Accessibility... The Basics
Article by Alan Cole
An accessible website is one that allows as many people as possible to
access the information contained within it. An important subset of
accessibility is allowing people with visual, aural, or physical
disabilities full access to the information and services available in
the same way as able-bodied people. Ensuring that your website is not
dependent on particular hardware or software is also an important
consideration when building accessible websites.
Is it worth
it?
-
At least 10% of the population in most countries has disabilities;
visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological
disabilities can all affect access to the Web.
-
Average age of population in many countries is increasing; aging
sometimes results in combinations of accessibility issues; vision &
hearing changes, changes in dexterity & memory.
- Many elderly and disabled people rely increasingly on the Internet to obtain their goods and services.
Few organizations can afford to deliberately miss this market sector. On
top of this, accessible web design contributes to advantages for
able-bodies users too. Accessible websites:
-
Allow access to users of mobile phones, small display screens, Web-TV
and web-kiosks and other new web=enabled devices.
-
Increases usability in low bandwidth or slow connection situations.
- Provide access across a wider range of computer hardware and software.
Other extremely important benefits that make accessible websites
worthwhile are that:
-
Many governments now require certain websites to conform to
accessibility guidelines.
- Accessible websites are easier to index by search engines and therefore help drive traffic to your site.
What does it entail?
Many techniques involved in making
your website accessible will have no effect whatsoever on the final look
and feel of your site for the majority of users. It will however allow
users with disabilities to use assistive devices such as screen readers
(to read text out aloud to them) and assistive input devices (for people
with physical disabilities) to access and use your site. Some of the key
concepts are:
-
To provide textual alternatives for all images and animations.
-
To ensure that textual content can be resized to the users personal
preference.
-
To ensure sufficient contrast between text color and background color.
-
To ensure that hyperlinks contain text that describes their purpose.
-
To ensure that hyperlinks are large enough to make them easy to select.
- To use a consistent and easy to navigate layout.
Other benefits
The robots that search engines use to catalog your website are
essentially 'blind' visitors to your site. Accessible websites are
therefore more search engine friendly and result in better search engine
rankings and ultimately more visitors to your site. Other advantages
include:
-
Better structure means easier and cheaper site maintenance.
-
Accessible sites demonstrate that your organization takes its social
responsibility seriously
-
Increased support for internationalization
- Reduces hosting costs.
I believe accessibility is beneficial for all involved and should be a consideration of every website.
About the Author
Alan Cole runs www.pixelwave.co.uk, a one-person web design studio. His aim is to provide cost effective website design production and maintenance by offering professional web solutions that stand out from the crowd.