NorthTemple.com recently published a comprehensive accessibility checklist and it’s a must-read for anyone who owns or maintains a Web site. The original post can be found at NorthTemple.com: The Accessibility Checklist.
The 30 items on the list (excluding the ones related to testing) can be classified in two different categories:
1) Considerations that require visual appreciation or understanding of the content to be enforced (19 items).
2) Considerations that are a property of the source code and do not require understanding of the subject matter (11 items).
The first category covers keeping your intended audience in mind first and foremost. Include great content. Use interesting descriptions for audio/visuals. Eliminateany non-accessible resourcesmeant tonavigate the user through the site.
The second category revolves completely around what I call properties of the source code, things that are coded in a way that can or cannot be accessible. Ensuring all pages are titled and all images have an alternate description.Ordering the form fields correctly (tab index). Separate content and style.
One of the article’s most notable points states that one of the ways to test whether the page is accessible or not is to certify that it is Web standards compliant. Aha! WEB STANDARDS again!
This is just another example of the importance of following Web standards. I would go so far as to say that making a page Web standards compliant is the FIRST step that needs to be done. In fact, I suggest that even if you do nothing else, at least make sure your pages Web standard compliant.
Finding and manually solving the issues from both categories is time consuming and detailed work. And that’s probably why many Web developers don’t bother doing it. But ignoring Web standards won’t help a site’s search engine rankings and it certainly won’t make it accessible to the users. So how do you find, fix, and solve the issues quickly, easily and automatically? Luckily, there’s Aggiorno to do it all for you.
Download Aggiorno Beta now!