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Make Web Pages Accessible to Those With Disabilities

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WC3 Recommendation as of 6 November 2000) explains how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities.

USGS Section 508 Requirements for Web Pages and the Access Board summary of section 508 requirements for the Web.

As the 508 coordinator I remind you that we as federal employees are liable for the standards set forth by the U.S. Access Board 1194 for web accessibility ... and although I do like the way the W3C standards are prioritized our first responsibility as federal employees are to the Access Board standards.
—Amy Berger

HTML 4 Extensions for Accessibility

ACRONYM and ABBR
Indicates an acronym or abbreviated form, respectively (e.g., WAC, radar, etc.). The syntax is identical.
<acronym style="speak:spell-out"
    title="United States Geological Survey">USGS</acronym>

ABBR and ACRONYM are supported by JAWS 4.51 and later.

IMG LONGDESC="url"
specify a URL containing a long description. Ex:
<img src="sitemap.gif"
    alt="Site Map"
    longdesc="sitemap.html">
FIELDSET and LEGEND
These tags help make forms more accessible. See section on Accessible Forms for details.
SCOPE, HEADERS, and AXES
Can be used to make tables more accessible (though AXES is not implemented by mainstream readers).
COLGROUP, and COL
Can be used to group sections of a table together.

WAI Rating Scheme

Priority 1
A Web content developer must satisfy this checkpoint.
Conformance Level "A": all Priority 1 checkpoints are satisfied.
Priority 2
A Web content developer should satisfy this checkpoint.
Conformance Level "Double-A": all Priority 1 and 2 checkpoints are satisfied.
Priority 3
A Web content developer may address this checkpoint.
Conformance Level "Triple-A": all Priority 1, 2, and 3 checkpoints are satisfied.
Level A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Level Double-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 Level Triple-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0

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"Mastering a Web Site" online course
Created and maintained by Lorna Schmid and David Boldt.
http://water.usgs.gov/usgs/training/webmaster/accessible.html    
Last modified: Tue Nov 18 17:41:55 EST 2003