Reference card: < 350 words

Title: Basic Guide to Accessible Web Design
Author: Stella O'Brien
Version: 1.1
Status: Draft
Date last modified: 12th August 1998
Word count (excluding document information): <350

Maximise your audience. Make sure your web site communicates effectively
even with the graphics, sounds, and moving images, turned off.

Supply text versions of visuals. Well written text alternatives communicate
the content or purpose of a picture or display  to people who can not see
them.

Provide access to audio-visual materials. Create text transcriptions and
descriptions of audio and visual material. Important auditory and visual
information is now available to users who have partial or no access to the
original material.

Make text easy to read for users with vision impairments. Keep the
background simple and use a high contrast colour for the text.

Make pages easy to scan. Users scan pages to pick out interesting material
quickly and easily. Similarly, users scan a speech output to listen for
cues to relevant information. Provide an organised framework of summaries,
headings, and lists to aid scanning for all users. Make the main text
clear, short, and relevant.

Provide easy navigation and links. Users need constant, easy access to an
appropriate version of a site map and information about their current
position. Users need to have a clear idea of the content of a link, and
where it will take them.

Allow alternative input for people who can not use a mouse. Support
alternative input and user control such as keyboard access or voice
control. Supply a list of text links for clickable regions in images.

Use accessible layout which supports users' personal preferences, and
technical resources. If complex data are to be presented then provide text
alternatives which summarise the data, explain the interpretation, and
allow access to the raw data.

Test the accessibility of the web site with several browsers, in various
ways (e.g., with graphics loading turned off; or without plug-ins), using
alternative input (e.g., keyboard rather than mouse), and on different
monitors. Evaluate the site with an automated analysis tool. Make sure the
web page still communicates the relevant information.

Get more information For more detailed guidelines, examples, and other
useful techniques see ***.

Stella O'Brien, KO2
email: smo-brien@lioness.demon.co.uk

Received on Thursday, 27 August 1998 13:24:31 UTC