The National Library for the Blind Designing accessible websites Joanna Widdows David Egan

TheNational Libraryfor the Blind

Designing accessible websites

Joanna Widdows

David Egan

Design For AllAccessible design is good

design for allVisual impairment (VI) and

the Web: VI: a continuum

How do visually impaired people access the web?

MagnificationRefreshable

BrailleSpeech

synthesis

Why Bother?

Social Inclusion Best Value DDA E-Government

Myths and Tips

Text version of site is essential

Good sites can include more than just text

Myths and Tips

Frames must not be used

Give frames titles Use ‘no frames’ version

Myths and Tips

Tables must not be used

Avoid the use of tables for layout

Use necessary markup to describe tables

Myths and Tips

Images must be avoided

Give all images alt text Give imagemaps text links

Myths and Tips

Flash and Javascript must not be used

Offer alternatives for Javascript, applets, flash plug-ins

Myths and Tips

PDF must not be used

Make Access Adobe available for PDF files - http://access.adobe.com/

Myths and Tips

Bobby is all you need

Use Bobby, other tools and human evaluation

More Tips Make the text legible make the design flexible Provide a site map

[preferably at the bottom of the screen]

…and more

Multiple links can make navigation difficult

Make sure links make sense out of context

The proof of the pudding...

Some examples of good and bad

practice

NLB Consultancy

Co-ordinated by Interactive InitiativesInteractive Initiatives

Developing NLB charter mark

david.egan@nlbuk.org