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HTML&CSS

Agenda

  1. Introduction to Accessibility
  2. Classification of disabilities and assistive technologies
  3. Accessibility guidelines
  4. WAI-ARIA
  5. Accessibility checkers

1. Introduction to Accessibility

Accessibility means that any user can use all the features and the content of a particular software, regardless of how the user accesses it, especially if they are physically or cognitively impaired. In this section we are going to cover the main aspects of accessibility together with the biggest benefits it provides to you and to your users.

2. Classification of disabilities and assistive technologies

The topic of accessibility is very huge. There are many different disabilities and impairments which need to be considered in order to provide corresponding technical solutions. Therefore, we would try to classify the most common impairments which potential users could have so that we also try to apply a better designed solution for those cases. We would learn how we as developers can help people with:

  • visual impairments
  • hearing impairments
  • mobility impairments
  • cognitive impairments

3. Accessibility guidelines

Without going into too many concrete details, we would look at some top level accessibility guidelines which we should be aware of. These are important to keep in mind and try to follow in our projects. We would also look at some examples of good and bad HTML code and how it can affect the results of a Screen Reader, for example.

4. WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications)

WAI-ARIA (Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications) is a specification written by the W3C, defining a set of additional HTML attributes that can be applied to elements to provide additional semantics and improve accessibility wherever it is lacking. We would learn about the three main features defined by the specification: roles, properties and states

5. Accessibility checkers

Modern browsers provide an automated way for checking whether your website follows a certain set of standardized accessibility rules. We would look at Google Chrome Lightroom and use it with our own website

Glossary & Terminology

  • Accessibility - Accessibility means that any user can use all the features and the content of a particular software, regardless of how the user accesses it
  • WAI-ARIA - Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessible Rich Internet Applications is a technology that can help with such problems by adding in further semantics that browsers and assistive technologies can recognize and use to let users know what is going on. Read more about this technology here.
  • WCAG - Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is developed by W3C and covers a wide range of recommendations for making Web content more accessible.

Homework

  1. Checkout the Checkpoint24 branch and apply the changes to your project
  2. Look at your own code and think about whether it satisfies the basic accessibility guidelines. Also, test your websites with the help of Google Chrome’s Lightroom

Resources