Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

ATAG Checkpoint 7.1: Use all applicable operating system and accessibility standards and conventions (Priority 1 for standards and conventions that are essential to accessibility; Priority 2 for those that are important to accessibility; Priority 3 for those that are beneficial to accessibility).

Techniques:

The techniques for this checkpoint include references to checklists and guidelines for a number of platforms and to general guidelines for accessible applications. This list does not cover all requirements for all platforms, and items may not apply to some software. In addition, not all of the guidelines and checklists for application accessibility are prioritized according to their impact on accessibility. For instance, the priorities in "The Microsoft Windows Guidelines for Accessible Software Design" [MS-SOFTWARE] are partially determined by a logo requirement program. Therefore, developers may need to compare the documents they are using to other UAAG 1.0 [UAAG10] that has a priority system that is directly compatible with the priorities in [ATAG10]. Also, when user interfaces are built as Web content, they should follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 [WCAG10].

• Following Standards
  • Draw text and objects using system conventions.
  • Make mouse, keyboard, and API activation of events consistent.
  • Provide a user interface that is "familiar" (to system standards, or across platform).
  • Use system standard indirections and APIs wherever possible.
  • Ensure all dialogs, subwindows, etc., satisfy these requirements.
  • Avoid blocking assistive technology functions (sticky/mouse keys, screenreader controls, etc.) where possible.
• Configurability
  • Allow users to create profiles.
  • Allow control of timing, colors, sizes, input/output devices and media.
  • Allow users to reshape the user interface - customize toolbars, keyboard commands, etc.
• Input Device Independence
  • Provide Keyboard access to all functions.
  • Document all keyboard bindings.
  • Provide customizable keyboard shortcuts for common functions.
  • Provide logical navigation order for the keyboard interface.
  • Avoid repetitive keying wherever possible.
  • Provide mouse access to functions where possible.
• Icons, Graphics, Sounds
  • Provide graphical (text) equivalents for sound warnings.
  • Allow sounds to be turned off.
  • Provide text equivalents for images/icons.
  • Use customizable (or removable) colors/patterns.
  • Ensure high contrast is available (as default setting).
  • Provide text equivalents for all audio.
  • Use icons that are resizable or available in multiple sizes.
• Layout
  • Do not rely on color alone for meaning. Use color for differentiation, in combination with accessible cues (text equivalents, natural language, etc.).
  • Position objects and their related text labels in a consistent and obvious manner (labels before objects is recommended).
  • Group related controls.
  • Ensure default window sizes fit in screen.
  • Allow for window resizing (very small to very large).
• User Focus
  • Clearly identify the user focus (and expose it via API).
  • Viewing content (i.e., moving the focus to a new point) should not cause unexpected events.
  • Allow user control of timing (i.e., delays, time-dependent response, etc.)
  • Allow for navigation between as well as within windows.
• Documentation
  • Provide documentation for all features of the tool.
  • Ensure that help functions are accessible.

References:

• Guidelines for specific platforms include:
  • Java: "IBM Guidelines for Writing Accessible Applications Using 100% Pure Java" [JAVA-ACCESS] R. Schwerdtfeger, IBM Special Needs Systems.
  • X Windows: "An ICE Rendezvous Mechanism for X Window System Clients" [ICE-RAP], W. Walker. A description of how to use the ICE and RAP protocols for X Window clients.
  • MS Active Accessibility: "Information for Developers About Microsoft Active Accessibility" [MSAA] Microsoft Corporation.
  • X Windows: "The Inter-Client communication conventions manual" [ICCCM]. A protocol for communication between clients in the X Window system.
  • Lotus Notes: "Lotus Notes accessibility guidelines" [NOTES-ACCESS] IBM Special Needs Systems.
  • Java: "Java accessibility guidelines and checklist" [JAVA-CHECKLIST] IBM Special Needs Systems.
  • Java Swing: "The Java Tutorial. Trail: Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing" [JAVA-TUT]. An online tutorial that describes how to use the Swing Java Foundation Class to build an accessible User Interface.
  • Macintosh: "Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines" [APPLE-HI] Apple Computer Inc.
  • MS Windows: "The Microsoft Windows Guidelines for Accessible Software Design"c [MS-SOFTWARE].
• Guidelines for specific software types include:
  • Authoring Tools: "The Three-tions of Accessibility-Aware HTML Authoring Tools" [ACCESS-AWARE], J. Richards.
  • User Agents: "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (Working Draft)" J. Gunderson, I. Jacobs eds. (This is a work in progress) [UAAG10]
• General guidelines for producing accessible software include:
  • Microsoft: "Accessibility for applications designers" [MS-ENABLE] Microsoft Corporation.
  • Trace: "Application Software Design Guidelines" [TRACE-REF] compiled by G. Vanderheiden. A thorough reference work.
  • Sun: "Designing for Accessibility" [SUN-DESIGN] Eric Bergman and Earl Johnson. This paper discusses specific disabilities including those related to hearing, vision, and cognitive function.
  • EITAAG: "EITAAC Desktop Software standards" [EITAAC] Electronic Information Technology Access Advisory (EITACC) Committee.
  • US Sept. of Education: "Requirements for Accessible Software Design" [ED-DEPT] US Department of Education, version 1.1 March 6, 1997.
  • IBM: "Software Accessibility" [IBM-ACCESS] IBM Special Needs Systems
  • "Towards Accessible Human-Computer Interaction" [SUN-HCI] Eric Bergman, Earl Johnson, Sun Microsystems 1995. A substantial paper, with a valuable print bibliography.
  • "What is Accessible Software" [WHAT-IS] James W. Thatcher, Ph.D., IBM, 1997. This paper gives a short example-based introduction to the difference between software that is accessible, and software that can be used by some assistive technologies.

ATAG Checkpoint 7.2: Allow the author to change the presentation within editing views without affecting the document markup. [Priority 1]

This allows the author to edit the document according to personal requirements, without changing the way the document is rendered when published.

Techniques:

• Respect system settings (see ATAG checkpoint 7.1).
• For tools with editing views, the author must have the ability to change the fonts, colors, sizing (zoom), etc. within the editing view, independently of the ability to control the markup that is actually produced.
• For tools that display the source structure of a document using graphic representations of tags, provide the author with the option of displaying the text of the elements, instead (i.e., <html> rather than a generic marker image).
• An authoring tool that offers a "rendered view" of a document, such as a browser preview mode, may provide an editing view whose presentation can be controlled independently of the rendered view.
• A WYSIWYG editor may allow an author to specify a local style sheet, that will override the "published" style of the document in the editing view.
• Allow the author to create audio style sheets using a graphical representation rather than an audio one (with accessible representation, of course).

ATAG Checkpoint 7.3: Allow the author to edit all properties of each element and object in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]

Techniques:

• Allow the author to individually edit each attribute of the elements in an HTML or XML document, for example, through a menu. This must include the ability to add and edit later, values for all valid attributes.
• For tools that graphically represented element start and end tags, text equivalent must be provided in order to be accessible to assistive technologies that render text as Braille, speech, or large print.
• An authoring tool may offer several editing views of the same document, such as a source mode that allows direct editing of all properties.
• For a site management tool, allow the author to render a site map in text form (i.e., as a structured tree file).
• Allow the author to specify that alternative information (or identifiers such as a URI or filename) are rendered in place of images or other multimedia content while editing.
• Include attributes / properties of elements in a view of the structure.
• Provide access to a list of properties via a "context menu" for each element.

ATAG Checkpoint 7.4: Ensure that the editing view allows navigation via the structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 1]

Techniques:

• To minimally satisfy this checkpoint, allow navigation from element to element.
• Allow the author to navigate via an "outline" or "structure" of the document being edited. This is particularly important for people who are using a slow interface such as a small Braille device, or speech output, or a single switch input device. It is equivalent to the ability provided by a mouse interface to move rapidly around the document.
• In a hypertext document, allow the author to navigate among links and active elements of a document.
• For time-based presentations (i.e., SMIL), allow the author to navigate temporally through the presentation.
• For an image expressed in a structured language (i.e., SVG), allow the author to navigate regions of the image, or the document tree.
• Implement the HTML "accesskey" attribute, and activate it in editing views.

ATAG Checkpoint 7.5: Enable editing of the structure of the document in an accessible fashion. [Priority 2]

Techniques:

• An authoring tool may offer a structured tree view of the document that allows the author to move among, select and cut, copy or paste elements of the document.
• A WYSIWYG tool may allow elements to be selected, and copied or moved while retaining their structure.
• A tool may allow transformation from one element type to another, such as:
  • HTML: Paragraphs to lists and back
  • HTML: BR to P
  • SMIL: Transformations between switch, excl, and par
  • HTML: FONT (deprecated) into heuristically determined structure
  • MathML: Transformations between semantic and presentation markup
  • SVG: g to symbol
  • Lists of lists to tables and back
  • Giving a structural role to a part of an element, such as an SVG g or an HTML p element

ATAG Checkpoint 7.6: Allow the author to search within editing views. [Priority 2]

Techniques:

• Allow the user to search for a sequence of characters as a minimal measure for meeting this checkpoint.
• More powerful searches can include the ability to perform searches that are case sensitive or case-insensitive, the ability to replace a search string, the ability to repeat a previous search to find the next or previous occurrence, or to select multiple occurrences with a single search.
• The ability to search for a particular type of structure is useful in a structured document, structured image such as a complex SVG image, etc.
• In an image editor, the ability to select an area by properties (such as color, or closeness of color) is useful and common in middle range and high end image processing software.
• The ability to search a database for particular content, or to search a collection of files at once (a simple implementation of the latter is the Unix function "grep") is an important tool in managing large collections, especially those that are dynamically converted into Web content.
• The use of metadata (per WCAG 1.0 [WCAG10]) can allow for very complex searching of large collections, or of timed presentations. Refer also to the paper "A Comparison of Schemas for Dublin Core-based Video Metadata Representation" [SEARCHABLE] for discussion specifically addressing timed multimedia presentations.

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