Web Accessibility - Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the legislation that requires me to make my Web site accessible to individuals with disabilities?
2. Why is the issue of Web accessibility important to sites at UW-Eau Claire?
3. My site is a department or office site not related to teaching. Does this apply to me?
4. My site is a curricular site. I don't have any students with disabilities so do I need to do anything?
5. My site is a student organization site. Does this apply to me?
6. Is there a deadline for becoming compliant?
7. How difficult is it to make my site compliant?
8. I'm in charge of updating Web pages for a site but I'm not comfortable with making these changes. What should I do?
9. Won't accessible Web sites be less appealing?
10. What types of disabilities do I have to be concerned with?
11. What are some of the problems people with disabilities face with Web sites?
12. Why can't making UW-Eau Claire Web sites accessible be done centrally?
13. How can I assess the accessibility of my site?

Answers

1. What is the legislation that requires me to make my Web site accessible to disabled individuals?

   The legislation that applies to us as a federally funded institution is Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 (ADA). It is intended to protect qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination on the basis of disability in the services, programs, or activities of all state and local governments. It says that a public institution of higher learning must take appropriate steps to ensure that communication with persons with disabilities is "as effective as communication with others". Conditions of effectiveness include timeliness, accuracy, and provision in a manner and medium appropriate to the significance of the abilities of the disabled individual.

   While the ADA does not specifically mention them, the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and the Section 508 Guidelines are the best sources to look at for standards.

2. Why is the issue of Web accessibility important to sites at UW-Eau Claire?

   In May 1999, the University of Wisconsin President's Advisory Committee on Disability Issues appointed the Committee on Access to Technology for Individuals with Disabilities. It was charged to prepare a white paper to provide guidance to the UW System Administration and UW Institutions regarding disability issues. The final report was issued in December 1999.

   With regard to the Internet and Web it recommends:

   • Web-based activities and online courses must be accessible to persons with disabilities
   • Captioning and transcripts should be provided for audio and video clips
   • If instructors make use of Web-based material, plans and equipment must be in place to provide access to the required material for all persons enrolled in a course.


3. My site is a department or office site not related to teaching. Does this apply to me?

   Yes. Departments or offices that use the Internet to provide information regarding their programs, or services must offer those communications through accessible means.

4. My site is a curricular site. I don't have any students with disabilities so do I need to do anything?

   Faculty who make use of Web-based materials in their classes should have plans and equipment in place to provide access to the required material for all persons enrolled in their course, as per the recommendations in the UW-System report from the Committee on Access to Technology for Individuals with Disabilities.

5. My site is a student organization site. Does this apply to me?

   Yes. A student organization that uses the Internet to provide information regarding their programs or services must offer those communications through accessible means.

6. Is there a deadline for becoming compliant?

   While there currently is no deadline, we are attempting to make all our pages as accessible as possible using the resources at our disposal.

7. How difficult is it to make my site compliant?

   It depends on how complicated your site is to begin with. But generally speaking, designing an accessible Web site is not as difficult as most people believe. Often it is a matter of applying alternate text to graphic elements, using standard code, and making sure that information that is not accessible is supplied in an alternate accessible format.

8. I'm in charge of updating Web pages for a site but I'm not comfortable with making these changes. What should I do?

   There are several options to consider. You might want to hire a WebDev student assistant to update your site. For details about how this works, see the Student Web Development Service page.

   For do-it-yourself help, check out the online handouts available, starting with Web Publishing & Accessibility from our Online Help collection.

   Learning, Instruction and Training offers workshops for faculty and staff and BITS offers help for students. Workshop schedules can be found on their sites.

9. Won't accessible Web sites be less appealing?

   On the contrary, pages that are totally accessible can look identical to their non-accessible counterparts.

   Accessible sites may have other advantages as well. Images that are properly identified and sound and video that are captioned or have transcripts can be indexed and will turn up in searches. With the growth of Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's) and Web site content delivered to cell phones, having text-based content is becoming more important, because the screens on such devices are so small.

10. What types of disabilities do I have to be concerned with?

    The primary disabilities involve those with limited or no sight and reading disabilities. If your site contains sound (such as audio or video) you will also need to provide a transcript or closed captioning for those with hearing impairments. There are also special design concerns for the color blind.

11. What are some of the problems people with disabilities face with Web sites?

    Ordinary text on a Web site is the most accessible form of information on a Web site for persons with any disability. But because the Web has evolved to include graphics, animations, videos, sounds and other non-text displays, this has created a barrier to the handicapped because specially adapted equipment does not handle them well. While by no means exhaustive, here is a list of solutions to some common problems.

    • Provide text equivalents using the Alt attribute for non-text elements (i.e., images, animations, audio, video)
    • Avoid image maps or provide an alternate text list
    • Provide summaries of graphs and charts
    • Ensure that all information conveyed with color is also available without color
    • Provide text for audio clips and description for video clips
    • Organize content logically and clearly
    • Provide alternative content for features (e.g., applets or javascript) that may not be supported

    For more detail about problem correction, visit this page on Web Publishing & Accessibility.

    
    
12. Why can't making UW-Eau Claire Web sites accessible be done centrally?

    Web Development Services is only responsible for the top-level pages of the UW-Eau Claire Web site. Responsibility for all other sites resides with their Web publishers. While it would be ideal to coordinate the effort centrally, there simply aren't enough resources to do so.

13. How can I assess the accessibility of my site?

    There are several ways to do this:

    • Turn images off through your browser options to see how well you can navigate.
    • Invite people with disabilities to review your pages.
    • Have a screen reader read your pages aloud. A demo version of JAWS for Windows is available.
    • Use accessibility features in your Web editing software.
    • Use accessibility testing software, such as HiSoftware AccVerify.
    • Test your pages using Bobby.