When doing stakeholder interviews it is a good idea to also interview the end users of a site. Speak to elderley and disabled users if they are a main target group and get a feel for the problems they experience on other sites. If this is not possible read up the users - W3C has good overview on the probs they have and the type of Assistive Technologies (ATs) they may use to surf the web. To give you a bit of feel for how your site will be used:
Visually impaired: The elderly with bad vision, or a person with partial sight may use a screen magnifier (AT eg: Big Shot, http://www.aisquared.com/Products/BigShot/BSFreeTr ial/BSFreeTrial.htm) or resize the text to view (so avoid pixels & use ems). If totally blind ( turn your monitor off, to get an idea of how things look) ATs generally used are called Screen readers with Jaws (http://www.hj.com/fs_downloads/jaws.asp) reported to have the highest market share.
Ensure links are meaningful & avoid use of general link names or mutliples of the same name, eg: 'click here' or 'full description of artwork' as screenreader users are able to pull up a list of links appearing on a page to save time navigating. Not much help if all links are the same: "Click here, Click here, Click here'.
Ensure all images have meaningful 'alt' text to describe the images, particularly when using images for navigation. *As this is an art site having an equivalent text description will be very important for images of the art, as you will want to ensure those that can't see an artwork can get a good sense of what is being shown in an image.
In this case use a 'd' link. (See museum site - d link is located at bottom right hand corner of image: www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/centennial/captures/p ionf.htm). This will allow a more detailed description of an art work to be given. You will notice they also have an audio link - this would also be a good design idea as visually impaired users could chose to listen to a description.
If possible present your page using CSS and avoid tables. If using tables refer to W3C for info on how to ensure they are correctly done so people using screenreaders can access content.
Colour (Australian spelling) Blindness is another visual disability that needs to be kept in mind when designing pages. Ensure good contrasting colours, nothing too bright. A good test is to print a page on a black & white printer to see if all elements can be read.
Physical impairment: For elderly people with arthritis (or people with a physical disability) a mouse can be difficult to use so they may use the keyboard to navigate. Disconnect your mouse to see what it is like. Use your 'tab' button to move through pages & 'enter' to select links. Keep this in mind when designing and when finished, use this method to test.
Hearing Impaired : the major problem they will experience is if you have video or other multimedia included as part of your art works. Ensure they have a synchronised alternative such as a caption so they can read what is happening as it occurs.
Finally cognitive impairments. Avoid flashing images, blinking text, etc as this can distract users or be too much for them to deal with.
Testing - There are a lot of automated accessibility test tools out there such as Bobby, WAVE, W3C's HTML & CSS validators which are a good place to start your testing however these should always be supported by human review. When you see a Bobby report you will notice it cannot check everything. For example it will detect alt text but you will need to check yourself it makes sense and matches the image it is attached to.
Also read up a bit on good web design standards (eg: link colours) and usability design principles.
This really is a brief overview to give you an idea. In any case start with the WCAG on the W3C site: http://www.w3.org/T
Slashdot Mirror
U have had heaps of good tips coming through
Looking from the start of the project
When doing stakeholder interviews it is a good idea to also interview the end users of a site. Speak to elderley and disabled users if they are a main target group and get a feel for the problems they experience on other sites. If this is not possible read up the users - W3C has good overview on the probs they have and the type of Assistive Technologies (ATs) they may use to surf the web. To give you a bit of feel for how your site will be used:
Visually impaired: The elderly with bad vision, or a person with partial sight may use a screen magnifier (AT eg: Big Shot, http://www.aisquared.com/Products/BigShot/BSFreeTr ial/BSFreeTrial.htm) or resize the text to view (so avoid pixels & use ems). If totally blind ( turn your monitor off, to get an idea of how things look) ATs generally used are called Screen readers with Jaws (http://www.hj.com/fs_downloads/jaws.asp) reported to have the highest market share.
Ensure links are meaningful & avoid use of general link names or mutliples of the same name, eg: 'click here' or 'full description of artwork' as screenreader users are able to pull up a list of links appearing on a page to save time navigating. Not much help if all links are the same: "Click here, Click here, Click here'.
Ensure all images have meaningful 'alt' text to describe the images, particularly when using images for navigation. *As this is an art site having an equivalent text description will be very important for images of the art, as you will want to ensure those that can't see an artwork can get a good sense of what is being shown in an image.
In this case use a 'd' link. (See museum site - d link is located at bottom right hand corner of image: www.nzhistory.net.nz/Gallery/centennial/captures/p ionf.htm). This will allow a more detailed description of an art work to be given. You will notice they also have an audio link - this would also be a good design idea as visually impaired users could chose to listen to a description.
If possible present your page using CSS and avoid tables. If using tables refer to W3C for info on how to ensure they are correctly done so people using screenreaders can access content.
Colour (Australian spelling) Blindness is another visual disability that needs to be kept in mind when designing pages. Ensure good contrasting colours, nothing too bright. A good test is to print a page on a black & white printer to see if all elements can be read.
Physical impairment: For elderly people with arthritis (or people with a physical disability) a mouse can be difficult to use so they may use the keyboard to navigate. Disconnect your mouse to see what it is like. Use your 'tab' button to move through pages & 'enter' to select links. Keep this in mind when designing and when finished, use this method to test.
Hearing Impaired : the major problem they will experience is if you have video or other multimedia included as part of your art works. Ensure they have a synchronised alternative such as a caption so they can read what is happening as it occurs.
Finally cognitive impairments. Avoid flashing images, blinking text, etc as this can distract users or be too much for them to deal with.
Testing - There are a lot of automated accessibility test tools out there such as Bobby, WAVE, W3C's HTML & CSS validators which are a good place to start your testing however these should always be supported by human review. When you see a Bobby report you will notice it cannot check everything. For example it will detect alt text but you will need to check yourself it makes sense and matches the image it is attached to.
Also read up a bit on good web design standards (eg: link colours) and usability design principles.
This really is a brief overview to give you an idea. In any case start with the WCAG on the W3C site:
http://www.w3.org/T