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Web Site Accessibility,  Part 3 

This month, we going to talk a little more about Bobby, I am going to try and answer some of Linda’s questions about the test results, and you’ll get an introduction to a few other tools you can use.

First, I want to commend Linda for volunteering the ezine for me to use in last month’s article. This shows that she has a concern and commitment to making her site accessible to people with disabilities.  You go girl!   

If you use this link, you can see that Linda has made some changes in the areas where Bobby indicated there was a problem and this month's cover page has passed Bobby's test!

To answer her question about color, it certainly can be used to make the page more attractive, just don’t use it alone to highlight text or a feature – someone who can’t see the color won’t know what you are trying to point out to them. Rather than saying: “The fields marked in red are required”, you could say: “The fields marked with an asterisk are required”. 

To answer the question of “How do I let Bobby know that my tables are for layout and not for data?”, well, that’s not really how Bobby works. The visual or manual checks that Bobby suggests you do are there because there are certain features that Bobby cannot check automatically.  The information is listed there so that you will do the checks that Bobby can’t.  

There are other tools available (for free) that can help make your web pages accessible. If you are a FrontPage 2000 or 2002 user, you can download an addin called TP_ErrOmi.  ErrOmi has features that help you improve the accessibility of your site, AND it also has features that help you improve the ranking of your site with search engines. It will automatically detect whether or not you have a DOCTYPE statement (and in FrontPage 2002 it will add one for you if you wish), and it checks for alt text for your images. You can use this tool from within FrontPage; it creates a new option on the tools menu for you.

Also for FrontPage users, Microsoft recently announced a strategic relationship with HiSoftware, a leading supplier of Web site accessibility software, to provide HiSoftware's AccVerifyTM SE Web accessibility tool for all users of FrontPage. What’s interesting about this tool is that you can program it to use either the W3C Guidelines or the US Government Section 508 rules, which is a great feature if you are a federal government webmaster. You can also use this tool from within FrontPage; it adds a new item to your menu bar called ‘Custom’. You can register for the download here. 

Another online tool, developed by the Center for IT Accommodation (CITA), is called “Check Your Page”.  On this site, you enter your URL once, and it submits the page to Bobby, Lynx-Me (a DOS-based browser emulator), the WAVE (a great checking service at Temple University), Vischeck, and the HTML and CSS Validators at the W3C. And, while you’re waiting for the tool to run, it presents you with other links to the major search engines so you can see who’s linking to your page.  

If you want more information about Web Accessibility, I strongly encourage you to visit the Web Accessibility Initiative Home Page at the W3C.  You can learn about the Business Benefits of Web Accessibility here, and get the answers to twenty of the most commonly-asked questions about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines here. 

And, of course, you are always welcome to visit our site at the State of Connecticut and see how we’re doing – our target date for 100% compliance with the State’s policy is January 2002.

Kathleen Anderson is a webmaster at the State of Connecticut and chairs their committee on web site accessibility for persons with disabilities.    She also has her own web design company, Spider Web Woman Designs.