grade: B), some doubts about usability testing vs. user surveys

Principles and players

• The "players": W3C, US gov, some other national programs, corporate (e.g. Microsoft), some universities

Some important checklists:

• WCAG 2.0 at a glance
• WCAG "quick" ref (official)
• WebAIM's WCAG 2.0 Checklist (A PDF version) .... this is more understandable
• WebAIM's Section 508 Checklist for the Section 508 Standards Guide

Categories of users

• visual, motor, auditory, seizures, cognitive

On-line accessibility testing

• TAW3 online checks WCAG 2.0 compliance at all levels. E.g. our friendly university home page has 431 problems and 93 warnings .....

• WebAim On-line service.

• Deque Systems on-line service

• Cynthia says (all-in-one service)

• UITest.com. This is an all-in-one service for accessibility, validity and miscellaneous. Enter a URL and the do checking using various other services.

See Accessibility Evaluation Tools at WebAIM and Complete List of Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools at W3C for larger lists.

Designers' web browser extensions (some are alternatives to online tools)

• on line service WebAim Firefox extension

• WCAG Contrast checker

• Fangs Screen Reader Emulator, Firefox 2.0 -4.0 extension.

Assistive technology for browsers

• See web accessibility (no need to install assistive technology for this lesson)

Wednesday

Administration

• Term project: Each student must post her/his idea for a term project in the world classroom. A few sentences are enough. This activity is not directly graded, but non-participation will affect grade for term project. Deadline: Friday week 6 midnight.
• Homework 4 feedback (maybe)

Classroom activity

Evaluate a website according to some WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) principles. Pick one

(1) WCAG 2.0 is today's most important standard

• WCAG 2.0 Checklist (HTML version)
• WCAG 2.0 Checklist (PDF version)

(2) Older W3C version focusing on content:

• Checklist of Checkpoints for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

(3) US government - section 508 for government websites

• WebAIM's Section 508 Checklist (PDF version)

• Use an on-line service (see Monday) to help you with this task.
• You can work in teams of two if you like

Homework 6

Produce an accessibility review of a website of your choice. I suggest using one of the Webster web sites. You should at least evaluate the home page plus 3 other pages.

• Use a recognized evaluation grid or tool (e.g. the checklist used in the classroom activity or results produced from a service that checks for WCAG 1 or WCAC 2).
• Doing an analysis at "A" level (i.e. strongly required items) is ok. I don't require analysis at AA or AAA level ....
• Produce a report (you can copy/paste evaluation forms and/or reports from online or other evaluation software).
• Structure of the report: Introduction, findings, conclusion. Findings may include cut/paste data.
• Group work ok: 2 persons max/group, but analyze 6 pages or compare 2 websites.

Due: Wednesday week 7 before class.