Welcome

World Wide Web Consortium

• International, vendor-neutral consortium
• Promotes Web evolution & interoperability
• 3 host sites
  • MIT for North America
  • ERCIM for Europe
  • Keio University for Asia
• 14 outreach offices world wide
• Membership benefits

WAI Resource: http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/slide10-0.html

Web Accessibility Initiative

• Operates internationally
• Partnership approach
• Collaborative W3C working groups
• Opportunities for public comment

WAI Resources: http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/slide11-0.html, http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/slide12-0.html, http://www.w3.org/Talks/WAI-Intro/slide13-0.html

WAI-TIES Best Practices Exchange

• WAI-TIES is a W3C project funded by the European Commission under the Information Society Technologies programme as an Accompanying Measure
• In coordination with the WAI Education and Outreach Working Group, this is the fourth Best Practices Exchange (BPE)
• Previous BPE events were held in Copenhagen, Dublin and Madrid covering different topics for different audience and in different presentation modes
• The aim of the Best Practices Exchange events is to promote awareness, encourage knowledge exchange and to increase expertise in Web site evaluation, retrofitting, and development

WAI-TIES BPE Paris, 6 July 2004

• BPE Paris is hosted by W3C, the facility is provided by Université Pierre et Marie Curie and additional logistical help is provided by BrailleNet
• The objective of this hands-on event is to introduce Web developers who are new to Web accessibility the principles of Web accessibility evaluation of Web sites
• Please read the disclaimer about the covered checkpoints, utilized evaluation tools or Web sites mentioned during this training event
• Today's presenters:
  • Shawn Lawton Henry, W3C/WAI - Madison, Wisconsin
  • Andrew Arch
    Manager, Online Accessibility Consulting
    Accessible Information Solutions
    National Information and Library Service
    Melbourne, Australia
  • Sylvie Duchateau
    Accessibility Consultant
    Association BrailleNet and WAI-TIES
    Université Pierre et Marie Curie
    Paris, France
  • Shadi Abou-Zahra, W3C/WAI - Sophia-Antipolis, France

Important Disclaimer

Checkpoints

In this one-day training there is not enough time to cover all the checkpoints in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0) but the presenters have instead chosen a subset of checkpoints which are suitable to use in a hands-on setting.

Please note that the aim of this evaluation training is to introduce different possibilities on evaluating the conformance of example pages to some of the checkpoints from WCAG 1.0 and not to cover a full conformance evaluation as described in Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility.

Evaluation Tools

To effectively present the implication of certain checkpoints, the presenters might use several tools; sometimes to cover the same checkpoint. W3C/WAI does not endorse any of these tools or require their use in order to conduct a Web accessibility evaluation review. There are many different type of tools which can be used to assist the evaluation review, the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT-WG) maintains a list of evaluation, repair and transformation tools.

Please note that no evaluation tool can currently fully determine the accessibility of a Web site. Evaluating the conformance of a Web site is a process in which tools can assist the reviewers if they are used correctly.

Web Sites

During the sessions, the presenters will provide several exercises for the participants to carry out. While some of these exercises will be conducted on prepared sample pages, others will be conducted on example Web sites. W3C/WAI does not endorse any of these Web sites or claim any accessibility evaluation conformance of them. Any evaluation results collected during the sessions are not to be used by any of the participants outside the context of the BPE Training at any circumstances.