| Dear [First Name]
Welcome to Session 2: About WCAGSession 1 RecapOne of my favourite aspects of this course, and the others in the series, is going through the responses from people on the screen reader activity. For those who have not used a screen reader before, it can be an "eye-opening" experience — no pun intended. The experience can often change how people think about accessibility, making it a permanent part of how they look at the Web, and how they look at the creation of web or other digital content. You can try this activity yourself on others, if you want to help another person to understand what accessibility means in practical terms.
The goal of the screen reader activity is to create awareness and empathy for what people with vision impairments can go through when they navigate the Web. Granted, many of you are novice screen reader users, and lack of experience using a tool like ChromeVox will contribute part of the frustration associated with the experience. Even expert screen reader users will experience frustration when they encounter websites like Lulu's Lollipops. Likewise, they can be pleasantly surprised when they encounter a website like the Showcase site. If you took your time navigating the Showcase site, you would have noticed a variety of accessibility enhancements that add to the overall usability of the site.
You'll have more opportunities to practice with ChromeVox as the course goes on.Session 2In this session we'll start taking a closer look at the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG [whu-kag] as it is often referred to. You'll learn about principles, compliance levels, success criteria, and techniques for resolving potential barriers
WCAG has become the de facto standard for web accessibility, upon which many laws and regulations around the world are based. Here, in Ontario, Canada, for instance, the Information and Communication Standard of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), is based on WCAG almost word for word. You will likely find that rules and regulations in your part of the world are also based on WCAG.
But, for the average person WCAG can be difficult to comprehend. This unit, and the course as a whole, will help you build a practical understanding of WCAG, and potential barriers on the Web, through a wide range of practical exercises that will give you first-hand experience with web accessibility. This session's tasks:The focus of this session's activity is to familiarize you with WCAG, and its parts.Best wishes
Greg Gay (CPACC, WAS, CPWA)
IT Accessibility Specialist, Ryerson University
Lead Course Developer
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