Spinning an accessible web


In the early days of the World Wide Web, accessibility was hardly an issue. The only medium available was text and, from the first implementation of HTML, all the functionality required was built-in to ensure that, if you wanted to make a web site accessible, you could. Assistive technology has been available for some time now, including screen readers, such as Jaws, Supernova and Windoweyes, which essentially read out web pages to users with a visual impairment.

Problems have arisen as programmers and graphic designers have entered the web arena to try and improve the visual impact and interactive functionality of web sites, without giving consideration of those users who have less than perfect sight, hearing or physical abilities. Graphics, tables, Flash, Java – all make it harder for screen readers and other assistive devices to cope – and all can be configured so that the assistive functionality built-in to browsers (such as variable font sizes) cannot operate as intended. A recent study by the Nielsen Norman Group, carried out with people who had at least three years’ experience of using assistive software and at least three months’ Internet experience, showed that ‘it is six times more difficult for someone to use the Internet using a screen reader than using no assistive technology’. According to usability guru, Jakob Nielsen: “Making the Web more accessible for users with various disabilities is to a great extent a matter of using HTML the way it was intended: to encode meaning rather than appearance. As long as a page is coded for meaning, it is possible for alternative browsers to present that meaning in ways that are optimized for the abilities of individual users and thus facilitate the use of the Web by disabled users.”

It became all too obvious that a large minority of users were being left behind as the Web strove to become more and more stylish and sophisticated. As a result, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the body that safeguards the standards that underly the Web, has formulated a series of guidelines to help web designers to make their sites accessible. The W3C Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI) is now almost universally accepted as the definitive statement on web accessibility. The guidelines are prioritised under three headings: (1) guidelines that must be satisfied, otherwise one or more groups will find it impossible to access information on the web page; (2) guidelines that should be satisfied, otherwise some groups will find it difficult to access; and (3) guidelines that may be addressed, to improve access to web documents. In the words of Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web: "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."




E-Learning's Greatest Hits
E-learnings Greatest Hits
ISBN: 0954590406
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 198

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