Alt Tags

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Double Your Trouble

Both Section 508 and the WCAG state that, as a last resort, a separate, accessible website must be provided. As a last resort. Meaning a second site is created if you absolutely cannot achieve accessibility in any other manner.

Wow. If you have to create a mirror site, it makes me ask just what, exactly, is going on with your site in the first place? The sheer amount of effort required to make a site so inaccessible that a second site is required boggles my mind. I can only imagine the effort and maintenance going into this endeavor.

Yet, many developers and their clients immediately assume a second site is the first and best option. After what I can only assume is a quick perusal of the guidelines, it is determined that two sites are better than one.

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It Works For Everybody

When we started testing local government websites for compliance with Section 508, we expected a pretty high failure rate. After all, it’s a federal requirement, and local agencies that comply are doing so voluntarily. But I’m going to be honest — I didn’t expect the results to be as bad as they are.

Reasons for failure to comply range from the ever-popular missing alt attributes to multi-layer JavaScript-based navigation systems not even Superman could read. When we talk to local agencies, they never fail to make a point of mentioning the size of their senior citizen constituency — yet their websites turn backflips to avoid being useful for this growing and Internet-savvy demographic. It’s like the left hand and right hand haven’t met.

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Why Local Government Should Comply with Section 508

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act applies to United States federal government websites and to the sites of those who do business with the federal government. State and local governments have frequently voluntarily adopted these standards, and a few have made Section 508 standards official policy (some have gone even further and adopted additional provisions of the WCAG). For those agencies not required to comply, it’s just common sense that they should.

While federal and state agencies have put much effort into egovernment, local agencies still lag behind. This is due to budget constraints, lack of staff, and different priorities. I think some agencies hope this Internet thing is a fad that will go away before they have to worry about it.

The bad news is the Internet is going to stick around — and residents and businesses are expecting their local government to provide the same level of service they get from federal and state agencies. This is a contrast to the past where the most responsive government was local. There is something disconcerting about the fact that the IRS website is easy-to-use while I can’t figure out how to pay a parking ticket in my city. The good news is that meeting constituent expectations can save time, money, and effort.

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The Crazy Alphabet on Your Website

Having thoroughly beat up the abbr element, it’s time to turn our attention to its close sibling (but definitely not twin) acronym. First, a quick note about the differences between abbreviations and acronyms. Yes, I know. We learned this in elementary school. But even the most brilliant of us sometimes forget — it’s a busy world out there, and we can’t always remember every little detail of every little thing. So:

Abbreviation: Making a word shorter by removing lots of letters. Some examples: etc, req’d, cont’d, or ms.

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Spelling It Out

Usually, the abbr and acronym elements are discussed in the same section, but I’ve never liked doing things the same old way. So, let’s start with abbr, and we’ll discuss acronym separately. abbr is the abbreviation element. This inline item allow you to spell out the meanings of abbreviations.

But why? Everyone knows what I mean when I say req’d. It means required. No, it means requested. No…I’m absolutely, positively certain it means requisitioned. Or maybe not.

You could argue that the meaning of the abbreviation will be made clear from context. And your tax return forms are a breeze to complete, right? For example, in the following sentence, my meaning is perfectly clear:

What was req’d?

Silly example, and I’m sure nobody writes that way, right? But can you be so sure that your meaning is perfectly clear to every person reading your website (and every person listening to your website)?

Why not make it easy on everyone and expand your abbreviation. The markup is ridiculously simple (even more so if you have an HTML editor that reduces most of the work to a mouseclick or two. To expand an abbreviation, simply do the following:

<abbr title="requested">req'd</abbr>

Yes, I know. Too simple. So simple you don’t know why you haven’t always done it (probably that’s because it hasn’t always been an option). Now when your abbreviation is encountered, screen readers will spell out what you mean and a tooltip will appear when other users mouse over the item. Yes, I’m perfectly aware that this wonderful feature isn’t fully supported by browsers everywhere (but, frankly, isn’t it time we forced Microsoft and others to comply with the standards?), but abbr is a wonderful invention. Use it!