Accessibility on the Web

Making Web sites accessible is big business. Some project that the cost of making the Internet accessible is more than was spent on the Y2K issue a few years back. With a societal and governmental push behind this issue, we can only assume that it will continue to remain an important issue for Web developers.

Legal issues are also associated with this topic. In some cases, inaccessible content created by a governmental agency is against the law and in almost all other cases, it just makes poor business sense. Accessibility is a big issue in Web design, and it is only going to get bigger as time progresses.

Why Create an Accessible Site?

The issue of making a Web site as accessible as possible is a desire of every Web developer regardless of the design product they use. An important rising trend in Web design is an accessibility movement that hopes to ensure that all users, even those differently abled, can access online content. This movement has numerous big names behind it and has already seen one piece of federal legislation pass as a result. As the Internet continues to become more integrated into every aspect of our lives, this issue will only rise in importance.

Accessibility in Web design is an issue that developers should not ignore. In addition to the good neighbor benefits of making sure that your site can be viewed by everyone, legal issues are quickly rising to the front as well.

What makes a site accessible? A site is accessible when it can be accessed by anyone, regardless of their abilities. For instance, a visually challenged surfer might have his Web content read to him by a screen reader that requires specific layout approaches to be effective. Another example is making text versions of multimedia content available for the hearing impaired.

In the context of this chapter, the term "accessibility" in Web design regards making content accessible to people with disabilities.

If you are worried that an accessible site translates as a "boring" site, see "Accessible Sites Are Boring" in the "Troubleshooting" section at the end of this chapter.

Creating Accessible Sites with FrontPage

Until this release, FrontPage contained no tool related to creating accessible Web content, placing you on your own to develop pages the right way. New to FrontPage 2003 is an accessibility checker that will tell you how your page (or site) compares to the established accessibility guidelines. The checker will also produce an HTML report that provides specifics about how your site might be out of compliance with accessibility standards. The accessibility checker won't help you create an accessible Web page; it will only tell you if you have accomplished the task.

The task of, and responsibility behind, creating an accessible Web site still belongs to the developer.

TIP

It will always be easier for a developer to create accessible Web pages during the design process than it will be to edit or update existing pages to make them accessible. Consider that fact when starting any Web design project.

NOTE

We provide several links in this chapter to additional online content that will show you what you need to think about when trying to develop an accessible Web site.

In this chapter, we'll explain some basic issues of Web accessibility, show you how to use the accessibility checker and generate reports with it.