Accessibility/Security and this web site

Internet sites need to be accessible to all

The internet is designed to be accessible by everyone. Web pages should be designed with accessibility in mind, and this right is protected by law in the United States (The Rehabilitation Act, 2010), and in Australia by the Disability Discrimination Act (1992). W3C has created the Web Accessibility Initiative to create guidelines and standards, which use the principles Perceivable, Operable, Understandable and Robust to describe accessible Internet content, components and controls (W3C, 2008). These are designed to deal with user limitations in the following areas: visual, auditory, physical, cognitive and neurological (Chapman & Chapman, 2006, p.16). Consideration also needs to be given to those users that do not have a high-speed connection to the internet (Wallis et al., 2013), and also to the type of device that will be used to access the site, as greater numbers of mobile and tablet devices are now being used to access the internet (Pilcher, 2013).

Text alternatives for non-text content

The single most important thing you can do to do to make a web page accessible is to include alternative text for images (Thatcher, 2012). This provides text alternatives for any non-text content so that it can be changed into other forms people need, such as large print, braille, speech, symbols or simpler language (Felke-Morris, 2011, p. 198). One could argue that a website that deals with cycling maintenance would not need to cater for the vision impaired; however, by law it must be made accessible.
Technically, this is achieved by using the alt attribute on every img element in the HTML code for a webpage. Also, the alt attribute is used on every input with type="image" and on every area element (Thatcher, 2012). All images used in this website have an appropriately defined alt tag.

An example of a simple implementation of alternative text is:

Code used:

Additional Features

Additional upgrades to the site will be implemented that will enhance Accessibility and Security features in the following areas:

Accessibility

The existing visual design approach of black text on a white background, large fonts, and simple black and white block graphics will be maintained consistently as content and pages are added. This makes the site easier to read and simple to use, as 1 out of 20 people experience some kind of colour deficiency (Felke-Morris, 2011, p.98).

A mobile site will be developed to allow for better access through smartphone and tablet screen sizes and user interaction. Mobile users will be redirected to this site. This is the best format for delivery as you can create an experience specifically for your mobile users without taking away from the experience of desktop users (Dawson, 2010). Implementing this means no down-time for the existing site, and mobile devices will be directed seamlessly to the mobile specific site with no change to user behaviour or training/communications required.

Embedding YouTube videos are not keyboard accessible and pose a number of accessibility problems to people with disabilities, and also are difficult to view by those who are on slow internet connections. Embedded videos from YouTube will have Captions and Transcripts. Captions are important when people need to see what's happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time (useful for hearing-impaired people) and transcripts for those who cannot view the video at all. Links will be provided to the transcript and audio described videos.

It is also intended to include a link to the easy YouTube player by Chris Heilmann. This player allows users to paste in the URL and then use an accessible player to play the video (eGovernment Resource Centre, 2013). The site can be extended to include this functionality without any redesign of current content.

Security

At the moment, there are no transactional tasks available to the users of the website, so all attention is currently focused on server-side security. As the web site will be hosted, there is a need to ensure the vendor is keeping up-to-date on security issues (Stein, 1998), and has implemented security measures in the following particular areas as outlined by Lebtinen, Russell and Gangemi (2006):

Secure the operating system and Web server
Monitor the server for suspicious activity
Write safe CGI scripts
Set up remote authoring and administration facilities

If the users are required in future to submit information over the internet to the site, then secure, encrypted web forms will be used. The protection for the encrypted web form is achieved by an Internet technology called SSL (Secure Socket layers). Every Web page that uses SSL has a special representation in the address bar. Instead of "http" at the beginning, it will say "https." The extra letter stands for "secure." In addition, most Web browsers will display a locked padlock on HTTPS pages (Fredman, 2013). This demonstrates to users that the site they are submitting personal details to is secure.

References

Chapman, N. & Chapman, J. (2006). Web design: a complete introduction. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons

Dawson, A. (2010). Mobile Web Design: Best Practices. Retrieved from http://sixrevisions.com/web-development/mobile-web-design-best-practices/

Disability Discrimination Act (1992). Retreived from: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/dda1992264/

eGovernment Resource Centre (2013). Videos and accessibility - Accessibility Toolkit - Version 3 – 2009. Retrieved from: http://www.egov.vic.gov.au/victorian-government-resources/manuals-and-toolkits-victoria/accessibility-toolkit/accessibility-toolkit-version-3-2009/accessibility-toolkit-version-3-2009-section-5-top-issues/videos-and-accessibility-accessibility-toolkit-version-3-2009.html

Felke-Morris, T. (2011). Web development and design foundations with XHTML. Boston: Pearson.

Fredman, J. (2013). Why Use SSL Encryption? Retrieved from: http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/use-ssl-encryption-20571.html

Lehtinen, R., Russell, D., & Gangemi, G. T. (2006). Chapter 6. Web Attacks and Internet Vulnerabilities. In Computer security basics (2nd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates.

Pilcher, P. (2013). Cisco forecasts massive mobile uptake. Retrieved from: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10870037

Stein, L. D. (1998). Server security. In Web security: A step-by-step reference guide (pp. 155-170). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

The Rehabilitation Act (2010). Section 508 Of The Rehabilitation Act. Retrieved from https://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?fuseAction=1998Amend

Wallis, J., Qayyum, A., & Liu, Y. (2013). INF446 - Fundamentals of Web Publishing. Charles Sturt University.

W3C (2008). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. Retrieved from http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/