Dreamweaver is widely deployed in Australian universities. It has a facility for adding extensions and these now include metadata and accessibility support. In addition, Dreamweaver can produce XHTML instead of just plain HTML: the former makes it easier to include accessible features without any special coding expertise on the part of the page author.
The following notes explain how to exploit the features of DreamWeaver and use DreamWeaver so that you can work easily and safely, avoiding pitfalls that result in inaccessible web resources.
Macromedia have been working to make dreamweaver more useful to thos trying to produce accessible sites. one strategy (on-going) is to develop accessible templates that can be used. These can be down-loaded from the macromedia site, imported into a personal Deramweaver site, and used as the base for accessible develoment. These templates are recommended and may be modified for local circumstances.
The first set of templates, known as the s 508 templates, come with the following description:
"The Section 508 Templates were designed through a partnership with the University of Wisconsin, Department of Information Technology and Macromedia. They are a first in a series of templates that are being developed by Macromedia that demonstrate how to build accessible Web sites that conform to Section 508 with Macromedia Web development tools. The templates offered in this download were created for developers who are new to developing accessible web sites. Therefore, the templates offered are relatively simple and static in nature. Over the course of the next several months, Macromedia will release two additional template downloads, the second will demonstrate the use of Macromedia tools to create rich media Web sites that conform to Section 508 standards and the third template to be released will model data-driven Web solutions that conform to Section 508.
To begin using the templates:
- Inside the DW Template folder you will find a total of 8 templates.
- Four templates model Section 508 Standards and were developed for government agencies, corporate customers and educational institutions. Each template is appropriately named to reflect the target audience and has a 508 designation in the folder title.
- To begin using the 508 templates, open the template of your choice and then look for the file entitled index.html. This will lead you to the main page of the template. The other folders, fireworks, image, notes, etcetera provide the original digital assets used to create the template; the supporting links for the index page are included as well. All of these are folders and files are offered as a means to explore and learn.
The 4 additional templates that are designated with "sample UW" are examples of W3C Priority 1 checkpoints. They can be accessed as noted above.
For a fuller description of the templates: See the file note as Template Notes. "
from the macromedia site September, 2001 (see http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/accessibility).
It should be noted that there are some templates in this set that comply with the WCAG requirements applicable in Australia. the current set includes: agency 508, agency UW, corporate 508, corporate UW, Department Sample Site 508, Department Sample Site UW, Introduction, Professor Sample Site 508, Professor Sample Site UW, and Template Notes. (UW means compliant with W3C's WCAG.)
See http://www.w3.org/WAI/AU/reviews/dreamweaver/v4
??????how do I get the ,div. tag into action and make the right stylesheet entry for it?
Set up the preferences;
and use the available extensions that help you author better web content:
Peterbat's thing for metadata
see Dreamweaver's new make pages accessible thing ...
and see alt-image extension for images so that you are prompted for them in
Dreamweaver
Last updated: 8 March 2002