Techniques

Site managers can use the following techniques to improve accessibility. For more details, see the localized versions of IWAS which are on this site.

Provide contact information so anyone with accessibility problems can get help.: This is one of the easiest IWAS standards to meet—include an email address, telephone number, and mailing address, so that anybody who needs to report problems or request alternative formats can do so. Ideally, you’ll have a link to this information on every page of the site.
Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).: With CSS, site developers can separate site content and formatting information, streamlining the site for assistive technologies, and likely improving speed. CSS can also simplify maintenance procedures by concentrating certain information, such as selection of site colors, in one file, rather than in all pages of the site. WIU’s web servers support the use of CSS, as do most of the browsers used in computer labs. See the W3C page Accessibility Features of CSS for more information. For examples of CSS “hooks” for accessibility, see the English & Journalism site.
Use a templating system of some kind.: Templates can place content and other information—such as site navigation, headers, and footers—into central locations dynamically accessed by all files on your site. This means that changing the template alters all pages which refer to it. On WIU’s web server, server side includes can be used. (Learn more on the English & Journalism site.) Alternatively, software such as Macromedia Dreamweaver can provide this functionality, and works well with WIU’s systems.
Pick one encoding system, and validate it.: Because assistive technologies are often Pick a single method for designing and encoding your site, and stick with it. (This also makes maintenance a lot easier.) Periodically check your site’s encoding to make sure it is properly formatted.
Include “skip to” links at the top of each page.: IWAS and other web accessibility guidelines suggest including links which allow users of screen readers to quickly access or bypass navigation bars (which can take a long time to be read). The best place for these links is at the top of each page. View the source of this site for an example.
Include a page which describes what you’ve done in the hopes of improving accessibility.: If you’ve put time and effort into the development of accessibility features such as accesskeys or specialized style sheets, make sure users who are looking for these features can find them. See this example on the English & Journalism site.
Avoid tables (for layout), frames, JavaScript, and animations.: The use of complex tables to arrange the look of a page frustrates users of screen readers and other assistive technologies to no end, because it often rearranges the order in which a page is read. Avoid tables! Frames, JavaScript, and animations also cause accessibility problems. See IWAS standards 8, 11, 12, and 17 for more information.
Install Mozilla Firefox and the Web Developer extension.: This combination of freely downloadable and distributable software provides an extremely useful set of tools for web developers, allowing you to quickly view your pages with and without style sheets, images, etc.