Bringing Website Accessibility to Your Campus

Lori Bailey, OSU Web Accessibility Center

OPEC-D/Ohio Ahead

February 24, 2005

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The OSU Story

• OSU 1st Attempt

• Policy & Standards 2002

• Little awareness

• Unclear enforcement
  

• 2nd Attempt

• Policy & Standards 2004

• Awareness Campaign

• Reporting & Enforcement Strategies

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Why Care About Web Accessibility?

• Legal Considerations

• Section 504 of Rehabilitation Act

• Section 508: Accessible Electronic Information

• Benefits ALL users

• Flexible design adjusts to output medium

• Fluid formatting allows user customization

• Reduce Your workload

• Materials available without help from DSS office

• More independence for students

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Accessibility Depends On:

• Target/assumed audience

• Classroom v. web

• Legal requirements/standards

• Section 508, W.C.A.G. 1.0

• Available/supported AT

• Available/supported browsers and plug-ins

• User versus Designer responsibilities

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Accessibility in the Classroom

• Known user group

• On-demand requests OK?

• Are faculty prepared for those requests?

• CMS

• WebCT and Blackboard = poor accessibility

• Open web sites mean larger user group

• Designed by?

• Faculty require more instruction

• Multimedia and complex sites need highly skilled designers

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Strategies for a More Accessible Classroom

• Provide a "hit list" of problematic content

• Flash

• PDF

• PowerPoint or native documents

• Encourage students to report

• Avoid the "Never had a problem" excuse

• Break the cycle of DSS intervention

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Accessibility on Campus

• Accessible site invites students

• Students with physical disabilities

• Students with learning disabilities

• Older students

• Students with cutting-edge technologies

• Inaccessible site = Keep Out sign

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Strategies for a More Accessible Campus

• Start with your program/area

• Evaluate and repair

• Show-off your results

• Survey the "Gates" to your campus

• Entry points and key pages

• Student-services pages

• Adopt a policy and standard

• 8-step model from WebAIM

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Ready?
8-Step Model (WebAIM)

1. Gather information

2. Gain top-level support

3. Organize a policy committee

4. Define a standard

5. Create an implementation plan

6. Provide training & technical support

7. Monitor conformance

8. Remain flexible: adapt & change

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Step 1:
Gathering Information / Assessment

• Include in implementation plan?

• Large/de-centralized sites [example: OSU]

• Complex sites: scripting and forms

• Complexity of Assessment

• Automated validators limited and/or expensive

• Significant human judgment required.

• Assessment with Repair

• Errors as easy to find as repair

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How Long Did This Take?

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• Total pages tested by automated tools: 408
  Total pages tested by human evaluators: 50

• Pages passed automated evaluation tools: 34 (8%)
  Pages passed human evaluators: 14 (3%)

• Most common types of errors by automated tools:

• Missing alt text: 21,390 instances on 380 pages

• Missing form labels: 312 instances on 35 pages

• Missing frame titles: 12 instances on 6 pages

• Most common types of errors by human evaluators:

• Missing alt text: on 48 pages (96%)

• Missing form labels: on 15 pages (30%)

• Missing table headers: on 9 pages (18%)

• Average number of errors per page:

• according to the automated tools: 21

• according to the human evaluators: 27

• Areas of the site with the most errors:
  home page, top-level pages

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Limited Initial Assessment

• Focus on key access points:

• Home page

• Registration/course catalogs

• Student-services pages

• Incorporate evaluation in implementation

• 1st year – evaluation only?

• Evaluate and repair?

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Step 2 (1): Gain Top-Level Support

• Top-level support can insure:

• Increased visibility

• Opportunities for dedicated resources

• Monitor compliance

• Build a Dynamic Case

• Legal Factors

• Financial Factors

• Social Factors

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Step 3: Organize a Committee

• Don't create policy in a vacuum.

• Don't blindly adopt existing standards.

• Do involve both administrators and those "in the trenches"

• Do use other institutions as a baseline

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Step 4: Define a Standard

• Policy

• Scope

• Implementation Strategy or Calendar

• Reporting/Monitoring Procedure (enforcement)

• Exceptions/Exclusions

• Standard

• Detailed, specific, technical

• Based on 508 or WCAG or constructed?

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Step 5: Implementation Plan

• Timeline: assessment and compliance
  

• Reporting: how are we doing?
  

• Monitoring: on-going evaluation

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Step 6: Training & Technical Support

• Strategies

• Centralized: OSU Web
  Accessibility Center

• DeCentralized: Web
  designers across campus

• Outsourcing

• Resources

• Vast depository of online materials

• Customized/targeted development

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Step 7: Monitor Conformance

• Compliance not the end of the story

• What about?

• New pages

• New designers

• New technologies

• Resources needed for long-term

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Step 8: Remain Flexible

• Standards are fluid

• WCAG 1.0 – WCAG 2.0

• Better AT

• JAWS and PDF

• Better Plug-ins

• Acrobat Reader and Forms

• Policy must be adaptable. Review and revise.

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Contact Us:

OSU Web Accessibility Center

150 Pomerene Hall / 1760 Neil Ave

Columbus, OH 43210

Phone: (614) 292-1760

E-mail:

Online: .