About Producing Accessible Content

You can use Amaya to produce content that conforms to the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Some accessibility features are already built in. For example, you cannot add an image until you specify the alternative text because of the requirement for an alt attribute for images and imagemap areas.

Amaya also automatically produces valid W3C-compliant markup. However, you control other features, such as appropriate long descriptions and captioning, through the Attributes menu (Formatted view) or Structure menu (Structure view).

The Amaya Help currently describes how to use some HTML elements. As additional documentation is written, it will include information on ensuring accessibility for any pages that you produce.

The most thorough guidelines are the W3C's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative also publishes the following quick tips for making accessible Web sites:

• Images & animations. Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual. For more information, see Working with Graphics.

• Image maps. Use client-side MAP and text for hotspots. For more information, see Working with Image Maps.

• Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.

• Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid using "click here" as the link text.

• Page organization. Use headings, lists, and a consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible. For more information, see Working with Style Sheets.

• Graphs and charts. Summarize the data or use the longdesc attribute. For more information, see Working with Graphics.

• Scripts, applets, and plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.

• Tables. Use tables to make line-by-line reading sensible and to summarize data. For more information, see Working with Tables.

• Frames. Display pages without frames, using NOFRAMES and meaningful titles.

• Check your work. Validate your documents prior to publishing. You can use the W3C tools, checklist, and guidelines at:

  http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT.