Compatibility, as you've read, is a major theme of web production. In order to reach the widest possible audience, you have to build a site that will display appropriately on computers with different platforms, browsers, and connection speeds. But along with technical disparities, it's important to consider the different physical needs of users. There are millions of sight- and hearing-impaired people online, who customize their browsers to compensate for their disabilities. With just a small amount of thought and effort, you can make your site accessible to them. it's not just nice it's smartIn the real world, modifications made for the disabled usually help everyone. The ramps cut into curbs, for instance, make city sidewalks navigable for people in wheelchairs. But they also help bicyclists, rollerbladers, scooter-riders, suitcase-draggers, and pram-pushers get around with ease. Similarly, the modifications you make to your site to help people who are blind or deaf will serve your entire audience and your bottom line. Most of the needed modifications involve improving annotations (such as offering short text descriptions of images) or structuring your site in a more logical manner, so it can be analyzed by a browser for the blind. But these changes not only help disabled users, they also help ensure a clear, logical experience for everyone. In the process, they also make your site more accessible to search engines (important for building traffic) and more compatible with future applications, beyond the browser. and in america, it's the lawIf your site is for a U.S. government agency or an organization that receives government funds or contracts you're actually required by law to make it accessible to those with disabilities. In 1998, the Rehabilitation Act was amended, requiring federal agencies to make their information technology (including web sites) accessible to people with disabilities. The implications are explained here: http://www.section508.gov. accommodating disabled visitorsIn order to make your site accessible, there are two main user groups to consider:
sight-impaired users The web poses obvious challenges for people who are sight-impaired. It's almost exclusively a visual medium, providing few tactile or audio clues to aid understanding. However, internet tools for the blind are quite sophisticated. By reading a page aloud or printing it out in braille they allow people to use the web without the benefit of sight. Unfortunately, there remain a few barriers to effective use. Making your site accessible? 'Bobby' (checks your accessibility) http://bobby.watchfire.com/ Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/wai IBM Web Accessibility checklist http://www.ibm.com/able/accessweb.html 3 challenges for the sight-impaired:
hearing-impaired users The web is still primarily a text-based medium, but as bandwidth and audio-compression have improved, some sites have moved toward a richer multimedia experience. If your site incorporates audio information, you should of course consider the needs of hearing-impaired users. This is especially important in the arena of online learning, where audio and video often figure prominently into the educational experience. 2 challenges for the hearing impaired:
To evaluate how accessible your site is, try the free service, "Bobby" (http://bobby.watchfire.com). Margolin also recommends viewing your site with a text browser, like Lynx. "If your pages can be rendered in text, chances are really, really good they can be rendered using a braille browser or a screen reader." |