Accessibility

The Amaya user population is extremely diverse. In addition to speaking a variety of languages and operating on several platforms, the population contains users with visual, aural, and motor disabilities.

Because Amaya is an Open Source project, it is important to produce documents that are accessible to all members of the user base. Amaya provides a number of accessibility features to assist you with achieving this goal.

Accessibility features

Accessibility for people with disabilities is being improved with each release. Currently, you can perform most Amaya functions without using a mouse, and carry out most editing functions (except entering text) without using the keyboard.

Accessibility features in the current version include the ability to:

• Navigate and edit in Alternate, Link, Structure, and Table of contents views of a document, which are all synchronized with the default Formatted view. See Working with document views.
• Edit in the Source view, and manually synchronize it with other views.
• Dynamically add, remove, and edit multiple style sheets, including a user style sheet. See Working with style sheets.
• Assign access keys for form fields, areas, or links. See About access keys.
• Use keyboard shortcuts for menu options, links, and form controls. See Selecting from the keyboard and About keyboard shortcuts.

Producing accessible content

You can use Amaya to produce content that conforms to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Some accessibility features are already built in. For example, you cannot add an image until you specify the alternative text because of the requirement for an alt attribute for images and imagemap areas.

Amaya also automatically produces valid W3C-compliant markup. However, you control other features, such as appropriate long descriptions and captioning, through the Attributes tool or the structure view.

The Amaya help currently describes how to use some HTML elements. As additional documentation is written, it will include information on ensuring accessibility for any pages that you produce.

The most thorough guidelines are the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative also publishes the following quick tips for making accessible Web sites:

• Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual. For more information, see Working with Graphics.
• Image maps. Use client-side map and text for hotspots. For more information, see Working with image maps.
• Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid using "click here" as the link text.
• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and a consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible. For more information, see Working with style sheets.
• Graphs and charts. Summarize the data or use the longdesc attribute. For more information, see Working with graphics.
• Scripts, applets, and plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
• Tables. Use tables to make line-by-line reading sensible and to summarize data. For more information, see Working with tables.
• Frames. Display pages without frames, using NOFRAMES and meaningful titles.
• Check your work. Validate your documents prior to publishing. You can use the W3C tools, checklist, and guidelines at:

  http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT.