Accessibility Resources for Open Source Projects

Principles of Accessibility within a Codeathon framework

Summary

With the limited time and resources we have in the volunteer weekends, we will focus on what we think are the three central issues for accessibility - access to graphic information; access to necessary functions, including effecient internal and external navigation;and access to interactivity including forms, page updates, media.

How to provide access

1. Access to images. The img element allows the assignment of an alt attribute that describes the image to the assistive technology (AT). Image are of three types active, illustative, or (yes there are still occasions where you will find)spacers. Here are the proper use of the alt attribute for each case:
• Active images MUST have alt. Use the exact wording if there are words on the image, description of target if there are no words.
• Illustrative images require the most judgement. If the image is critical to understanding the content (a chart or graph, perhaps)include the information either in alt or as a caption on the page. If it is decorative, use empty alt - alt="" to let the AT know it is safe to ignore.
• Spacer images always receive empty alt - alt="" Note that there is no space between the open and clse quote marks.
2. Use structural tags such as list and header markup to ensure ease of navigation within the page. Make all content and function accessible to the keyboard.
3. Use IA2 and ARIA principles to ensure accessibility of interactive elements.

Outside Resources

Knowbility Resource Page

Web Accessibility Initiative W3C