Create Accessible Museum Websites
Suhas Deshpande, Canadian Heritage Information Network (CHIN)
Reprinted from the November-December 2005 issue of Muse magazine, with permission of the author and of the Canadian Museums Association.
Museums face numerous challenges in creating websites to showcase their collections. However, few
are as important as creating a website that is accessible to all users: users include those with
disabilities, and those who have changed abilities due to aging, such as reduced dexterity with a
mouse. Aside from the obvious social benefits of ensuring that a website is accessible, there are
other, less obvious, benefits. Websites that adhere to accessibility standards rank higher in search
engines than those that do not, as they tend to be more clearly structured, and use valid syntax.
For the same reasons they also tend to be easier to navigate.
Fortunately, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the governing body of the Internet, has produced
guidelines and tools to help web developers create accessible websites. While the W3C offers
detailed guidelines on how to ensure that a website is accessible, it is crucial to develop a
methodology built around these guidelines that suits your organization.
A useful, straightforward methodology is the following three-step approach, developed by the
University of Washington. It works equally well whether you are creating a new website, or
revising an existing one.
1) Check your HTML
If you already have a website, the first step is to ensure that it was created using valid code.
This is not an evaluation of the quality of a site; rather, the goal is to ensure that the site
was created using valid syntax. And if you’re building a new site, be sure you construct it using
proper syntax. This is important because many accessibility devices, such as screen readers, must
be able to read your code correctly. Fortunately the W3C provides a free Markup Validation Service
that you can use to check your code, available at http://validator.w3.org
2) Implement the required guidelines
In addition to this validation tool, the W3C also provides detailed Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (WCAG), which includes 14 guidelines to ensure an accessible website.
The WCAG identifies a guideline and then provides some examples of how it can be implemented.
For example, the first guideline reads: “Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual
content.” The guidelines explain that it is important to use the ‘alt’ or ‘longdesc’ tags to
provide text descriptions to accompany images or multimedia content. This is important for museum
websites, which often use images or other interactive media to showcase collections or artefacts.
Take, for instance, a short video that tours a collection of objects. To ensure that this is
accessible for the visually impaired, a museum could also include an audio tour that describes
the collection’s content.
The key for a museum is to use the guidelines as a checklist, and to ensure that their website
conforms to each item. The W3C assigns a ranking from 1 to 3 for each guideline to indicate the
impact of each item on accessibility. A ranking of 1 means that if a particular guideline is not
satisfied, it will be impossible for some individuals to access that information. Priority rankings
of 2 or 3 mean that if a particular guideline is not satisfied, some people may find it difficult
to access information on the website.
3) Website evaluation
After having reviewed the 14 guidelines, it is important to evaluate the overall accessibility of
your website. This evaluation goes beyond the simple syntax check described in step one. There
are several free, authoritative tools available that allow you to check the accessibility of each
page individually, such as WebXACT: http://webxact.watchfire.com
By following a methodology built around the W3C guidelines, it is possible to create an accessible
website for all visitors. Taking the effort to implement an accessible site will mean reaching
more visitors, and improving the overall quality of a website. M
Suhas Deshpande is a technology assessment analyst with the Canadian Heritage Information Network,
which will provide a regular column on web technology issues for museums. If there is a topic
you’d like to know more about, email service@chin.gc.ca
Resources
Introduction to Web Accessibility, S.L. Henry, ed. World Wide Web Consortium (MIT, ERCIM, Keio),
September 2005. www.w3.org/WAI/intro/accessibility.php
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, Wendy Chisholm, Gregg Vanderheiden and Ian Jacobs, eds.
World Wide Web Consortium (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), May 1999. www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#priorities W3C
How to be Accessible. Computing & Communications, University of Washington. April, 2004.
www.washington.edu/computing/accessible/howto.htmlW3C
Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization, S.L. Henry, ed. World Wide
Web Consortium (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), August 2005. www.w3.org/WAI/bcaseW3C