Don't forget the 'C' in WCAG

Don’t forget the ‘C’ in WCAG! OzeWAI Melbourne 2009 OMG, look what they’ve done to our templates!

Accessibility? What’s that?

A technical issue isn’t it? What’s it got to do with us writers?

… but that’s for blind people and we don’t have any here

Oh, no, I thought the web team took care of all that stuff

You said the CMS would take care of all of this!

The problems
Many content authors do not know about web accessibility
Some think…
It’s about blind people, and we don’t have any of them
It’s a technical issue
The web team will handle it

Potential impact of writers

WCAG what? They don’t really expect us to understand THIS?!!

Finally, some training that is relevant to my work

Images, emoticons, ASCII art
Train writers on how and when to use
Short descriptions (alt, img links, groups of imgs, text)
Long descriptions (alt + longdesc, text, linked text)
No description (null alt)

Information, structure, relationships
Train writers on how and when to use:
Semantic elements (em, q, blockquote, cite, code, etc.)
List elements (ul, ol, li)
Heading elements (h1-h6)
Variations in text format/font (explained in text)
Show them how to do the first three using the CMS editor

Sensory characteristics
Train writers to avoid writing instructions that use sensory characteristics such as shape, size, visual location, orientation or sound
When they do, remind them to identify these elements in the text

Use of colour
Train authors to avoid using colour by itself to convey information or show meaning. They should
Use colour and pattern
Make information available in text as well
This will mainly relate to images, since colour should be locked down in your CMS

Contrast
Train writers to use contrast ratios for fore/background colours of
4.5:1 for small text
3:3 for larger text
7:1 for text over a background
This will mainly relate to images, since text/bg colour should be locked down in your CMS

Images of text
Train authors to avoid using images of text except for logos and
Offer to help them achieved desired visual outcomes by using scripting or relevant CSS techniques

Page titles
Train writers to write descriptive page titles for each page they publish

Links
Train writers to write link text that describes the purpose of a link
In context (title attrib, sentence, paragraph, table cell/heading, preceding heading, nested list)
Stand alone

Section headings
Train writers to organise content with headings
Show them how to use the heading levels relevant to the structure of the content

Foreign language
Train writers to identify foreign language words and phrases
Show them how to apply language attributes using the CMS editor

Unusual words
Train writers to minimise non-literal or unusual use of words. If they do use them, when words have:
One meaning within the page, define the first use (in text, linked, via a glossary or searchable dictionary)
Different meanings, define each instance

Abbreviations
Train writers to minimise use of shortened forms, but where they use them and they have:
One meaning within the page, define the first use (in text, using ABBR or ACRONYM, via a link, via a searchable dictionary)
Different meanings, define each use

Reading level
Train writers to write at lower secondary level, or to
Provide an alternative version that is easier to read
Write a summary at lower secondary level
Supplement the text with explanatory visuals
You could help them with
Audio version
Sign language version

Pronunciation
Train authors to include a pronunciation guide where the meaning may be ambiguous otherwise
After the word
Linked pronunciation
Glossary

Consistent identification
Train writers to use labels, and text alternatives consistently for components that have the same function

Summary
Don’t overlook
The content: it’s the reason people come to your site!
The potential of web writers to affect your site’s accessibility
Don’t assume
Writers know about accessibility
Writers will read or understand WCAG 2.0 documents
Your CMS will prevent accessibility problems
Do offer
Accessibility training tailored for writers
Accessibility topics in any web writing training

The (happy) end!

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Don't forget the 'C' in WCAG

by Dey Alexander Consulting on Nov 23, 2009

Accessibility

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Don’t forget the ’C’ in WCAG — Presentation Transcript