Provide Effective Internationalization and Accessibility 645

Step 10: Provide Effective Internationalization and Accessibility 645

Animation . Screen reviewers cannot read information that is animated. Provide an option that enables users to stop animation. Also, ensure that the information conveyed by the animation is available in an alternate format.

Multimedia elements. Captions or auditory descriptions of a visual track must be synchronized with the presentation. Plug-ins and applets. Use sparingly because they, and other software, may create problems for people using assistive technologies. If used, they should always be tested for accessibility.

Online forms . For online forms that cannot be read by screen utilities, provide alter- nate methods of communication. For example, provide instructions for supply- ing needed information by telephone, regular mail, or e-mail.

Text-only pages . If accessibility cannot be accomplished in any other way, provide a text-only page with equivalent information and functionality. These pages must

be maintained and updated in conjunction with the primary Web page. Tell users that the text-only pages are equivalent and as up to date as their graphic counter- parts.

World Wide Web Consortium . The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has estab- lished guidelines for Web content accessibility. The guidelines cover a wide range of issues and recommendations for making Web content more accessible. This document contains principles, guidelines, and success criteria that define and explain the requirements for making Web-based information and applications accessible. The first series of guidelines entitled, “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0” were published in 1999. They are summarized in Table

10.3 and can be found in their entirety at http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEB- CONTENT/ .

The first public version of a follow-up draft, WCAG 2.0 was published in January 2001. Since then, nine working drafts have been published addressing more than 1,000 issues. In April 2006, a Last Call Working Draft was issued. Publication as a Last Call Working Draft indicates that the WCAG working group believes it has addressed all substantive issues and that the document is stable. Final release will occur after this final draft is approved. The WCAG 2.0 final draft contains the following principles and guidelines:

Principle 1: Content must be perceivable. —— Guideline 1.1: Provide text alternatives for all non-text content.

—— Guideline 1.2: Provide synchronized alternatives for multimedia. —— Guideline 1.3: Ensure that information and structure can be separated

from presentation. —— Guideline 1.4: Make it easy to distinguish foreground information from

its background.

Principle 2: Interface components in the content must be operable. —— Guideline 2.1: Make all functionality operable via a keyboard interface.

—— Guideline 2.2: Allow users to control time limits on their reading or

646 Part 2: The User Interface Design Process

—— Guideline 2.3: Allow users to avoid content that causes seizures because of photosensitivity. —— Guideline 2.4: Provide mechanisms to help users find content, orient themselves within it, and navigate through it. —— Guideline 2.5: Help users to avoid mistakes and make it easy to correct mistakes that do occur.

Principle 3: Content and controls must be understandable. —— Guideline 3.1: Make text content readable and understandable.

—— Guideline 3.2: Make the placement and functionality of content pre- dictable.

Principle 4: Content must be robust enough to work with current and future agents (including assistive technologies).

—— Guideline 4.1: Support compatibility with current and future agents (including assistive technologies). —— Guideline 4.2: Ensure that the content is accessible or provide an accessi- ble alternative. The complete guidelines are available at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/. Section 508. If a Web site is designed for the United States Government, ensure that

the requirements of this section of the Rehabilitation Act are met. Section 508 requires Federal agencies to ensure that their procurement of information technology takes into account the needs of all users — including people with disabilities. For additional information on Section 508 see http://www .section508.gov.

Table 10.3: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Accessibility Guidelines

1. Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory or visual content. Provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same func- tion or purpose as to auditory and visual content.

2. Don’t rely on color alone. Ensure that text and graphics are understandable when viewed without color.

3. Use markup and style sheets and do so properly. Mark up documents with the proper structural elements. Control presentation with style sheets rather than with presentation elements and attributes.

4. Clarify natural language usage. Use markup that facilitates pronunciation or interpretation of abbreviated or foreign text.

5. Create tables that transform gracefully. Ensure that tables have necessary markup to be transformed by accessible browsers and other agents.