WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

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Re: need some help re problem sites

for

From: Shawn Henry
Date: May 1, 2013 6:45AM

Hi WebAIM folks,

I agree with Bevi on some points. And I have good news related to those points!

Indeed, most of the material on the W3C website is technical specifications, not tutorials for beginners. WCAG [1] itself is a robust standard -- certainly not a beginner's guide. And the supporting material (Understanding WCAG 2.0 & Techniques for WCAG 2.0, linked from [1]) is intended to be detailed. I think "How to Meet WCAG 2.0" [2] helps with using the information, yet right now it also has just the standards and detailed language. (We have talked about revising "How to Meet WCAG 2.0" to also help those who are new to web accessibility, as well as those who are evaluating web accessibility. We might be able to get to that before too long.) While it's not a tutorial, for those who want an overview of WCAG we have WCAG 2 at a Glance <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/>;

We do have introductions to accessibility for specific audiences:
* Accessibility - W3C <http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility>;
* Web accessibility basics <http://docs.webplatform.org/wiki/concepts/accessibility>;

For people developing training, we have a range of material under <http://www.w3.org/WAI/train>;, including guidance on Developing Web Accessibility Presentations and Training <http://www.w3.org/WAI/training/>;.

Good news: We're developing tutorials that will cover some of the basic issues (as well as some advanced). In May, we hope to put the drafts of the first ones up at their final URI. We're also working on "Easy Checks - A First Review of Web Accessibility" and hope to put that up in May as well. (We prefer not to spread the draft URIs because it complicates people finding the real resources when they're in place.) We'll update this thread when these are in place.

WAI has a long list of things we would like to develop to help people get started with web accessibility. We welcome resources to help! If you might be interested in participating in the Education and Outreach Working Group, please do contact me: <EMAIL REMOVED> or +1-617-395-7664.

For now, I think *the best place to point people to for understanding the basic concepts behind what you need to do to make the web accessible* is a sub-page of the resource How People with Disabilities Use the Web:
Accessibility Principles
http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/people-use-web/principles

Best regards,
~Shawn

[1] WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines <http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php>;
[2] How to Meet WCAG 2.0 <http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/>;


-----
Shawn Lawton Henry
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
e-mail: <EMAIL REMOVED>
phone: +1.617.395.7664
about: http://www.w3.org/People/Shawn/


On 4/29/2013 11:15 AM, Chagnon | PubCom wrote:
> If you want a sighted web developer/owner to understand your needs, then
> don't send them to www.w3.org, WAI, or WCAG.
> The websites are overwhelming.
>
> When I teach accessibility to developers, authors, and others who create the
> material you want to access, my students' first reaction to any of these
> websites is not positive. In fact, I can't reproduce their comments here.
> Within a few minutes of scanning the websites, they want to bolt from the
> classroom and never return to learn about accessibility.
>
> The problem is that the overviews and technical sections aren't written and
> visually designed well enough for the average visitor. They are dense,
> text-heavy, unattractive, and difficult to skim. In other words, they do not
> communicate the message well.
>
> We need a reference website that's written to guide and encourage developers
> to fix the most critical barriers first, and then build in the other items.
> W3C/WAI/WCAG websites don't meet that need: they instead throw everything at
> the reader, expecting them to dissect an enormous amount of detail in a
> short period of time, to run a marathon when they're not even taking baby
> steps yet.
>
> I don't know of any web developer out there with spare time to spend reading
> these websites. There is no "short version" of the website or a top-10-list
> of things to do to make a website more accessible.
>
> No wonder they don't make their websites accessible.
>
> —Bevi Chagnon
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> www.PubCom.com — Trainers, Consultants, Designers, Developers.
> Print, Web, Acrobat, XML, eBooks, and U.S. Federal Section 508
> Accessibility.
> New schedule for classes and workshops coming in 2013.
>
>