Intelligent STEPs to Redesign and Retrofit

							Intelligent STEPs to Redesign and Retrofit
Presented by: Lori Bailey Web Accessibility Center www.wac.ohio-state.edu E-mail: webaccess@osu.edu

What are the MWAS?
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OSU Minimum Web Accessibility Standards http://ada.osu.edu/resources/WebPolicies.htm Effective 06/30/2004 19 items covering Section 508 and some aspects of W.C.A.G. Priority 2.

Policies -- Scope
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Which Sites are Included?

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Special Consideration: Password Protected Course Content

– Official OSU pages, – Associated OSU pages – Not included: personal pages, non-university organizations, those not conducting university business. – Identifiable users – Accommodations can be made on-demand in conjunction with ODS.

Policies -- Implementation

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Priorities for Implementation
– – – – All new and redesigned pages after 06/30/04 Pages with immediacy for conducting essential university business. Annual 15% conversion of most used pages. Legacy pages.

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Exceptions:

– User-requests take priority (10 business days). – Archive pages by request only. – Compliance not technically possible – request exemption from ADA Coordinator’s Office.

Policies – Reporting

 Annual

– Summary of progress towards fully accessible web space. – Targets for upcoming year.
 Priorities

Report must include:

%

of pages

How Can I Meet MWAS?
External Design:  Insure contractors understand standards. Internal Design:  Use validators to check as you design.  Plan on including accessibility in total cost (labor and software) of new or redesign project.  Use STEP to identify the most critical repairs.
– Include language in contracts. – Ask for an accessibility report from software vendors.

Validators – YES!
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Bobby 5.0 (used by the WAC) WAVE 3.0 from WebAIM A-Prompt

– Full version does entire site – Free version online (single pages only) – Handy toolbar for on-the-fly checking – Returns pictorial results within the page

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– Available from OIT site licensed software – Helps you correct pages – Must be installed locally

Myths:  If the site validates, it must be accessible.  Manual checks cover only low-priority issues.  It doesn’t matter which validator you use. Facts:  Different validators are good at checking different things.  Most validators will find the most significant accessibility errors.  Many high priority issues cannot be checked by a validator.

Validators: The Myth and The Facts

Issues Validators Can’t See.

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Bad ALT tags Text as images. Script events and the Longdesc. Invisible help and skip navigation. Layout versus Data tables. Flash – good v bad.

Key Accessibility Issues
According to the Disability Rights Commission's report that included testing of 100 web sites by a group of disabled users, the common accessibility problems found on current web sites are:  cluttered and complex page structures;  confusing and disorienting navigation mechanisms;  failure to describe images;  inappropriate use of colors and poor contrast between content and background Text equivalents;  Synch media equivalents;  Server-side maps;  Client-side maps;  Frame titles;  Form access. Note that complexity and color cannot be evaluated using automated tools like STEP.
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Primary Considerations Identified by STEP

What is STEP

Simple Tool for Error Prioritization  Developed by Jim Thatcher and team of web accessibility consultants  Designed to use WITH existing evaluation software
– – – – Bobby LIFT WebKing [others in development]

What STEP Does

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Prioritizes the errors/accessibility problems that were identified (identifies the errors that are most critical to fix to make your site accessible) Tracks the progress of your accessibility repair efforts over time (gives you a baseline "score" and provides metrics to quantitatively monitor/report your improvements) Compares the results of these evaluations (how your site performed on Bobby vs. LIFT, WebKing, etc.)

Only Uses Section 508 (not WCAG)

Creating STEP Reports – Bobby Part I. Getting XML File

Examples of STEP Output

Must have reports in XML format  Bobby 4.0 – uses the [Command Prompt] bat file Bobby CL (run get_links.bat and run-bobby.bat.)  Bobby 5.0 requires changing your registry
– – – Do so with caution: backup before you change it Registry = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Watchfire\WebXM\2.0\WFScan. Location = [you decide for example: C:\Program Files\Watchfire\Bobby\bobby.xml]

Creating STEP Reports – Bobby Part II. Processing Through STEP

Reminders
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STEP = one solution to reporting requirements  NOT Required!  NOT necessarily the best for your site You have leeway in how reporting is handled  Up to individual units to devise reporting process.  You define: importance of pages, archival pages, special content pages.
WAC Guide to the Standards: WAC Workshops

Resources

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– www.wac.ohio-state.edu/standards/ – Offered twice a month – Check the WAC Events page for upcoming workshops – Send us your URL and tell us what level of compliance you are hoping for (basic, advanced, OSU minimum) – Currently offering a one- to two-week turnaround.

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WAC site reviews: webaccess@osu.edu

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