Accessibility on the Internet is about making sure that access to the information provided online is not restricted, and can be accessed by everyone. However, accessibility entails more than considering the needs of those with physical, hearing or visual impairments. A more accessible website can make the experience better for everyone.
Web accessibility involves using both the new and old technology. Doing this will make your site available to a more devices used to access the internet.
When doing web content it is important to consider the fact that there are people that can’t see and/or hear. So when designing a web site it is important to try and do the content so that everyone has an option on how they will see or hear the content of the pages. This can be difficult to complete.
With the help of synthesized speech and braille display technology, like Jaws and Windows-Eyes, even completely blind people can use the internet. But for these technologies to work properly, web pages must be written in correct HTML. The needs of people with poor site can vary. Some people can only read large text and others can only read small text.
So when designing a website it is important to design a flexible site.
People with a hearing impairment tend not to use assistive software to improve their web browsing; instead, they rely on the website being accessible by providing any audio content in alternative formats, such as captioning or transcripts.
When it comes to standards that should be used when designing an accessible website, those can be found on a number of sites. Information on the standards that should be followed can be accessed at WC3 Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 , Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) - home page , Wikipedia:Accessibility - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia . Another site that I found interesting is Index of Government Guidelines for Web Sites- Standards Schmandards .
It is important to try and conform to these standards so that the sites that are designed are able to be viewed by everyone.
There are a number of tools that can be used to help design an accessible website. For the hearing impaired a list of tools can be found at 100 Web Tools for Learning with a Disability - College Degree.com .
I believe that it is important to make sure that you do the best you can to design a website that is accessible to everyone. At my age I am already starting to have problems reading some of the sites that I go to online. I can’t imagine what it would be like not to be able to use the internet.
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5 comments:
You make a good point about not just making sites accessible to people with disabilities, but also to new and old technologies. I've always considered that a compatibility issue, not an accessibility issue--but really they're the same thing, aren't they. If people can't use your site they can't use your site. With such a variety of devices used to access the internet now, it is becoming more and more important for us to design sites that everyone can use.
There is so many devices on the market and the screen sizes vary so much that I think it would be next to impossible to design a site to work on all of them. I did a site this summer and a friend of mine was checking it out. He wrote to me and said that it wouldn't fit on his laptop scrren. So now I need to go back and make some big adjustments. I would hate to try and do one to fit on a cell phone scrren.
I am posting here again if you did not see the other posting|
Carla: I think this is it? The ending URL is a co.uk which is a UK based site. Let me know. Googled: "study in the UK about Web sites and most failed accessibility test."
Jaws and Windows-Eyes are rather expensive. You see the prices? I had no idea the cost. I'm sure there are programs to help purchase this much needed software for those in need.
I use a Mac and there is already a built in screen reader which I use sometimes for a laugh; recently I have found it to be very handy to read school papers and catch grammar problems before submitting the papers. There are many voices that come built right in. Alex being the newest one with Leopard. He does sound more "modern." I have not found the Braille program yet.
I can tell you have spent considerable time researching this subject, kudos for you! It is a very deep and complex issue. It would be a whole different world if there was not Internet. As you mentioned about yourself having issues with certain pages, my mother has a difficult time reading the Web pages when the text is too small or too heavy contrasted. I have adjusted the default text size to be larger and the next step is to use the speech program for the Mac or even adjust the contrast of the screen to be only in black and white (gray scale), which looks downright right odd. (She uses a iMac.) She just loves looking for "bargains" on eBay!
Good job on your research for this topic!
I keep thinking all of the advances in technology are so cool, but I didn't think about how all of those advancements affect something as "simple" as putting a web site up.
Web accessibility is need for everyone and I do agree that it will make it a better experience for everyone. I never really thought about using old and new technologies you made a good point about that we need to combine them both. It might be difficult to do but it will be well worth it.
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