2004 - 2005 Web Site Accessibility Contest

Sponsored by the

Mid-Atlantic Consortium
on Accessible Information Technology
in Education

 

What is web site accessibility?

Web site accessibility means ensuring that information on web sites is available to ALL users, including individuals with disabilities. Individuals with disabilities, such as individuals who are blind, deaf or who have mobility impairments, may need to use special technologies for access. Web sites need to be designed in a way that can accommodate these technologies.

 

What is the purpose of this competition?

The purpose of the Web Site Accessibility Contest is to increase awareness of the importance of web access for ALL, and to increase the interest of school districts in improving the accessibility of their web sites. We hope this contest will help people learn that it is easy to do!

 

Who is eligible?

K-12 schools in the Mid-Atlantic Consortium ( Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania) are welcome to submit web sites for review. Categories will include web sites at a variety of levels:

• elementary school level (student developed)
• middle school level (student developed)
• high school level (student developed)
• and non student developed sites – including district wide

Individual sites will be competing against others submitted in the same category from across the Consortium’s region.

What are the criteria?

Judges will evaluate sites on the basis of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Priority 1 Checkpoints and Section 508 Web Standards. The home page of each site and three links will be judged. The links should be to additional web pages created by the teams, not external sites. All work (research, writing, artwork, photography, web page design and development) must be done by team members only. For example, sites entered in the “student” category should be created by students only.

Giving Credit

• If you use information, graphics or photos from another source, credit the source
  

Judging Criteria and Required Components

The web site must contain the following components:

• At least 3 graphics (photographs or other)
• A table
• At least 3 hypertext links to pages created by teams, not links to external pages
• Navigational tools
  

Judges will be attentive to the following accessibility characteristics:

• Skip to main content or skip navigation links component
• Cascading style sheets (page must be readable with style sheets turned off)
• Color and contrast (is information dependent on color? Is contrast sufficient?)
• Appropriateness/Quality (is the text well-written? Is the information accurate?)
• Accessibility/Usability (correct spelling; email and contact information provided and easy to find; graphics that load properly; is the site easy for all to navigate?)
• Functionality (do all the links work? do its pages display quickly?)
• Creativity (are the photographs or artwork original? is the site well designed and attractive?)
• Educational (is the site informative?)

Following the judging and awarding of prizes, each site that enters the contest will be sent a Web Site Review regarding accessibility. The review will explain specific accessibility issues and how the site can be improved.

 

What are the prizes?

The top site in each category that is most accessible and creative will be awarded 1 st prize of significant value (possibilities include a digital camera or web authoring software). 2 nd and 3 rd place winners will also receive a prize (of lesser value), such as Macromedia’s Dreamweaver program. All entrants will receive a Certificate of Participation. All awardees will be featured on our web site http://www.adainfo.org/accessible/it/events.asp

How do I enter the contest?

When you are ready to submit your web site for evaluation,
complete the form

 

When does the contest begin?

The contest will begin October 1, 2004. Entries must be submitted by February 15, 2005, using the form on our website http://www.adainfo.org/accessible/it/webcontest.asp . Sites will be judged during March 2005 and winners will be announced in April 2005. Accessibility reviews will be sent to every entry after the winners have been announced.

 

Where can I get more information?

For more information on web accessibility, visit http://www.adainfo.org/accessible/it/resources.asp#webdesign

For more information on this contest, please contact your state Consortium partner.

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Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s Initiative on Assistive Technology (PIAT)
Institute on Disabilities at Temple University
Voice: 215-204-3862
Voice/TTY: 215-204-1356
Voice: 800-204-7428 (in state only)
E-mail: piat@temple.edu

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Delaware
Delaware Assistive Technology Initiative (DATI)
Voice: 302-651-6790
Voice: 800-870-DATI (3284) (in state only)
TTY: 302-651-6794
E-mail: dati@asel.udel.edu

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District of Columbia
University Legal Services Assistive Technology Program (ULS/ATP)
Voice: 202-547-0198 ext. 121
TTY: 202-547-2657

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Maryland
Maryland Technology Assistance Program (MD TAP)
Voice/TTY: 410-554-9230
Voice/TTY: 800-832-4827
E-mail: editor@mdtap.org

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Virginia
Virginia Assistive Technology System (VATS)
Voice: 804-662-9995
Voice: 800-435-8490 (in state only)
Voice/TTY: 804-662-9990
E-mail: harrislw@drs.state.va.us

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West Virginia
West Virginia Assistive Technology System (WVATS)
West Virginia University
Voice/TTY: 304-293-4692
Voice: 800-841-8436 (in state only)
E-mail: jhayhurst@hsc.wvu.edu

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The Mid-Atlantic Accessible Education-Based Information Technology Consortium is coordinated by the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University, administered by TransCen, Inc., as part of the Mid-Atlantic ADA and IT Information Center and funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research of the U.S. Department of Education.