Common Accessibility Problems

The following is a short list of some of the most common accessibility problems in some of the most common elements of Web design. It is by no means an attempt at a comprehensive list but was created to help you understand the common issues surrounding building an accessible site.

• Images and Multimedia If you don't have alternatives to your site images and multimedia, your site is inaccessible. You need to be able to communicate your media to people who might not be able to see it.

• Frames If your site only uses frames, screen readers that can't read frames won't be able to view your site.

• Tables If your content in your tables don't make sense to screen readers, it also won't make sense to the people reading your content with screen readers.

• Scripts If you are using scripts to provide any form of functionality on your site (content generation), you will need to make sure that they work everywhere or provide options if they don't.

This list (and the implications of it) could continue for the remainder of this book and into dozens of others. At the end of this chapter, a significant resource list is included.