Web Access Centre

Resources - Web Access Centre

Summary: Other web resources on making websites accessible.

• Information elsewhere on the RNIB website
• Legislation, standards and guidelines
• Information, advice and guidance
• Tools for testing accessibility
• Access software
• Charities and government organisations

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Web access centre - design and management

Information elsewhere on the RNIB website

• Technology information sheets
  Information about assistive technologies for people with sight problems.
• Software Access Centre
  Information about creating accessible software applications.

Legislation, standards and guidelines

WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is an international consortium devoted to promoting accessibility on the web. Their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are generally accepted as the definitive guidelines on web accessibility and accessible design techniques, and many other apparent sets of standards and guidelines actually refer back to the WAI guidelines.

UK legislation and standards

• Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78 'Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Web Design'
  A comprehensive guide published by the British Standards Institute on how to commission, plan, implement and maintain accessible websites.
• The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)
  Full text of this act of parliament.
• Special Education Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA)
  Full text of this act of parliament. This act amended Part IV of the DDA as applied to educational organisations and establishments.
• The Law
  What the law says about eliminating disability discrimination, on the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) website. Includes links to information about the DDA and to the Codes of Practice for the DDA.
• Codes of Practice for the DDA and SENDA
  Codes of practice explaining legal rights and requirements under the DDA, produced by the UK government and the DRC.
• What the Law says
  Information about the DDA, SENDA and the DRC, on the Disability section of the UK government's website.
• Guidelines for UK government and local authority websites
  Published by the e-Government Unit in the Cabinet Office.
• DRC report into web accessibility
  Report from the DRC's formal investigation into access and inclusion for disabled people to the web, April 2004.

Outside the UK

• Policies relating to web accessibility (WAI list)
  Legislation and policies relating to web accessibility around the world - Australia, Canada, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, UK, USA.
• Laws and standards (WebAIM list)
  Web accessibility laws and standards in various countries around the world - USA, Canada, European Union, UK, Japan, Hong Kong, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, New Zealand.
• Irish National Disability Authority IT accessibility guidelines
  Includes guidelines for web and software.

Information, advice and guidance

General

• Web Accessibility Initiative
  The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), part of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), is devoted to promoting accessibility on the web, and offers a wealth of information, guidance, advice, tools and resources.
• IBM Accessibility Centre
  Contains information on how to make websites accessible as well as build accessible software.
• BBC - My Web My Way
  This site, a partnership between the BBC and AbilityNet, explains the many ways you can change your browser, computer, keyboard and mouse settings to make the web more accessible. A perfect site to link to from your accessibility help page.
• Microsoft Accessibility
  Microsoft accessibility centre and resources.
• Accessify
  Lots of information about accessibility.
• Accessify Forum
  A bulletin board for accessibility issues. An excellent resource to post questions and comments.
• WebAIM
  Practical advice on building accessible websites, plus access technology simulations and tools.
• E-Access Bulletin
  Monthly newsletter about technology issues for people with sight problems.
• Useit
  By Jakob Neilsen: web usability expert. Lots of information on accessibility and usability.
• Math Accessibility Solutions
  Contains information on how to make mathematical content accessible to people who use assistive technologies.

Colour blindness

• Vischeck
  Lots of information about colour blindness, with tools for simulating how images and web pages might appear to users who are have colour deficient vision.
• Visibone
  Information about colour blindness, with colour cards simulating colour spectrums as they appear to those with colour deficient vision.

Learning disabilities

• Mencap
  Guide to making information accessible to people with a learning disability.

Cascading Style Sheets

• CSS Zen Garden
  A fascinating website which beautifully demonstrates the power and flexibility of CSS for formatting the visual presentation of web pages.

Flash

• Adobe Accessibility
  Adobe's central resource contains tutorials, product specifications, listings and showcases of accessible Flash.
• Adobe Accessibility weblog
  Weblog run by Andrew Kirkpatrick of Adobe.

PDF

• Adobe Accessibility
  Guidelines, tools and advice on making PDF documents accessible.

Tools for testing accessibility

Tools and validators

• Accessibility toolbar for Internet Explorer
  Invaluable plug-in toolbar for Internet Explorer produced by the Paciello Group. Has loads of tools for checking a wide range of accessibility issues on a page, and toolbar links to online validators and accessibility checkers. If you only download one tool, make it this one!
  Available in various language versions: English, German, Korean, Spanish, French, Italian and Japanese.
• Accessibility checking favelets
  Accessify offers useful downloadable scripts to help you check web pages with ease.
• A-Prompt
  Free downloadable accessibility checking tool from the University of Toronto.
• ATRC Web Accessibility Checker
  A new web based checker from the University of Toronto.
• Colour contrast analyser
  A great online colour contrast checker from Juicy Studio. Uses experimental algorithms published by the WAI.
• Cynthia Says
  Accessibility checking tool from ICDRI.
• WAI HTML and XHTML validator
  Check the validity of HTML and XHTML source code with the W3C's official validator.
• WAI CSS validator
  Check the validity of inline and external CSS code with the W3C's official validator.
• WAVE
  WebAIM's versatile web accessibility checking tool.

Browser settings

• Internet Explorer 5
  Step by step tutorials from Microsoft on adjusting accessibility options in Internet Explorer 5.
• Internet Explorer 6
  Step by step tutorials from Microsoft on adjusting accessibility options in Internet Explorer 6.
• Internet Explorer 7
  Step by step tutorials from Microsoft on adjusting accessibility options in Internet Explorer 7.
• Firefox
  Information on how to change accessibility settings in Firefox. It also offers a selection of useful add-ons.
• Opera
  Information provided by Opera on the accessibility options available in the Opera browser, and how to adjust them.

Page viewers

• Backwards Compatibility Viewer
  A tool for viewing online web pages which enables you to select which web features you want to enable or disable (e.g. images, tables, JavaScript, applets, etc).
• Lynx Viewer
  View online web pages as they would be displayed in Lynx, a text browser. Also provides links to download the Lynx browser.

Access software

The following list is not in any way exhaustive - it simply provides links to some of the products currently available. A search (e.g. via Google) for terms such as "screen reader software", "screen magnification software", "text browsers", etc, will provide links to many other products.

Note that many of the following products are only available in versions designed to run within the Windows operating system.

• Connect OutLoud
  Software for accessing the internet with speech and braille output.
• HAL
  Screen reader software.
• JAWS for Windows
  Screen reader software.
• Lunar / Lunar Plus
  Screen magnification software.
• MAGic
  Screen magnification software.
• MathPlayer
  A free add-on to Internet Explorer that allows assistive technology applications to access mathematical equations.
• Supernova
  Combined screen reader and screen magnification software.
• WebbIE
  Free specialised text browser developed by the University of Manchester.
• WindowEyes
  Screen reader software.
• Zoomtext
  Screen magnification and combined screen reader/magnification software.

Charities and government organisations

• AbilityNet
  AbilityNet is a UK based charity who work with people with disabilities to help them get full use of information technology. They also provide advice and consultancy on web accessibility.
• Equality and Human Rights Commission
  The Equality and Human Rights Commission is a non-departmental public body. It brings together the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality and the Disability Rights Commission.
• Mencap
  The UK's leading learning disability charity.
• RNID
  The largest charity representing deaf and hard of hearing people in the UK.

UK Government

• Directgov
  Information about issues relating to disability.
• e-Government Unit, Cabinet Office
  The e-Government Unit promotes the development of online access to government and local authority information and services.

For more information please contact us at webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Content author: webaccess@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 18/07/2008 15:33