...IWDP and accessibility

Accessibility statement

This is the official accessibility statement for IWDP.co.uk. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email us at accessibility@iwdp.co.uk

Access keys:

After careful consideration it was decided not to include Access keys within IWDP due to the lack of browser support, lack of industry standardisation of Access keys, lack of general awareness and potential conflicts with assistive technologies; ironically the very items they were initially designed to aid. Access keys will be replaced in WCAG 2.0 with Access attributes; this is a long way down the road and not yet supported.

Standards compliance:

All pages on this site are Bobby AAA approved , complying with all the Bobby guidelines . This is always a judgement call; many accessibility features can be measured, but many cannot. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are compliant.

All pages on this site are WCAG AAA approved, complying with all priority 1, 2, and 3 guidelines of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines . Again, this is a judgement call; many guidelines are intentionally vague and can not be tested automatically. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.

All pages on this site are Section 508 approved , complying with all of the U.S. Federal Government Section 508 Guidelines . Again, a judgement call. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.

All pages on this site are Cynthia AAA & Section 508 approved, Again, a judgement call. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.

All pages on this site are WebXACT AAA & Section 508 approved, Again, a judgement call. We have reviewed all the guidelines and believe that all these pages are in compliance.

All pages on this site validate as XHTML 1.0 Strict. This is not a judgement call; a program can determine with 100% accuracy whether a page is valid XHTML. For example, check the home page for XHTML validity.

All pages on this site use structured semantic markup. H2 tags are used for main titles, H3 tags for subtitles. For example, on this page, JAWS users can skip to the next section within the accessibility statement by pressing ALT+INSERT+3

Navigation aids:

Links will appear in blue with a white background and the underline removed when they are in focus, thus aiding you with co-ordination between mouse and mouse pointer and keyboard users can see which item is in focus, this can aid navigation for people with eyesight problems.

We have decided not to use tabindex as links are coded in a logical tabbing order.

We have provided a 'Skip' link, this can be seen by tabbing through the links or read by screen readers, it is not visible all the time. It gives you the option to skip to the main content of the page or to the global navigation; it is available on every page within this site.

Links:

Many links have title attributes that describe the link in greater detail, unless the text of the link already fully describes the target (such as the headline of an article).

Links are written to make sense out of context.

Images:

All content images used in this site include descriptive ALT attributes. Purely decorative graphics include null ALT attributes.

Complex images include LONGDESC attributes or inline descriptions to explain the significance of each image to non-visual readers.

Visual design:

This site uses valid cascading style sheets for positioning and visual layout, no tables have been used in the making of this site.

If your browser or browsing device does not support stylesheets, the content of each page is still readable.

This site uses only relative font sizes, compatible with the user-specified "text size" option in visual browsers.

Accessibility references:

W3C accessibility guidelines , which explains the reasons behind each guideline.

W3C accessibility techniques , which explains how to implement each guideline.

W3C accessibility checklist , a busy developer's guide to accessibility.

U.S. Federal Government Section 508 accessibility guidelines.

Accessibility software:

JAWS , a screen reader for Windows. A time-limited, downloadable demo is available.

Home Page Reader , a screen reader for Windows. A downloadable demo is available.

Lynx , a free text-only web browser for blind users with refreshable Braille displays.

Link , a free text-only web browser for visual users with low bandwidth.

Opera , a visual browser with many accessibility-related features, including text zooming, user stylesheets, image toggle. A free downloadable version is available. Compatible with Windows, Macintosh, Linux, and several other operating systems.

Accessibility services:

Bobby , a free service to analyse web pages for compliance to accessibility guidelines. A full-featured commercial version is also available.

HTML Validator , a free service for checking that web pages conform to published HTML standards.

Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer , a tool for viewing your web pages without a variety of modern browser features.

Lynx-Viewer , a free service for viewing what your web pages would look like in Lynx.

Related resources:

WebAIM , a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving accessibility to online learning materials.

Designing More Usable Web Sites , a large list of additional resources.

Accessibility books we recommend:

Joe Clark : Building Accessible Web site . A guide to building Web sites that are accessible on nearly every device to nearly every visitor, even those with disabilities. It teaches developers how and why to use accessibility techniques, with an emphasis on phrased accessibility that scales to the needs of different Web sites' strategies appropriate for small, medium and large budgets and sites. It takes a look at successful accessibility initiatives taken by Web developers, showing "before and after" examples.

Jim Thatcher and others : Constructing Accessible Web Sites . Accessibility is about making a web site accessible to those with aural, visual or physical disabilities - or rather, constructing web sites that don't exclude these people from accessing the content or services being provided. The purpose of this book is to enable web professionals to create and retrofit accessible web sites quickly and easily. It includes discussion of the technologies and techniques that are used to access web sites, and the legal stipulations and precedents that exist in the US...