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Legal Issues | Business Issues | Technical Issues | Moral Issues
"As long as companies and government agencies view accessibility as solely a matter of complying with regulations and technical specifications, rather than a way to support the work practices and customer needs of people with disabilities, equal opportunity will remain a travesty. Websites and intranets must follow usability principles and make it easier for customers and employees with disabilities to perform their tasks" Jakob Nielsen, useit.com.
Disabled people, especially blind and partially sighted people, are being excluded from one of the most important technological breakthroughs of recent years. The ability to use the World Wide Web to meet personal, education, information and shopping needs is being denied to blind and partially sighted people by a lack of 'inclusive design'.
There are 1.7 million people in the UK who are blind and partially sighted. Research shows serious sight loss often curtails independent mobility and the ability to get the information needed to participate fully in society.
The Internet has certainly been a positive, liberating force for those disabled people who are equipped to use it. Once they have gotten past the hurdle of having to setup any necessary enabling technologies (specialized input/output devices and the appropriate software such as Braille output, screen readers like JAWS, voice recognition software, specialized keyboards, wheelchair mounted switches for interacting with the software, etc.) to take full advantage of the Internet, their disabilities become transparent. It could reduce dependence on others and it could give a community that is often excluded, a voice in the 'information society'. They can shop, bank, communicate, etc. without other users knowing about their disabilities and without those disabilities restraining or defining them as they tend to in the physical world. Or they could, if enough sites were designed to include these types of users.
Designers don't always get it right. Whether by ignorance or shortsightedness many sites fall short of the accessibility guidelines setup by the WAI (Web Access Initiative - http://www.w3.org/WAI/). Many disabled people who make it onto the Internet just don't find enough accessible sites to make it worth their while. Many more don't even make it onto the Internet because they just don't see the point. Those of us who are online realize the vast wealth of information and facilities that can be found and recognize how useful Internet based service could be to disabled people. However, with so many inaccessible sites contributing to the 'digital divide' it's a hard case to make.
Designers and developers need to realise that users may be operating in contexts very different from their own:
- They may not be able to see, hear, move, or may not be able to process some types of information easily or at all.
- They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
- They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or mouse.
- They may have a text-only screen, a small screen, or a slow Internet connection.
- They may not speak or understand fluently the language in which the document is written.
- They may be in a situation where their eyes, ears, or hands are busy or interfered with (e.g., driving to work, working in a loud environment, etc.).
- They may have an early version of a browser, a different browser entirely, a voice browser, or a different operating system.
Content developers must consider these different situations during page design. While there are several situations to consider, each accessible design choice generally benefits several disability groups at once and the Web community as a whole. For example, by using style sheets to control font styles and eliminating the FONT element, HTML authors will have more control over their pages, make those pages more accessible to people with low vision, and by sharing the style sheets, will often shorten page download times for all users.
For more information please see the WAI checklist of design pointers for accessible websites.
The Accessibility issue is now rising to the fore for a variety of reasons. The press coverage over IBM being sued because of their inaccessible Olympics site; the potential implications of the revised Code of Practice in the DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) to Internet based providers of services - though as yet there have been no prosecutions, is not a case of if a prosecution will occur, but when and to whom; there is now a stronger business case as more disabled users are online; the possible brand damage for not creating accessible sites, especially for the more well known brands and last, but not least, pressure from organisations representing the interests of disabled people who now represent a valuable and untapped market sector.
Legal Issues | Business Issues | Technical Issues | Moral Issues
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