Summary Of Coding Requirements - Optimal Content Examples

Colour

1. Contrast: Ensure sufficient contrast between foreground text and background color.

2. Use Of Colour: Ensure alternatives exists when colour conveys information (e.g. charts and graphs, forms and user controls, links).

Forms

1. Labels

   • Associate Labels: Ensure form elements are associated to labels.

   • Descriptive Labels: Ensure form elements have labels which clear describe the form element's purpose.

   • Consistent Labels: Ensure form elements which provide the same function on one or more pages have consistent labels.

   • Instructions: Ensure instructions with explanation, expected data formats, and examples are provided for form elements whose data is mandatory, in a specific format, or selected from a set of values.

2. Error Messages: Ensure error message are provided at the top of the form, identify the affected form user control, indicate the type of error, and suggest corrections (where possible).

3. Session Time Limits: Ensure time limits can be extended or stopped.

4. Legal Committments and Financial Transactions: Ensure submissions can be reversed or confirmed prior to submitting a form which causes legal committments or financial transactions.

Headings and Titles

1. Heading Markup: Ensure heading markup is used for all headings, and only headings.

2. Descriptive Headings: Ensure headings identify its section of the content.

3. Descriptive Page Titles: Ensure page titles are used and identify the contents of the page (within a group of pages).

Images

1. Text Description: Ensure no description is used for decorative images, a short text description is used for simple images, and a short and long text description is used for complex images.

2. Images Of Text: Ensure text embedded with images for presentation purposes only (some exceptions) are not used.

3. Animated Images: Ensure animated images meet the same requirements as video-only content.

Keyboard

1. Focus and Input: Ensure:

   • Focus is visible; and
   • Focus order is correct; and
   • All user controls can receive focus; and
   • User controls don't trap focus; and
   • User controls don't change the context of the page on focus or on input.

2. Client Side Scripting (JavaScript): Ensure only independent event handlers are relied upon.

3. Other Technologies: Ensure keyboard accessibility when using non-HTML technologies as the primary format (e.g. PDF, Flash, Sliverlight)

Links

1. Descriptive and Consistent Link Text

   • Descriptive Link Text: Ensure links provide independently sufficient context to indicate the purpose of the link.

   • Consistent Link Text: Ensure links which provide the same function on one or more pages have consistent labels.

2. Repeated Navigation: Ensure groups of repeated links appear in the same relative order on each page and can be skipped using a mechanism.

3. Finding Web Pages: Ensure the site contains either a site map, a list of links to all pages, or a search engine for the site.

Quotations and Language

1. Quotations: Ensure that <blockquote> and <q> elements are used for quotations.

2. Primary Natural Human Language Of The Page: Ensure a primary human language for the web page is set.

3. Changes To The Natural Human Language Of The Page: Ensure components on a web page which are in a different natural human language than the primary one are indicated.

Tables

1. Header and Data Cell Association: Ensure all data cells are correctly associated to their header cells.

2. Table Markup: Ensure tables are marked up with table markup.