Accessibility, Usability & Your Web Site Understand, evaluate and improve the impact of your web site
The modern world now relies heavily on the web to deliver services and information directly to users, wherever they are and whoever they may be. The addition of legislation to ensure everyone can access and use important web content means that developers must have the skills to balance basic access to their web site with the ability for everyone to engage with it in a meaningful way.
Understanding the different ways that people interact the web is the key to being able to provide a better online experience for everyone - but there is still a tendency for developers to focus on solutions for users with visual impairment. This workshop will introduce a more holistic approach to making accessible, usable web content and key evaluation techniques that you can use on your own (and other people's) web sites.
Topics:
- How real people interact with the web
- How does the law affect the content you provide?
- Assistive technologies - there's more than just JAWS!
- The difference between accessible and usable content
- Accessiblity and usability testing criteria & methods
- Where to get specific help and advice
Who is it for?
If you are involved in the provision of web content at any level then you will find this workshop beneficial. You will learn how to avoid the common pitfalls on the road to building accessible, usable web projects and leave equipped to re-evaluate just how other users really experience a web site.
Participants do not need to be expert web designers! However, in order to get the most out of this workshop, some experience of using web browsers and the basic techniques for creating web pages using HTML and CSS would be useful.
By the end of the workshop participants will have:
- Experienced how different people interact with the web
- Explored the relationship between accessibility and usability
- Practiced web site evaluation techniques
- Reviewed the effectiveness of automated evaluation tools
- Considered the impact of accessibility legislation
