Web Accessibility Design

Go universal-make your sites accessible to all Web users

The Web has the power to bring people closer, but for those with disabilities like sight or hearing impairment, limited mobility, color blindness, or attention deficit disorder, the Web can present more barriers than freedoms.

People with disabilities often struggle with the content, navigation, and even color schemes presented on Web sites. The good news is that it doesn't have to be this way. Web developers have many tools and techniques at their disposal to make their sites truly user-friendly for everybody. Learning to make your sites accessible has benefits beyond assisting the disabled—you’ll also improve the search engine optimization (SEO) and usability for all site visitors.

In this three-lesson course, you'll learn about laws that govern Web site accessibility, the key guidelines and techniques you can use to build an accessible site, and how to test for accessibility. You'll study accessibility standards set forth by the World Wide Web consortium (W3C), and complete projects that give you a richer, hands-on understanding of these standards. And you'll be surprised to see how creative and robust your designs can be while meeting even the strictest standards.

This course is developed by Molly E. Holzschlag—one of the Web's most influential and knowledgeable experts in the field of Web standards. The course will help guide you through the code, techniques—and hotly debated issues—and prepare you for building sites that can reach all users.

Tuition: $450 US

Course Instructor(s):

Margaret Penney is a teacher, designer, writer and media artist.

Course content developed by Molly Holzschlag.

Requirements:

To take this course you'll need:

Computer with Internet connection (56 Kbps modem or faster).
Web hosting account for posting site projects.
HTML and CSS Essentials or equivalent experience in coding HTML and CSS.
Web Design I or equivalent experience with Web page design and development.

Prerequisites:

The following courses can help you meet the above requirements:

Course Objectives:

Students learn how to:

Identify how users with various disabilities access Web sites and view Web content.
Study and analyze how specific Web accessibility initiatives and legislation impact Web design and Web designers.
Use proper (X)HTML document structure as a starting point for all accessible Web page designs.
Utilize specific code attributes and properties that give users alternatives to graphic and multimedia content.
Use color appropriately so that all Web site content and instructions are clear to users with color deficiencies.
Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control all layout and presentation.
Format layout or data tables appropriately for accessibility by screen readers and other special browsers.
Format and present content clearly with content chunking, headings, skip links, consistent design, and other techniques.
Use online and downloadable services to test the accessibility of a site at various conformance levels.
Utilize thorough testing and checkpoint techniques to correct accessibility hurdles on existing Web sites.

Course Outline

LESSON 1 Accessibility Defined

There's more to making a site accessible than clear navigation and browser compatibility. Web site accessibility means making a site available to users with various physical and cognitive disabilities who use assistive technologies. Lesson One explores the goals of the Web Accessibility movement, the initiatives of the W3C, and how U.S. and international law impacts accessibility. You will also learn about various impairments that can affect Web viewing and how they can be addressed. In the exercise, you'll research and present information about accessibility laws and topics that are most relevant to your Web design goals.

LESSON 2 Addressing WCAG Conformance Levels

Making a site accessible isn't an arbitrary or opinion-based endeavor—Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) break accessibility into three conformance levels, each with a series of success criteria. This lesson addresses the WCAG version 2.0 Conformance Levels A and AA and how they should influence your code and design choices. You'll understand how each success criteria benefits users with various needs. In the exercise, you'll create a Web site that is compliant with conformance levels A and AA.

LESSON 3 Conformance Level AAA and Accessibility Testing

The first focus of this lesson is on conformance level AAA—the strictest (and most debated) set of success criteria. You'll then spend time learning to test and analyze your site designs for various levels of accessibility. Web site testing tools and services are discussed, and you'll learn how a team or individual designer tackles accessibility testing. In final project you'll check your own site using two free testing services and thoroughly analyzing the results.

Learning how to make sites more accessible

Make your sites accessible.