Start a free Courses trial
to watch this video
In this video, you'll get a brief introduction to web accessibility and learn about the organizations that set accessibility standards. You'll also find out why accessibility is important to the health of the web.
This video doesn't have any notes.
Related Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign upRelated Discussions
Have questions about this video? Start a discussion with the community and Treehouse staff.
Sign up[?mellow guitar music?] 0:00 Think Vitamin Membership - Est. 2010 membership.thinkvitamin.com 0:03 Accessibility Fundamentals - Introduction with Nick Pettit 0:07 Web accessibility is the practice of making websites that can be used 0:13 by people of all abilites and disabilities. 0:17 In this video, you'll get a brief introduction to the topic. 0:20 You may have heard of accessibility in the past, 0:23 or maybe you heard somewhere that your website should be accessible. 0:26 But what does that even mean? 0:31 The idea of anyone being able to use a website 0:33 sounds simple enough, but it's more nuanced than that. 0:36 There are lots of people in the world, 0:40 and many considerations to be made. 0:42 In general, though, there is one guiding principle 0:44 that should make accessibility a lot easier 0:47 for anyone to understand. 0:50 Web standards and best practices 0:52 tend to lead toward more accessible websites, 0:55 and in turn, designing a website to be accessible 0:59 has a tendency to lead you towards 1:02 web standards and best practices. 1:05 For example, screen-reading software that assists users 1:07 with visual impairments can sometimes 1:11 have difficulty when tables are used for layout 1:14 rather than being used for tabular data. 1:18 There are many different types of impairments 1:21 that encompass vision, hearing, motor skills, and more. 1:23 In upcoming videos, we'll look at specific techniques 1:27 to accomodate all types of users, 1:30 but before we get into the technical details, 1:32 let's back up for a second, because sometimes 1:35 web developers and designers wonder why 1:38 they should be concerned with accessibility at all. 1:40 There are numerous reasons, 1:43 but here are the top three. 1:45 First, and most importantly, it's just the right thing to do. 1:47 The web represents a giant leap forward 1:51 in the quality of life for people that live with disabilities. 1:54 For example, before the advent of online news and screen readers, 1:57 it was difficult, expensive, and sometimes impossible 2:01 for a person with visual impairment 2:04 to read a daily newspaper on their own. 2:07 That alone should be reason enough. 2:09 Second, as I mentioned earlier, 2:12 building accessible websites has a tendency 2:14 to lead towards HTML markup that is semantic 2:16 and easy for everyone--even computers-- 2:20 to understand and interpret. 2:22 Every designer and developer should be able to understand and relate 2:25 to the importance of this. 2:28 Lastly, you can get in trouble legally, 2:30 if you're not careful. 2:32 Many countries have laws that require government agencies 2:34 along with public and private organizations, 2:37 to maintain web content that is accessible 2:40 to people of all abilities and disabilities. 2:43 In the year 2000, a blind Australian man 2:47 engaged in a court case 2:50 against the Sydney Organizing Committee 2:52 of the Olympic Games, and he won 2:54 because under the Australian Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, 2:57 the official website of the Sydney Olympic Games 3:02 failed to provide adequate accessibility to blind users. 3:05 Legal disputes of this nature can be extremely costly, 3:09 but they're so easily avoidable 3:13 by simply providing accessible content. 3:15 The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, for short, 3:18 is an organization that sets the rules for HTML and CSS 3:23 and many other standards. 3:28 A W3C project, known as the Web Accessibility Initiative, 3:30 or WAI, published the first version 3:35 of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines in 1999. 3:39 Since then, and especially in recent years, 3:44 it has been accepted as the gold standard 3:47 for creating accessible websites. 3:50 By the end of 2008, 3:53 the WCAG 2.0 had been released 3:55 as a recommendation. 3:58 To see the WCAG 2.0 recommendation, 4:00 visit w3.org/TR/WCAG20. 4:03 In 1998, the United States Congress 4:12 amended the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 4:15 to include Section 508, which you can check out at section508.gov. 4:19 Section 508 requires federal agencies 4:26 to make electronic information accessible 4:29 to people with disabilities. 4:32 The portions regarding web technology 4:34 are based on the guidelines 4:37 developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C, 4:39 and this is also the case 4:44 for laws and regulations around the world. 4:46 In the UK, for instance, 4:48 the Publicly Available Specification, or PAS78 published in 2006, 4:50 also references the WAI guidelines. 4:55 This also true in Canada, Spain, Japan, 4:58 and many other countries. 5:01 Even so, you should study the laws that are local to your country 5:03 and strive to comply with them. 5:07 Hopefully, this video helped you to understand 5:09 the scope of accessibility. 5:12 In the next video, we'll look at ways to improve accessibility 5:14 for users with visual impairments. 5:17 [?mellow guitar music?] 5:19 Think Vitamin Membership - Est. 2010 membership.thinkvitamin.com 5:22
You need to sign up for Treehouse in order to download course files.
Sign upYou need to sign up for Treehouse in order to set up Workspace
Sign up