What do you mean by “Accessibility?” :
It is in theory rather easy to understand in English, it is making a web site accessible. I however like the German term, it makes it a little more clear, “Barrierefrei”, or for us, “Barrier Free”. So accessibility is creating a web site with no barriers, now all is clear right? Maybe?
Ok, what do you mean by barriers? :
To understand what barriers exist you need only imagine that 1/2 of your visitors are not healthy, they have disabilities, illnesses and even use other software and have habits and preferences that are not the same as you. Many are older and have arthritis and poor eyesight, others have missing or crippled extremities, some are color blind (estimated 1 in 10), some have epilepsy, dyslexia, cognitive problems, maybe they cannot read well, maybe English is their second language. Maybe they have a old weak PC, maybe they are blind? Just as steps and narrow doors are a barrier to wheelchair users and the elderly, so are many things you do in your site barriers to any of the groups mentioned above.
Just a few examples to help make it clearer:
“MTV In your face” style Flash animation - this is what I call extreme fast, sometimes really excessive flash design styles. Flash can, with its fast color changes and strobe effects, actually trigger a seizure in a epileptic that can land them in the Hospital. It also distracts the attention of the user who may have attention problems, cognitive problems that make text hard to understand when read, or even people who are simply nervous and antsy and trying to concentrate while this animation is screaming for you to watch it instead. Also any information within a Flash movie is rarely available for blind visitors.
Red text on a black background, or important text made red - The majority of color blind people have trouble with the color red, it looks like a Dark Olive Green, now imagine that on a black background, or important text being dark olive green in the middle of black text. It can be hard to read or easily overseen.
Text Formating - Dyslexics often have trouble with text being experienced as backwards or even upside down. Long blocks of unending text in massive wide paragraphs can be hard to read and understand. Centered and justified text can be hard to read as a Dyslexics eyes may drop down one line while reading causing confusion.
Bouncing fast animations - Have you ever been to a site with this and maybe it bothered you a little as you tried to concentrate on hard text or heavy information? Now imagine you have reading problems or maybe you even have a attention deficit or some other concentration problem and then there are all these bouncy things calling to your eyes to watch them and not the content you came for?
Visually Impaired - this can be either blindness or poor vision. many with poor vision will have trouble with large blocks of text, maybe portions of text are to light against the background to hard to read. The text may be to small and you have created the site so they can not increase the size. Blind users will most often have the content read to them over loud speakers like a audio book. Background music can make understanding hard, missing image descriptions can confuse or simply not pass on visual information not accessible to them. They will be forced to listen to your entire menu again and again on each and every page.
The Blind Surf?:
Yes, of course. Studies suggest the blind actually spend more time and more money on the internet than most of us, the internet has opened the world to them and they can surf and shop and access information faster. Ever see how fat and heavy a 1000 page brail book is?
Well, there are not many blind people visiting my site. :
Really? Are you sure? Positive? How do you know? You see, even if you check your stats for your site, no statistics tell you if a visitor uses a screenreader. You in fact can never know how many blind/visually impaired users use your site any more than you can know if I have a broke arm. But I guarantee you that you do have blind visitors. They are called search engines. They do not care how pretty your site looks, they only care about the availability of your content and the structure around it, so by building sites blind users can easily use, you make it easier for search engines too.
Ok, blind people can surf and my site, I should build a extra site just for them? :
No, not at all. The answer is really in using logic and correct HTML. Use Standards and use CSS. Standards call for you to sperate the look from structure and content. By using CSS you can “Skin” your site. Any one page should be logically written, when this is the case a person with disabilities will have little trouble. Use correct semantic code to create a logical frame for your text. It will not be pretty but it will make sense. Then you can add images and colors ad positioning to make the site “Look Good”. It will still make sense, but it will be pretty. A blind user will not have to deal with the visual stuff, they will receive the pure information… all from the same page.
But won’t that make my site look ugly? :
No, accessibility makes you think differently and some old tricks will not work anymore, true enough. But it also challenges you to find new ways to do a good looking site without blocking it from users with disabilities. The only limitation is the designers own creativity.
Ok, I can understand what you mean, but it is to expensive… :
No, it is does not have to be when done logically. If you set out from the beginning to make a accessible site, then building in support and avoiding barriers is no more harder than doing it with no support and with barriers. But it has to be considered from the beginning as it will effect the images and colors you use as much as the code. Now trying to retrograde you current site to be accessible, if done for real will be expensive and time consuming, same if you have to pay for a new development. But some simple things can be done to improve your current site with little trouble. If you do go the better route of launching a whole new accessible site it will be better for you, and yes cost more money to pay the designers if they are not on the payroll, but no one said you have to be quiet about it. Use it to your advantage, make a public relations show of it. Announce it in press releases and commercials, let the world know you are dedicated to supporting customers regardless of disabilities. Attract PR, attract new customers and get the word out… and force your competitors to have to catch up with you or loose their customers. Gather in the disabled visitors your competitors turn away. Re-launch your site and your image.
I am not convinced and there is no law forcing me to either… :
Well you are right to an extent. But why not do it because it is the right thing to do? Also no law today does not mean no law tomorrow, so why not be one of the first, so when the others follow you can say “well we have been accessible for years”.
But there are laws as well and more on the way. Most commonly discussed are section 508 in the US, what it generally does is require government sites to be accessible. However it also requires commercial contractors to be accessible as well, so if you ever hope to have a contract with the US Government, your site must be accessible as well.
Then there is the UK’s DDA (Disability Discrimination Act). Started in 1995 with a grace period till October 2004. Now this covers the requirement to see that the commercial sector does not discriminate against the disabled. Web sites are not specifically noted, however it does say if you offer a service this must be accessible, so in theory if you offer a service over your web site you could be sued under the DDA. So far no cases have happened yet.
Germany also has a law (BITV) requiring German Governmental sites to be accessible including local Government agencies.
So you see many countries besides these have passed laws and many of us expect the US to require commercial sites to be accessible too in the future. There are those who are now using the DDA to scare customers into hiring the for new sites. This is unacceptable, it is scare tactics. These organizations are not professional and should be ignored. There is not threat at this time of you being sued under the DDA, it has not yet been successfully used in court. But you do need to be aware that this may one day change. To date their have been court cases due to inaccessible web sites, best know were Ramada, PriceLine and the Australian Olympics site. More will come to court in the future though I suspect most will be against large corporations.
Where can I learn more about accessibility? :
There are some good places on the net. First of course you are always welcome to post under the accessibility board at Killersites.
The Guild of Accessible Web Designers (GAWDS) and Accessify.com are to great places to start. The direct source is the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0), there are 66 points currently in three categories of 1.0 (awaiting release of 2.0 in the near future), Priority 1 Must be met. Priority 2 should really be met to ensure the largest number of visitors. Priority 3 is not required but you should try to meet it as well, some smaller groups may still have problems if not met.
- Section 508
- Section 504
- DDA (Disabilities Discrimination Act)
- BITV (Barrierefreie Informationstechnik-Verordnung)
- WCAG 1.0 (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines)
- ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
- BDA (British Dyslexia Association)
How can I find a accessible web designer? :
You could try a search engine, I would then suggest the Open Directory Project, here you simply go to the internet category, developers, and eventually you will find a listing for accessible web development. Unlike tradition search engines burying you in worthless returns, you use logic to find specifically what you are looking for. Most likely the easiest way however would be to visit GAWDS, all members are listed with reference sites. It does not declare how good they are, but if they joined GAWDS, then they are at least dedicated to accessibility and have a few sites that prove their interest. We have members from all over the world.