If accessibility cannot be accomplished in any other way, an alternative text-only page with equivalent information or functionality is provided.
Rationale
An alternative text-only page should only be used if compliance with the Web checklist cannot be achieved any other way. Alternative text-only pages are used as a last resort because they must be maintained and kept in sync with the primary page.
For additional information regarding the difficulties of maintaining alternative text-only sites, read the article from AccEase: Five Key Difficulties of Text Only Sites (links reside outside of ibm.com).
Required development and unit test techniques
To comply with this checkpoint, you must meet all of the following techniques.
- Links: Making the link to the text-only page easy to find.
- Text-only page: Keeping content on the text-only page in sync.
Note: The examples presented in the techniques are not exhaustive. They are meant to illustrate the spirit of this checkpoint.
General examples
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Links: Making the link to the text-only page easy to find.
To comply with this technique, you must implement the following example.
General example 1
In order to keep the equivalent information and functionality for the primary Web page and the text-only page, publish both versions at the same time. Provide the link at the top of the page in a location that is easy to identify.
Required unit tests for general development technique 1
Manually perform the following unit test:
- Verify that a link to the text only page is provided at the top page that is easy to locate.
- Verify that the link is keyboard accessible and the target is the appropriate text only page.
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Text-only page: Keeping content on the text-only page in sync.
To comply with this technique, you must implement the following example.
General example 2
A key issue with text-only pages is keeping the content in sync with the main page. This is usually a manual process. The BBC provides a tool, which can be used to create an automatic text-only version of a Web page. Betsie (BBC Education Text to Speech Internet Enhancer) (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a free server-side solution.
Though this tool makes it easier to create a text-only version, it should not be relied upon as an effective way to create an on-demand text-only page. Results from this tool must be validated to ensure that the content is accurately translated to text.
Required unit tests for general development technique 2
Manually perform the following unit test:
- Verify the content in the text only page are in sync with the main page.
©2011 IBM Corporation
Last updated May 1, 2011.
W3C Recommendation 11 December 2008: http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/ (link resides outside of ibm.com)
Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, Keio University), All Rights Reserved.
