Accessibility of Anvisa's site
Adaptation of the site for the Visually Handicapped

In May of 2002, the Brazilian Sanitary Surveillance Agency launched a project to adapt Anvisa's site for use by the visually handicapped.

It is not so easy for the visually handicapped to access internet pages. They need a screen-reading software that reads, through voice synthesizers, what is written on the monitor. For these programs to work efficiently some construction rules need to be applied to the pages of a site. The "Project Accessibility of Anvisa" applied these rules to the pages of the site and the editors and webdesigners are in charge of making new pages accessible as well
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Participation in a discussion list for the visually handicapped, research on legislation regarding accessibility and a survey of professional contacts to assist in collection of information were some of the actions undertaken as part of the Project, which took 3 months. After that period, when all the pages had already been adapted, Anvisa's site was submitted to the an accessibility evaluation by a company that manufactures screen-reading software. This evaluation enabled the use of the accessibility seal on the main page of the site. Another evaluation was carried out by the administration of the city of São Paulo, which also develops projects in this area. In addition, a number of visually handicapped were asked to navigate the site and provide criticism and suggestions. There were also tests of Anvisa's site in some screen-reading softwares such as Virtual Vision, developed by Micropower, the DOSVOX, developed by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and the Home Page Reader, of IBM

The aim of the Project was to improve accessibility of information on the internet and render the actions of Anvisa more transparent for all of society.

Rules for creating accessible pages:

1. Avoid the use of frames in the pages: frames are not forbidden, however they make it difficult for the visually handicapped to navigate on the internet, because when the page is loaded, the first frame is focused and when the TAB key is used the focus on the links remains circulating within the same frame. By pressing CTRL + TAB, the user can go on to the next frame and continue navigating, however the user has no way of knowing whether there are other frames unless there is a message on the first frame indicating that there are, and that by pressing CTRL + TAB the user can navigate through them.

2. Place a description for each image in the "ALT" of the images: the screen-reader reads this description. This helps convey the graphical content of the pages.

3. Place a link in all the images of the page: Windows only focuses through TAB, in images that have hyperlinks. This link can point to the page itself. It only has to be present in the image so that the user can focus it and, through the description placed in the "ALT", know what it's about.

4. Don't use "IMAGE MAP", that is, a single image with mapping for various links: the screen-reader cannot read the ALT of the links of an IMAGE MAP.

5. Avoid the use of "java applets": java applets are not forbidden, however, to be accessible, they need to be constructed in a special way:
5.1. They need to contain in the top right hand corner of the window of the applet a message (which can be invisible to common users) indicating that the user is inside the applet and saying what this applet does and how to operate it.
5.2. Beside each field of the applet, place an invisible label with the description of the field.
SOURCE: Micropower site