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Documentation about Web Accessibility and Usability
Here we list various documentation and sources of information that may be of interest to whom is developing or re-designing web pages and/or portals inside ICTP, according to the approved Working Plan and Content Tree. These documents have been collected from the web, where they have been made available to everyone interested in the specific topics. All rights belongs to the original authors, as stated in the copyright information. For further details please contact the ICTP Web Team.
What are web accessibility and usability?
— As it is explained in the W3C website, the concept of accessibility is "to make web content accessible to people with disabilities". However, accessibility guidelines (like the ones the W3C produces) "will also make Web content more available to all users, whatever user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer, etc.) or constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment, etc.). Following these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines do not discourage content developers from using images, video, etc., but rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide audience". An easy and intuitive use of the web as a source of information is exactly the meaning of usability.
Documentation and Resources
- "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect." — Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web
The Web Accessibility Initiative, by the WWW Consortium (www.w3.org) - An excellent free book, with reasons and techniques for Web Accessibility:
Dive into Accessibility (diveintoaccessibility.org) - An article explaining how to check for common accessibility issues:
Accessibility: On a shoe-string - WAVE 3.0 Accessibility Tool:
wave.webaim.org - An on-line article by Joe Clark, author of the book "Building Accessible Websites":
High accessibility, high design: CSS to the rescue - A very rich list of resources on CSS and accessibility:
Holy CSS ZeldMan! (www.dezwozhere.com)
A general introduction about XHTML, CSS, accessibility and usability is also available, together with more details on XHTML and CSS.
Templates of XHTML, CSS and graphic elements are available for downloading. Please note that they are FOR ICTP INTERNAL USE ONLY.