Accessibility - Related Websites

Basics CSS Development Tools Dreamweaver/Contribute Flash Forms

Images JavaScript Link Appearance Media PDFs PowerPoint

Screen Readers Search Engines Section 508 Tables Typography Validation Tools

(NOTE: The software products, tools and services listed below are for informational purposes only; the State of California does not specifically endorse the use of any particular commercial web validation product, tool or service over any other.)

• Department of Rehabilitation

Accessibility Basics

• Web AIM
  A good introduction to accessibility, as well as specific tutorials and techniques.
• Accessibility From the Ground Up: A Primer for the Web Designer (Digital Web Magazine)
• Dive Into Accessibility
  A full tutorial to walk you through the elements of accessible design.
• Building Accessible Websites
  The full text of Building Accessible Websites, an excellent book that covers all facets of accessibility.
• HiSoftware Guide to Web Accessibility
• Accessibility and The Web (WebReference.com)
• Web Accessibility: What Not To Do (Jim Thatcher)
  An informative and humorous article about some common mistakes in implementing accessible design.
• 10 Accessibility Blunders of the Big Players
• Keyboard Accessibility (WebAIM)
• How People With Disabilities Use the Web (W3C)
• The Web Standards Project
  The Web Standards Project has been assisting web developers and browser manufacturers with bringing their projects into conformance with W3C standards. This is an excellent resource for standards-based design techniques.
• Techniques for WCAG 1.0
  Links to examples and techniques for satisfying the requirements defined in “Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.” Much of the material for this training course was based on this document. Note that some of the markup in the examples is incorrect! Caveat emptor.
• Accessify Forums
  A community of web developers and accessibility experts covering a wide range of topics.
• Access E-Learning
  Tutorials on how to make online education materials accessible for individuals with disabilities.
  

Back to Top

 

Accessibility and CSS

• Creating Accessible Cascading Style Sheets (WebAIM)
• High Design, High Accessibility (CSS to the Rescue)
• Attractive Accessible Websites (Accessify.com)
• CSS in Action: Invisible Content Just for Screen Reader Users (WebAIM)
• Elastic Design
  How to make scaleable (zoom-able) websites.
• EM Calculator
• CSS Positioning
• Introduction to CSS Layout
• Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition
  Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition, by Eric Meyer (O'Reilly Publishing)
• W3C: Cascading Style Sheets
  The W3C CSS project home page.
• CSS Zen Garden
  A demonstration of what can be accomplished visually through CSS-based design.
• Why Avoiding Tables Is Important
  A great write-up on the reasons for using CSS Positioning instead of tables to lay out your pages.
• The Noodle Incident
  An invaluable resource for working around known browser bugs.
• CSS / edge
  A cutting-edge guide to cutting-edge CSS design.

Back to Top

 

Development Tools for Accessibility

• AIS toolbar extension for Internet Explorer
• The Firefox web browser
• The Web Developer extension for Firefox
• The HTML Validator extension for Firefox
• The Fangs extension for Firefox
• The text-based browser Lynx

Back to Top

 

Dreamweaver/Contribute

• Accessibility Features of Dreamweaver MX/MX2004 (WebAIM)
• Dreamweaver 8 Accessibility (Macromedia)
• Accessibility and Contribute 3 (Macromedia)
• Macromedia's Accessibility Resource Center

Back to Top

 

Flash

• Creating Accessible Macromedia Flash Content (WebAIM)
• Flash and Accessibility (Roger Hudson)
• Flash Satay - Embedding Flash While Supporting Standards (A List Apart)
• Accessibility and Macromedia Flash 8 (Macromedia)
• Accessible Flash Tutorial (SitePoint)
• Flash MX: Moving Toward Accessible Rich Media (A List Apart)

Back to Top

 

Forms

• Creating Accessible Forms (WebAIM)
• CSS in Action: Invisible Content Just for Screen Reader Users (WebAIM)
• Accessible HTML/XHMTL Forms Tutorial (WebStandards.org)
• Better Accessible Forms (Accessify.com)
• Multiple Input Form Fields (Accessify.com)
• Label Positioning (Juicy Studio)
• Accessible Forms (Web Usability, Roger Hudson, July 2004)
• Accessible Forms Tutorial (Jim Thatcher)
• Accessible Forms (HTML Dog)
• Stylish Accessible Forms (Andy Clarke)
• Styling Form Controls With CSS
• Creating Accessible Forms Using Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Macromedia)
• Webstandards.org

Back to Top

 

Images

• Creating Accessible Images (WebAIM)
• Writing Good ALT Text (Guild of Accessible Web Designers)
• Simple Guidelines for Using ALT text on Images (Jukka Korpela)

Back to Top

 

JavaScript

• Creating Accessible JavaScript (WebAIM)
• Box of Chocolates: JavaScript and Accessibility
  A discussion of the accessibility of JavaScript.
• JavaScript and Section 508 (Jim Thatcher)
• JavaScript and Accessibility, Part One (WebReference.com)
• JavaScript and Accessibility, Part Two (WebReference.com)
• JavaScript and Accessibility, Part Three (WebReference.com)

Back to Top

 

Link Appearance for Accessibility

• Link Text and Appearance (WebAIM)

Back to Top

 

Media

• Introduction to Captions (WebAIM)
• Captioning with HiCaption (WebAIM)
• Creating Captions for Rich Media (NCAM)
• Best Practices in Online Captioning (Joe Clark)
• Rich Media Accessibility (NCAM)

Back to Top

 

PDFs

• PDF & Accessibility Overview (Australia Usability.com)
• Acrobat PDF Accessibility (WebAIM)
• Adobe's Guide to Creating Accessible PDF Documents
• Adobe's Advanced Techniques for Creating Accessible PDFs (pdf)
• Review of Common Look's Section 508 Plug-in for Adobe Acrobat
• Online conversion tools for Adobe PDF

Back to Top

 

PowerPoint

• PowerPoint Accessibility Techniques (WebAIM)

Back to Top

 

Screen Readers

• Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Websites: Observing Users who Work with Screen Readers (Redish.net)
• Screen Reader Simulation (WebAIM)
• Videos - Watch Users with Screen Readers Navigating Websites (Univ of Wisconsin)

Back to Top

 

Search Engines

• Optimizing Your Chances With Accessibility (Digital Web Magazine)
• Secret Benefits of Accessibility-Better Search Engine Ranking (SitePoint)

Back to Top

 

Section 508

• Jim Thatcher's Section 508 Tutorial
• Section508.gov

Back to Top

 

Tables

• Creating Accessible Tables (WebAIM)
• Accessible Tables (Jim Thatcher)
• Accessible Data Tables (Usability.com)
• Building Accessible Tables (Evolt.org)
• Creating Accessible Data Tables Using Dreamweaver MX 2004 (Macromedia)

Back to Top

 

Typography

• Accessible Web Typography

Validation Tools

• Validation for Cascading Style Sheets
• Validation for XHTML 1.0 Strict
• WebXACT (formerly Bobby) - An automated accessibility checker.
• Cynthia Says - Another automated accessibility checker.
• ColorBlind Web Page Filter - Test how your pages look to people with various forms of color-blindness.
• Juicy Studio Color Contrast Analyzer - Another tool for testing color and contrast.
• Web Accessibility Testing by Jim Thatcher