Design Template by Anonymous

Introduction

Accessibility

What is Accessibility

It is about recognizing and respecting the diversity of human abilities and ensuring everyone has equal opportunities to participate, contribute, and enjoy the benefits of society with unnecessary barriers or discrimination.

What is Accessibility in Web Design

When a website is designed such that people with disabilities understand and interact with the content effectively.

Inclusive Design

Inclusive design is the continuous process of creating solutions to problems that help as many people as possible. Although not the best example, an example of this is the creation of the Snuggie. A snuggie is a blanket with arm holes to allow the user to wear the blanket and still have access to your arms. This means that people with limited mobility could use a blanket without having to constantly adjust it. A better example is the creation of dips in the curve of sidewalk. Its intented use was for people with disabilities, and became a tool that benefits people using strollers or shopping carts.

Accessibility Guidelines

There are many guidelines put in place by various organizations.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The ADA prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities. For the web, this means the ADA guarantees people with disabilities have the same access to information online as everyone else. There is no specific guidelines on how to achieve compliance put out by the ADA themselves. Instead, the WCAG and Section 508 are used to provide specific guidelines.

Section 508

The US Government uses Section 508 for their own websites, making them compliant with the ADA. These guidelines also align with WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA Success Criteria. Section 508 was created to eliminate barriers making technology and web content inaccessible.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG, is developed by W3C, the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) exists to develop standards for the web. They are not legally required but are used globally to make digital content accessible.

Assistive Technologies

People with disabilities use various technologies to assist in accessing the web, and activities in daily life. These tools are referred to as Assistive Technologies, or AT. The tools are put into four categories by the WCAG.

Perception - hearing, feeling, and seeing

There are tools for people who need products related to vision and hearing. Some examples of this is for people who are deaf or blind.

For daily life, books with large print or having captions on the TV are helpful. In terms of accessing web content, screen readers can be used. A screen reader converts information, whether it be text or imagery, to be read out loud to the user in a meaningful way. This is why it is so important to use semantic HTML. When the screen reader sees a div element with an attribute of id="nav", it won't know that this is a navigation element and will read it out incorrectly.

Presentation distinguishing and understanding

There are tools for people who need products related to how content is presented on a screen. Some examples of this include people with color blindness, ADHD, or dyslexia.

For daily life, audio books or ways to set reminders are helpful. For interacting with web content, text to speech systems can be used. In this example, text to speech is not as "all inclusive" as a screen reader might read a page out as. Instead, a text to speech tool can help someone with dyslexia interpret a page as intended.

Input typing, writing, and clicking

There are tools for people who need products related to physical and cognitive abilities. Some examples of this include people with Down syndrome, short-term memory loss, or physical injuries.

For daily life, using touch screen tools or a modified grip on a pencil are helpful. Mobile devices are also used for typing and clicking, making them an important tool for both daily life and the web. When interacting with the web, mobile phones have magnification features and can read content out to the user. Additionally, people use custom keyboards with bigger keys or the ability to recognize involuntary movements.

Interaction navigating and finding

There are tools for people who need products related to clear guidance. This is one that is more open, and therefore anyone benefits from having clearer navigation. This is the case for the previous topics as well, but the examples might be more familiar in this category.

For daily life, some useful applications are using a GPS or road signs to navigate the road, or tutorials with step by step instructions. Another example is using voice commands to change the tempurature. When interacting with the web, skip links help keyboard users to skip over various HTML elements like navigation or page headings. Also, using clear and predictable labeling can help make navigating a page more efficient.