Understanding Accessibility
by Vivienne Trulock
Priority 1
Guideline 1
All of the following checkpoints are required for your site to be compliant to Level A accessibility. Click on the linked number to the left of each checkpoint to get further information on that checkpoint.
1.1 - Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element
1.2 - Provide redundant text links for each active region of a server-side image map
1.3 - Until user agents can automatically read aloud the text equivalent of a visual track, provide an auditory description of the important information of the visual track of a multimedia presentation
1.4 - For multimedia movies or animation, synchronize captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track with the presentation
Guideline 2
2.1 - Ensure that all information conveyed with colour is also available without colour, for example from context or markup
Guideline 4
4.1 - Clearly identify changes in the natural language of a document's text and any text equivalents (e.g., captions)
Guideline 5
5.1 - For data tables, identify row and column headers
5.2 - For data tables that have two or more logical levels of row or column headers, use markup to associate data cells and header cells
Guideline 6
6.1 - Organize documents so they may be read without style sheets. For example, when an HTML document is rendered without associated style sheets, it must still be possible to read the document
6.2 - Ensure that equivalents for dynamic content are updated when the dynamic content changes
6.3 - Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page
Guideline 7
7.1 - Until user agents allow users to control flickering, avoid causing the screen to flicker
Guideline 8
8.1 - Make programmatic elements such as scripts and applets directly accessible or compatible with assistive technologies
Guideline 9
9.1 - Provide client-side image maps instead of server-side image maps except where the regions cannot be defined with an available geometric shape
Guideline 11
11.4 - If, after best efforts, you cannot create an accessible page, provide a link to an alternative page that uses W3C technologies, is accessible, has equivalent information (or functionality), and is updated as often as the inaccessible (original) page
Guideline 12
12.1 - Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation
Guideline 14
14.1 - Use the clearest and simplest language appropriate for a site's content
