Provide alternative sources of information for video or audio or other moving images

If video, audio, animations or other multimedia are used in a course, it may be necessary to provide some equivalent information for those who cannot access the visual or auditory content. The provision of images and sounds is beneficial to many students who may have difficulty reading text, so that information displayed visually can make content more accessible. To ensure accessibility of multimedia elements consider the following points:

• Include subtitles for video if there is no sound track.
• Provide an auditory description of the important information of visual multimedia (e.g. images, animations, applets, video)
• Provide a text document to accompany audio.
• For time-based multimedia presentations, synchronise captions or auditory descriptions with the presentation.

EDTeC can assist with video, audio and multimedia production if necessary.

This checkpoint relates to W3C Guideline 1: Provide content that, when presented to the user, conveys essentially the same function or purpose as auditory or visual content.

Use style sheets to format text and control layout

The use of style sheets for setting formatting text styles, organizing layout and structure makes it easier for Assistive Technologies to interpret the organization of the page and to navigate through it. It also means that pages will be displayed in a uniform manner on different browsers.

For information on creating cascading style sheets in HTML refer to the tutorial at http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/Style

To apply style sheets in Dreamweaver:

• Select CSS Styles from the Windows menu. A CSS Styles window will open.
• From the Window menu select CSS Styles. A new command window will open.
• Click on the new style sheet icon at the bottom of the window. Select 'custom style' and name it.
• A style definition box will open. Select the formatting styles to be applied to the pages.
• Select Apply, OK.

Figure 7: Style Sheet Definition window

This checkpoint refers to W3C Guideline 3: Use markup and style sheets and do so properly.