The first 20 Points are available here for FREE.  A PDF with the full checklist will be available for download soon.

Checkpoint
1. Does Each page have a unique and helpful Title.
2. Does your site have a consistent layout.
3. Do all images have a ALT Tag with a helpful description of the image.
4. If your site has background music is it easily able to turned off by your visitor.
5. Are there Text based alternatives to any Flash based content.
6. Do all links contain accurate descriptions on where they redirect the user to.
7. Do the colors on your web site have appropriate contrast.
8. Do you have text based alternatives to any Java based content on your site.
9. Have you provided text based alternatives to any multimedia content on your web site e.g. videos, flash animations.
10. If you have used forms in your site do all the appropriate elements have labels.
11. Does your web site still flow logicaly if the user has style sheets disabled.
12. If you have used frames does each frame have an accurate title so it can be easily identified.
13. If data tables are present do you they have meaningful Row and column Headers.
14. Have you provided detailed descriptions of any table.
15. Have you used the clearest and simplest language for site content.
16. Have you Divided large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate.
17. Have you provided keyboard shortcuts for the appropriate links.
18. Have you provided the appropriate Metadata for each page.
19. Did you use style sheets to control layout and formating where appropriate.
20. Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported.

To start off I thought we would look at what the Top 5 Web Browsers by Usage in April 2009 were:

1. Internet Explorer

2. FireFox

3. Chrome

4. Safari

5. Opera

If you are interested you can check out a Complete list of Web Browsers available at Wikipedia.

For those who are interested in understanding the differences between the different web browsers available today and the different features they currently offer check out the Comparison of web browsers article on Wikipedia.

So now we know what Web Browsers exist and what the difference are we will look at why this important in terms of accessibility.

A Key reason to make sure site is accessible is that with over 100 different Web Browsers available today you want to make sure your web site will work is most if not ALL of these browsers to give you largest possible audience for your web site.

So how do I make sure my web site will work in all these browsers? This is quite simple to make sure your web site will work in as many web browsers as possible and reach the largest number of visitors possible you need to make sure it complies with as many of the 12 Guidelines set out in the web content accessibility guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 as possible you can view the guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ .

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of Browsers Wars in Early August 2010.

Below are 15 True or False Questions about web accessibility simply submit your answers using the comments for this Blog and then this time next week I will publish the answers so you can see how many you got correct.

1. By Law in most countries All Web Sites are required to meet a certain level of accessibility.
2.  All flash based content is completely inaccessible.
3. Only People using screen readers require accessible web sites.
4. It is expensive to Test your site accessibility.
5. W3C stands for World Wide Web Company.
6. All Web Browsers will display the same Web Page Exactly the same.
7. All Blogs are 100% Accessible.
8. Building an Accessible web site is expensive and time consuming.
9. Google Adds make your site inaccessible.
10. All Images should have ALT tags with detailed descriptions of the image.
11. It is possible to create accessible Online Presentations.
12. Using Java or Javascript in your web site will make it inaccessible.
13. W3C make the law on Web Accessibility.
14. Online Forums and Social Networking sites are accessible.
15. A Web Site should flow easily and each page should have a clear title to allow easy navigation by your visitors.

It would be impossible for me write an article that covers the legal requirements in terms of accessibility so instead I am going to post a few a key links below for you to do your own research.

USA

• Section 508
• WEBAIM United States Law

Canada

• WEBAIM – World Laws Canada
• Common Look and Feel Standards for the Internet, Part 2: Standard on the Accessibility, Interoperability and Usability of Web Sites

Australia

• Australian Human Rights Commission World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes
• W3C Australia: State Policies Relating To Web Accessibility

New Zealand

• W3C New Zealand
• Even Grounds Web Accessibility In New Zealand

1. Test Using Web Based Automatic Testers, These are often Free and very easy to use however are not perfect and some things make not get picked up, However as a guide these a great point to start, A few of my favorite web testers are below:

• WAVE by Webaim
• Etre’s Accessibility Check
• Any Browser – Offer various testing tools.
• IBM – Web Compliance Tester
• Cogentis
  

2. Is to hire a Web Accessibility Consultant to test your site although most developers can build a accessible web site getting an external consultant to test your site is the best way to ensure it’s accessibility.

3. This is perhaps the most time consuming option to test your sites accessibility yourself, using different checklist and checking your page in many different browsers and computers to see how it loads.

Blogs are considered to be some of the most accessible forms of web sites on the internet today.In the following publication I am going to be looking at Blogs and relevant issues and how they can be overcome. Due to large length of this document I have included a table of contents so you can navigate the document faster and easier.

Table Of Contents

1. What is a Blog?

2. How do Blogs work?

3. Who uses Blogs?

4. Why are Blogs so inaccessible?

5. Why are some Blogs more accessible than others?

6. How can I make my Blog more accessible?

7. Is there a Blogging system out there what is accessible?

1. What is a Blog?

A blog can also being known as a Online Diary, Weblog. A Blog is a online journal of thoughts, article or other content which is updated regularly.

2. How do Blogs work?

A Blog is easier to maintain than a web site as it is often done via an online application (Java Script, Java Applet, PHP, Perl) or e-mail. these can then be viewed

Essentially when someone wants to add new content to there blog they will normally just log into an online system where they will have several option one of which will be add new post Journal. Once this is done someone simply types in the content they want to publish and edit like a word document once this is done they then click publish at which point the post is available for everyone to read over the internet.

3. Who uses Blogs?

All sorts of people and business from countries around the world use Blogs to convey information on issues, share thoughts, views, reviews, and opinions.

Some interesting Blog statistics:

• Over 10 Million blogs exist
• Over 20 companies offering free Blog services

Blogging is becoming one of the most popular ways for people to have a web site.

4. Why are Blogs so inaccessible?

As there are so many different options out there for people to use to create and maintain there blog and every one of these blog services relies on different coding and web languages in order to make it work correctly this is where most of the problem lies however there are several other things that make blogs inaccessible they are:

• Blog Services Developers are not considering people with disabilities.
• No standard exist for Blog accessibility
• Inability to edit templates and source code
• Reliance of visual controls and mouse use to edit and maintain blog.
• The Use of Spam Preventing Tools And Features

The main reason is that the problems exist is due to the large time and expense required in order to make these services accessible.

5. Why are some Blogs more accessible than others?

As for the reason why some Blogs and blogging tools are more accessible than others this is because they all operate and rely of different intefaces and technologies to work and some of technologies and interfaces are more accessible than others this is why all the different Blogs and Blogging services have verying levels of accessibility.

6. How can I make my Blog more accessible?

All the different Blogging services have different options and templates you can choose from which will affect your blogs accessibility so I am unable to give an accurate instructions on how to make your blog more accessible. However is are some general rules that should be following in order ot make your blog accessible.

1. Have good Contrast between background and text on the screen.
2. Removing unesecary content from your Blog navigation system
3. Provide an RSS Feed
4. If you access to the template code then remove any uneeded coding

7. Is there a Blogging system out there what is accessible?

The simple answer to this there is No completely accessible Blogging system out there at the current time.

If you are willing to pay for Blog hosting then you can get more accessible Blog and options than most of the free services.

Some free services do publish accessible Blogs however I have not found a service what has decent accessibility in the control panel system.

This is especially important when it comes to looking the accessibility of various e-mail systems for Blind and visually impaired people. I could give you a list of thousands of free and Paid E-mail providers out there today but I would probably just scare you off.

Instead I am just going to discuss the positives and negatives of each option.

The first option is Web Based E-mail although nearly every e-mail provider out there will provide you web based access to your e-mail I am only looking at the ones that provide Web Based E-mail as main means of access.

Every Web Based E-mail Provider uses a slightly different system (services, layout, colors, Back end Operation) and all have different levels of accessibility and usability and for this reason I am unable to give you a definite yes or no answer to whether or not web based e-mail is accessible but as rule generally most of the largest web e-mail providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail and fairly accessible and easy to use with a screen reader. For more information on a particular Web Based E-mail providers accessibility try searching Google.

Now that we have looked at the web based e-mail providers we will look at the POP3 based e-mail providers. As a rule all of these are accessible if you have an accessible E-mail Client.

Some examples of E-mail Clients are:

Guideline 1: Where there are non-text objects in your web page make sure you provide a Text or audio equivalent e.g. Provide alt tags for images, Input fields (Form Boxes), Applet, and Flash.

Guideline 2: Do not have a web site that relies on color or has poor contrast between links, text and background. To test simply lower the screen resolution on your computer to 800 by 600 at 256 colors.

Guideline 3: By not using markup or Style sheets properly you make your web site very difficult for people using specialized software to navigate or understand. Where possible style sheet should be used to control layout and formatting. By doing this you make it easier for people using specialized software to navigate your site as formatting can be controlled using the browser.

Guideline 4: State natural language of document in the header so people screen reader or synthesizers can access the web easily and understand what the software is telling them. This can be done by placing a simple tag in the HTML header.

Guideline 5: Tables should not be used to layout web sites and only information that is truly suitable for tables should be placed in a table. When tables are used they should have the proper markup used as some screen readers and specialized software will not be able interpret the information properly.

Guideline 6: When using JAVA, Flash or other new web technologies ensure that there is a text equivalent for people who have these features turned off or appropriate software to support them uninstalled.

Guideline 7: Ensure that timed, scrolling or auto updating content can be stopped so that people using screen readers are able to have the content interpreted by the screen reader.

Guideline 8: Where imbedded content is used ensure the GUI (Graphical User Interface) of the object is accessible this can be tested by using the keyboard to access the object.

Guideline 9: Allow for users to be able interact with your web site using any number of input devices (Keyboard, mouse, voice, and more)

Guideline 10: Use solutions that are compatible with older web browser and older screen readers.

Guideline 11: “Use W3C technologies (according to specification) and follow accessibility guidelines. Where it is not possible to use a W3C technology, or doing so results in material that does not transform gracefully, provide an alternative version of the content that is accessible.” The above was obtained from the W3C Web Site.

Guideline 12: Provide information and the layout and context of your web site. e.g. Title Frames and pages appropriately, Do not provide large slabs of information where possible, label form controls.

Guideline 13: Provide simple and clear navigation including a navigation bar and a sitemap, site search facility to increase the chances of your site visitors finding what they are looking for.

Guideline 14: Provide clear and simple content (correct spelling and grammar) and avoid using industry specific technical terms.

3.1 Make text content readable and understandable the ability to identify abbreviations is available, Text can be understood by people with basic reading skills and any complicated terms used have a mechanism to find out more about the term.

3.2 Make Web pages appear and operate in predictable ways. make sure navigations is consistent across all pages, when the focus is set make sure it does not change the layout of the site. Make sure there is consistent identification of components throughout the site.

4.1 Maximize compatibility with current and future user agents, including assistive technologies. Ensure all markup tags are opened and closed property and that there are no Angle Brackets missing. and everything has unique ID;s and does not contain any duplications.