The HTML Web Site publishing format is designed to provide an accessible experience for users.
While authoring content, there are some guidelines and practices you should consider to ensure that all of your content is accessible.
Provide keyboard alternatives for topic procedures.
Use glossary terms for definitions of abbreviations.
Try to use style sheets and styles for web pages instead of inline formatting. Style sheets provide accessibility coding for layouts and screen presentation elements.
Note: Web pages are coded to comply with provisions to supply equivalent information or functionality.
Use a consistent page layout and terminology across pages.
For web page images that convey ideas or information, use the Alternative Text field in the Image Properties to add text explaining the information that a sighted person learns from viewing the image. Right-click the image and select Image Properties to access the Alternative Text field.
Be consistent in your Alternative Text descriptions of images and buttons.
For web page images that are solely decorative, leave the Alternative Text field blank. This creates an empty HTML alt tag that is ignored by a screen reader.
Do not use images in place of text. Information relayed by the image should also be available in text form.
Provide row or column headings for tables, and if possible, use both.
Provide a description of tables in the Summary field in Table Properties dialog box. You may also need to include information about how the table is sorted and why there may be empty cells. Right-click the table and select Table Properties to access the Summary field.
Set the Table Type to Data or Layout. The table style tells the screen reader if the table needs to be read for data or if the announcement can be skipped because it is used to control the organization of the content only. The default table type is data. To set the table type to Layout in the Web Page Editor, right-click the table, select Table Properties, and use the Advanced tab to access the Table Type list.
Note: You cannot set the Table Type for table styles in the Style Editor. The Layout type must be set in the Web Page Editor for each layout table. You can, however, copy a table with a Table Type set to Layout to another web page and the Layout property is preserved.
If using sound, ensure that you provide comparable text content. For example, for web pages, you can either include the information directly in the page, or provide a link to open the text script of the audio.
Avoid using color as the only means of distinguishing visual elements.
Avoid descriptions using relative size, position, shape, and orientation.
While the Developer software writes a valid Doctype in the heading for topics, questions, and webpages, and also uses the Title element to create unique page names, it is up to authors and content developers to make sure that external content is also appropriately tagged.
Include Print It! mode in HTML format for an accessible Player output.
Publish the Player with the option that allows users to change preferences; for example, marquee color, key combinations for advancing Do It!.