Images and Typography

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Captchas (1 Link)  A More Accessible Alternative to Graphical Captchas Information on an alternative way to present a captcha. 

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Colours (5 Links)  Color Vision, Color Deficiency by Diane Wilson. This article discusses the use of colour on web sites. 

Colour Contrast Check Tool This tool shows whether the contrast between the foreground and background colours is sufficient "when viewed by someone having color deficits or when viewed on a black and white screen". 

Effective Color Contrast: Designing for People with Partial Sight and Color Deficiencies by Aries Arditi, Lighthouse International. This article contains guidelines for making effective color choices and covers hue, lightness and saturation. 

Palettizer CSS Color Contrast Picker. The Palettizer allows the contrast of foreground text and background colour to be seen in a sample text. Four different ways of selecting palettes are presented: 15 predefined colours (e.g. aqua on fuschia), 140 named colours (e.g. dark blue on ivory), 216 non-dithering colours (e.g. #FFFFFF on #000000), and a user preference set as outlined in the CSS2 specification. 

Safe Web Colours for Colour-Deficient Vision from BT.com. Information on the use of colour in web-based materials.

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CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) (2 Links)  Adding a Touch of Style by Dave Raggett, April 2002. A beginner's guide to using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). </li> Creating Accessible Cascading Style Sheets by Paul Bohman, WebAIM, October 2003. An online tutorial on creating accessible CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).</li></ol>

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Fonts, Layout, and Text (11 Links)  Accessible Web Typography: An Introduction for Web Designers by Jim Byrne. This book (also available free online) explains why some fonts are better than others for accessibility and also concentrates on the font sizes. </li>

Concise, Scannable, and Objective: How to Write for the Web by John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen, 1997. This article describes research into how people read on the web and makes suggestions on how legibility can be improved. </li>

Describing Document Text for Accessibility by Tim Roberts, August 2002. This article provides information on how to make document headings, acronyms and abbreviations accessible. </li>

HTML E-Mail: Text Font Readability Study by Dr Ralph Wilson, March 2001. This article explains why some fonts are easier to read on screen than others. </li>

Links (PDF Format - 4.06Mb) by Usability.gov. Recommendations on how links (hyperlinks) should be presented. </li>

Methods for Designing Usable Web Sites: Collecting, Writing, and Revising Content. A list of tips and recommendations from Usability.gov in preparing easy-to-use content. Tips include breaking text into manageable pieces, using headings and keeping paragraphs short. </li>

Screen Resolution and Page Layout. by Jakob Nielsen, July 2006. This brief article recommends optimising web pages for 1024 x 768 and using a liquid layout to ensure that pages can stretch to the screen resolution. There is also a suggestion on designing for mobile technology. </li>

Sitemaps and Site Indexes: What They Are and Why You Should Have Them by Chiara Fox, September 2003. This article explains how site maps and site indexes should be employed. </li>

Skip Navigation Links This article from JimThatcher.com explains why skip navigation links should be used and how to use them. </li>

Standards for Online Content Authors by Rachel McAlpine. A brief set of guidelines on the use of style, format, and structure in web-based content. </li>

The Ten TVS Guidelines for Making Your Document Braille Ready by Techno-Vision Systems Ltd. Ten guidelines for making Word documents accessible for conversion to Braille, large print, Daisy or PDF formats.</li></ol>

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Form Design (2 Links)  <li>Communicating Error Messages Accessibly from Standards Schmandards, 25th June 2005. This article suggests ways in which application error messages, for example on forms, can be presented accessibly. </li>

<li>Mandoforms Accessibility Guide and Usability Guide. Mandoforms have written an accessibility guide and a usability guide, which both outline good practice for creating more accessible forms that meet legal obligations and provide a better experience for all users. These guides can be requested free of charge by completing the form at the bottom of their page.</li></ol>

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Frames (1 Link) <ol> <li>Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time) by Jakob Nielsen, December 1996. A list of reason why frames are not a good choice and for web-based content. </li></ol> Back to Top of Page

Images (6 Links) <ol> <li>Creating Accessible Images. This article from WebAIM examines the issues relating to accessibility of images, including icons, animations, multimedia, colour, pixelation, flicker (strobe), the &lt;alt&gt; and &lt;longdesc&gt; tags. </li>

<li>'''[http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/reginald-phillips/graphicacyPaper.doc Graphicacy: The Fourth 'R'? (Word Format - 1.9Mb)]''' by F Aldrich and L Sheppard, January 2003. This article suggests how graphics should be used and how not everyone is able to interpret images in the way in which the creator had envisaged. </li>

<li>Guidelines on alt Texts in img Elements by Yukka Korpela, October 2003. General guidelines and tips on using the &lt;alt&gt; tag for images. </li>

<li>Use of ALT Text in IMGs by Alan Flavell, Glasgow University, February 2004. A comprehensive guide to the use of &lt;alt&gt; tags, including common mistakes, reasons for using &lt;alt&gt; tags, tool-tips and &lt;title&gt; tags in the context of images. </li>

<li>Visual vs Cognitive Disabilities by Paul Bohman, WebAIM, October 2003. Reasons for using both graphics and text to suit people with visual or cognitive disabilities. </li>

<li>Writing Effective ALT Text for Images by Trenton Moss, April 2005. A brief overview of writing ALT text with examples.</li></ol>

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Microsoft Word Accessibility (1 Link) <ol> <li>Microsoft Word Accessibility Techniques. Tips from WebAIM on making Word accessible and for conversion to HTML.</li></ol>

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Tables (2 Links) <ol> <li>Building Accessible Tables by Tim Roberts, September 2002. This article gives a step by step introduction to making web tables accessible. </li>

<li>Creating Accessible Tables by Paul Bohman. Another step by step introduction, this time from WebAim, to making web tables accessible. A summary list is also included.</li></ol>

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