Basics of Accessible Web Pages

FSU is committed to making information on its web site available to as many people as possible. This includes visitors with special needs (the visually impaired, for example) as well as users with slow modem connections, and older Web browsers and computers.

A checklist developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/full-checklist.html) describes common accessibility issues and assigns each issue a priority number. The FSU Web Advisory Group requires university Web sites comply with, at minimum, priority one issues. The following guidelines were developed to simplify the compliance process. In most cases, adherence to the guidelines below will ensure FSU compliance of your site.

• Use ALT tags to provide alternate text descriptions for images, image maps, sound files, and Java applet tags. The LONGDESC tag is available for more detailed descriptions. Make the entry alt="" for spacer images.
  
  
• Do not use color as sole means to convey information. Make sure pages and graphics are understandable when viewed without color.
  
  
• If you use style sheets in your web site, organize your web page so it may be read without when style sheets are absence.
  
  
• If you use image maps, provide an HTML version of the links at the same level.
  
  
• Include row and column headers for data tables.
  
  
• Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. When encoding Javascript, you can do this by using a <NOSCRIPT> tag to provide the same information to users whose browser does not support JavaScript. In other situations, this may involve duplicating the same information or functionality in a redundant, accessible format.
  
  
• When using video and sound files, provide a text transcript if the information is important to the content of the page.
  
  
• For sites with graphic-intensive or technology-rich pages, create a text-only version to make it easier for those with less capable browsers to access the information.

Based on Official FSU Standards & Guidelines for Web Page Design and Maintenance, Revision 03– 032607