Equal Opportunity & Diversity Office

Creating Accessible World Wide Web Pages:
Internet Resources and Guidelines

Compiled by the Equal Opportunity and Diversity Office
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Did you know that the ADA requires most educational institutions' web pages to be accessible to people with visual impairments? For sites that are already in use, an acceptable option according to the Justice Department is to let visitors know in a screen-readable format on the web page that other accessible formats are available. This is often done with a link to a text-only version. Another option is to design a web page that is accessible to screen reading devices that are used by people with visual impairments. There are many ways to incorporate accessible design techniques when creating web pages. The following articles have been collected to help you create accessible web pages, including specific tips and guidelines, as well as, links to other sites for additional information. Links from this page to other sites do not constitute an endorsement from the Equal Opportunity & Diversity Office. They are provided as an information service only. It is up to each user to evaluate the content and usefulness of the information obtained from other sites.

Introduction/General Guidelines

1. Communication and Information Technology Resources
A wonderful list of Web Resoures compiled by the Access Board, a Federal agency.

2. Disability Related Organizations
A wide variety of agencies/organizations compiled by the Access Board, a Federal agency.

4. Alternative Access to the World Wide Web
Jutta Treviranus, University of Toronto & Chris Serflek, University of Toronto

5. Disability Information Resources
The DINF Organization (Disabilities Information Resources), is a nonprofit organization that has been set up to collect information on disabilities and disabilities related subjects and make it available through the World Wide Web.

6. Center for IT Accommodation (CITA) & National Information Infrastructure (NII) Task Force

 

7. EASI Equal Access to Software and Information

Accessible Web Design & Workshops

8. The CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media

The Web Access Project

9. For Students With Disabilities, the Web Can Be Like a Classroom Without a Ramp.

J.R. Young, March 13, 1998 (must have account to access on-line archives).  
The Chronicle of Higher Education On-line

1. W3C Web Authoring Guidelines for Accessibility

2. Designing More Usable Web Sites. Trace Research and Development Center.

Trace is a nonprofit research center which focuses on making off the shelf technologies and systems like computers, the Internet, and information kiosks more accessible for everyone through the process known as universal, or accessible design. They also have an extensive listing of other resources and links at http://www.trace.wisc.edu/world/web/owsag.html

 

Trace's mission is in great part funded through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research which is part of the U.S. Department of Education.

  

3. Making Web Pages Accessible. UMass Boston Computing Services

4. Design of Accessible Web Pages. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research

1. WebXACT is a free online service that lets you test single pages of web content for quality , accessibility , and privacy issues.

 

2. WC3 - HTML Validation Service

 

3. Sigtuna Browsing Software

Free non-visual browser designed for use by those with visual impairments.

1.WGBH -Public Broadcasting from Boston Access Instructions for Users with Disabilities

 

2. City of San Jose Access Instructions for Users with Disabilities

 

 

If you would like to read the text of the Americans With Disabilities Act visit http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/statute.html.

For more information about the Americans With Disabilities Act and federal government resources visit the Americans With Disabilities Act Information on the Web, maintained by the University of Massachusetts Amherst Equal Opportunity & Diversity Office at http://www.umass.edu/eod/adasites.html.

The Assistive Technologies Center is open to any member of the University community or Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who has an ADA defined disability and requires an accommodation such as retrieval of materials from the stacks, photocopying, large print user guides, scanning assistance, screen readers, text enhancements, and text enlargers. The goal of the Assistive Technologies Center is to provide a seamless integration of services to clients, tapping the expertise of OIT, Library, Learning Disabilities Support Services (LDSS), and Disability Services (DS) staff. The Assistive Technologies Center, is located in Room 2 on the main (Reference) floor of the W.E.B. Du Bois Library, one floor below the entrance floor.

ATC offers book readers, scanners, computers with speech synthesizers, text recognition software and much more. For more information, see ATC's complete list of hardware and software .

UMass Amherst Equal Opportunity & Diversity Office
Back to the top of page.