Currently these are the problems I found to reach A rating:

1.1 Provide a text equivalent for every non-text element

• Cover images on the welcome and overview pages have alt texts that contain the name of the contents. (OK, but it could be some kind of description instead, because the name of the contents are already there.)

• On the content pages the cover images have incorrect alt texts that contains the type of the content like “MultimediaMaterial?” or “Activity”. (This should be some kind of description instead.)

• In the contents images only have the filenames as alt texts. (This is OK as long as there is some kind of other texts on the page that describes the image, but there should be some changeable alt text for each images that describes them.)

• Capchas are a problem. There is no alt text and people who don’t see them can’t use them.

• The LeMill logo in the upper left corner has no alt text. There should be something like “Welcome page”.

• The accessibility guideline suggest that we should add description texts inside the <object></object> tags. This is OK in Internet Explorer, but Firefox renders the texts so I don’t know what to do with Flash objects. Maybe we can add something like this inside the object tags:

<NOEMBED>

<IMG alt="Still from Movie"

src="moviename.gif" width=100 height=80>

</NOEMBED>

• <script> tags have the same problem as <object> tags. There should be simple text inside it describing the script. We can use the <noscript> tags to add some description, too.

1.2 For any time-based multimedia presentation (e.g., a movie or animation), synchronize equivalent alternatives (e.g., captions or auditory descriptions of the visual track) with the presentation.

• PILOTs have keywords which are basically captions. (OK)

• PILOTs have voice. Which can read the keywords aloud. (OK)

• The MP3 flash player doesn’t have any description about the content it’s playing. (Not OK) But there can be texts in other parts of the page that describes the sound.

1.3 Identifying changes in language

• We should support something like this:

<P>And with a certain <SPAN lang="fr">je ne sais quoi</SPAN>,

she entered both the room, and his life, forever. <Q>My name is Natasha,</Q> she said. <Q lang="it">Piacere,</Q> he replied in impeccable Italian, locking the door.

1.4 For data tables, identify row and column headers

• We need to add <caption> tags inside the tables that describes the table’s content.

• We need to include <th> tags in the tables that describe the column names.

1.5 Ensure that pages are usable when scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects are turned off or not supported. If this is not possible, provide equivalent information on an alternative accessible page.

• This one is quite problematic because LeMill heavily relies on JavaScript?. Kupu does not work without JavaScript?. Automatic Flash resize does not work without JavaScript?.

Some guideline we need to do to reach AA rating

2.1 Contents should be readable in grayscale. (OK)

2.2 Using markup languages instead of images. (OK, we are using MimeTex? and CSS)

2.3 Create documents that validate to published formal grammars

• We are using DTD declarations (OK)

2.4 Use style sheets to control layout and presentation

• OK

2.5 Use relative rather than absolute units in markup language attribute values and style sheet property values.

• We are heavily using px types in CSS but I don’t think it’s a problem, because we are using fixed layout, so everything is readable in bigger character sizes, too.

2.6 Use header elements to convey document structure and use them according to specification. For example, in HTML, use H2 to indicate a subsection of H1. Do not use headers for font effects.

• This is OK in most of the cases. But http://wave.webaim.org gives some header warnings on the welcome page for the bold texts.

2.7 Mark up lists and list items properly.

• OK

2.8 Mark up quotations. Do not use quotation markup for formatting effects such as indentation.

• OK

2.9 Do not use tables for layout unless the table makes sense when linearized. Otherwise, if the table does not make sense, provide an alternative equivalent

• This means that when the table cells are read aloud the texts come one after another as they are in the HTML.

• This is a problem in my opinion. The LeMill layout always starts with the language selector cell on the top, then comes the login and join links, then the header, then the search box, then the left panel, then lastly the main right panel. I don’t know but I think it’s a bit slow to always hear that lot: cs | de | en | es | et | fi… at the beginning.

• The other problem I found is with the Featured content table. So the first thing is the first image, then comes the second image, then the third, then comes the text for the first image, then for the second and lastly for the third. This should be first image and first text, second image and second text, third image and third text.

2.10 If a table is used for layout, do not use any structural markup for the purpose of visual formatting.

• For example, in HTML do not use the TH element to cause the content of a (non-table header) cell to be displayed centered and in bold.

• I haven’t found code where we misuse the TH tag.