Barrier Free Web Design - SUWWW Recommendations

March 1, 2001

SCITS Subcommittee on the World Wide Web (SUWWW) Recommendations for Barrier Free Web Access at Western

Background

"The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

"It is every Canadian's right to receive government information or service in a form that can be used, and it is the Government of Canada's obligation to provide it."

In February 2000, UWO received information regarding the Web Accessibility Initiative and that the Government of Canada was an official sponsor. (Please see http://www.w3.org/WAI/ for more information.) The material also indicated that the Canadian Government was moving to require its Web sites to comply with the WAI guidelines.

In June 2000 a complaint was received about the lack of accessibility for one of UWO's major web sites and this issue was brought forward to SUWWW. A sub-group was struck to investigate the issues and bring forward recommendations for appropriate policies.

It is our understanding that a policy, as it relates to Human Rights, is insufficient unless it is backed by appropriate training and a process to monitor and ensure compliance and the resolution of grievance. Beyond policy then, this initiative and related recommendations will also require practical processes and resources.

Designing Barrier Free Web pages

There is also a need to understand what the barriers to access are in order to find the most useful organization for the content being provided. For example, before using Java scripts it is necessary to understand the difference between what is cosmetic and what is functional. Java applets do not lend themselves well to barrier free access whereas clean html or java servlets that by definition generate html to the browser are suitable development methods for very complex sites.

Challenges at UWO

1. Broad communication of the issues in such a way that it promotes understanding and a desire to learn and change work processes.
   Given the extremely diverse set of people at UWO that are responsible for maintaining web content, the first reaction will be concern that this is more work or too hard for them. Another reaction that needs to be proactively managed is that what they are doing or the tools they are using are too advanced to be 'dumbed down'. In reality, the tools and guidelines as produced by WAI have shown it is more a matter of education that the 'cool' and the 'practical' can live together.

2. Provision of a resource that can provide answers to questions and general training.
   Many people use common tools such as word processors to automatically generate the html and have no understanding of the underlying structure. Before they can be instructed in the methods of providing barrier free code they will need to increase their general knowledge of how html works and what it is they are trying to accomplish.

3. Provision of a resource that can assist UWO web maintainers in bringing their current web sites up to standards.
   Given the diversity of tools being used to support the various sites, it is not possible to provide general training to help with the actual updating of all the various sites. Some sites need a total re-design, some only require special tags added to the code. The maintainer will need to have assistance to find out how their site tools can be used to add the correct features, how to change processes to ensure all future edits keep barrier free access in mind and how to verify that their code is up to standards.

4. Processes and responsibilities need to be established.
   Communications, training and assistance are all needed to help UWO move towards this new standard. The fact that the UWO web is maintained by well over 300 different people at UWO, most of whom have web maintenance as an 'add-on' to an already full plate means there will be areas that do not move forward. We also need to ensure that UWO web sites that are developed and/or maintained by non-UWO members comply with all of the established standards. A process for dealing with areas of non-compliance will be needed. If a complaint is received that a UWO site is not accessible to a blind student for example, there needs to be a contact point and follow-up process.

Recommendations

1. That SCITS approve that Western commit to following the same accessibility standards as the Canadian Government for the development of official web pages.
2. That SCITS recommend to the Vice-President (Academic) and Provost, that consideration be given to having Information Technology Services hire a well-trained group of students for the summer of 2001 to enable Western web pages to be brought up to the new standards.
3. That SCITS approve that SUWWW serve as a "clearing house" for Western's official web sites that do not meet our accessibility guidelines.

We are bringing this forward now because the timing is such that it is reasonable to attempt these changes over the summer, when considerable updating of the WWW occurs for the upcoming academic year. This coupled with the availability of a potential student work-force makes the timing attractive.

One considerable side benefit of this initiative will be a general improvement of the WWW sites at UWO. WWW maintainers will learn how the WWW works, and why. They will be forced to ensure that their WWW sites are not just good enough to get by. Instead, they will have to think about all the constituencies that view their pages and for what reason.

Prepared by SUWWW-subcommittee on Barrier Free Access.
Debbie Jones, Chair, Ian Whyte, Greg Gloor, Heather MacDonald, Carac Alison

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