Accessibility Issues on the Web

Information Revolution?

The internet is now becoming truly ubiquitous in the developed world and has revolutionised the production and publication of information. In particular it has transformed the level of access to information for countless people with disabilities.

Rather than rely on others or have to deal with braille versions of printed texts, blind or partially sighted people can now use screen readers to read electronic text out loud. Through a web browser with some simple software attached, a whole world of information becomes accessible.
Similarly people with motor disabilities who cannot pick up a book or turn its pages, can turn to the world wide web and with some assistive technologies such as special keyboards or eye-tracking software communicate with others in a way that would previously have been extremely challenging.

However, it is all too easy to put barriers in the way of this access:

• using images that are part of the message without text alternatives
• using video that is not captioned for the hard of hearing
• creating pages that can only be navigated using mouse clicks
• creating data tables without headings
• creating links that are meaningless out of context

Bringing down barriers

While no modern architect would design a building that excluded wheelchair users, no information architect should design a web site that excludes disabled users. At Circle Interactive we always maintain an awareness of these issues and will bring them to the attention of our clients when necessary. It's actually very simple: it's a matter of knowing about good practice when coding pages.

Making sites accessible doesn't mean not being creative and doesn't involve not making the site visually appealing for those who can appreciate it. It is about checking things behind the scenes and it's about using industry best-practice and complying with standards. Which by the way we do by default.

This article provides more information on using Firefox without a mouse. The W3C provides information on Web Accessibility Initiative.