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= WCAG on the ~~Modern~~ Standardized Web =

[[User:Sweerdenburg| Steven Weerdenburg]] [mailto:sweerdenburg@learn.senecac.on.ca?subject=bth740_research Email]

==== Thesis ====

With the internet becoming increasingly ~~technologically~~ diverse and pervasive to our daily lives, ~~just~~ how ~~inclusive is it becoming for those~~ well are standards and accessibility able to keep up with ~~disabilities~~technology and each other?

= Research Notes =

'''Preliminary notes, Non-prioritized into an argument'''

[http://matrix.senecac.on.ca/~sweerdenburg/Storage/Research%20Notes%20Prelim%20-%20BTH740%20-%20Steven%20Weerdenburg.pdf PDF (includes hand-written)]

'''Finalized'''

[http://matrix.senecac.on.ca/~sweerdenburg/Storage/Research%20Notes%20-%20BTH740%20-%20Steven%20Weerdenburg.pdf PDF]

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>Thesis statement: "With the internet

becoming increasingly diverse and pervasive to our daily lives, how well are

standards and accessibility able to keep up with technology and each

other?"

-- Get into overview

of evolution of web technologies. HTML 4, HTML5, CSS, JavaScript. Include

user-supplied content (wikis) and the like (Flickr, social media).

Concern<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> about

web site<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> accessibility

has been<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> growing

steadily since the mid 90s (Kane, pg 2).

WCAG 1 was for

static web sites, now dynamic sites are much more common. Much more involving

technologies. WCAG 1 was HTML specific though WCAG 2 is technology neutral.

Subjective definitions of WCAG 1 posed

issues for testability (Reid pg 109).

4 Criteria (Reid

110, Sydik):

Presentable

Observable

Understandable

Robustness

3 levels: A, AA, AAA

based on possibility, applicability, reasonability, limitations imposed and

existence of workarounds. Levels build on each other (A must be met to be AA,

AA must be met to be AAA). 65 total checkpoints (Reid pg 110).

Despite a large

amount of work into legislation, authoring tools, assistive technology

development and best practice identification. Large lack of awareness despite

efforts of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). WAI developed Web Content

Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines

(UAAG) and Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG). (Sloan, pg 122)

Standard-adherence

is important to screen readers as pointed out by Horton, Reid.

Standard adoption is

similar to industrial revolution standardization of nail/screw sizes, though

difficulty is analogous to having living-room plays, gym recitals, small

theatre productions and grand operas all appear one after another on same stage

(Kreps, pg 2). Mentions though that the artisans who yielded control in

Industrial gave up easier than Microsoft has (Kreps, pg 3), and that W3C

publishes "recommendations" rather than "standards".

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>WCAG took nearly 8 years to come out

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Initial Draft Jan 25 2001 - <a

href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-WCAG20-20010125/"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-WCAG20-20010125/</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Final Draft Dec 12 2008 - <a

href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-WCAG20-20081211/</a></li>

</ul>

(Reid, pg 113)

Accessible Rich Internet Application (ARIA)

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Modernized, Extension of

XHTML</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Defines mechanism for mapping

custom UI controls to native OS accessibility frameworks</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Defines "role"

attribute for all elements</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>"State" and

"Property" attributes that can be mapped to accessibility APIS

(onMenuOpen, etc)</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Keyboard focus (extends

tabindex)</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Notification of changes by

defining events</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Limited support <span

style='font-weight:bold;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>(NEED UP TO

DATE INFO, ONLY LISTS FF3, "upcoming IE8")</li>

<ul type=circle style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-weight:bold;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>IE8 more

standards compliant and accessible <a

href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2009/01/16/accessibility-improved-aria-support-in-the-ie8-rc.aspx"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2009/01/16/accessibility-improved-aria-support-in-the-ie8-rc.aspx</a></li>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>GoogleReader <a

href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/aria-for-google-reader-in-praise-of.html"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/aria-for-google-reader-in-praise-of.html</a></li>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Firefox 3.5, 4 ongoing as

standard changes</li>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><a

href="http://www.marcozehe.de/2009/06/26/new-accessibility-features-in-firefox-3-5/"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.marcozehe.de/2009/06/26/new-accessibility-features-in-firefox-3-5/</a></li>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><a

href="http://www.marcozehe.de/2010/10/04/new-in-accessibility-in-firefox-4-0/"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.marcozehe.de/2010/10/04/new-in-accessibility-in-firefox-4-0/</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=circle style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Webkit (Safari, Chrome) <a

href="http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=454"><span style='font-family:

Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/?p=454</a><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>, <a

href="http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/aria-tests/ARIA-Safari-RoleTests280909.html"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.paciellogroup.com/blog/aria-tests/ARIA-Safari-RoleTests280909.html</a></li>

</ul>

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>ARIA STANDARDS CHANGED OVER TIME WHILE FINALIZING. FF

CHANGED WITH STANDARDS, WEBKIT ADOPTED LATE, IE ADOPTED MIDDLE. STILL NOT

FINALIZED (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/WD-wai-aria-20080204/</a>

= Initial, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-wai-aria-20100916/">http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/WD-wai-aria-20100916/</a>

= Most recent).

Above Aria adoption

is not alone, HTML5 adoption is similarly sporadic across browsers

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>IE has no html5 until IE9 (<a

href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/ff468705.aspx"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/ff468705.aspx</a><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>)</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Firefox </li>

<ul type=circle style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Had canvas since 2005 (Gecko

1.8 aka FF1.5) <a

href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial</a><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>)</li>

</ul>

<ul type=circle style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Had video since 2007 (Gecko

1.9.1 aka FF 3.5) <a

href="https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_audio_and_video_in_Firefox"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Using_audio_and_video_in_Firefox</a></li>

</ul>

Factor in browser

usability statistics (Kreps, pg 4), but NEEDS UP

TO DATE INFO, DATED 2008 (All below from <a

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers</a>)

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>NetApplication (40,000 sites,

unique visitors) <a

href="http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://marketshare.hitslink.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=0</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>W3Counter (last 15,000

non-unique views) <a href="http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>StatCounter (3,000,000 sites,

#hits (not unique)) <a href="http://gs.statcounter.com/"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://gs.statcounter.com/</a></li>

<ul type=circle style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Can drill by region/country.

Huge

differences between US and EU</li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>W3Schools Counter <a

href="http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>StatOwl (USA only) <a

href="http://www.statowl.com/web_browser_market_share.php"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://www.statowl.com/web_browser_market_share.php</a></li>

</ul>

<ul type=disc style='margin-left:.375in;direction:ltr;unicode-bidi:embed;

margin-top:0in;margin-bottom:0in'>

<li style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;vertical-align:middle'><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>Wikimedia visitors <a

href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Wikimedia_.28April_2009_to_present.29"><span

style='font-family:Calibri;font-size:11.0pt'>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#Wikimedia_.28April_2009_to_present.29</a></li>

</ul>

"Indeed their

victory over Microsoft and Netscape in the Browser Wars of the mid-late 1990s

was something achieved rather through the vigorous lobbying of external

organisations such as the Web Standards Project, (WaSP 1998) formed to enable

web developers to avoid the increasingly necessary expense of creating multiple

versions of their websites individually tailored to increasingly different

browsers." (Kreps, 3).

Almost presents same

issue again that occurred in mid 90s which caused W3C to define

standards/recommendations in place of IE and Netscape, except coding for

various implementations of client technologies (goes back to User Agent

Accessibility Guidelines). WHAT GOOD IS

TECHNOLOGY IF CAN'T RELY ON IT'S USAGE? WHY PUT EFFORT INTO DEVELOPMENT?

Development of a

product is further refined as recommendations from the W3C or other bodies are

adopted into legislation by state bodies. "WCAG has also been used as a

model for<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> accessibility

legislation, such<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> as

in the<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Section

508 guidelines for US government web sites [34]." (Kane, 149)

Numerous State

bodies have passed binding legislation with regards to WCAG (Sydik, 292-297)

<table border=1 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 valign=top style='direction:ltr;

border-collapse:collapse;border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:

1pt'>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

State Body

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Legislation

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Scope

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Information

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Australia

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Disability

Discrimintation Act

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Public/Private

Sector

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/dda_guide.htm">http://hreoc.gov.au/disability_rights/dda_guide.htm</a>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Canada

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Canadian Human

Rights Act, Ontario Human Rights Code.

All sites with

WCAG 2 AA

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Accepted to be

Private (Human Rights)

Public (WCAG)

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/">http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/</a>

<a href="http://www.zvulony.com/accessibility.html">http://www.zvulony.com/accessibility.html</a>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

EU

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

eInclusion

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

None (many member

states have legislation for public/private sector)

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion">http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion</a>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Japan

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Japan Industrial

Standard (JIS) X 8341-3

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Non-legal,

considered best practice

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://www.mitsue.co.jp/english/column/backnum/20040625.html">http://www.mitsue.co.jp/english/column/backnum/20040625.html</a>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

UK

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Disability

Discrimination Act

Special<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Educational

Needs and<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Disability

Act

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Public/Private

Education

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://www.drc-gb.org/PDF/CoP_Access.pdf">http://www.drc-gb.org/PDF/CoP_Access.pdf</a>

(Kane, 149)

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

UN

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Convention of

Rights of Persons with Disabilities

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

100 member nations

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/">http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable/</a>

<a

href="http://www.nomensa.com/resources/research/united-nations-global-audit-of-accessibility.html">http://www.nomensa.com/resources/research/united-nations-global-audit-of-accessibility.html</a>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:.7673in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

US

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.0541in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Section 508

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.3944in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

Public

</td>

<td style='border-style:solid;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-width:1pt;

vertical-align:top;width:2.6902in;padding:1.95pt 3.0pt 1.95pt 3.0pt'>

<a

href="http://www.section508.gov/">http://www.section508.gov/</a>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

Further Law Info can

be found at WebAIM World Laws (<a

href="http://www.webaim.org/articles/laws/world/">http://www.webaim.org/articles/laws/world/</a>)

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>BUT HOW DOES ALL OF THIS AFFECT ACTUAL IMPLEMENTATIONS

OF TECHNOLOGY AND WEB SITES?

Dexter Hypertext

Model Overview (Dodd, pg 4)

Document may be atom

(single page) of Composite component.

Anchor - Link

between documents. Can be scriptable, determinable at run time (issue for

screen readers?)

The Dexter Model is

formally expressed as three distinct layers as shown in Figure 2 below; the

relevant items from

Figure 2 are listed

for each layer. (Dodd, pg 5)

<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'>

<img src="Outline_files/image001.png" width=511

height=352

alt="Machine generated alternative text: . Runtme Instance
• Link Marker
Runtime Layer • Presentaban Speication
. Link Resolver
. Resotved Mchoi End
. Session
.—
. Arc
Storage Layer • Arc End
• Presenlabon Specification
• Attribute
• Resoaveci AnchOE End
Within-component Layer • Anchor">

Figure 2 – The three

layer Dexter Model

"Each Component

within the Dexter Model is associated with a Presentation Specification. The

Presentation

Specification describes how an individual component should be rendered to the

user." (Dodd,

pg 5)

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>Design-wise this is accomplished through CSS, but User

Agent-wise this means updating CSS interpretations within the browser and

releasing new browser versions. This is reliant on standards.

Many automated tools

exist to test, though false positives are potential. WebXACT (aka Bobby) and

Cynthia Says are two common WCAG 1.0 testers. FAE tests modification of this to

both WCAG and Section 508 (US only) legislations. Alt Text on images is commonly

flagged, but is alt text significant on space-holding images? WebInSight tries

to mitigate this error. (Kane, 151).

Of the 778 sites

tested by Kreps, a vast majority had many many issues. Were outright invalid or

were not up to standard (Kreps, 6).

REFERENCES TO

UNIVERSITY WEB SITE STUDIES (Kane , 149).

<25% of

university home pages were passed by Bobby (Kane from Rowland, 149)

77% of home pages or

pages linked from were failed by Bobby from to p24 ranked info science

universities in US (Kane from Schmetzke, 149).

Automated tools to

test top 50 US schools, 15% failed in at least accessibility or usability

tests, 35/50 failed WCAG Priority 1 (Kane from Zaphiris and Ellis, 149)

Kane conducted self

study on Times Top 100 Universities using multi-method technique (Bobby and

Cynthia scores combined, FAE kept separate). Only 2 were 100% WCAG 1 compliant

(Bobby and Cynthia), while "Among<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> those

countries with<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> 5

or more<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> ranked

universities, universities in

Australia contain<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> the

fewest average<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> accessibility errors,<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> followed

by the<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> United

Kingdom, the<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> United

States, the Netherlands<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> and

France (tie),<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> and

Switzerland." (Kane, 152). Results found to be statistically

significantly.

Table on 152 shows

numbers, DO THESE COINCIDE WITH SCOPE OF

LEGISLATION (PUBLIC/PRIVATE VS. PRIVATE ONLY)? FOR THOSE THAT DO, DOES RATE OF

ADHERENCE COINCIDE WITH DURATION OF TIME SINCE LEGISLATION ENACTED (LESS

INFRACTIONS FOR LONGER TIME ENACTED)?

Aside from markup

itself, also worth noting is the additional implementation time of drafting and

updating accessibility policies. Kane found less than half (46/100) sites had

accessibility policies somewhere on the site, with a fifth (21/100) linked from

the home page. More overhead in adherence than simply markup, but promotes best

practice: "Web sites<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> that

featured accessibility<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> policies

had statistically fewer

accessibility violations than sites<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> that did not have policies (p<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> <

.01) Sites without<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> policies

averaged 5.36<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> P1-P3

violations, while sites with policies averaged 3.98 P1-3

violations." (Kane, 154)

"The issue of

web accessibility has received a fair amount of attention in English-speaking

countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.

These sites tend<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> to

have a<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> somewhat

higher level<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> of

accessibility. However,

universities in<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> some

non-English-speaking countries

have significantly<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> less accessible web<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> pages.

It is<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> not

clear from the<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> present

research what factors may<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> cause

this discrepancy<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> in

web site

accessibility. It seems that legislation may have a limited positive<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> effect

on accessibility.<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> For

example, web<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> sites

in the United<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Kingdom,

where university<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> web

site accessibility<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> is regulated, have some of the highest levels

of accessibility." (Kane, 154)

<span

style='font-weight:bold'>Dodd identifies that other usability concerns crop up

as a result of the very standard for web pages (HTML, based off<span

style='mso-spacerun:yes'> Dexter Model). "As a simple

example, the ordering of content in a list may need to vary between visual and

audio design spaces: in text-to-speech environments, the most important menu

options may need to be listed first, but in a visual environment the menu may be

required to be grouped more logically." (Dodd, page 8)

This is a standard

that is so long in evolution and entrenchment is so high that it is unlikely to

change. "

HTML version 5 [8]

is now out for discussion and, “intends to replace HTML 4, XHTML 1.x, and DOM2

HTML

specifications”"

(Dodd from W3C, pg 10)

Note that attributes

and events can be used to provide synchronization (video.timeupdate event), but

these require manual checking of the time every millisecond and is "forced

synchronization".

Even with standard

adherence, accessibility is not guaranteed. Screenreaders evaluate DOM at

load-time and can not reevaluate when changed at run-time through on-page

scripts. "Screen reading application Jaws for Windows [5] and VoiceOver

[7], both fail to handle the dynamic page updates correctly on what is

otherwise a trivial web page." (Dodd, pg 9)

CONCLUSION

Too long an

standardization time means continual adjusting or standards and implementations

there of (ARIA, Firefox kept tweaking as standards) or non-implementation at

all (IE held off on implementation).

Too short can lead

to short-sightedness, inflexibility and necessity to "go back to the

drawing board" (WCAG 1 was narrow focused and tech specific. Implemented

in 1999, version 2.0 was being drafted 2 years after already).

Why would a company

invest lots of resources in implementing WCAG 1 compliance a year after if WCAG

2 is already in the works (similar to IE not adopting ARIA, universities not

conforming to WCAG "recommendations").

== Draft and Final ==

[http://matrix.senecac.on.ca/~sweerdenburg/Storage/Paper_Draft.pdf Draft - PDF]

Sweerdenburg

1

edit

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