Web Guidelines

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Accessibility Guidelines


Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.) requires public colleges to provide the same access to information for disabled students that it does for other students.

  • People with disabilities may be using assistive computer technologies such as screen
        readers, which vocalize the content of a web page, voice recognition software (for people
        who can not use a keyboard or mouse), screen magnifiers, and refreshable Braille devices 
        to interpret a web page.

  • Unlike the old text-based Internet, World Wide Web pages can offer challenges to persons
        with disabilities. Web elements and formatting such as Java, JavaScript, refreshable
        screens, graphics, forms, frames and columns can defeat the assistive technology devices.

  • Also, people using older browsers or text-based browsers, such as the Rio Grande
        Free net, may experience the same problems.

    Meeting the below requirements will help make your web page accessible to all your audience. Following these requirements, are some additional guidelines to make your page more user-friendly.

    The following are A.D.A. compliance requirements for E.P.C.C. web pages:

    1. Provide alternative text for all images, applets, image maps and other graphical
        representations that can not be viewed with a text-based browser. Do this using
        the ALT attribute.

    2. Transcribe audio and video clips if they contain important information.

    3. If you use frames, provide an alternate “No Frames” page. Screen reader
        technology, used by the blind, can not properly process frames.

    4. If your pages contain moving, scrolling, blinking or auto-updating objects or pages
       (like refreshable pages) provide an option to pause or freeze the movement. Screen readers
       can not read moving text. Further, blinking objects in the 4 to 59 flashes per second (Hertz)
       range can cause people with epilepsy to have seizures.

    5. Provide an alternative to C.G.I. Script forms, for example, a printable form that the user
        can fill out and mail in.

    6. Buttons should be min. .5” by .5” (for persons with motor disabilities).

    7. If you use tables (for other than layout), ensure that they have the proper markup to be
        understandable by browsers that don’t support tables (i.e. use the “summary” attribute,
        and label rows and columns with the header tags). Generally, avoid using tables purely
        for layout purposes unless the table makes sense when linearized (screen readers only
        read from left-to-right).

    8. Use descriptive text links. The text associated with the link should clearly indicate
         the destination of that link. For example, for the text “Click here to Return to Home Page,”
        “Return to Home Page“ should be the active link (e.g. underlined and in a different color, 
         indicating that it is a link). Don’t make “Click here” the active link.

    9. Testing
          
  • Your page(s) should be legible and understandable on most common browsers, 
        including the text-only browsers such as Lynx. You may access Lynx at: 
        http://www.delorie.com/web/lynxview.html
          
  • Test your page(s) on a black and white monitor to ensure that text and graphics 
        are still legible and the meaning is clear.
          
  • Test your page(s) for accessibility to users with disabilities. This includes persons with
         hearing, vision and motor impairments. The Center for Applied Special Technology offers
         a free online software package that tests your site for A.D.A. compliance. Go to the
         following address, then type in the U.R.L. for your site: http://www.cast.org/bobby/

     

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