Why Accessibility?
Imagine finding yourself in a situation where you need to check your bank account or fill out a job application on-line but the text and the links and buttons are all gibberish. The pictures are nothing more than blurs. The cues you have taken for granted to help you find your way around a website are meaningless. You move the mouse but the cursor does nothing at all. You know that the information you need is right there in front of you but it is simply inaccessible. This is how many, even most websites can be for people with disabilities ranging from visual impairments to cognitive disorders and even motor control problems.
Though tools and solutions exist to help people with disabilities to access the web they all depend on quality design of the web page. For instance screen readers and Braille output devices (collectively known as assistive technologies) exist so that even the completely blind can access on-line information and services, but assistive technologies need various elements to be present in the page’s code to function properly.
Disabled people need access to online information and services as much, if not more, than able bodied users. Finding municipal programs, medical information, and job listings for instance, is of vital importance. However, one should not forget that everyone is a potential high quality customer or client, as well.
Making your site accessible doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Testing for accessibility is the first step. Making accessibility a priority is not just morally correct, but makes good business sense. And it is also the law.
Some concrete examples
- ALT attributes of image tags to describe images
- Invisible navigation links which screen readers will find and make finding key content more convenient
- Making certain background and text have sufficient contrast between them
- Making it simple for the user to change the fonts, text sizes, and colors on a page