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Re: guidelines for accessible HTML and CSS - these ok?

for

From: Sandy
Date: Aug 23, 2011 5:12PM

Deborah,

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this.
Great notes from you and Vincent. Revised page going up tomorrow. I'll
keep you posted.

Sandy

> Nice list! There are a few guidelines on your list that I am not so sure
> about.
>
> 1. "Every page has a <title> that contains the page name (which
> corresponds to the menu link and the <h1>) and the site name"
>
> This very much depends on the site -- although I might be confused
> because I'm not sure what you mean by the "menu link".
>
> 2. "The first item on every page is a skip to content link. This link
> takes you to an anchor set at the very top of the content — probably
> just above the <h1>"
>
> Again, this depends on the site. If not a lot of space is dedicated to
> navigation, this isn't always necessary.
>
> 3. "Each page contains one <h1>."
>
> There have been debates about that on this list. It's not required by
> the standard, and there are no particular reports that it makes life
> easier for people with disabilities, unless there are some of which I'm
> unaware. Primarily this is an inconsistently followed convention.
>
>
> 4. "Images need alts which match image text and provide any additional
> information supplied by the image. alt="" is acceptable if the image is
> purely decorative, but it’s better to use CSS to put decorative images
> in a background"
>
> I would add a specific comment to never leave the alt out. Other notes
> that I've had to give people about alt text include:
> - Don't trust the alt text provided by authoring tools; they often use
> the filename or something else nonsensical.
> - Good alt text is context dependent, and an image which is decorative
> it in one place and might be described as "figure of a man" in a second
> place might be described as "President Theodore Roosevelt riding his
> horse two days after his inauguration" in yet a third. The best resource
> I've ever seen to explain this is the webaim page on context:
> http://webaim.org/techniques/alttext/
>
> 5. I also think it's worth mentioning to people that the title attribute
> on images is inaccessible to all keyboard-only and many screenreader
> users. Somehow it's gotten out there that the title attribute is an
> accessibility tool, and people keep putting vital information in it.
>
> 6. "Disable images and check that <alts> are accurate and helpful"
>
> This is excellent advice. I would modify the phrase slightly to "disable
> images and check that you can still navigate the site and understand all
> of the content." That's the functionality being sought, rather than the
> technical requirements for having accurate alternative text. This also
> might be a useful place to explain how to disable images, since it's
> only trivially easy in Opera. One piece of advice might be "install
> Opera", but you can also advise that they install an accessibility
> toolbar such as WAVE (<http://wave.webaim.org/toolbar>;) or the UIUC
> toolbar (<http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu/>;) for Firefox. This will make
> all of their tests much easier.
>
> 7. "Check that it’s possible to access all information by tabbing
> through the site and using the enter key to “click”."
>
> I would rephrase this as "Check that the site is keyboard accessible. In
> most cases, this will mean tabbing from link to link, and selecting
> links and form fields with the enter key."
>
>
> It also might be worth mentioning that this list is a *starting* point
> for someone new to accessibility, and pointing your audience to various
> good next links: WebAIM, an introduction to WAI-ARIA, etc. Actually on
> that note, I would add "If your page is dynamic, use WAI-ARIA controls
> to report AJAX changes to screenreaders and other adaptive technology."
>
> -Deborah