Web Publishing Policy
Accessibility
1. Contain no priority 1 errors as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 1 (WWWC WCAG 1.0 - http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/ )
(a) Frames sites:
i. Contain no priority 1 or 2 errors according to WWWC WCAG 1.0
ii. Drop the frame(s) when indexing or pointing to other web sites
A checklist of requirements is available from http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html
A supplementary document provides help with priority 1 compliance .
2. Comply with the WWWC HTML guidelines version 4.01: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/ , Validate for 4.01 Transitional, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) level1 (and level 2) if applicable: http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
Doing so will ensure that they will display properly in most browsers. Do NOT use browser-specific tags or features. Older or alternative (non IE/netscape) browsers that do not support the newer features of the current specification may incorrectly render, or not render at all, some parts of your pages. Be sure that they "degrade gracefully," i.e., all of the pertinent information is still viewable. Many "What You See Is What You Get" web editors (MS FrontPage or Word in particular) are notorious for producing bloated, and often invalid HTML and they may alter any code you import without your knowledge. Be sure to check your files before posting. There are many web sites that offer validation and some editors have built-in validators. The recommended validators are provided by the W3C: http://validator.w3.org/ for HTML, and http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/ for CSS. Validation to the XHTML 1.0 spec is an acceptable alternative and may make future upgrades easier ( i.e.. transition to XML).
3. Keep pages small and minimize graphics - assume users have a 28.8kbps connection
Keep it simple. Use text links rather than graphics. Minimize graphics and ensure that the images are web optimized. Image optimization utilities are available in recent versions of Photoshop/Photopaint/Fireworks etc., as well as stand-alone programs available from many shareware sites like tucows.com . Use JPG or GIF for images. Don't use frames. Keep the overall download size for a page - the html file and all associated images, sounds, etc. - as small as possible. Remember that most off-site users are still on dial-up connections with an average real throughput of 28.8kbps. The current main page of the UTD website - only 4 small web-optimized images and all text links for a total size of 26Kb - takes 8 seconds to download on a 28.8 connection! Do not use browser-specific HTML tags. Make sure your pages meet or exceed WCAG 1.0 level A.
For more detail, see SRRPUB11 .
4. Provide an accessible version of all Document Image Files (.pdf, .doc) and a link to:
(a) A free copy of the associated reader for the document image file
(b) accessibility instructions for the reader
If you post any document image files on your web (e.g., word processor files like MS Word .doc files or Adobe .PDF files) you must provide a link to an accessible HTML version and a link to either a copy of the associated reader itself, or a link to a site where the reader program is available. Adobe Software provides links to online converters and downloadable plug-ins designed to help convert PDF files to more accessible formats at: http://access.adobe.com/index.html . Another explanation of how to comply with this portion of the rule is given in SRRPUB11, accessibility section, subsection entitled, "Accessibility & Document Image Files" at: http://www.dir.state.tx.us/standards/srrpub11.htm .
The historical documents exclusion refers to "either a document dated prior to 1991 for which the agency does not have the original document in electronic format, or a document dated prior to 1997 that contains a handwritten signature."
Please note exclusion (ii). If you can provide an alternative form for non-original documents, please do so. It is in your best interest to make the information you are providing available to all.
5. Include these meta tags:
- Title--page topic or subject
- Description--brief description of the subjects covered
- Keywords--specific to the page subject, and should not exceed 25 words
- Author - State of Texas, state agency name, department/school/web contact as appropriate.
The title, description and keywords Meta tags are especially important because the information in these tags are what is used by search engines, including the UTD search engine, to index a page. Using appropriate and accurate titles, keywords, and descriptions helps ensure that your page will be in the results of a relevant search.
6. Consider colorblind users when choosing color combinations - WWWC WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 2.2
It is estimated that 8% of men and 0.5% of women have some form of colorblindness. This translates into a larger proportion of people than those browsing at a resolution of 640x480! Fully understanding and testing for all possible types of colorblindness is a daunting task and one that is outside the scope of these guidelines. The vast majority of colorblind people have some form of red-green colorblindness. The term colorblind is generally used, but it is a blanket term. A "colorblind" person is not necessarily fully blind to a color. Usually the person has difficulty distinguishing between certain colors. The simple way to make pages accessible for colorblind people is to not use background colors other than white, or black with some considerations (red on black can look like olive on black to a colorblind person - difficult to read). Make your color scheme high contrast. Choose colors from opposite sides of a color wheel. Avoid color-on-color areas without assessing the readability for colorblind people.
An excellent comprehensive site about color vision and the web is available at : http://more.btexact.com/ces/colours/ . They provide palette files for Photoshop and Paintshop Pro that you can use to test your pages. Full instructions are available at this link.
Also see http://vischeck.com for online simulations, a Java-based simulation and a Photoshop plug-in. |
