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Accessibility isn’t just for Disabled Users

By Alan Hamlyn ⋅ August 13, 2008 ⋅ Print This Post Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Before you run away from this topic as it tends to scare most people, just consider staying and reading this, because I’m going to attempt to give you a basic overview of why Accessibility isn’t scary and can actually increase your sales / enquires.

Well lets start with the obvious one then - what is accessibility? It might strike you as a bit obvious but I’m afraid it isn’t as clear cut as making your website usable by blind users. It’s more than that, it’s about making your website accessible by as many different types of users as possible, this does of-course include those who are blind but also here is a list of other users which you may not have considered.

 

·     Partially Sighted

·     Colour Blindness

·     Poor Motor Skilled Users / Mobility

·     Tunnel Vision

·     Children

·     Deaf

·     Epilepsy 

·     Learning Difficulties

·     Technology

 

Now I have listed only but a few factors which I consider are accessibility issues, there are many more but these are the most important one. Some of which do refer to target audience though, and not all must be met to have a ‘good website’, for example if your website is not aimed at children, then you need not worry about how a child would interact with your website.

 

Lets go into a little more detail on some of these points.
 

Colour Blindness

Well this is a good one, as I am colour blind myself, and when I’m not being annoyed by those who ask me constantly “what colour is this?”, I try to explain to other people how colour blindness can affect their users. Did you know that 8% of men are colour blind, which potentially means that 8% of your visitors won’t see your website as others do. It as also a myth that women cannot  be colourblind, however only 0.4% of women are. This is important if your website audience are primarily male - for example of the website was a ‘Football Club’. If your user finds your website difficult or impossible to read they will simply leave, this goes for ANY reason, not just colour blindness. 

 

Well you are probably wondering what you can do? Well there are a few colour blind website tests out there which you can find with a google search, they will render your website how others would see it, and if your website is difficult to read consider changing key elements.

 

Deaf or any vision impairments 

Well this one’s a tricky one, many people who have visual impairments use the web, with great speech software which will read title tags and alt text on your website. The trouble is if you have stuffed your website with keywords then they will read very disjointed. If you have no title or alt tags at all then you are asking for trouble, they will hear nothing, and your visitor will leave.

 

I guess a great tip is to read your title or alt tag text aloud, make sure it actually describes what it is, not keyword stuffing. Also, put title and alt tags on everything, links, images, tables, backgrounds, containers, the more which describes the website, the more your user will be able to visualize what they are hearing. Of course the aim of this here is to get them to part with their cash for your product or service. Don’t turn business away.

 

Deaf Users or Poor Hearing

If you have lots of audio on your website then its wasted on this group of users & personally if you have lots of audio on your website I would consider finding you and shooting you. If it necessary and there always is exceptions to the rule, then consider some sort of audio description.

 

Technology

Certainly technology is cheaper these days, but you have to remember that not all users have the latest hardware & software, and not having the latest gear is an accessibility issue in itself.  This includes things like the latest browser, flash player, javascript, css, hardware, internet connection.

 

Consider trying to test your website with multiple browsers, text alternative sites if they are flash (I hate flash only websites), and optimize all your graphics the best you can to better load times.

 

Legal Obligations

There are legal obligations and you can be sued if your website is not accessible, unfortunately though legislation is a bit sketchy.

 

Check out the UK Government Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)

W3C’s WCAG (pronounced Wocag) 

 

There are many other resources on the web but although they come across very strong they are not regulations. I advise that you just do your best and use common sense to make your websites accessible, try to use contrast on important areas like menu’s.

 

I haven’t covered everything but I will return to these issues later.

 

Wuup Team

 

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