Web Accessibility Principles

Question 1

What does the acronym POUR stand for?

Answer 1

• Perceivable
• Operable
• Understandable
• Robust

Question 2

What is the “perceivability” principle of web accessibility?

Answer 2

• Perceivability is about making the output of web content available through multiple sensory modalities
• You have to be able to perceive web content through at least one of your biological senses for it to be accessible at all

Question 3

What is the “operability” principle of web accessibility?

Answer 3

Operability is about making the input methods of web content functionally available to a wide range of input devices

Question 4

What are some of the input devices to keep in mind when designing for operability?

Answer 4

• mouse or touchpad
• keyboard
• touchscreen
• voice recognition software
• other specialized input devices (most of which emulate the keyboard or mouse).

Question 5

What is the “understandability” principle of web accessibility?

Answer 5

Understandability is about making content and interfaces that people can comprehend

Question 6

What is the “robustness” principle of web accessibility?

Answer 6

Robustness is about ensuring compatibility with a broad range of user agents, including assistive technologies

Question 7

Why does perceivability matter?

Answer 7

If you can’t perceive web content, it may as well not exist.

Question 8

What is the only way for people who are both deaf and blind to access web content?

Answer 8

• Tactile/touch output (typically a refreshable braille device)

Question 9

What is a refreshable braille device?

Answer 9

• Traditional print was on expensive, sturdy paper
• Refreshable braille devices bypass this by using a screen reader to present one line of text at a time, allowing the user to feel it, then moving to the next line

Question 10

Why is digital text the universal format?

Answer 10

• Digital text is the most universally accessible format available, because it can be converted into all of the other useful sensory formats
• Provides access for people who are blind, for people who are deaf, and for people who are both blind and deaf

Question 11

What does DU recommend when it comes to captions and trascripts?

Answer 11

• You don’t need to make captions and transcripts visible to all - having the option to turn captions on/off or a link to a full transcript is enough
• But there’s no rules against making them viewable by all - so if you want to do that, go for it!

Question 12

How do you make dynamic content perceivable?

Answer 12

• Use ARIS to announce when a tab is “expanded” or “collapsed”
• You can use an ARIA live region to announce new content as it is inserted into the DOM.

Question 13

Do you need to use ARIA and announce these things to a user who is blind?

Answer 13

Yes

• A user who is blind won’t know when tabs expand or collapse unless this change of state is announced to them
• If new content is injected into a page—such as an error message or a confirmation message - a user who is blind needs to hear this new information

Question 14

What are two ways to ensure a user who is blind is aware of the state of a tab or of an error message?

Answer 14

• Use ARIA live regions
• Move the browser’s focus to those areas to force screen readers to read them

Question 15

What does ARIA stand for?

Answer 15

Accessible Rich Internet Applications

Question 16

What are some examples of how not everyone uses a computer in the same way?

Answer 16

• Someone with tremors in their hands might find it difficult to use a mouse or touchpad
• Some people have little or no movement in their limbs and rely on a device that senses movement in their cheek muscles or that tracks their eye gazes
• Some people rely on software that interprets their speech as voice commands

Question 17

What is meant by In, Within, Through and Out?

Answer 17

• In: you must be able to navigate into web components
• Within: you must be able to use features within them
• Through: you must be able to navigate through them
• Out: you must be able to navigate out of all of them

These must be able to be done with all input devices or some users will not be able to use a web component

Question 18

How do you script for device independence?

Answer 18

• Scripts are powerful and can override many native components
• Use device-independent event handlers (such as onfocus, onblur, onselect) instead of device-specific handlers (onmouseover, onmouseout, ondblclick)
• If you need to us both, test it both ways and on touchscreens

Question 19

What does it mean to “control the focus” and what are examples of how to do this?

Answer 19

• When creating dynamic interactions, it’s important to pay attention to the location of the programmatic focus (which is more often than not the keyboard focus)
• When you create a pop-up modal dialogue, ensure that the focus automatically land on the modal dialogue.
• When a user exits the modal dialog, ensure the focus returns to the previous focus location
• Don’t let the focus get lost - this reverts back to the top of the document and the user wastes a lot of time and effort navigating back down

Question 20

What are suggestions related to timing and operability?

Answer 20

• Ensure people have enough time to interact with content
• You don’t want to force an automatic timeout with something long, like a mortgage application
• Session timeouts are allowable, but you should give the user sufficient warning in a popup that is accessible (think into, within, through and out)

Question 21

Why are keyboards important to accessibility?

Answer 21

• You can achieve near-universal operability if you web content is keyboard-accessible
• Everyone uses a keyboard, including people without disabilities, people who are blind, people with motor disabilities
• Touchscreens emulate keyboards
• Specialized input devices emulate the functionality of keyboards

Question 22

True or False: you should design for a keyboard and ignore mouse users

Answer 22

False

• Some specialized input devices emulate mouse functionality (eye gaze tracking, for example)
• If you can use web content with a keyboard and with a mouse, chances are quite high that you can use it on most every other device

Question 23

What are ways that you can create understandable content?

Answer 23

• Specify the language
• Simplify the reading or vocabulary level
• Limit or avoid terminology or concepts that are unfamiliar or complex
• Provide supplemental formats

Question 24

Why should you specify the language of text?

Answer 24

If the language is not designated in the markup, the screen reader will read using the pronunciation of whatever language is specified in their default settings

Question 25

Why should you simplify the reading or vocabulary level and what are some ways that reading can be challenging?

Answer 25

**Why**: * Reading disorders are common **How**: * long or unfamiliar words * long sentences * complex sentence construction * unclear wording * long passages of text * lines of text are too close to each other

Question 26

Why is it important to limit terminology or concepts that are unfamiliar or complex?

Answer 26

* unfamiliar technical jargon or slang can be confusing * culturally-specific words or concepts are also confusing or easily misunderstood * some people with cognitive disabilities are unable to understand complex ideas and abstractions

Question 27

Why/how should you provide supplemental formats?

Answer 27

* Some people can't read - so simplifying the text won't help them * Provide alternative formats, such as images, audio, video * Present the content directly and simply

Question 28

Do you have to create alternative formats? Isn't it a ton of work?

Answer 28

It's a lot of work to provide alternative formats, so consider your audience: * If your main audience consists of people who cannot read or if your primary audience would experience a significant benefit from this, then you should provide alternative formats * But accessibility guidelines don't require you to do this - and we need to be realistic about our resources (time and money) * That being said - providing supplemental formats can benefit people with cognitive disabilities and it also benefits those without disabilities

Question 29

How do you provide consistency or predictability to a web site?

Answer 29

* Web sites with multiple pages or views should maintain a consistent look and feel across the pages or views * The visual layout and underlying reading order and tab order should not change radically from one page to another within the same context * The main navigation should generally contain the same links (though some links in submenus may be hidden in some views) and the text in those links should be consistent * Form controls, custom controls, and custom widgets should behave in standard ways, in accordance with common conventions * It is generally a bad idea to design a completely new and different way of interacting with web components unless there is a compelling reason, or as an experiment * If you design new ways of interacting, you would probably need to provide some additional instructions to let users know how to use the new components

Question 30

What are some ways to prevent user errors when they interact with a web page?

Answer 30

* Provide instructions at the beginning of the interaction, such as the purpose of the interaction and what the user should do * If a field has any special constraints, make them visibly noted next to the field (things such as field is required, a button is read-only, data must be in a certain format, etc.)

Question 31

How should feedback be provided to the user?

Answer 31

* When a user submits a form or sends data to a server, confirm the submission and say if it was successful or not * Ensure the confirmation is available to sighted and non-sighted users * Message should be read immediately to screen reader users - they should not have to search for this message - you can do this by sending focus immediately to the message or placing the message in an alert dialog

Question 32

What is recommended by DU in terms of supporting browsers?

Answer 32

* You can't support all browsers - and especially not retired browsers * You have to draw a line in the sand and support specific browsers back to a certain version

Question 33

What is meant by using standard markup?

Answer 33

* Use appropriate validators: * HTML: use the W3C HTML validator * CSS: use the W3C CSS validator * Javascript: use Firebug to inspect the code or an online tool like JSLint Valid content does not guarantee accessibility (and is not always necessary for accessibility) - but it helps eliminate many issues

Question 34

How can you ensure dynamic content is available to all users?

Answer 34

Use ARIA to indicate important information, such as Name, Role, Value of an interactive component

Question 35

Which principle of web accessibility focuses on presenting information that can be accessed through multiple biological senses?

Answer 35

Perceivable.

Question 36

Ensuring that interaction with web content does not depend on using specific input devices is an application of which principle?

Answer 36

Operable.

Question 37

Alerting users to session timeouts utilizes which principle?

Answer 37

Operable.

Question 38

True or False: Making sure that web content is robust means making sure that content is written in a manner that is easy to comprehend.

Answer 38

False.

Question 39

Ensuring that navigation features like a menu are consistent across the entire website is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 39

Understandable.

Question 40

A popup warning on a web site that states to all users, "Your session is about to expire. Would you like to continue?" is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 40

Perceivable.

Question 41

Link text that communicates the purpose and/or destination of the link is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 41

Operable.

Question 42

Allowing users to extend a time limit on a web page is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 42

Operable.

Question 43

An audio description track for a video tour of a facility is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 43

Perceivable.

Question 44

An item that communicates to a screen reader that it is expanded or collapsed is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 44

Robust.

Question 45

Functionality on a web page that is both mouse and keyboard accessible is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 45

Operable.

Question 46

Important information that is communicated using both color and text is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 46

Perceivable.

Question 47

Identifying the primary language of a web page is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 47

Understandable.

Question 48

High contrast between text elements and the background on a web page is an example of which web accessibility principle?

Answer 48

Perceivable.