Web Accessibility Standards Hints
D R A F T D R A F T D R A F T

This page holds clarification language, tips and links to additional resources. It is meant to grow and adapt as needed and as further materials are developed that can be used to assist Web publishers.

1. Coding

1.1 Use valid, standard web programming code. > back to Guideline

Simply inserting the document type declaration at the top of your page will not automatically ensure that your page contains valid code for the type you declare. You may need to make corrections to your code. The validatio services will assist you with this. Another option that will take you even further in web code standards is to create your pages to the XHTML standard which will insert this declaration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">.
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">.

Dreamweaver has an option that will cause all new pages to be XHTML compliant. It also has a convert to XHTML option that will make the conversion quite painless. However it is recommended to work from a copy if your page has complex coding. See the online handouts for Dreamweaver setup.

1.3 - Use style sheets for content formatting whenever possible. > back to Guideline

The use of style sheet standards (and the elimination of tables for layout) is probably one of the most important standards for Web publishers to use -- for accessibility and other reasons as well.

Here are some reasons for using style sheets. CSS:

is the standard layout language for the Web. It provides a means of separating style from content
conserves bandwidth (less markup for visitors to download)
reduces design/devlopment time
increases accessibility
provides professional appearance and increased readability (line-height, borders, padding, margins)
allows for easy transition to future standards

Because of differences in use of style sheet standards across browsers and browser versions, however, there are some difficulties. With careful planning, these can be overcome. Hopefully, as browsers become more standards compliant, the difficulties will be less of a roadblock.

See these resources for more information:

CSS Guide, John Allsopp’s complete online tutorial
Fear of Style Sheets, A gentle introduction from alistapart.com, plus tips on “no-fault CSS” to accommodate bad browsers (1998-1999)
Little Boxes, Owen Briggs’s clickable CSS layouts (Open Source)
A Web Designer's Journey, From alistapart.com: showing how to design sites exclusively in CSS, work with the CSS box model, and use different types of links to turn off CSS in bad browsers
Practical CSS Layout Tips, Tricks, & Techniques, From alistapart.com: Mark Newhouse shows more ways to use CSS to replace (X)HTML tables

14. Applets and Plug-Ins

14.2 - If an inaccessible applet or plug-in is used, provide an accessible alternative that includes the same content and functionality. > back to Guideline

Please see this WebAim article on Making Flash Accessible

Contacts

For questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the UW-Eau Claire Web Accessibility Standards, contact the Web Development Office:

University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
PO Box 4004
Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004
Attn: Web Development Office
Telephone: (715) 836-4214
Email: web@uwec.edu
Updated: November 26, 2003