Article written by Rowan Ferguson of Elfshot Design. January 2003
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"The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect."
Steve Ballmer, President of Microsoft, said that accessible design is good design. Promoting accessible web sites not only makes information accessible to people with disabilities, but enhances the functionality and universality of the web.
This does not mean that you have to design for people with disabilities. It does not mean you have to design for screen readers. It means you should consider the end to end process carefully before commencing a project and think about how you can implement design that is useful for everyone. For example, can a person access all the information without using a mouse?
Cognatively impaired means that a person has difficulty processing and managing information. Many people with cognative difficulties will not tell their colleagues.
Example:
A man had a minor stroke. As a result, he is unable to remember more than 3 written words at a time. However, he can process the same information normally if it is read out aloud to him. By installing text readers where the man works, he is able to carry out his normal job.
Quite often when you mention 'web accessibility' to people, they either have no idea what you're talking about or might tell you 'it is so screen readers can read text for blind people'. Web accessibility is not only for people with disabilities. It's about promoting standards that benefit all web users.
For example, the following groups of people will benefit from accessible web pages:
Different people use the Internet in different ways. Many people with disabilities use a form or combination of adaptive technologies. Some forms of adaptive technology include:
It is also common for people to use the built in features of browsers to make information more accessible. By customizing browser features, users can:
It is common for a user to have a combination of disabling circumstances.
Example:
My grandfather recently decided to 'teach himself computers'. When I asked him to look at a new web site I had designed he refused. When I learned of his situation I understood why.
For a start, he is an 85 year old computer illiterate. His eyesight is poor, he is almost completely deaf and he bought himself a 12 year old computer. His monitor is set to 16 colours at a resolution of 640 x 480. The prehistoric CPU can barely handle Windows 95. The monitor is so dark from age that even my eyes hurt to look at it. You can begin to imagine how the odds are stacked against him.