Web accessibility for web and multimedia developers

Are you responsible for developing websites, multimedia, web templates, web-based applications or authoring tools? Then you need to become familiar with and follow the standards and processes listed below.

Standards and processes

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Web resources

Web resources include web pages, websites, web and other online applications including Rich Internet Applications and multimedia for which RMIT is legally responsible under the Disability Discrimination Act, 1992.

• Web resources by web or multimedia specialists
  The standard, evaluation process and a checklist for web resources developed and published by web or multimedia specialists at RMIT.
• Design and development business process
  Ensures that accessible design concerns are addressed at the relevant stages of design or development projects.

Non-HTML resources

Non-HTML resources include Portable Document Format (PDF) documents and MS Office documents (Word, PowerPoint and Excel) published on the web.

• PDF documents
  The standard, evaluation process and a checklist for PDF documents.
• Presentation templates and slideshows
  The standard, evaluation process and a checklist for presentation templates and documents.
• Spreadsheets
  The standard, evaluation process and a checklist for spreadsheets.
• Word processor documents and templates
  The standard, evaluation process and a checklist for word processor templates and documents.

Authoring tools

Applications used to build and manage websites.

• Web authoring tools
  Standards for web authoring tools used at RMIT. Includes evaluation processes and checklists for in-house developed and third-party applications.

Related RMIT documents

• RMIT Web Accessibility Framework
• Disability Discrimination Action Plan 2009-2015 (DOC 118 KB)
• Equal employment opportunity policy
• ICT Plan to 2015 (PDF 287 KB)

Further information

• Javascript Accessibility Guidelines
• Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design
• Accessibility Web Action Plan from Internet Industry Association
• More links at rmitaccessibility on Delicious

Discussions and advice

• Web Accessibility Network for Australian Universities (WANAU)
• Web Standards Group (WSG)
• WebAIM Web Accessibility email discussion list
• Web Accessibility Initiative Interest Group (WA-IG)
• Accessify Forum

“Developers think, I can't use the cool, new technologies because they're not accessible,' rather than looking at these technologies and making them accessible.
So it's like people don't see an accessible interface as an opportunity to make a cooler interface, but as something that is dumbing down what you really want to do.”

Chris Heilmann