This course is designed for website developers who have an interest in incorporating accessible design features into their pages. Web accessibility benefits everyone - those with and those without disabilities, through increased usability and interoperability of web based materials. This class is structured to allow learners to explore the area of web accessibility using a hand-on, project-based approach, with an emphasis on learning by doing, and sharing information and experience with your class mates through online discussions. Students enrolled in this course will be expected to review assigned readings, apply what they have learned through coding projects and participate in class discussions. Evaluation will be based on weekly assignments consisting of 1 or 2 small projects together with review questions, and 1 final project tying it all together.

The required course textbook, Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance, has been authored by leading authorities in the field and covers such topics as What is Web Accessibility?; Assistive Technology; 508 Guidelines; Emerging Technology; and Using CSS to separate content from presentation. To round out our exploration of web accessibility some online sources will also be consulted.

• Identify issues surrounding accessible web design
• Describe why web accessibility is important
• Recognize barriers to effective accessibility
• Be able to apply relevant semantically correct HTML / XHTML coding to pages
• Be able to apply CSS1 elements to separate style from content
• Demonstrate ability to test pages for accessibility with the use of validators and WCAG 1.0 Checkpoints and Section 508 requirements.
• Demonstrate ability to effectively locate and use or recommend tools
• Demonstrate an understanding of WCAG 1 and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act
• Demonstrate a basic understanding of the (draft) updated Section 508 and the updated WCAG 1 as (draft) WCAG 2

Applicable Job Roles: webmasters, web programmers, and web application developers.

• Why is accessibility on the web important?
• Accessibility Myths.
• Introduction to Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and W3C's WCAG.
• Activity - Identifying accessibility problems and using keyboard navigation.

• What are assistive technologies?
• Accessibility is not just about screen readers.
• Accessibility software and hardware.
• Activity - Exploring assistive technology - Emulate the experience of a disability to test a web page for accessibility.

• The importance of well-formed, semantically correct code.
• Introduction to validation services: W3C HTML, W3C CSS, WAVE, and other accessibility evaluation tools.
• Activity - Testing pages using validators, suggesting and making changes to code to promote validity.

• Text alternatives for images, image maps and audio/video.
• HTML accessibility elements and attributes, when and where to apply them.
• Activity - Addressing accessibility issues by reviewing accessibility specific HTML, applying the ALT attribute, proper structure, and valid code.

• What makes a table accessible?
• Content linearization: Data tables versus using tables for format.
• Using tools to test the readability of tables.
• Applying the scope, id, and headers attributes.
• WAI WCAG Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints for tables.
• Section 508 provisions for tables.
• Activity - Design an accessible page based on WAI WCAG Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints and Section 508 sub-part 1194.22 (g and h) for tables.

• Accessibility issues surrounding forms and frames.
• Using the Input and label, fieldset and legend elements, and with the id, for, title, and value attributes.
• Activity - Creating and testing an accessible form.

• Progressive Enhancement - the concept, with CSS, with JavaScript.
• Making websites accessible with CSS: Separating content and structure.
• Browser support for CSS1 and CSS2.
• CSS media types.
• MIME types and CSS case sensitivity.
• Activity - Design or retrofit an accessible page by applying CSS.

• Wrap up discussion
• Activity - Completion of course project