Accessibility

Accessibility is ensuring people with disabilities can access all the information online. An added bonus is it usually improves the experience for everyone and not just those with disabilities.

W3C helps us achieve this goal through the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It goes over components and principles that guide us towards accessible content.

Understanding challenges that occur for people with disabilities helps us improve the user experience. Some of the barriers that occur are related to:

• Visual  (includes colour blindness)
• Auditory
• Physical
• Speech
• Cognitive
• Language
• Learning
• And Neurology.

Who are you designing for?

To get a sense of who you are designing for, check out stories of web users with disabilities. In addition, you can see YouTube clips that will give you a walkthrough of peoples’ experience on the web.  

As a quick example, imagine Sally, she is not totally blind but she has very low vision. Due to her disability, Sally uses a combination of assistive technology to see web content;

1. a  screen reader to translate the text on screen to speech
2. and screen magnification software to enlarge the texts and graphics on her computer and device screens for easier viewing.

In order for these technologies to work well for Sally, it is important that the developers, designers, and writers of the online content, follow the accessibility guidelines.

Quick guide to accessibility

• Alternative text descriptions – add captions and alternative text to images and non-text content
• Easy to navigate – ensure your content is easy to navigate by using descriptive headers and a consistent logical structure
• Easy to read – make your content easy to read, by using appropriate text size, simple fonts,  and good colour contrast between text and background
• Captions – with videos or audio playback, provide transcriptions where possible
• Identify issues – Use the Tota11y bookmarklet to help visualise how your site performs with assistive technologies.

Review the following webpages for more thorough exploration on accessibility:

• W3C – Quick Reference Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2
• W3C – Tips for Writing
• W3C – Tips for Designing
• W3C – Tips for Developing
• W3C – Easy Checks
• W3C – Accessibility Principles
• W3C – Perspective Videos
• W3C – Accessibility, Usability, Inclusion
• A11y Project – A Community-Driven Effort to Make Web Accessibility Easier