Accessibility Update WCAG 1 and 2

Some interesting findings from recently attended Accessibility Tools:

• A lot wide focus i.e. colour issues including contrast between foreground and background colours, colour blindness, dyslexic issues, epilepsy, motor impairement
• The ‘Web Accessibility Toolbar’ (WAT) that links into IE or Opera has a flock of Accessibility testing features that cover a lot of the WCAG1 and WCAG2 testing requirements
• Accessibility testing still requires manual and JAWs testing – particularly for flash, ajax/javascript pages, videos, other dynamic stuff.
• WCAG 2.0 though not yet finalised requires even more checking (maybe 3x as long) though in theory every aspect should be more strictly testable
• A need to test for flicker on moving elements of a site using a PEAT tool.
• We apparently still need to test applications with Javascript off for the 5% of users who do this for security reasons
• We should be checking that flash and other dynamic elements work via the keyboard only as well as via magnification and JAWs
• Text only renditions should not include any tables
• Do Disabled User Testing – with a range of disabilities -
  Severe vision impaired – Screen reader user,
  Medium vision impaired – Magnification user,
  Mild vision impaired – Large text/high contrast,
  Severe motor difficulties – voice recognition
  Mild motor difficulties (like RSI) – keyboard alone
  Medium dyslexic – no special technology
  Learning disability – no special technology
  but leave it very late in the process so that most issues will be already found as some disabled users will take double the time to complete a task

WCAG 2
not yet formalised may be live by the July 2009. Advised to think about transitioning now.
likely to include

• more on colour contrast testing
• testing for the simplity of text with the old Fog factor type calculations
• possible inclusion of BSL sign language at level 3
• flash keyboard controlled
• page titles
• headings and labels
• making sure the current focus is visible
  Comparison table here:
  http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/from10/comparison/#cptable *
  Useful checklist*
  WCAG has produced a checklist you can customise

http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/Overview.php

Testing Plan
They recommend following the approach from the BSI
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/Documents/Disability/Accessibility_guidance/PAS78.pdf
(but this just looks humungous to me!)

I’ve also been given a guide to testing techniques per WCAG 1.0 checkpoint. That I could type in when I have more free time. A lot of the checkpoints can be tested with the WAT tool but there are exceptions checkpoints i.e.
Priority 1
2.1 use of colour to convey info – check manually
6.2 if equivalent content is used for dynamic content is the updated when the dynamic content changes – check JAWS/manually
7.1 flickering – check with PEAT tool
14.1 Is the language clear and simple – can partially check with WAT but also need to do manually
6.2 Are pages usable with scripts, applets, or other programming objects turned off or not supported – check manually and with keyboard only can partially check with the WAT tool.
1.3 Multimedia provide an auditory description of the key points for any visual multimedia element – check manually
1.4 For time based multimedia presentations synchronise audio captions with the track – check manually
11.4 provide an alternative accessible page with equivalent info, if after best efforts you cannot create an accessible page (this should use W3c technologies) – check manually can partially check with WAT or JAWS.

Sara Lever : 25 Jul 2008 10:41 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem