Project SET
Modules
Broadening Web Audience by Lowering Barriers to the Disabled: Accessible Web Design with Emphasis on Dreamweaver and LIFT
launch moduleJohn C. Cummins
Department of Plant Sciences and Landscape Systems, UT KnoxvilleHave you ever considered the disabled as you design your web pages for a class or for presentation to the outside world? Do you realize your web site may be difficult for up to 20% of the general population to ‘see’ or ‘access’? This learning module is designed with the objective of helping faculty and staff at the University of Tennessee to broaden their web audience by lowering barriers to the disabled through better web design practices. This module will address the issue in the following ways: 1) through presentation of accessibility issues and their importance in web design; 2) by offering examples of hypertext markup language (HTML) code that creates both web pages that are accessible to people with impairments and web pages that are not, and; 3) by helping the participant to develop a strategy for creation of better HTML coding through examples of good coding and through practice exercises and self-tests. Utilization of the WYSIWYG editor Dreamweaver in combination with LIFT, a new plug in software package, will aid the learner in validation and fixing of accessibility issues in their web design. Additional exercises will be provided for the educator for further practice in accessibility coding