Web Accessibility (4 cr)

Evaluation scale

1-5

Objective

Digital accessibility is essential because it enables creating apps, websites and wider digital services without excluding using from using products and services. The learning outcomes for this course are that you: - understand scope and contents of accessibility - are able to consider cognitive accessibility - learn principles, standards, and checks from W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - are able to integrate accessibility into your code and development processes - evaluate, interpret and fix web accessibility issues - explore assistive technologies - are able to evaluate accessibility state and understand development needs

Materials

The primary sources of learning materials for this course will be World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) guidelines. During this course the software required are for example: Screen readers: For Windows users: NVDA (free version) For Mac users: VoiceOver (should be installed by default) Extensions for Browsers: Siteimprove Accessibility Checker (Chrome, free version) Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools Code Editor: Visual Studio Code

Teaching methods

The scope of this course is: - Definition of Web Accessibility - Principles, Standards, and Checks: W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). - Integrating Web Accessibility into the development processes. - Evaluating the state of Web Accessibility in a website, interpreting the findings and fixing the issues. - Getting familiar with various assistive technologies and specially screen readers. Each topic in this course will include video lectures, learning activities, and assignments. These activities and assignments will be completed individually. There are also required readings for each topic that build upon the content in the video lectures and help introduce to the material that needs to be learned for the assignments and the project work. During the course various learning environments are going to be implemented. Hera are the most important once: - Moodle: main learning environment where student can find information on course, materials, assignments etc. - learning.edx.org: online course learning environment for some addition learning materials. - Visual Studio Code: to produce accessible code: HTML5, CSS, WAI-ARIA - Evaluation tools and browser extensions: for assessing the accessibility state such as Siteimprove browser extensions, Wave etc. - Screen readers: for assessing the accessibility of the code produces, such as VoiceOver and NVDA.

Evaluation methods and criteria

The course assessment will consider the outcomes of learning activities and assignments. Detailed grading criteria can be accessed within the Moodle course space.