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Content Accessibility

Reference Materials

A variety of resources are available on the web to assist with content accessibility. Below are some selected resources for review:

Tools for Accessible Design

NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) (https://www.nvaccess.org/)
This tool is a free "screen reader" which enables the blind and vision impaired to use computers.

Web Aim's Wave Assessor (http://wave.webaim.org)
Use this tool to identify issues on the page for accessibility including contrast issues

Web Accessibility Evaluation Tools List - W3C (https://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/tools/)
Provides a listing of various tools to tent content accessibility for all levels of technology. Users can search by type of accessibility, technology, and more.

Checklists and Guidelines

WebAIM Section 508 Checklist for HTML (http://webaim.org/standards/508/checklist)
WebAIM created a checklist based upon the standards "excerpted from Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, §1194.22. The pass/fail criteria in this document represent an interpretation of Section 508 web standards."

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 (http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/)
"Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible. Following these guidelines will make content accessible to a wider range of people with disabilities, including blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning disabilities, cognitive limitations, limited movement, speech disabilities, photosensitivity and combinations of these. Following these guidelines will also often make your Web content more usable to users in general."

WebAIM's WCAG 2.0 Checklist (http://webaim.org/standards/wcag/checklist)
This is WebAIM's checklist built off of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.

 

Law References

Section 508 - Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 (http://www.section508.gov/)
Official webpage presented by the U.S. General Services Administration Federal Government related to the Section 508 Accessibility Program.

Section 504 - Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (http://www.dol.gov/oasam/regs/statutes/sec504.htm)
United States Department of Labor website for Section 504, Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (http://www.ada.gov)
Website for Information and Technical Assistance on the Americans with Disabilities Act

 

Other Web Resources

People with Disabilities on the Web (http://webaim.org/intro/#people)
WebAIM's webpage focusing on an introduction to Web accessibility, specifically for those with challenges related to Visual, Hearing, Motor, and Cognitive categories

National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) (http://ncam.wgbh.org/)
NCAM's webpage is focused on expanding access to present and future media for those with disabilities and provide access to educational and media technologies.

WebAIM Captioning (http://webaim.org/techniques/captions/)
WebAim's webpage focusing on captions, transcripts, and audio descriptions.

YouTube Captioning (http://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en)
YouTube Help page about adding subtitles and closed captions to expand content to a larger audience, including those with hearing impairment or those who speak languages beyond those spoken in the video.

 

Accessible Web Design

Accessible Tech (http://www.accessibletech.org/access_articles/webinfo/accessibleWebBenefit.php)
Gives an overview of how accessible web design benefits all Web users

5 Benefits of an Accessible Website Design (http://blog.thewholebraingroup.com/5-benefits-accessible-website)
Presented by the Whole Brain Blog, this shows the impact for both those with and without disabilities