External Resources

Introduction

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): www.w3.org
Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI): www.w3.org/WAI/

Standards and Guidelines

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0: www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
WCAG 1.0 Checklist: www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/full-checklist.html
Getting Started: Making a Website accessible: www.w3.org/WAI/gettingstarted/
Guidance for UK Government Websites: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/e-government/resources/handbook/introduction.asp

Legal

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA): www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/1995050.htm
Disability Rights Commission Code of Practice: www.drc-gb.org/open4all/law/Code%20of%20Practice.pdf (660kb)

Impairments

How People with Disabilities use the Web: www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/Overview.html
Access Technology Primer from National Library for the Blind: atp.nlb-online.org/Lessons/p_00.php
Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) Accessible Information: www.rnib.org.uk/wac
Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) fact sheets and leaflets: www.rnid.org.uk/information_resources/factsheets/
RNID White Paper on web accessibility: www.ictrnid.org.uk/docs/webacc.pdf (93kb)
Mencap - Am I making myself clear How to write for people with learning difficulties.: www.mencap.org.uk/download/making_myself_clear.pdf (1mb)
Norah Fry Research Centre - University of Bristol Research on services for people with learning difficulties.: www.bris.ac.uk/depts/NorahFry
Reading PDF documents with Adobe Reader 6 and 7: A Guide for People with Disabilities: www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibility/reader/main.html

Disability Organisations

Disability Rights Commission: An independent body established in April 2000 by Act of Parliament to stop discrimination and promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.; www.drc-gb.org/
RNIB: Royal National Institute of the Blind; www.rnib.org.uk
RNID: The Royal National Institute for Deaf People.; www.rnid.org.uk/
Mencap: The UK’s leading learning disability charity.; www.mencap.org.uk/
Scope: Disability organisation in England and Wales, focusing on cerebral palsy.; www.scope.org.uk/
Inclusion Europe: The European Association of Societies of Persons with Intellectual Disability and their Families.; A non-profit organisation that campaigns for the rights and interests of people with intellectual disability and their families throughout Europe.; www.inclusion-europe.org/information/testsite2/LevelsPage.asp?lang=EN

Assistive Technologies

Jaws for Windows: The world’s most popular, multi-language screen reader.; www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp
IBM Home Page Reader: Muli-language screen reader.; www-3.ibm.com/able/solution_offerings/hpr.html
Browsealoud: Client-based speech enabler; www.browsealoud.com/downloads.asp?dl=bl
ReadSpeaker: Server-based speech enabler; www.readspeaker.com/en/index.php
Alternative Web Browsing: www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing
Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (Technical glossary): www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/techgloss.html

Books

Usability

“Defensive Design for the Web: How to Improve Error Messages, Help, Forms, and Other Online Crisis Points”: 37signals, Matthew Linderman, Jason Fried; ISBN: 073571410X
“Don't Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability”: Steve Krug; ISBN: 0321344758
“Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity”: Jakob Nielsen; ISBN: 156205810X
“Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed”: Jakob Nielsen, Marie Tahir; ISBN: 073571102X
“The Elements of User Experience”: Jesse James Garrett; ISBN: 0735712026

Standards

“Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook”: Dan Cederholm; ISBN: 1590593812
“Designing with Web Standards”: Jeffrey Zeldman; ISBN: 0735712018
“Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook”: Dan Cederholm; ISBN: 1590593812

Accessibility

“Maximum Accessibility”: Jakob Nielsen (Foreword), John Slatin, Sharron Rush; ISBN: 0201774224
“Web Accessibility for People with Disabilities”: Michael Paciello; ISBN: 1929629087
“Building Accessible Websites”: Joe Clark; ISBN: 073571150X

Building the Website

Markup Languages

Learn Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
Learn Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML): www.w3schools.com/xhtml/default.asp
Learn Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp
WCAG 1.0 Techniques: www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10-TECHS/

Images

Adobe Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Viewer: www.adobe.com/svg/viewer/install/main.html
Mozilla SVG Project: www.mozilla.org/projects/svg/
Corel SVG Viewer: www.corel.com/
Accessibility features of SVG: www.w3.org/TR/SVG-access/
SVG - XML graphics for the Web: www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG

Browsers

Internet Explorer: www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx
Mozilla Firefox: www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
Opera: www.opera.com
Netscape Navigator: browser.netscape.com/nsb/download/default.jsp
Browser archive: browsers.evolt.org

Browser Toolbars and Extensions

Accessible Information Solutions Accessibility Toolbar: www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/toolbar/index.html

Firefox Extensions

Download from https://do-not-add.mozilla.org/extensions/

Firefox Extension: Developer Toolbar

Adds a whole host of features to help test your web page for usability and accessibility, including:

Validate HTML and CSS
Show information about your images
Disable CSS, JavaScript and more!

https://do-not-add.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=60

Firefox Extension: Aardvark

Outline web page elements, view the source code of one or more elements, remove elements from a page for cleaner printing.

www.karmatics.com/aardvark/

Firefox Extension: FoxyVoice

Functions as a “mini screen-reader” using Text-to-Speech Synthesis.

https://do-not-add.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=269

Firefox Extension: View Rendered Source

Displays colour-coded, styled rendered source code. Useful for troubleshooting your web page documents.

https://do-not-add.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=655

Colour Tools

Colour Contrast Analyser: Check to see if the colours on your website provide sufficient contrast.; www.snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html
(Another) Colour Contrast Analyser: www.nils.org.au/ais/web/resources/contrast_analyser/
Colorblind web page filter: See how your website looks to a colour blind visitor.; colorfilter.wickline.org/
Simulating colour-blind vision: www.vischeck.com
Online colour deficit emulator: www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php
Safe web colour for colour-deficient vision: more.btexact.com/people/rigdence/colours/

Automated Checkers

HTML validator service: validator.w3.org
CSS validation service: jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator
Web accessibility verifier: www.aprompt.ca
Cynthia Says Accessibility Checker: www.contentquality.com/
Etre Accessibility Check: www.etre.com/tools/accessibilitycheck

Discussion Forums

Accessify Forum: www.accessifyforum.com/
Sitepoint Forum: www.sitepoint.com/forums/