When testing your site, you will have no choice but to test for accessibility. Tell that to the average web developer, and you can expect a response along the following lines: "Dude, it isn't a government project." Our response is, "Dude, that no longer matters." Accessibility is now jurisdictional , and you will have to make your work accessible to those with disabilities . To put the magnitude of the issue into perspective, we would like you to seriously comprehend the scope of the issue by understanding the plight of the blind. Did you know, 70% of the U.S. population who are legally blind are either unemployed or underemployed? Of that group , approximately 1% have access to the data necessary to change their situation. That means you have essentially locked out 99% of the blind population in the U.S. from the web. This is something governments haven't overlooked. In the United States, Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (www. usdoj .gov/crt/508/508home.html) mandates that any work done for any government, from local to federal, must meet accessibility standards. In Canada, the rules are even tighter. In the European Union, anyone registering for a domain name must provide an accessible version of the site. Though governments are mandating acceptance of these guidelines, educators are now jumping on the accessibility juggernaut , and business will soon follow. A good example of this is Macromedia. If you have ever dealt with their technical support area, you are quite familiar with how long it takes to resolve your product issue. Did you know that an accessibility issue is so serious with the corporation that they will deal with you personally within ten minutes or so? Did you also know that if the issue cannot be resolved, the policy of the corporation is to involve their accessibility expert, Bob Regan, almost before you hang up your phone? Accessibility and Dreamweaver MX 2004To make it relatively easy for you to meet the requirements of the Section 508 statute , Dreamweaver MX 2004 has put the accessibility options in the application's Preferences. To set the Accessibility Options:
Accommodating AccessThere are no real rules when it comes to designing accessibility into your sites. Use your common sense, and if you really want an attitude-altering accessibility experience, watch a blind person surf the net using a Screen Reader. If you can afford it, get a Screen Reader and learn to use it. Just be prepared for some serious aggravation for the first 30 days as you get used to it. Before you toss the device in the trash, consider this: you just experienced the frustration that disabled visitors to your site will encounter. Still, here are a few tips, in no particular order, that should help you:
Tip A quick way to identify accessibility issues in Dreamweaver MX 2004 is to select File, Check Page, Accessibility. Dreamweaver will scoot through the page and provide you with a detailed report in the Report panel. If you are unsure how to fix an identified problem, click the More Info buttonthe "i" in the Text balloon on the left side of the panel. This will open the UsableNet Accessibility Reference manual in the Reference panel, as shown in Figure 19.15. Figure 19.15. If you are unsure how to address an accessibility issue, select the item and click the More Info button in the Report panel to open the Usability manual in the Reference panel.
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