Web Accessibility
Open Forum
Presented by the Web Accessibility Committee
June 24, 2010
Overview

Web Accessibility Committee

Reason for the Policy and How It Applies

Deadlines

Specific Requests for Access

Reporting

Standards and Examples

Web Accessibility Website
• Resources
• Training
Web Accessibility Committee

Established in 2004 to address the need for a
web accessibility policy.

Members are volunteers.

The committee:
• Drafted the policy and submitted it for
approval.
• Published and manages the Web
Accessibility website.
• Developed the self-guided training.
• Is developing instructor-led courses.
Web Accessibility Policy

Effective March 15, 2010
• http://www.purdue.edu/policies/pages/info
rmation_technology/v_2_1.shtml

Announced in Purdue Today
• http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/purdue
today/faculty_staff_news/2010/100216_Pol
icyChange.html
Web Accessibility Policy

Reason for policy:
• Ensure equal access to information.
• Ensure compliance with applicable law.

Applies to:
• All official Web pages and associated Webbased services developed by or for a
college, school, department, program or
unit of Purdue University.
Web Accessibility Policy

Exclusions
• Individual Web pages published by
students, employees, or non-university
organizations that are hosted by the
University and do not conduct university
related business.
• Archived Web Pages unless specifically
requested by an individual with a disability.
Questions

Does the policy apply to internal staff-only
administrative web pages as well as
publically accessible ones?

Does the policy apply to internal staff web
pages that will only be needed for a few
months (e.g., current status page for shortduration projects such as summer
instructional lab upgrades)?
Questions

Does the policy require web accessed video
content to be closed captioned?
• We can’t control content from other sites.
However, Purdue is required to provide
equal access to students and employees.

How would closed captioning be implemented
and funded?
• Closed captioning will be implemented and
funded by each school, department or unit.
Deadlines

All new and Redesigned Web Pages published
on or after March 15, 2010 must be in
compliance with the U.S. Access Board’s
Electronic and Information Technologies
Accessibility Standards and must indicate in
plain text a method of contact for users with
disabilities having trouble accessing content
within the site.

By July 1, 2010, all Legacy Web Pages must
indicate in plain text a method of contact for
users with disabilities having trouble accessing
content within the site.
Questions

What is the minimum font size that should be used to
display the contact information in the footer?
• The best way to deal with font size is to use the
relative measurement known as EM, rather than
points, pixels, inches, etc. The size of an EM is
determined by the browser. 1 EM = default font for
that browser. The advantage of EM over fixed
measurements is that the user can adjust the size, as
necessary, using the browser's tools. It also makes
better displays on non-computer equipment such as
cell phones, pda's etc. As a practical matter, no text
should ever be less than .8 to .85em (80 to 85% of the
browser's base font).
Questions

Added a footer that reads “Purdue University is an
equal access/equal opportunity university. If you have
trouble accessing this page because of a disability,
please email onephelp@purdue.edu| Feedback &
Support”. (Where onephelp@purdue.edu and
“Feedback & Support” are mailto: links.) This doesn’t
appear on some pop-up windows. Is that allowable?
• The pop-up wouldn’t necessarily require the footer
information since the information is available on the
underlying page. It is important to test the pop-up
in multiple browsers or provide an alternate
delivery.
Questions

The 508 compliance standards essentially
dictate that we revert to information sites
with little design. How much flexibility is
there on this?

How flexible, in general, are these new
guidelines?
Questions

Is the following design in contrast to the web
accessibility rules, in terms of coloring? We use it due
to aesthetics goals and Purdue traditions. These
include white font on a golden background, as well as
red font.
• There are several online resources available for
testing the contrast of foreground and background
color combinations. We recommend
http://www.checkmycolours.com/ (listed on our
websites resources page).

Is the retrofitting of legacy content mandated?
Deadlines

All Legacy Web Pages must be revised to be in
compliance by following the implementation
priorities below:
• The top 25% of Legacy Web Pages that are
used most frequently must be in compliance by
March 15, 2011.
• Pages required for participation, funding,
disability-related services, and other key pages
needed by individuals with disabilities not
already in the top 25% must also be in
compliance by March 15, 2011.
Deadlines

Remaining Legacy Web Pages must be in
compliance according to the following
schedule:
• Next 25% by March 15, 2012
• Next 25% by March 15, 2013
• Next 25% by March 15, 2014
Specific Requests for Access

Upon specific request for access by an individual
with a disability, Legacy Web Pages, must be made
accessible, or an equally effective alternative
provided, within 10 business days of receiving the
request.

Equally effective means that the alternative
communicates the same information in as timely a
fashion as does the original Web page. For
interactive or service pages, equally effective means
that the end result (e.g., registration) is
accomplished in a comparable time and with
comparable effort on the part of the requestor.
Specific Requests for Access

Upon specific request for access by an individual
with a disability, Archive Web Sites and Pages
containing core administrative or academic
information, official records, or similar
information must be updated to be in compliance
or the content of the Web page(s) must be made
available by another means that is accessible to the
individual.

If the context of the information or service the page
provides cannot be made accessible within 10
business days, this timeframe may be extended.
Questions

When is an extension to the “10 business
day” rule acceptable?

How would the “10 business day” rule be
implemented?
Questions

Who is responsible for the status reporting?

Who does status get reported to?

What form (e.g., web page, PDF document,
Word template file) will the status report
take?
Reporting

Status reports must be submitted annually no
later than April 1 by each college, school,
department, program, or unit of Purdue
University to the Office of Institutional Equity
(OIE) beginning April 2011.

Requirements for the reports are described in
the policy.

The format of the report has not yet been
determined.

The Status Report Form will be made available
at the OIE and Web Accessibility websites.
Questions

Our school web site is on the engineering web
cluster and many of the upgrades are being
made on the main css files which our site
inherits and to tools we use to update our
site. So, would our school report include the
changes and tools that we inherited as well as
individual pages we updated?

Who will be enforcing this policy and how
will it be enforced?
Questions

When is the use of a text-only page required?
Provide more explanation.
Standards and Examples

A text-only page, with equivalent information
or functionality, shall be provided to make a
web site comply with the provisions of this
part, when compliance cannot be
accomplished in any other way. The content
of the text-only page shall be updated
whenever the primary page changes.
Questions

What is meant by “A method shall be
provided that permits users to skip repetitive
navigation links” under the standards and
examples in Appendix A of the policy?
Provide more explanation.
Repetitive Navigation Links

Some assistive technologies need to present the content
of the web page in a linear fashion. This makes it
difficult or impossible for the end user of these
technologies to skip around the page. If the navigation
links are at the top or left of all of the pages in a site the
user of these assistive technologies would need to read,
or listen to, all of the navigation links each time a new
page is loaded. Experienced users of the assistive
technology find reading through all of these repeated
links aggravating. Users who are newer to the assistive
technology frequently become confused about whether
the contents of the page are even changing when a link
is selected.
Questions

What is/will be available with regards to
training, format, and content?

What types of training or information will be
available for dealing with the creation of
accessible PDFs from word-processing and
desktop publishing applications, making
existing non-accessible PDFs accessible, and
dealing with accessibility issues of scanned
image PDFs?
Questions

Is there any person or group at Purdue that
could review my accessibility changes and
advise me on their implementation?
• Although there is no formal group for
assisting with the review and advice of
whole websites, hopefully the various web
user groups around campus will be able to
help with that as more developers take the
training and become more familiar with
making websites accessible.
Questions

The incredible volume of work required to retrofit
legacy content is simply staggering, what assistance will
be provided to help larger colleges perform this task?
• There are many resources for learning how to make
a site accessible on the Web Accessibility website.
• The Status Report has a section for requesting
extensions. Extensions aren’t automatically granted
as there has to be good reason for the extension,
particularly if other entities are completing a similar
amount of retrofitting on schedule, but it is a way to
help areas which are understaffed for the number of
pages needed to be updated.
Web Accessibility Website

Home page
• Web accessibility mailing list

Policy

Current and past committee members

Contacts

Resources

Training
• Self-guided
• Instructor-led

FAQs