Understanding Web Accessibility
Starting this week, I will be addressing the area of Web Accessibility - organized in four separate blog entries. This week we will look at the big picture, the meaning of Web Accessibility and its relevance for promoting Equal Opportunity. In the weeks to come, we will look at follow-up topics like
· The legal framework that dictates the implementation of Web Accessibility (Overview)
· Interdependent systems and components of Web Accessibility
Harmful myths about Web Accessibility
· The legal framework that dictates the implementation of Web Accessibility (Overview)
· Interdependent systems and components of Web Accessibility
Harmful myths about Web Accessibility
What is Web Accessibility?
Web Accessibility simply means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web Accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web.
Web Accessibility addresses the entire breadth of disabilities that affect access to the Web – visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. It is easy for a non-disabled person to browse the Web. Point your mouse, see the screen, use the navigation and then concentrate of the area of the web page that contains the relevant content. But what about people with disabilities?
Some people cannot use their arms or hands to type or move a mouse. Some people with tremors and diminishing fine motor controls can use a keyboard but not a mouse. Some people cannot see at all and use a screen reader that reads aloud information in the webpage. Some people have blurry vision and cannot read text unless it is very large.
Web Accessibility tries to address these barriers that restrict access to information on the Web.
To help include everybody in the Web, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), constituted a group called the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) whose mission was to develop the strategies, guidelines and resources to make the Web Accessible to people with disabilities. This group issued the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 1.0 in May 1999 to help make Web content ‘understandable and navigable’. These s guidelines are the ‘touchstone’ by which most lobbyists, legislatures and web developers determine the accessibility of a website. The guidelines are organized around check points that fall under three levels of priorities; Level 1 includes checkpoints that must be met, Level 2 includes checkpoints that should be met and Level 3 includes checkpoints that may be met to ensure improved Web Accessibility.
A simplistic way of understanding the gist of these guidelines is
· Ensuring that pictures used for communicating information have text equivalents that can be accessed by blind people
· Audio is subtitled/transcribed for those who are hard-of-hearing
· Links and form controls can be easily accessed by those with motor problems
· Site is well structured for those with learning difficulties or problems with the language
The WCAG 2.0 version is currently in the working draft 11 stage.
It is important to understand one aspect that most experts agree on – an individual web site can never be perfectly accessible to everybody. This has to do with the sheer diversity of disabilities as well as the potential overlap of multiple disabilities. But a systematic approach like implementing the WCAG guidelines can go long way in accommodating a very large number of people.
Use of Web is spreading rapidly into most areas of society and daily life. In many countries, the Web is increasingly being used for government information and services, education and training, commerce, news, workplace interaction, civic participation, healthcare and more. In some cases, the Web is replacing traditional resources used to do all the things listed above. Therefore, it is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.
Encouraging (and sometimes mandating) accommodation of people with disabilities in the mainstream is a direct reflection of evolution of disability policy. Instead of prescribing a social welfare approach, under the medical model of institutional care, the new policies focus on rehabilitation and education.
Next time, we will look at the growing body of laws and public policies that are requiring the accessible design of products and websites, and how IT firms need to understand them to build websites that compliant with prescribed standards.
Web Accessibility simply means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web Accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate and interact with the Web.
Web Accessibility addresses the entire breadth of disabilities that affect access to the Web – visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities. It is easy for a non-disabled person to browse the Web. Point your mouse, see the screen, use the navigation and then concentrate of the area of the web page that contains the relevant content. But what about people with disabilities?
Some people cannot use their arms or hands to type or move a mouse. Some people with tremors and diminishing fine motor controls can use a keyboard but not a mouse. Some people cannot see at all and use a screen reader that reads aloud information in the webpage. Some people have blurry vision and cannot read text unless it is very large.
Web Accessibility tries to address these barriers that restrict access to information on the Web.
To help include everybody in the Web, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), constituted a group called the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) whose mission was to develop the strategies, guidelines and resources to make the Web Accessible to people with disabilities. This group issued the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 1.0 in May 1999 to help make Web content ‘understandable and navigable’. These s guidelines are the ‘touchstone’ by which most lobbyists, legislatures and web developers determine the accessibility of a website. The guidelines are organized around check points that fall under three levels of priorities; Level 1 includes checkpoints that must be met, Level 2 includes checkpoints that should be met and Level 3 includes checkpoints that may be met to ensure improved Web Accessibility.
A simplistic way of understanding the gist of these guidelines is
· Ensuring that pictures used for communicating information have text equivalents that can be accessed by blind people
· Audio is subtitled/transcribed for those who are hard-of-hearing
· Links and form controls can be easily accessed by those with motor problems
· Site is well structured for those with learning difficulties or problems with the language
The WCAG 2.0 version is currently in the working draft 11 stage.
It is important to understand one aspect that most experts agree on – an individual web site can never be perfectly accessible to everybody. This has to do with the sheer diversity of disabilities as well as the potential overlap of multiple disabilities. But a systematic approach like implementing the WCAG guidelines can go long way in accommodating a very large number of people.
Use of Web is spreading rapidly into most areas of society and daily life. In many countries, the Web is increasingly being used for government information and services, education and training, commerce, news, workplace interaction, civic participation, healthcare and more. In some cases, the Web is replacing traditional resources used to do all the things listed above. Therefore, it is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities.
Encouraging (and sometimes mandating) accommodation of people with disabilities in the mainstream is a direct reflection of evolution of disability policy. Instead of prescribing a social welfare approach, under the medical model of institutional care, the new policies focus on rehabilitation and education.
Next time, we will look at the growing body of laws and public policies that are requiring the accessible design of products and websites, and how IT firms need to understand them to build websites that compliant with prescribed standards.
Comments
It will be nice if the entire four part series can be downloaded as whitepaper. I will also be interested to know how Microsoft is supporting this initiative.
Posted by: Vijay | April 23, 2008 07:48 AM