Accessibility is becoming more and more of a buzz word in the web development world. Increasingly big companies and clients are also becoming more aware of accessibility issues. But what does it mean to have an accessible website?
"Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging"
The quote above almost perfectly describes what is meant by the term web accessibility. The WAI at present is the judge of what can effectively call itself accessible web content and what can't.
The WAI provides what is called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or WCAG. These guidelines include a fairly large group of documents which describe in great details the best ways to build a site in an accessible way, some of these are easy things to do, some of them are harder.
It happens that there are also some quick tips which, when implemented correctly, serve to alleviate a lot of the common accessibility problems of websites:
Images & animations: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
Image maps. Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.
Multimedia. Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
Hypertext links. Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here."
Page organization. Use headings, lists, and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
Graphs & charts. Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
Scripts, applets, & plug-ins. Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
Frames. Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
Tables. Make line-by-line reading sensible.Summarize.
Check your work.Validate. Use tools, checklist, and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG
So there it is in dizzying detail! But to the layman what do these points actually mean? To understand that we need to understand how people with disabilities actually access the web.
"A screen reader is a software application that attempts to identify and interpret what is being displayed on the screen. This interpretation is then represented to the user with text-to-speech, sound icons, or a braille output. Screen readers are a form of assistive technology (AT) potentially useful to people who are blind, visually impaired, or learning disabled, often in combination with other AT such as screen magnifiers."
Got that? Good! What Wikipedia is essentially saying here is that screen readers have to take a look at the screen and try and describe what going on (usually in a Stephen Hawking type voice), to someone who can't see it. As you by now might have guessed, there are screen reading web browsers which are designed to look at a web page and try and explain it.
These technologies are not intelligent and so rely on rules and techniques to try and get things right. Often these tools need a helping hand in order to have a fighting chance of being useful to the person using them and that is where the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines come in. The rules above provide this helping hand and make sure that visual elements can be described sensibly to someone who can't see them.
Many of these points are technical but some are not, for example, point 4 talks about hyperlinks and making links that make sense when read out of context, e.g 'view cinema times' instead of 'click here'. You can also make sure your content has proper headings and a consistent structure. Summarising things in bullet points also helps.
Of the technical points, ensuring images have alt tags is fairly crucial as it allows the screen reader to describe the image to the user. Using CSS layout wherever possible is also now a big part of the WCAG.
Don't fight the law
The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) now has provision for websites and as such it is a legal requirement to make your site accessible under human rights legislation, webcredible.co.uk has this to say:
"Part III of the DDA refers to the provision of goods, facilities and services. The Code of Practice, which specifically mentions websites, can be downloaded in its entirety from the Equality and Human Rights Commission website. The relevant quotes from the 175-page Code of Practice are:
2.2 (p7): The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public.
4.7 (p39): From 1st October 1999 a service provider has to take reasonable steps to change a practice which makes it unreasonably difficult for disabled people to make use of its services.
2.13 - 2.17 (p11-13): What services are affected by the Disability Discrimination Act? An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the act.
5.23 (p71): For people with visual impairments, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites.
5.26 (p68): For people with hearing disabilities, the range of auxiliary aids or services which it might be reasonable to provide to ensure that services are accessible might include ... accessible websites. "
How can I get accessible?
You can ensure your site is built to be accessible by specifying that it must conform to the WAI's WCAG's and by including a list such as the one above in your specification document when you go to tender. It's also not all that tricky to make an existing site more accessible, just go to your current agency or freelancer and see what they can do, make it clear to them that its a priority for you!
Accessibility is becoming more and more of a buzz word in the web development world. Increasingly big companies and clients are also becoming more aware of accessibility issues. But what does it mean to have an accessible website?
