Accessibility feature used on this site

One feature used on the website to aid accessibility as recommended in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (WCAG 2.0) is to provide text alternatives for non-text content (W3C, 2010a). This includes all still images such as drawings, maps and photographs. The authoring software used for this website prompts the web author to insert a descriptionof the image in the alt attribute, so the software is complying with the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (ATAG 2.0) (W3C, 2005a). This means that people can still perceive the content even if they have visual difficulties by using assistive technology, such as a screen reader, or by changing text into large print, braille, symbols or simpler language (W3C, 2010a).

Why is accessibility important?

It is important to improve accessibility, that is, making sure that the site is usable by everyone regardless of any physical/mental disability or software/hardware limitations, as the whole aim of the web was to be universally accessible (W3C, 2010b). As the web removes many barriers people have in the physical world, it is imoprtant that it doesn't create others. With an increase in the number of people with disabilities, as well as the ageing of the world's population, ensuring accessibility is ever more crucial (Loiacono, Romano & McCoy, 2009) (Arch, 2009). It is also a legal requirement. People without disabilities also benefit, as they are able to use the computer to suit their preferences or different situations (W3C, 2005b). Therefore, accessibility also increases the audience reach of the website (W3C, 2010b), which is essential for an information website such as this one.

Some disadvantages

Implementing these features will involve significant cost – training of web site author and additional software that may be required. It will also take time to  complete the upgrade, as well as the evaluation of accessibility, which will include evaluation by disabled users.

Further accessibility features to be implemented

• Providing a textual alternative to time-based media, being the video. This means describing actions, sounds and spoken content. This should be synchronised with the video in the form of captions or subtitles, as well as having a full transcript. Although there are subtitles, these only relate to spoken content. Flash players provide the possibility to add text.

• Providing better operability by making all functionality available from a keyboard. This means users don't need to rely on using the mouse, particularly for the video controls. For flash video this means writing certain script in the source code.

• Provide a means of skipping the navigation bar by placing a link at the top of the page, which takes the user to the beginning of the main content .

• Indicate the change of natural language with the lang attribute when a Norwegian word is used in the text, so that a screen reader can identify it (Chapman & Chapman, 2006).

• Use Cascading Style sheets (CSS) for page layout instead of tables, as it is more tedious for a screen reader, and also for typography, as content is separated from presentation and users are more easily able to set their own default settings for font type, colour and size. (Hall, 2009)

Security

The nature of the web, or the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that carries HTML codes, makes it vulnerable to attack. These can come from the client side or the server side. (Lehtinen, Russell & Gangemi, 2006).

Why is security important and what we will do?

As users will be submitting information via forms in order to update sections of the site, as well as comments for the forum, this makes the site, as well as other users of the site vulnerable to attack if malicious code is inputted or content is interfered with. A way of controlling access to parts of the site is to implement user authentication by requiring the user to submit a user name and password (Guenther, 2003).

In addition, users' private information will need to be protected. As the CSU server doesn't use the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol for data exchange, which ensures the privacy of data, an encryption method will be used to ensure the privacy of user data (Felke-Morris, 2009). This encryption ensures the privacy of data while it is travelling, as well as when it is in storage in the database of user accounts and log-ins (Guenther, 2003).

Some disadvantages

Unfortunately, the username and password authentication can be difficult to keep track of as they are not centrally managed. On the user side, they may become frustrated with having to remember another password (Guenther, 2003) and, therefore, not submit potentially useful information to the site. A privacy policy can explain the need for this to users.

Having an externally located web server means that it is necessary to enquire about its security with the CSU system administrators.

The web author must also ensure that all script on web pages is safe and check user input.

References

Arch, A. (2009). Web accessibility for older users – successes and opportunities. Available from ACM Digital Library, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1535654.1535655

Chapman, N. P. & Chapman, J. (2006). Accessibility. In Web design: a complete introduction (pp. 503-546). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Felke-Morris, T. (2009). E-commerce security. In Web development & design foundations with XHTML (4^th ed.) (pp. 461-465). Boston: Addison Wesley

Guenther, K. (2003). Protecting your web site, protecting your users. Online, 27(3), 63-66.

Hall, S. (2009). Accessibility guidelines unlock the web for millions. Available from http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/community/features/articles/blog/accessibility-guidelines-unlock-the-web-for-millions/?cs=32680

Lehtinen, R., Russell, D., & Gangemi, G. T. (2006). Web attacks and internet vulnerabilities. In Computer security basics (2^nd ed.). Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly & Associates.

Loiacono, E. T., Romano, J. N. C., & McCoy, S. (2009). The state of corporate website accessibility. Communications of the ACM, 52 (9), 128-132.

W3C (2005a). Essential components of web accessibility. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/components.php

W3C (2005b). Introduction to web accessibility. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php

W3C (2010a). How to meet WCAG 2.0. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/#text-equiv

W3C (2010b). Accessibility. Available from http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/accessibility

Other readings

Adams, A., & Sasse, M. A. (1999). Users are not the enemy. Communications of the ACM, 42 (12), 40-46.

Charles Sturt University (2011). Other webpage design considerations. Module 6, Fundamentals of Web Publishing, from http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF446_201130_W_D/page/85c59993-ff35-4239-804d-61542ed2ba28

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

WC3 (2005). Preliminary review of web sites for accessibility. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/preliminary.html

W3C (2006). Improving the accessibility of your web site. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/impl/improving.html

W3C (2008a). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Overview. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag.php

W3C (2008b). Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) Overview. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/atag.php

W3C (2011). WCAG 2 at a glance. Available from http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/