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"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.
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