Understanding Accessibility

Priority 2

To adhere to the EU eEurope Action Plan 2002 guidelines regarding accessible website design, all of the checkpoints on this page must be passed. The Irish government has also adopted this standard for its own sites and this is the level required if you wish to avail of the NDA 'Excellence through Accessibility' Award .

Click on the linked number to the left of each checkpoint to get further information on that checkpoint.

Guideline 2

2.2 - Ensure that foreground and background colour combinations provide sufficient contrast when viewed by someone having colour deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen.

Guideline 3

3.1 - When an appropriate markup language exists, use markup rather than images to convey information

3.2 - Create documents that validate to published formal grammars

3.3 - Use style sheets to control layout and presentation

3.4 - Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values

3.5 - Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification

3.6 - Mark up lists and list items properly

3.7 - Mark up quotations. Do not use quotation markup for formatting effects such as indentation

Guideline 5

5.3 - Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Otherwise, if the table does not make sense, provide an alternative equivalent (which may be a linearized version

5.4 - If a table is used for layout, do not use any structural markup for the purpose of visual formatting

Guideline 6

6.4 - For scripts and applets, ensure that event handlers are input device-independent

6.5 - Ensure that dynamic content is accessible or provide an alternative presentation or page

Guideline 7

7.2 - Until user agents allow users to control blinking, avoid causing content to blink (i.e., change presentation at a regular rate, such as turning on and off)

7.3 - Until user agents allow users to freeze moving content, avoid movement in pages

7.4 - Until user agents provide the ability to stop the refresh, do not create periodically auto-refreshing pages

7.5 - Until user agents provide the ability to stop auto-redirect, do not use markup to redirect pages automatically. Instead, configure the server to perform redirects

Guideline 8

8.1 - Make programmatic elements such as scripts and applets directly accessible or compatible with assistive technologies

Guideline 9

9.2 - Ensure that any element that has its own interface can be operated in a device-independent manner

9.3 - For scripts, specify logical event handlers rather than device-dependent event handlers

Guideline 10

10.1 - Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user

10.2 - Until user agents support explicit associations between labels and form controls, for all form controls with implicitly associated labels, ensure that the label is properly positioned

Guideline 11

11.1 - Use W3C technologies when they are available and appropriate for a task and use the latest versions when supported

11.2 - Avoid deprecated features of W3C technologies

Guideline 12

12.2 - Describe the purpose of frames and how frames relate to each other if it is not obvious by frame titles alone

12.3 - Divide large blocks of information into more manageable groups where natural and appropriate

12.4 - Associate labels explicitly with their controls

Guideline 13

13.1 - Clearly identify the target of each link.

13.2 - Provide metadata to add semantic information to pages and sites

13.3 - Provide information about the general layout of a site (e.g., a site map or table of contents)

13.4 - Use navigation mechanisms in a consistent manner