Kavi Accessibility Guidelines

Following accessibility guidelines helps to ensure that Kavi web sites can be navigated and read by everyone regardless of location, experience, or the type of computer technology used. Accessibility guidelines often specifically address the needs of people with disabilities, but also address the needs of users in different contexts, such as those with text-only browsers or who do not have a sound card on their computer.

Why Kavi Sites Need to Be Accessible

Crafting accessible web sites is the right thing to do.
Making sure a web site will work well for the blind, the PDA users, the elderly, and the plugin-inhibited expresses goodwill, caring, and a rejection of technological prejudice that lets us all be better human beings.
Accessible web sites are easier to use
Writing accessible code will increase the usability of the web site, as many accessibility techniques have nice usability side effects. For example, including label tags in your online forms will help text readers use the web form AND increase the clickable area of radio buttons and checkboxes, a nice usability bonus.
Accessible web sites are better for search engines
Lean, semantically correct, and well-organized code is key to accessibility. These coding practices also organize web pages to strongly emphasize the page's most important messages in a way that resonates with search engines.

The Guidelines

Kavi strives to be compliant with the guidelines for accessibility outlined by the W3C and the US government.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG): W3 Web Accessibility Initiative: includes links to the standard and other resources; NOTE: We should move to WCAG 2.0 as soon as it is approved, probably some time in late 2007 or early 2008.
Section 508 Subpart B, Subsection 1194.22: www.section508.gov; Section 508 guidelines apply specifically to US government-funded web sites. In general, they are based on WCAG guidelines, so if a site passes a WCAG check, it should also be Sec. 508 compliant. Because this standard is more specifically recognized by organizations with government involvement, sites should be checked against both standards.
Validators: WebXACT: used to be Bobby; Cynthia Says: only lets you do a few pages at a time

Learning How to Design Accessible Web Sites
You are not going to learn how to design an accessible web site from this document. This document declares Kavi's commitment to designing accessible sites and the tools we'll use to measure our success. Below you'll find an overview of accessibility topics and links to several sites designed to teach you specific accessibility techniques. Use these resources as a starting point to begin your own mastery in accessibility design.

When you write valid XHTML and use valid CSS to control the layout of a page, you are well on the way to making your site accessible. Just like when you learned XHTML and CSS, you will also need to master several specific coding techniques to achieve a fully accessible page.

Overview of Accessibility Topics

Structure and Coding Standards

XHTML-standards compliant code is a foundation for creating accessible web pages. Your code can't just be XHTML-compliant, though. You must also make sure that your markup is semantically correct (h1 tags at the top, list-based navigation) and be diligent about adding attributes that assist users (alt for images, titles, etc.).

Add titles to links, alt text for images, and summaries to tables. These attributes help people using text-based browsers understand the web page and help those using standards-compliant browser by providing tooltips.
Use headings, paragraphs, and lists correctly - not just for formatting. Text browsers have features that scan pages for headings that work well only when the page structure makes sense.
Make sure your document has the correct document type and language declarations.
Add scope and other helper attributes to tabular data. This helps text browser associate each cell of data with the correct headings.
Separate style and content through the use of CSS. Do not, however, create a page that loses most of its meaning if style sheets are disabled, as that doesn't help those who rely on the presentation to understand the page.
Make sure the text on the web page can be resized. Assume that some people will make the text much bigger than you would like and account for this in the page design.

Navigation

Visitors to the web site should be able to navigate using only the keyboard. Support the use of tabbing and access keys.
Provide a way for text browsers to skip the main navigation if it appears at the top of your code.
Always make it clear where each link will take someone.
Don't pop-up new windows without warning.

Color

Never use color ALONE to convey meaning. Actively use color to enhance meaning. For example, the red and bright yellow color of Kavi form error messages enhances the visibility of these errors, but we do not rely solely on these colors to highlight errors.
Select colors with good contrast to maximize readability and help those with poor color perception.

Images and Media

Provide alternates for all images and media that contain important information. If your page is still achieving its goal when read using Lynks, you've done well.

Forms

Correctly support tabbing and the Return key for online forms.
Use label tags and field IDs to help alternative browsers associate field labels with their entry boxes. Kavi standard fields and forms do this for you, but this must be hand entered when creating entirely custom forms.

Scripts, Cookies, Oh My

If javascript is off or cookies are unsupported, visitors should still be able to interact successfully with the web page.

Resources

Web Access Centre: This page includes information about accessibility issues in a variety of topics, reasons why they are important, and practical examples about how to do the right thing. My favorites include a Design and build checkpoints page and a handy Excel checklist (Excel 33.5KB).
Accessify: This is a good site for finding accessibility tips & tricks.
Designing More Usable Web Sites: This is a huge fat list of resources compiled by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Trace center.
Accessibility as part of User Centered Design: Helps explain how usability and accessibility are related, but not the same thing.