WAC 2010-06-16Accessibility Conference

Update

Conference details

Aiming for Accessibility Conference

University of Guelph

June 8-9, 2010http://www.accessconf.open.uoguelph.ca/default.aspx

AODA

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act

http://www.mcss.gov.on.ca/en/mcss/programs/accessibility/

Web accessibility:

Accessible Information and Communications Standard

Web standards

History:

WCAG 2.0 Level AA WCAG 2.0 Level A

Current & Future:WCAG 2.0 Level A & AA Hybrid WCAG 2.0 Level AA

WCAG 2.0 Level AA

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

Customize Quick Reference to include:

Techniques and Failures: HTML, CSS, SMIL, Client-side Scripting, Server-side Scripting, WAI-ARIA

Success Criteria Levels: A, AA (Hidden: AAA)

Sections: Introduction, Sufficient Techniques and Failures, Advisory Techniques, Conformance Requirements

Waterloo direction

Recommendation to start with Level AA

• Expected future direction of AODA

• High effort to retrofit websites

Expected timelines for new standards implementation

Clear as mud ...

• Start implementation in 2011

• Achieve compliance for 2013

... but still TBD

Other items• Plan for accessibility (design, technology, training, effort to retrofit)

• Education (training) is key (e.g. alt tags, meaningful links)

• Validators are not enough (e.g. meaningful links)

• Make web forms accessible (e.g. keyboard navigation must work)

• Avoid Flash (good general rule)

• Test JavaScript for accessibility (and minimize use)

• Remember to caption videos

• Accessible documents (PDF, Word, PowerPoint)

• Accessible alternatives (PDFs, web pages/content)