you’re reading “Web site accessibility” an article from edgeofmyseat.com
This Accessibility article was written by Rachel Andrew on Sunday, December 11th, 2005
The Disability Discrimination Act requires that web site owners in the UK ensure that their web sites are accessible to people with disabilities - just as public buildings are required to be accessible to these groups. In this article I will explain what this actually means for your existing site; how you can ensure that any new site that you are planning meets accessibility requirements; and how accessibility benefits you, the business owner.
What is the Disability Discrimination Act?
The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for providers of goods, facilities and services to treat a person less favourably because of their disability, since 1st October 1999 providers have been required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled people to help them to use their services. This legislation quite rightly includes web sites and as it is actually fairly easy to make a site accessible (far easier than needing to adapt a building, for example) there is no reason why site owners should not comply. In fact there are clear business benefits in doing so, that we will look at towards the end of this article.
The code of practice for service providers can be downloaded in PDF format here (http://www.drc-gb.org/open4all/law/Code%20of%20Practice.pdf). It is a fairly lengthy document, and much of it is not of importance to business owners who trade or offer services exclusively online. However it is fairly easy to read and highlights some examples of where accessibility needs to be taken into consideration.
“What does the act make unlawful?
2.2 The Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person:
- by refusing to provide (or deliberately not providing) any service which it provides (or is prepared to provide) to members of the public; or
- in the standard of service which it provides to the disabled person or the manner in which it provides it; or
- in the terms on which it provides a service to the disabled person.”
Web sites are specifically mentioned in the Code of Practice in several places, including in the examples for “What services are affected by Part III of the Act” 2.13 - 2.17
“An airline company provides a flight reservation and booking service to the public on its website. This is a provision of a service and is subject to the Act”
How are disabled people using the web?
Many disabled people use the web with a standard computer and web browser, and a well designed site will make their experience much better. A visitor with poor eyesight might simply need to increase the text size on your site; another user might not be able to differentiate between colours and only has problems if you have made colour coding the way that different sections are explained within the site, or used a low contrast text colour against your background. A visitor who has cognitive problems and finds it difficult to understand how to get around a site will benefit from a carefully designed navigation system. Another visitor might be unable to use the mouse and is using the keyboard only to get around the site, being able to easily tab between links and other elements makes the site easy to use.
Other visitors might be using some form of assistive technology. This could be a screen reader, which reads out the text on the page.
What sort of changes do I need to make?
Now that we have considered the ways in which our visitors might be using the site, it makes it much easier to see how we can help them. The below list is a brief run down of some of the ways in which existing sites can be adapted to ensure that the information is accessible to all users. It isn’t a step by step guide of how to achieve each adaptation - if you have built your own site the links at the end of this article will assist you in making these changes yourself. My intention here is to give you the knowledge to be able to check out your own site and either make the changes yourself or ensure that your design agency do so.
Valid mark-up
For your site to be accessible the mark-up that creates the pages should validate. That means it should be correctly formed XHTML or HTML. While modern web designers should be well aware of the need to validate their code, older sites may be full of invalid code that can cause problems for assistive technology. To check your site go to http://validator.w3.org/ and type your URL into the box. The report you will get back will show you any errors in the mark-up of the site.
Alternate text on images
Where you have used images on your site you should add alternate text so that a user who cannot see the images understands what they mean - this is especially important if your site uses images for navigational elements in a menu for example. The HTML img tag has an attribute - the alt attribute - that can contain this alternate text, and this should always be utilised.
Ensure text can be resized in the browser
Frequently web sites use a method of setting the text size that prevents users of Internet Explorer using the browser to enlarge the text, this causes a problem to anyone who needs large print. Fonts should always be sized in a way that will allow users to change the font to a more comfortable size if necessary. By the same token text in images should be avoided as there is no way to increase the size of text that has been saved as an image in a graphics programme and then the resulting image added to the page.
Ensure that colour is not used in a way that will confuse users
Make sure that you are not using colour as the only way to identify sections or choices in a site as some users may get the colours confused. For example suggesting that people select the red or green button would be a problem to someone who confuses these colours.
Also, where colours are concerned be careful not to use a combination of colours that might be difficult to read, such as grey text on a light grey background, or two very strong colours such as blue on red.
Check your site in a text only browser
If you can navigate your site easily using a text only browser then your users should be able to do so with a screen reader or other device. You can see how your site acts when it is text only at the online Lynx Viewer. Simply enter your URL and then check whether you can easily navigate from page to page and access all of the content.
Limit use of Flash or other media content - or provide an alternative way to get the information
If information is contained in a Flash or other media element - such as instructions on how to use a product - then providing this information in another format is vital for those who cannot see or hear the information. A link to an alternate page that contains a transcript of a downloadable seminar in movie format, or that explains in a step by step manner something which was demonstrated by a movie means that your information will be accessible to all users.
I’m planning a new site, what should I consider?
If you are going to design and build your own web site, or have an in-house designer, then there are some resources at the end of this article to read or pass onto your team. If you are intending to hire a designer or agency then how can you be sure that your chosen designer can actually deliver what you need in terms of accessibility?
One way is to look at their agency site or portfolio and see if they discuss accessibility at all, then have a quick look using some of the checkpoints above and see if they seem to be practicing what they preach. There is also a fairly new organisation called GAWDS - the Guild of Accessible Web Designers - which has an International membership but there is a good coverage of UK designers and developers all of whom work to develop accessible sites and have had their work checked out by GAWDS prior to their membership being accepted.
When you put together your brief for the web site, make sure that accessibility is part of that brief, and therefore part of what you are paying for. Then listen to your chosen experts as they should be able to explain why certain choices are better than others in terms of accessibility as they design and develop the site.
How does this help my business?
Apart from the legal aspect, creating an accessible web site has clear business benefits. The changes you make to your site to ensure that it is usable by all means that those users who might have clicked the back button are going to stay on your site, if your store is accessible and your competitors is not - who is going to get the custom from those people who benefit from being able to enlarge text or are not confused by colour choices?
In addition to the market sector who really need sites to be accessible, a site that can easily be read by a text only browser is also far more easily indexed by the search engines, which should give you’re a boost in your search engine rankings. A lot of the things that are problematic to disabled users also cause problems to the search engine spiders.
In addition to those using devices other than a standard web browser because of disabilities, there are now a growing number of people who are accessing the web via PDAs or mobile phones. These devices are often far more limited in their display capabilities than a regular web browser and your accessible site is likely to help these users to find what they are looking for.
Summary and further reading
I have not attempted in this article to give a full account of accessibility issues and theory. If you are employing and agency or have in house developers then they should be conversant with these issues and hopefully this article will give you enough information to be able to ensure that they are doing what is necessary. If you are developing your own site, or would just like to read some more about these issues, then the following links should help.
- The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines - http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/
- WebAIM: Techniques and Concepts - http://www.webaim.org/techniques/
- Accessify - http://www.accessify.com
