Web Accessibility Resources

This page is provided as a link to articles on all aspects of accessible web development - design and evaluation. We also list any reviews we have carried out of University web resources here. Keep checking back as we plan to regularly update this with new material. If there's a specific topic you'd like to see addressed, just get in touch!

Reviews

One of the core activities of the Web Accessibility Service is to provide reviews of systems provided by the University to help staff create and edit Web resources of various types.

The intention of these reviews is to focus on two key aspects of accessibility:

To what extent does the system under review support authors of all technical abilities in creating and maintaining accessible Web content?
To what extent does the system support disabled users in creating abd editing Web content?

The reviews will therefore look to provide:

Advice to users on how best to use the system in creating and maintaining accessible web content
Details of areas where there are shortcomings in terms of accessiblity of the system to disabled people and in its ability to create accessible content, and how these shortcomings can best be addressed.

Questionmark Perception

In early 2008, we conducted an accessibility review of Questionmark Perception (QMP). Our findings are available here:

Summary of findings for QMP authors (Word).
Questionmark Perception Accessibility Review (Word) .
Evaluating the Accessibility to disabled people of E-Assessment Tools - a paper presented by David Sloan and David Walker at the 2008 International Conference on Computer Aided Assessment, which focused on the QMP accessibility review work.

Content Management System (CMS)

The Web Accessibility Service is involved in the ongoing project to procure a Content Management System (CMS), which will be used to provide the University web site. Our intention is that accessibility is one of the key factors in choosing the University CMS.

Once the CMS has been chosen and implemented, resources will be available here to help authors of all technical skill levels use the CMS to create and maintain optimally accessible web pages.

Blackboard

Over winter 2008/spring 2008 we will be conducting reviews of key functionality of Blackboard (My Dundee) and support for accessibility. Output of these reviews will be published here.

Articles

We've classified our articles in different categories, so as to be useful to a wide range of readers - let us know how useful they are to you!

Basic - an overview of a topic, aimed at people without in-depth technical knowledge.
For Everyone - articles that are relevant to all Web authors and developers.
Advanced - articles that are more technical or theoretical and so aimed at readers with advanced Web development skills.

Articles - Basic

6 November 2008 (updated from original 2006 article): Improving keyboard accessibility, Part 1: the essentials Three ways in which you can improve accessibility for people who can't use a mouse - benefitting people with mobility impairments and people with severe visual impairments.
28 July 2006: Web Page Linearisation - an introduction to how Web pages 'appear' to screen readers and text-only browsers.
5 June 2006: What is Web Content? You may be a Web developer without knowing it! An overview of the ways in which your work can end up on the Web and the responsibilities you have for ensuring its accessibility.

Articles - For Everyone

12 May 2009: Video demonstrations of assistive technologies - a selection of Youtube videos showing the diversity of assistive technologies available to help disabled people use the Web.
17 August 2006: A guide to the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's web site
5 June 2006: The benefits of Web accessibility - an overview
5 June 2006, updated 27th July 2006: PAS 78 - a new standard in Web accessibility - now FREE!

Articles - Advanced

6 November 2008 (updated from original 2006 article): Improving keyboard accessibility, Part 2: the details More information on techniques for improving accessibility for people who can't use a mouse.