We are in the process of making our website as accessible as we can. We are using these guidelines provided by Prashant Ranjan Verma​, Accessibility Specialist with the DAISY Consortium.
      Website Accessibility Presentation
      Creating Accessible Documents

    NEWSFLASH:  MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY ARE IN THE PROCESS OF RE-DEISGNING THE WEBSITE AND HAVE GIVEN THEIR ASSURANCE THAT THE DEISGN WILL TAKE INTO ACCOUNT ALL THE LATEST ACCESSIBILITY GUIDELINES.  WE HAVE PAUSED ON OUR OWN CHANGES WHILE AWAITING THIS HIGHER-LEVEL CHANGE.

    Why make websites accessible?

    • World Health Organization estimates that about ​15% of the world’s population lives with some form of disability​
    • Significant number of people are likely to be denied the right to information if the content is not in a format which they can adapt as per their own needs for reading. ​
    • It is the right thing to do
    • Digital accessibility is also a regulatory requirement as per many international and domestic conventions/laws. ​

    Here's what we have done so far:

    • Tested the website with an online accessibility checker:  wave.webaim.org
    • Images are accessible using textual description of all non-visual content ​
    • Found alternatives to tables for presenting text and data 
    • The site is now keyboard accessible (no drop-down menus)
    • Forms accessible (form fields are labelled, with no drop-down options)

    Here's what is still left to do:

    • Testing the website on a mobile platform using IBM Accessibility Scanner 
    • Structural mark-up using heading formats rather than text formatting
    • Contextual link-text e.g.  IBM Accessibility Scanner rather than click here
    • Accessible formats of uploaded documents (using e.g. EPUB or Word accessibiloty check or pdf tags)

    We are working with the Maynooth University Website team on the following issues:

    • Keyboard-inaccessible drop-down menu, top right  - the word menu is an image rather than text, without an alt-text description (every page)
    • 4 redundant links which can be time-consuming and confusing (every page)
    • Contrast errors - use of pale blue font against white or dark blue background (every page)
    • Adjacent links which can be time-consuming and confusing (ALL People, ALL News)

    Here's what Maynooth University have done so far:

    • Alt text descriptions for all images

    If you can suggest any changes in addition to those detailed above, we would welcome your input. Please email Stacy: [email protected] 

    Here are some further resources you might be interested in:

    https://www.accessibility-developer-guide.com/

    http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/glance/

    http://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/

    http://www.w3.org/TR/UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20/

    http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/