Accessibility

In the context of the Web, accessibility is the concept that any user can access all the content of a Web document. Accessible Web content is an important goal because of the diversity of people's user agent (browser) usage, language, culture, needs, and preferences.

Current Status

Accessibility Testing

Last Performed January 2009
By Gary Thompson (Deactivated) and Colin Clark

Goals

• Assess accessibility of the portal and portlets that are included in the portal distribution against WCAG 2 Level 1
• Log accessibility failures in Jira
• Address accessibility failures
• Have uPortal pass an accessibility review against WCAG 2 Level 1

Test Environment

3.1 development trunk from the Fluid daily build site:
http://build.fluidproject.org/uPortal/

Testing Tools

• Web Accessibility Checker: http://checker.atrc.utoronto.ca/
• AChecker: http://www.atutor.ca/achecker/demo/index.php

Scenarios

General

• Public, unauthenticated page (Welcome tab)
• Authenticated Admin default view (Welcome tab)

Admin
Test files: Testing_admin_Jan09.zip

• Add a new webproxy portlet to the portal
• Change the layout of the "News" fragment
• Change the skin of the portal
• Modify "Students" group permissions
• Change "Demo" user password

Student

• Add a portlet to a tab
• View the sitemap
• Add a personal bookmark

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 Compliance

The U.S. Government has made it law that 'goods and services' should be 'accessible' to Americans with disabilities (comprises an estimated 10-20% of the population), within government institutions. States, who receive funding, are required to abide by federal accessibility standards, and most colleges and universities are therefore subjected. Beyond the legal compliance, design responsibilities necessitate acceptance of accessibility standards to enable 40.8 million individuals the ability to receive and interact with information despite a disability.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed on July 26, 1990, as Public Law. It became effective from January 26, 1992. The purpose of the law is to prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act provided a clear and comprehensive mandate for eliminating discrimination against individuals with disabilities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was a combination of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The Americans with Disabilities Act comprises five titles, where titles II and III are related to accessing information on the Web. These titles prohibit the state and local governments, as well as private enterprises, from discriminating against people with disabilities in their programs and activities. The Americans with Disabilities Act was written to strike a balance between the reasonable accommodation of citizens' needs and the capacity of private and public entities to respond to these needs.

The Americans with Disabilities Act was strengthened by certain amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These amendments were made to Section 508 and Section 504 to include provisions for organizations to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 1998, the Congress amended Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and created more stringent rules for access to information in the Federal sector. It mandated that federal agencies should purchase only accessible software and hardware and that federal Web sites be made as accessible as possible.

The requirements stated under Section 508 were complemented by those in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Section 504 states that any agency receiving federal funds may not exclude or discriminate against individuals with disabilities. In compliance with Section 504, colleges and universities, which receive federal financial assistance, must not discriminate on the basis of disability. They should ensure that their academic programs are accessible, to the greatest extent possible, by all students with disabilities.

Both the Department of Education and the Department of Justice have ruled that the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 apply to Web-based business as well as institutions extending higher education and distance education. The Department of Justice is enforcing the Americans with Disabilities Act through lawsuits and both formal and informal settlements. In November, the National Federation of the Blind filed a landmark lawsuit against America Online. The suit claimed that America Online violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to provide access, for people with disabilities, to its site. As part of the settlement of this case, America Online had to develop an Accessibility Policy.

The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board or the Access Board is an independent federal agency, whose primary mission is to promote accessibility for individuals with disabilities. This agency was given the task of formulating standards for compliance to Section 508. These standards were published in December 2000.

The W3C has been relied on heavily for their expertise and have formed the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) to help define priorities for making the Web accessible.

Refer to Wikipedia's entry on Accessibility for more information.