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Thread: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review

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From: JMoyn2339
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:14AM
Subject: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7>
Hi Everyone,
I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions with regard this web
site....http://wdom.org/
This is my first attempt at an accessible web site and just wanted some
input as to how I did?...If it needs any changes...
Thanks,
John
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From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:20AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:23AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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From: Deryck Thake
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:28AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 bgColor=#ffffff leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7>
<A
href="http://www.contentquality.com/mynewtester/cynthia.exe?rptmode=2&;amp;amp;url1=http%3A//wdom.org/">http://www.contentquality.com/mynewtester/cynthia.exe?rptmode=2&;amp;amp;url1=http%3A//wdom.org/

Priority 1, Fail: flickering graphics
Priority 2, Fail: uses deprecated W3C technologies
Priority 3, Fail: Until
user agents (including assistive technologies) render adjacent links distinctly,
include non-link, printable characters (surrounded by spaces) between adjacent
links.

Additionally you have 19 HTML errors:
<A
href="http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&;amp;amp;uri=http%3A//wdom..org/">http://validator.w3.org/check?verbose=1&;amp;amp;uri=http%3A//wdom.org/

and 2 CSS errors and 2 CSS warnings.
<A
href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?profile=css2&;amp;amp;warning=2&amp;uri=http%3A//wdom.org/">http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/validator?profile=css2&;amp;amp;warning=2&amp;uri=http%3A//wdom.org/

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news :(

Deryck

<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
----- Original Message -----
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black">From:
jmoyn2339

To: <A title= = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ">WebAIM Discussion List
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 3:10
PM
Subject: [WebAIM] An attempt at an
accessible web site...Please review

Hi Everyone,
I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions with regard this
web site....http://wdom.org/
This is my first attempt at an accessible web site and just wanted some
input as to how I did?...If it needs any changes...
Thanks,
John
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:32AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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> Hi Everyone,
> I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions with regard this
> web
> site...._http://wdom.org/_ (http://wdom.org/)
> This is my first attempt at an accessible web site and just wanted some
> input as to how I did?...If it needs any changes...
> Thanks,

Oh, I just checked the code :-)

It would be a lot better to create a clean, semantically logical markup
than using tables for layout. Your sneaky way around the "other separator
than whitespace" in the navigation links by adding spans and BRs around
them would be better as a list, then it is also more obvious for people
without CSS what the navigation is.
Nested tables might be hard to navigate, and with a layout that easy, you
can use a CSS template instead.
On the staff board page you have a nice example for a data table, which
needs scopes or ID/headers pairs to become accessible. Instead of the

<td colspan="3" valign="middle" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"
class="sectiontitle">Staff

tagsoup, a simple

Staff

would have done the trick.

When creating accessible web sites what is happening "under the hood" -
the HTML structure - is as important as what is shown.

HTH
Chris

--
Chris Heilmann
http://icant.co.uk/ | http://www.onlinetools.org/

From: Hall, Kevin (K.M.)
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:38AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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0
DocumentEmail

6 pt



<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=blue style='tab-interval:.5in' id="role_body"
bottomMargin=7 leftmargin=7 topmargin=7 rightMargin=7>

John,

It's good
that you are interested in making the site more accessible, so please take
everything that follows in the spirit of constructive criticism.



You should
check out the W3C Accessibility Guideline Resources at <a
href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/">http://www.w3.org/WAI/Resources/



A few
notes on your code. I see that you are trying to use CSS in your page design,
that's good. You should be able to remove any remaining font tags by styling a
few elements in the CSS. That's usually the first step people take in using
CSS.



Consider making
your main navigation an unordered list:

<;ul>;

<;li>;<;a href=&quot;who.html&quot;>;Who
We Are<;/a>;<;/li>;

<;li>;<;a href=&quot;services.html&quot;>;Services<;/a>;<;/li>;

&#8230;

<;/ul>;

It will
cut down on markup and is semantically useful. You can remove the bullets in
the style sheet by using list-style-type: none;

See <a
href="http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_list.asp">http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_list.asp
for info on styling lists.



Consider removing
the marquee tag that creates the scrolling ticker as Chris suggested. The
marquee tag is deprecated in current specs and moving text can be a problem for
users with some disabilities.



Consider
making the images at the top into styled text. There are many techniques
available for making this more attractive such as sIFR, see <a
href="http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2004/10/sifr-2.0-release-candidate">http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/archive/2004/10/sifr-2.0-release-candidate
for more information on one good accessible technique.



Also, keep
working on your CSS to remove any tables that are used for layout. Tables are
meant to display tabular data (in rows and columns). While yours are not too
bad there are plenty of resources online that will walk you through converting
a table based layout to CSS. Search on Google for:' converting tables CSS '
without the quotes and you'll find plenty of information.



Again, it's
good that you are thinking about this so don't be discouraged, you are on the
right track but there is plenty that still needs to be done.



Regards,

-Kevin
Hall

From: Mary Martinson Grossnickle
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 8:51AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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>>The animated
>>news ticker seems superfluous, too.
I would avoid the ticker because any movement is distracting, particularly
to people with cognitive disabilities. Older versions of screen readers get
stuck on movement on the screen (not sure if that would happen with your
particular ticker, but still best to avoid movement). Also, the text size of
the ticker is too small, and does not resize.

In usability testing I've done with people with disabilities, users
consistently commented that a link to content was an important feature for
them. You've included that on every page, good job!

Mary

--
Chris Heilmann
http://icant.co.uk/ | http://www.onlinetools.org/

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From: John Brandt
Date: Wed, Oct 06 2004 4:12PM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7>
The rest of the folks
have noted the major "errors" in your HTML, so I will not repeat these. But your
descriptions for ALT attributes also should be mentioned.

While it is not mentioned
specifically in any standards that I am aware of, a colleague of mine strongly
recommends that the text in the ALT attribute match the text in the graphic.
This would mean the CWD.gif should have ALT that reads "confidtech.com." The
rationale for this is that people who use voice command technology (as opposed
to keyboard or mouse) would not necessarily be able to "click" this link because
they would be speaking "Confidtech.com logo and link to web site." I think I
have that right...anyway, the recommended method is to have the two
match.

It is a minor (perhaps
overly anal) issue, but while you're at it....might as well fix
everything.

Anyone else know about
this method want to chime in?

jeb

John E.
Brandt
Augusta, Maine
USA

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href="mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = "> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
<A
href="http://www.jebswebs.com/">www.jebswebs.com

From: jmoyn2339 [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 10:10 AMTo: WebAIM
Discussion ListSubject: [WebAIM] An attempt at an accessible web
site...Please review

Hi Everyone,
I would greatly appreciate any comments or suggestions with regard this web
site....http://wdom.org/
This is my first attempt at an accessible web site and just wanted some
input as to how I did?...If it needs any changes...
Thanks,
John
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =

From: julian.rickards
Date: Thu, Oct 07 2004 6:45AM
Subject: Re: An attempt at an accessible web site...Please review
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<BODY id=role_body style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"
bottomMargin=7 leftMargin=7 topMargin=7 rightMargin=7>
If you use a graphic of text, then the alt
attribute should contain the same content as the graphic.

-----------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards A/Digital Publications Distribution
Coordinator Publication Services
Section, Ministry of Northern
Development and Mines, Vox:
705-670-5608 / Fax: 705-670-5960