DEMOS Project - Accessibility Guide: Summary of Guidelines

Quick accessibility guidelines

• Follow the guidelines regarding HTML mark-up and style sheets. Use the latest standards and recommendations for creating online material. Use structural mark-up correctly and separate structure from presentation. Validate your code.

• Allow user control over presentation by using style sheets for presentational mark-up, such as font-sizes, colours, margins, etc. but make sure that the page works without style sheet.

• Provide a text alternatives for all non-text elements, especially when they convey important information. Provide descriptions for graphics, text-links for image maps, text-only versions for multimedia presentations, scripts and applets, transcripts of audio presentations, captions for movies.

• Don't use colour to convey information.

• Provide consistency in layout, presentation, navigation, colour schemes.

• Present content in a clear, simple and jargon-free language. Make text scannable.

• Identify the primary language of the text and all changes within.

• Make it possible to navigate your site using the keyboard instead of a mouse.

• Use tables correctly (for data, not layout) and associate table headers with cells and label rows and columns.

• Avoid frames or title them correctly and clarify frame relationships.

• Make sure online forms are accessible with assistive technologies.

• Don't cause the screen to flicker.

• Make sure all content is accessible without the necessity for plug-ins, scripts or applets.

• Provide a method for users to skip repetitive information.

• When a timed response is required, make sure the user is made aware of this and given sufficient time or the option to indicate that more time is required.

• Test your site with a variety of computers, browsers and input devices.

• If you can't make a page accessible, provide an alternate accessible version. When updating content, update the alternative versions as well.

Learn more :

The following section gives detailed instructions on how to comply with these guidelines.

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