AccessWeb
The AccessWeb site, which focused on accessible web design, has merged with AccessIT.
The National Center on Accessible Information Technology in Education (AccessIT) provides resources to help educational entities purchase, develop, and use information technology that is welcoming to, accessible to, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. AccessIT was funded for five years by the U.S. Department of Education (grant #H133D010306).
The following resources developed by AccessIT continue to be available online and managed and updated by the DO-IT Center as part of its contribution to AccessComputing, a project funded by the National Science Foundation (grant #CNS-0540615,CNS-0837508, and CNS-1042260) and co-sponsored by the UW Department of Computer Science.
Integrating Accessibility into Web Design Courses
Free Web Design and Development Curriculum
The introductory course curriculum on web design and development, now known as WebD2, integrates accessibility into a mainstream course. It was created for grades 9-12, but has been used at academic levels ranging from middle school to community college. It includes eight units covering introductory design and site planning, HTML coding, cascading style sheets, JavaScript, graphic design, site design and management, and use of web authoring tools. Students end the course by designing an accessible website for their school or local community organization.
The curriculum is cross-platform and vendor-neutral, so teachers can use it regardless of which operating system, web browser, graphic software, and web authoring tool they have installed in their schools.
Integrating Accessibility into Existing Web Design Courses
The publication Universal Design of Web Pages in Class Projects shares examples of how teachers can integrate accessible design into all or part of any curriculum on creating web pages.
Accessible University Demonstration Site
Accessible University (AU) is a fictional university home page designed to demonstrate a variety of common web design problems that result in visitors with disabilities being unable to access content or features. It includes a page with accessibility problems, a page that lists and explains the problems and recommends solutions, and an accessible page that implements the solutions.
IT Accessibility Guidance
The University of Washington's Accessible Technology website provides extensive information, including resources that support development of accessible web and multimedia content and applications. The site includes an example of accessible IT guidelines. Highlights at this site include
- Getting Started with Accessibility
- Creating Accessible Documents
- Creating Accessible Videos
- Developing Accessible Websites
- Laws, Policies, & Standards
A collection of resources on accessible technology maintained by the DO-IT Center can be found on its Accessible Technology web page.
Evaluating Web Accessibility
The Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium tells how to test the accessibility of a website at Evaluating Web Accessibility Overview.