RE: Template for Accessible Web Page

Hmmm... that's interesting. I am not seeing the significant
accessibility concerns you are finding and am surprised that this would
be "one of the more inaccessible pages" you've seen in a while since
there are simply so many inaccessible sites out there. 

Which sections did you find to be JavaScript dependant? Also, the form
elements I have come across that would require label tags have them.
There is the poll which could use a label tag, but employs the input's
"value" attribute instead. 

Now, I have found that the calendar data table lacks a valid summary and
does not employ the use of the "scope" or "id" and "headers" attributes,
but, I fail to see where access is not possible. 

I am certainly not defending the accessibility or inaccessibility of the
basic templates at this site, but perhaps I a missing something. I am
always open to new and valuable information. Thanks for pointing this
out. 

Also, do you have alternate suggestions for more accessible templates?

Antonio O. HaileSelassie


-----Original Message-----
From: David Dorward [mailto:david@dorward.me.uk] 
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 2:04 PM
To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
Cc: M. Urban; Haileselassie, Antonio O. (HQ-LM020)[InDyne, Inc]
Subject: Re: Template for Accessible Web Page


On 24 Mar 2008, at 17:34, Haileselassie, Antonio O. (HQ-LM020) 
[InDyne, Inc] wrote:
> Here's a suggestion:
>
> http://www.adobe.com/resources/accessibility/dw8/dw_templates.html

I downloaded the first set of templates offered form this page, and  
looked through the index.html file. I only gave it a cursory  
examination, but a list of problems that I compiled in about five  
minutes follows. I wouldn't call this template "accessible", far from  
it, it is one of the more inaccessible pages I've seen for a while.

* The lynx test:

    Noble,  
Pennsylvania

 

        Town of Noble,  
Pennsylvania

 

        * ABOUT
* [pipe.gif]
* MAYOR
* [pipe.gif]
* COUNCIL
* [pipe.gif]
* DEPARTMENTS
* [pipe.gif]
* EDUCATION
* [pipe.gif]
* HISTORY
* [pipe.gif]
*  
CALENDAR

 

                         Quicklinks  
[Select....................................>] [BUTTON]

That's a big failure.

* XHTML in a world with Internet Explorer

* Transitional (when the differences between Transitional and Strict  
are tiny other that the addition of things which violate WCAG)

* No XML prolog (required if not UTF-8) but a claim that it is  
ISO-8859-1

* Navigation implemented as a select element ... and dependant on  
JavaScript

* JavaScript commented out. This was encouraged in HTML 4.x to  
protect pre-HTML 3.2. In XML, however, it is an actual comment. This  
causes the document to depend on being served as text/html rather  
then application/xhtml+xml (which the specification says it SHOULD be  
served as).

* Lack of label elements

* Invalid

* ASCII art used to separate list items ... no li elements in  
evidence on some lists.

* ALL CAPS used instead of CSS. IIRC, this causes some screen readers  
to spell the word out as an abbreviation.



-- 
David Dorward
http://dorward.me.uk/
http://blog.dorward.me.uk/

Received on Monday, 24 March 2008 18:31:09 UTC