Good Web Design, Usability and Web Accessibility:
Designing Hypermedia for Everyone
The Office of Disability Services provides resources and information regarding accommodations for students with disabilities. Please contact the Office of Disability Services at (312) 413-2183 or additional information can also be obtained from the following site: http://www.uic.edu/depts/counselctr/disability/diswebpg.htm.
The following resource list will provide more information, tools, and resources to make your web site accessible. For specific guidelines about web accessibility, refer to the information provided by the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) http://www.w3c.org Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) http://www.w3.org/WAI Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group (WCAG WG) http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL. For a listing of the WAI Quick Tips, refer to http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/QuickTips. Additional guidelines regarding Section 508 are located at http://www.section508.gov.
CAMPUS WEB PUBLISHING LINKS
The UIC Academic Computing and Communications Center (ACCC) home page is located at http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/index.html. Refer to http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/webpub/index.html for additional information about web publishing. Refer to http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/itl/index.html for more information about the Instructional Technology Lab (ITL). For supplemental information about designing accessible web pages, obtain information from http://www.uic.edu/depts/accc/webpub/webaccess.html. A link to the World Wide Web Corsortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines can be located through the Design Resources section of the UIC Web Publishing page.
RESOURCES: Special thanks to the individuals and groups who develop and provide information to enhance web accessibility. Links to various sites are listed. Please refer to the respective site to obtain further information about copyright information, privacy issues, or download instructions for specific tools.
ACCESSIBILITY VALIDATION TOOLS AND SERVICES
-A-Prompt Toolkit: http://aprompt.snow.utoronto.ca/index.html
- Bobby: http://www.cast.org/bobby
- LIFT: http://www.usablenet.com
- WAVE 2.01 (Pennsylvania Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT) – “available for testing and review”: http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave
- WAVE 2.02 Alpha: http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/yindex.html
ACCESSIBILITY AND CAPTIONS
- Media Access Generator (MAGpie) to add captions to various media: http://ncam.wgbh.org/webaccess/magpie
-Microsoft Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI) – Search for “SAMI”:
http://www.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp
ACCESSIBILITY AND CASCADING STYLE SHEETS
- W3C CSS Validator: http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator
- HTML Writer Guild’s Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education (AWARE): http://aware.hwg.org/tips/essay_kb_02.html
ACCESSIBILITY AND MICROSOFT
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/microsoft/default.htm
ACCESSIBILITY AND ADOBE PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (PDF) DOCUMENTS
http://access.adobe.com/tools.html
ACCESSIBILITY AND POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
Power Point Web Publishing Accessibility Wizard (0.93 Beta Version) created at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana by Jon Gunderson:
http://cmos-eng.rehab.uiuc.edu/ppt/index.html
Send comments and bugs to ppt@rehab.uiuc.edu
ACCESSIBILITY TOOLS FOR TABLES
TABLIN (WAI Evaluation & Repair Group):
http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Tablin
HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE (HTML) VALIDATORS AND TOOLS
- Dave Raggett's HTML TIDY: http://www.w3.org/People/Raggett/tidy
- Web Design Group HTML Validator: http://www.htmlhelp.com/tools/validator
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) HTML Validation Service: http://validator.w3.org
IDEAS AND EXAMPLES
Equal Access to Software and Information (EASI) Web Contest Winners: http://www.rit.edu/~easi/entrants.htm
Determining Colors for Users who have Color-blindness by Tiny Eyes, Inc., Menlo Park, California: http://www.vischeck.com/index.shtml
Usability.gov Tip for Website Based on the CancerNet Site (earned numerous awards)
http://www.usability.gov/lessons/learned.html
Web Access Training Tutorials/Info: http://www.w3.org/WAI/training
WEB ACCESSIBILITY LEGISLATION
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
Access Board: http://www.access-board.gov/news/508-final.htm
DISABILITY LEGISLATION
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
Department of Education: http://www.ed.gov
American with Disabilities Act
Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/adahom1.htm
Access Board Guidelines (Physical and Section 508.gov)
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES
Accessible Web Authoring Resources & Education: http://aware.hwg.org
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST): http://www.cast.org
Center for IT Accommodation, Office of Governmentwide Policy (GSA): http://www.itpolicy.gsa.gov/cita
Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology (DO-IT), University of Washington: http://www.washington.edu/doit
Equal Access to Software and Information: http://www.rit.edu/~easi
Federal IT Accessibility Initiative: http://www.section508.gov
HTML Writers Guild: http://www.hwg.org
HTML’s Writers Guild’s Accessible Web Authoring Resources and Education: http://aware.hwg.org
The Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Torono: http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc
Trace Research and Development Center: http://www.tracecenter.org
U.S. General Services Administration “IT Issues & Concerns”:
Usability.gov Site: http://www.usability.gov
Usability.gov Accessibility Info: http://usability.gov/accessibility/index.html
REFERENCES AND RESOURCES – (Cont’d.)
Usable Web: http://www.usableweb.com
Web Accessibility in Mind (WebAIM): http://www.webaim.org
COURSEWARE ACCESSIBILITY INFO
Special Needs Opportunity Windows from the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre, University of Toronto: http://snow.utoronto.ca/access/courseware/index.html
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT COMPUTING
University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) students can obtain more information about computing labs on campus through the Client Services Office (CSO). To contact the CSO, call (312) 413-0003 or send an electronic mail message to consult@uic.edu.
The Instructional Technology Lab (ITL) offers assistance to UIC faculty and staff with development of web and multimedia items, as well as instructional technology support. For assistance, contact the ITL by phone at (312) 996-9824 or send an electronic mail message to itl@uic.edu.
Please contact Joy Hyzny in the Office of Disability Services should you have any questions pertaining to accessibility. She can be reached at (312) 413-0886 or through electronic mail at jhyzny1@uic.edu.