Elstree Film Studios - Training Courses - Website Accessibility
This website accessibility training course focuses on the practical problems that UK website designers (and web developers) need to overcome in order to meet web accessibility standards set by the W3Cs Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the Disability Rights Commission (Under the Discrimination Act - DDA).
This course tries not to take sides in ideological debates about what constitutes true website accessibility and for whom; although it does provide considerable detail on the different requirements of different disability groups. Instead, the course explains the technical options for achieving specified accessibility goals, and the practical consequences of choosing one path over another. Where there are tensions or contradictions between various goals and options, the course provides best practice advice on the costs and benefits of different methods for balancing them.
The website accessibility goals around which the course is organised are largely those outlined in the WCAG, in the Disability Rights Commissions Code of Practice for websites, and in well-known reports by voluntary bodies like the RNIB.
Website accessibility has become a major issue for web designers and developers. Websites designed without taking accessibility into consideration exclude certain sectors of the population and limit your customer base. This course will enable you to ensure your site conforms to the WAI (W3C) Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Duration: 1 day.
Prerequisites: A working knowledge of HTML or a development platform e.g. Dreamweaver.
Location: 21st Century New Media Ltd (Production Offices), Elstree Film Studios, Shenley Road, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, WD6 1JG. [
Click here for a map]
Times: 10.00am to 4.30pm. For security reasons, further details are only provided upon booking.
Courseware: The book which accompanies this course is posted to you upon payment confirmation.
Accommodation & Transport: Details of local accomodation and transport can be found
here.
Further assistance: Our
FAQ help page contains the answers to many popular questions. Alternatively please call
0844 844 2428 to arrange to speak to our training manager.
COURSE CONTENT
General concepts and techniques
- Why make your site accessible?
- Analysis: what makes a site inaccessible?
- Up to date standards and technologies
- Browser and platform compatibility
Legal issues
- Case studies
- Legal requirements
Coding for accessibility
- Developer tools
- Doctypes: XHTML vs HTML
- Deprecated elements
- Writing efficient and meaningful HTML
Building pages with CSS
- Separating content from presentation
- The cascade, inheritance, specifity
- Fonts, colours and other properties
- Non-tabled page layouts
- Using lists for navigation
- Columns and other layout techniques
- Styles for print
Navigation
- Clear navigation structures
- Link titles - identifying link content
- Specifying keyboard shortcuts for links
- Using the tab key for navigation
- Adding a 'Skip Navigation' option
- Building a Site Map
Validation
- WAI guidelines
- UK Government guidelines
- Bobby, Web Exact and other resources
- Manual checks - Accessibility checklist
- Assistive technologies
- Screen readers
- Braille displays
Text
- Specifying language and encoding
- Scalability - ensuring readable text
- Acronyms and abbreviations
Images
- Alt tags - providing alternative content
- Using background images - text replacement
- Animated gifs
Tables
- Using headers and titles for data tables
- When to avoid tables
Forms
- Associating labels with form elements
- Building in keyboard access for forms
Accessible design
- Building for usability
- Fluid vs fixed design - allowing for scalability
- Colour schemes - contrasting colours
- Using alternatives to colour for mark-up
- Working with Flash, video or audio content - providing alternatives
- Issues with JavaScript and other browser scripting languages
- Mouse events - providing keyboard based alternatives
