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The following page is a three column layout with a header that contains a quicklinks jump menu and the search CSUN function. Page sections are identified with headers. The footer contains update, contact and emergency information.

Web Editing For Faculty - Dreamweaver

Validating A Website

Validating for Accessibility and Compliancy

After publishing the web page, the final step is to make sure that the web page is accessible and compliant. Even though an accessible and compliant template was used as the starting point, it is always good to "proof-read" the web page to make sure that any changes didn't "break" any of the accessibility and compliancy.

Dreamweaver 8 has tools that can be used to check for accessibility, compliancy, and browser compatibility. We recommend that users take advantage of using the WAVE toolbar. The tools in Dreamweaver 8 are useful, but are very complex and should be only used by advanced web developers.

The quickest way to check for accessibility and compliancy is by using four reports on the WAVE Toolbar in Firefox. To find out how to install the toolbar, please reference the link entitled WAVE Toolbar. Information about using the WAVE Tool, along with other web validation tools, can be found in the online training documentation entitled Guide for Web Accessibility Testing Tools. If there are any questions concerning how to fix any errors/warnings, reference information concerning web standards and specifications. Here are some links below that cover some of those topics:

 

Errors, Features and Alerts View of Errors, Features, and Alerts Button

This report gives the tester a great overview of errors that show the violation of accessibility. The report embeds accessibility icons and indicators to show where there are violations of accessibility.

View of Errors, Features, and Alerts Report Executed on a Web Page

After running the Errors, Features, and Alerts Report, any warnings and/or errors should be fixed accordingly. The next report that should be ran is the Structure/Order View report, which gives a view of the structure of the web page.

 

Structure/Order View View of Structure/Order Button

This report gives a view of the overall structure of the web page. The number indicators show the reading/navigation order of the page. To check the semantics of the reading order and navigation of the page, simply follow the numbers.

View of Structure/Order Report Executed on a Web Page

The reading order and navigation is important because this determines how various assistive devices access the information on the web page. By labeling text with different heading tags, this gives the needed structure to the web page. By using div tags, this gives the various sections of the web site additional structure that helps with navigation. The next section entitled Text-only View below covers the report that should be executed subsequently.

 

Text-only View View of Text-only Button

This report displays the text of the page. The visual styling of the page is removed to show text and alternative text for images.

View of Text-only View Executed on a Web Page

The final report that should be executed is the Outline View.

 

Outline View View of Outline View Button

This report reinforces the Structure/Order Report focus on reading order and navigation. It displays the headers in the page.

View of Outline View Report Executed on a Web Page

 

Once the web page has been validated and all errors and/or warnings, the page will be seen as not having accessibility errors through the WAVE tool, but checks still must take place to ensure the web page is actually accessible and compliant. The WAVE tool is a great tool for a first pass validation check. The list below contains references to additional tests that need to take place concerning elements, such as color contrast, accurate alternative text descriptions, etc.