{"id":4453,"date":"2016-07-26T09:15:25","date_gmt":"2016-07-26T08:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/?p=4453"},"modified":"2016-08-02T14:53:02","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T13:53:02","slug":"developing-accessible-web-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/tel\/2016\/07\/26\/developing-accessible-web-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Developing accessible web content"},"content":{"rendered":"

In our recent post Making learning accessible through technology<\/em><\/a>, Tab Betts (@MrTabKey<\/a>) took us through some valuable tools that promote inclusivity, productivity and help overcome what are for some significant barriers to learning.<\/p>\n

\"Dr

Dr David Sloan – UX Research Lead, The Paciello Group<\/p><\/div>\n

A growing range of free content creation tools (e.g. WordPress<\/a>) and intuitive social media platforms (e.g Facebook) have opened up web authoring to the masses, but as non-experts in web content creation this can inadvertently result in the introduction of accessibility challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authoring tools<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A good authoring tool can help authors avoid accessibility problems by whenever possible automatically generating code that meets accessibility standards, and by prompting authors to manually add features that promote accessibility, when this can\u2019t be automated.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, current tools have varying levels of support for generating accessible content, and provide varying levels of guidance to authors in creating accessible content. The result is content that often includes basic, but significant, barriers for disabled people.<\/p>\n

In this follow-up blog post, guest contributor Dr David Sloan<\/a> (UX Research Lead, The Paciello Group) and Dr David Walker<\/a> (Head of Technology Enhanced Learning, University of Sussex) highlight the accessibility challenges that should be considered when developing content for the web, and the need to evaluate the extent to which the tools we use support the production of accessible outputs.<\/p>\n

Accessibility guidelines <\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Capture\"<\/a>

Logo of the World Wide Web Consortium<\/a> (W3C)<\/p><\/div>\n

Digital tools can be significant enablers to accessible learning, indeed in a recent workshop at the University of Sussex Alistair McNaught<\/a> (Jisc) argued that the provision of resources in digital formats should be a \u2018learner
\nentitlement\u2019 as they are natively more accessible.<\/p>\n

Your first recommended stop when thinking about the process of developing accessible web content, and the tools you will use or provide authors with, is the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0<\/a> produced by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Designed to support those developing tools for creating accessible web content, the guidelines also serve as a useful framework for evaluating the extent to which digital tools support authors to create accessible content.<\/p>\n

A separate but related set of guidelines specifically relating to the content itself is the more familiar Web Content Accessibility Guidelines<\/a> (WCAG is also produced by the W3C), which should also be considered.<\/p>\n

How easily does a tool support authors to create accessible outputs?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When reviewing a tool ATAG 2.0 provides us with some useful pointers to guide our evaluation.\u00a0 To what extend does the tool support:<\/p>\n