Creating accessible web pages has never been more important than today. With the recent adoption of accessibility standards in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Australia, Japan, and Brazil, designers and developers need to ensure that people with disabilities are able to access the contents of websites and web applications, as well as the authoring tools used to create them.
Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 provides the most complete set of tools available for building, editing, and maintaining accessible websites and web applications. Dreamweaver 8 offers many improvements for users of assistive technologies, as well as for individuals seeking to create accessible web content and web applications. Dreamweaver 8 makes it easy for designers and developers to understand and comply with accessibility standards, with features that include a reference guide, templates, code snippets, and a built-in accessibility validation tools. Dreamweaver 8 now also includes features designed to handle some of the most complex accessibility issues, such as the creation of accessible forms and data tables. Finally, Dreamweaver 8 makes it easier than ever for people with disabilities to create both websites and web applications. With improvements to the authoring environment, Dreamweaver 8 now works with assistive technologies such as the GW Micro Window Eyes and the Freedom Scientific JAWS for Windows screen readers.
- Accessibility Preferences Options
- Accessibility Validation
- Accessibility Reference
- Accessible Templates
- Accessible Authoring Environment
Accessibility Preferences Options
To create accessible web pages, page elements need to be marked up with information for assistive technology, such as screen readers. For example, each image on a page should be given a text equivalent, called “alternative text”(ALT text), which a screen reader conveys to users in place of the image.
Designers often overlook accessibility features such as ALT text when creating websites, but Dreamweaver MX 2004 allows you to set preferences that prompt you to provide accessibility information as you're building the page. By activating options in the Preferences dialog box, you'll be prompted to provide accessibility-related information for form objects, frames, media, images, and tables as each element is inserted in a page.
For example, if you choose the Images option in the Show Attributes list, you will be prompted to provide the text equivalent and a description for each image as it is inserted. When you insert an image, the following panel appears:
Creating accessible tables and forms present some of the greatest web content challenges, but Dreamweaver 8 simplifies the process. For example, as you insert a data table within Dreamweaver 8, you're immediately prompted to provide summary information, a caption, and the position of headers in the table. Incidentally, by adding identifying headers-an important but often-overlooked design step-you make it significantly easier for assistive technology users to navigate tables.
Creating accessible forms is also easy with Dreamweaver 8. When you select the Form Objects option in the Preferences dialog box, you're prompted to provide a label for each form object, along with a short-cut key and the tab order position. Specifying the label allows assistive technology users to understand the purpose of each form object as they complete the form.
Accessibility Validation
Dreamweaver 8 provides a comprehensive, built-in set of tools for validating the accessibility of a single page, a group of pages-even an entire site. The Dreamweaver 8 reports feature allows you to validate web pages for compliance with Section 508 standards and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Priority One and Two checkpoints.
The Accessibility report identifies all areas with obvious errors, such as missing ALT text, as well as areas that require a manual evaluation, such as color combinations. In addition, when you select an individual item from the report, the corresponding part of the page in question is highlighted, to point you directly to the area needing attention.
Accessibility Reference
Dreamweaver 8 also includes built-in accessibility reference. This Reference panel explains each of the rules used to check pages for accessibility issues and includes links to more detailed information about each issue, making it easier for you to master accessibility issues relevant to your site. The Reference panel can be used with the Accessibility report, so you can request more information about a rule listed in the report, which will then appear in the Reference panel.
Accessible Templates
Dreamweaver 8 includes several templates designed for accessibility. These templates are visually balanced, as well as accessible to people with disabilities. The templates provide you with a fast and easy way to create exciting, engaging, and accessible content.
Accessible Authoring Environment
Dreamweaver 8 integrates with assistive technologies. With labeling and sequencing of buttons, Dreamweaver 8 is the most powerful web development environment for users of assistive technology, such as Window Eyes from GW Micro, JAWS from Freedom Scientific, Home Page Reader from IBM and ZoomText from Ai Squared.
Several features in Dreamweaver 8 help disabled users facilitate the creation of web pages. Among these features are two shortcut keys that allow users to access Dreamweaver 8 panels by using the keyboard. The first of these shortcuts, Control+Alt+Tab, allows users to access Dreamweaver 8 panel groups. For example, pressing Control+Alt+Tab once takes users to the Design panel group. From there, pressing Tab moves users to the buttons on the open panel. Pressing Control+Tab moves users to other panels in that group.
The second shortcut allows users to return to the page window by pressing Control+Alt+Home. Users will need this keystroke after moving among single panels and panel groups.
The Offscreen Rendering (Disable when using Screen Readers) option offers improved screen reader performance in Dreamweaver 8. To prevent flickering, Dreamweaver 8 uses double buffering, which draws the screen in memory before displaying it to the user. Screen readers work best with this option disabled.
