WEBVTT

00:00:00.527 --> 00:00:09.164
[♪♪]

00:00:09.164 --> 00:00:11.776
You may have heard of 
accessibility in the past

00:00:11.776 --> 00:00:15.723
or maybe you heard somewhere 
that your website should be accessible,

00:00:15.723 --> 00:00:17.579
but what does that even mean?

00:00:17.579 --> 00:00:22.090
The idea of anyone being able 
to use a website sounds simple enough,

00:00:22.090 --> 00:00:24.674
but it's more nuanced than that.

00:00:24.674 --> 00:00:26.567
There are lots of people in the world,

00:00:26.567 --> 00:00:29.997
and there's many considerations to be made.

00:00:29.997 --> 00:00:31.044
In general though,

00:00:31.044 --> 00:00:35.077
there is one guiding principle 
that should make accessibility

00:00:35.077 --> 00:00:38.259
a lot easier 
for anyone to understand.

00:00:38.259 --> 00:00:43.726
Web standards and best practices 
tend to lead towards more accessible websites

00:00:43.726 --> 00:00:45.395
and vice versa.

00:00:45.395 --> 00:00:48.529
Designing a website to be 
accessible tends to lead you

00:00:48.529 --> 00:00:51.987
towards web standards 
and best practices.

00:00:51.987 --> 00:00:56.745
For example, screen reading software 
that assists users with visual impairments

00:00:56.745 --> 00:01:00.649
can sometimes have difficulty 
when tables are used for layout

00:01:00.649 --> 00:01:03.889
rather than being used 
for tabular data.

00:01:03.889 --> 00:01:06.763
There are many different types 
of impairments that encompass

00:01:06.763 --> 00:01:10.890
vision, hearing, motor skills, and more.

00:01:10.890 --> 00:01:13.929
We'll learn about 
specific techniques to accommodate

00:01:13.929 --> 00:01:16.295
all these different types of users.

00:01:16.295 --> 00:01:19.184
Before we get into 
the technical details,

00:01:19.184 --> 00:01:23.109
let's back up because sometimes 
web developers and designers wonder

00:01:23.109 --> 00:01:27.119
why they should be so concerned 
with accessibility in the first place.

00:01:27.119 --> 00:01:28.461
There are numerous reasons,

00:01:28.461 --> 00:01:31.164
but here are three 
really important ones.

00:01:31.164 --> 00:01:34.889
First and most importantly, 
it's just the right thing to do.

00:01:34.889 --> 00:01:38.880
The web represents 
a giant leap forward in the quality of life

00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:40.679
for people with disabilities.

00:01:40.679 --> 00:01:44.719
For example, before the advent 
of online news and screen readers,

00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:48.660
it was difficult, expensive, 
and oftentimes impossible

00:01:48.660 --> 00:01:53.482
for a person with visual impairments 
to read a daily newspaper.

00:01:53.482 --> 00:01:55.612
That alone should be reason enough.

00:01:55.612 --> 00:01:57.913
Second, as I mentioned earlier,

00:01:57.913 --> 00:02:02.359
building accessible websites 
has a tendency to lead towards HTML markup

00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:08.244
that is semantic and easy for everyone, 
even computers, to understand and interpret.

00:02:08.244 --> 00:02:12.229
Every designer and developer 
should understand the importance of this.

00:02:12.229 --> 00:02:15.968
Lastly, you can get into trouble legally 
if you're not careful.

00:02:15.968 --> 00:02:19.078
Many countries have laws 
that require government agencies

00:02:19.078 --> 00:02:23.507
along with public and private organizations 
to maintain web content

00:02:23.507 --> 00:02:27.622
that is accessible to people 
of all abilities and disabilities.

00:02:27.622 --> 00:02:32.005
In the year 2000, 
a blind Australian man engaged in a court case

00:02:32.005 --> 00:02:35.364
against the Sydney organizing committee 
of the Olympic Games,

00:02:35.364 --> 00:02:41.271
and he won the case because, 
under the Australian Disability Discrimination Act of 1992,

00:02:41.271 --> 00:02:44.207
the official website 
of the Sydney Olympic Games

00:02:44.207 --> 00:02:48.691
failed to provide 
adequate accessibility to blind users.

00:02:48.691 --> 00:02:51.459
Legal disputes of this nature 
can be extremely costly,

00:02:51.459 --> 00:02:56.996
but they're also so easily avoidable 
by simply providing accessible content.

00:02:56.996 --> 00:03:00.259
As we'll learn, 
it's not as difficult as it might seem.

00:03:00.259 --> 00:03:04.140
Whether you're creating a new website 
or even if you're updating an old one,

00:03:04.140 --> 00:03:08.554
you should familiarize yourself 
with the local and federal laws

00:03:08.554 --> 00:03:11.109
that the website 
will be subjected to.

00:03:11.109 --> 00:03:14.258
Here are a few documents 
to help you get started.

00:03:14.258 --> 00:03:17.793
The World Wide Web Consortium, 
or W3C for short,

00:03:17.793 --> 00:03:23.774
is an organization that sets the rules 
for HTML, CSS, and many other standards.

00:03:23.774 --> 00:03:29.094
A W3C project known as 
the Web Accessibility Initiative, or WAI,

00:03:29.094 --> 00:03:36.980
published the first version of the 
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, in 1999.

00:03:36.980 --> 00:03:39.571
Since then 
and especially in recent years,

00:03:39.571 --> 00:03:44.268
it has been accepted as the gold standard 
for creating accessible websites.

00:03:44.268 --> 00:03:45.927
By the end of 2008,

00:03:45.927 --> 00:03:52.905
the WCAG 2.0 had been released 
by the WC3 as a recommendation.

00:03:52.905 --> 00:03:57.302
I highly recommend that you take a look 
at this document and read it over.

00:03:57.302 --> 00:03:58.415
It is lengthy,

00:03:58.415 --> 00:04:01.410
and we cover quite a bit 
of the information it contains.

00:04:01.410 --> 00:04:05.113
But even so, 
you should at least look at it for reference.

00:04:05.113 --> 00:04:11.070
In 1998, the United States Congress amended 
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973

00:04:11.070 --> 00:04:14.776
to include Section 508 
which requires federal agencies

00:04:14.776 --> 00:04:19.088
to make electronic information accessible 
to people with disabilities.

00:04:19.088 --> 00:04:20.960
The portions regarding web technology

00:04:20.960 --> 00:04:27.310
are based on the guidelines developed 
by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the W3C,

00:04:27.310 --> 00:04:31.215
and this is also the case for laws 
and regulations around the world.

00:04:31.215 --> 00:04:32.496
In the UK, for instance,

00:04:32.496 --> 00:04:37.508
the Publicly Available Specification,
or PAS 78, published in 2006

00:04:37.508 --> 00:04:41.475
also references the WAI guidelines.

00:04:41.475 --> 00:04:45.740
This is also true in Canada, Spain, Japan,
and many other countries.

00:04:45.740 --> 00:04:48.974
But even so, you should 
study the laws that are local to your country

00:04:48.974 --> 00:04:51.880
and strive to comply with them.

00:04:51.880 --> 00:04:55.272
Accessibility might seem 
difficult or confusing right now,

00:04:55.272 --> 00:04:59.291
but we'll go through everything 
one step at a time.

00:04:59.291 --> 00:05:02.009
[♪♪]