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Introduction to Web Accessibility - 3 November 2005
by Paul Bohman
Read this article in Chinese (translated by Samuel Lai, proof read by Kevin Huang)
Most people today can hardly conceive of life without the Internet. It provides access to information, news, email, shopping, and entertainment. The Internet, with its ability to serve out information at any hour of the day or night about practically any topic conceivable, has become a way of life for an impatient, information-hungry generation. Some have argued that no other single invention has been more revolutionary since that of Gutenberg’s original printing press in the mid 1400s. Now, at the click of a mouse, the world can be “at your fingertips” – that is, if you can use a mouse… and if you can see the screen… and if you can hear the audio – in other words, if you don’t have a disability of any kind.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Before focusing on the challenges that people with disabilities face when trying to access Web content, it makes more sense to discuss the ways in which the Internet offers incredible opportunities to people with disabilities that were never before possible. The Web’s potential for people with disabilities is truly remarkable.
The Web Offers Unprecedented Opportunities
The Internet is one of the best things that ever happened to people with disabilities. You may not have thought about it that way, but all you have to do is think back to the days before the Internet was as ubiquitous as it is today to see why this is so.
For example, without the Internet, how did blind people read newspapers? The answer is that they mostly didn’t. At best, they could ask a family member or friend to read the newspaper to them. This method works, but it makes blind people dependent upon others. They could never read the newspaper themselves. You might think that audiotapes or Braille printouts of newspapers could offer a reasonable solution, but both options are expensive and slow compared to the rate at which publishers create and distribute newspapers. Blind people wouldn’t receive the news until after it was no longer new. Not only that, but a Braille version of the Sunday New York Times would be so big and bulky with the extra large and thick Braille embossed paper that you’d practically have to use a forklift to move it around. None of these methods of reading newspapers are ideal. They’re too slow, expensive, and too dependent upon other people.
With the advent of the World Wide Web, many newspapers now publish their content electronically in a format that can be read by text-to-speech synthesizer software programs (often called “screen readers”) used by the blind. These software programs read text out loud so that blind people can use computers and access any text content through the computer. Suddenly, blind people don’t have to rely on the kindness of other people to read the newspaper to them. They don’t have to wait for expensive audio tapes or expensive, bulky Braille printouts. They simply open a Web browser and listen to their screen reader as it reads the newspaper to them, and they do it when they want to do it. The Internet affords a whole new level of independence and opportunity to blind people. When you understand the impact that the Internet can have in the lives of blind people, the concept of Web accessibility takes on a whole new level of significance.
Similarly, people with motor disabilities who cannot pick up a newspaper or turn its pages can access online newspapers through their computer, using certain assistive technologies that adapt the computer interface to their own disabilities. Sometimes the adaptations are crude, such as having the person place a stick in the mouth, and to use that stick to type keyboard commands. In other cases, the adaptations are more sophisticated, as in the use of eye-tracking software that allows people to use a computer with nothing more than eye movements. People with tremors may use a special keyboard with raised ridges in-between the keys so that they can place their hand down on the keyboard and then type the letters, rather than risk typing the wrong keys. Most of these people would not be able to use a mouse with much accuracy. Regardless of the level of sophistication, many of these adaptations have one thing in common: they make use of the keyboard, or emulate the use of a keyboard, rather than the use of a mouse. As with people who are blind, the Internet allows people with motor disabilities to access information in ways that they never could before.
People who are deaf always had the possibility of reading newspapers on their own, so it may seem that the Internet does not offer the same type of emancipation that it does to those who are blind or to those with motor disabilities, but there are a few cases in which the Internet can still have a large impact. For example, they can read online transcripts of important speeches, or view multimedia content that has been fully captioned.
Falling Short of the Web’s Potential
Despite the Web’s great potential for people with disabilities, this potential is still largely unrealized. Where can you find Web-based video or multimedia content that has been fully captioned for the deaf? What if the Internet content is only accessible by using a mouse? What do people do if they can’t use a mouse? And what if Web developers use all graphics instead of text? If screen readers can only read text, how would they read the graphics to people who are blind? As soon as you start asking these types of questions, you begin to see that there are a few potential glitches in the accessibility of the Internet to people with disabilities. The Internet has the potential to revolutionize disability access to information, but if we’re not careful, we can place obstacles along the way that destroy that potential, and which leave people with disabilities just as discouraged and dependent upon others as before.
People with Disabilities on the Web
Though estimates vary, most studies find that about one fifth (20%) of the population has some kind of disability. Not all of these people have disabilities that make it difficult for them to access the Internet. For example, a person whose legs are paralyzed can still navigate a Web site without any disability-related difficulty. Still, if only half—or even a quarter—of these individuals have disabilities that affect their ability to access the Internet, this is a significant portion of the population. Businesses would be unwise to purposely exclude 20, 10 or even 5 percent of their potential customers from their Web sites. Schools, universities, and government entities would be not only unwise, but, in many countries, they would also be breaking the law if they did so.
The major categories of disability types are:
Visual
blindness, low vision, color-blindness
Hearing
deafness
Motor
inability to use a mouse, slow response time, limited fine motor control
Cognitive
learning disabilities, distractibility, inability to remember or focus on large amounts of information
See also the introductory video: Keeping Web Accessibility in Mind
Each of the major categories of disabilities require certain types of adaptations in the design of the Web content. Most of the time, these adaptations benefit nearly everyone, not just people with disabilities. For example, people with cognitive disabilities benefit from illustrations and graphics, as well as from properly-organized content with headings, lists, and visual cues in the navigation. Similarly, though captioned video content is meant to benefit people who are deaf, it can also benefit those who do not have sound on their computers, or who do not want to turn the sound on in public places such as libraries, airplanes, or computer labs.
Occasionally, Web developers must implement accommodations that are more specific to people with disabilities. For example, developers can add links that allow blind users or people with motor disabilities who cannot use a mouse to skip past the navigational links at the top of the page. People without disabilities may choose to use this feature as well, but they will usually ignore it. In almost every case, even these disability-specific adaptations can be integrated into the site’s design with little or no impact to its overall visual “look and feel.” Unfortunately, too many Web developers are convinced that the opposite is true. They worry that their sites will become less appealing to their larger audience of people without disabilities. This faulty perception has led to countless circular debates, that tend to cause unnecessary friction between Web designers and people with disabilities.
From the perspective of people with disabilities, inaccessible Web content is an obstacle that prevents them from participating fully in the information revolution that has begun unfolding on the Internet. To them, it is a matter of basic human rights. When Web developers truly understand this perspective, most of them realize the importance of the issue, and are willing to do what they can to make their Web content more accessible.
Comprehensive Solutions
There are two key components to any effort to achieve Web accessibility:
Commitment and accountability
Training and technical support
Either of these by itself is insufficient.
Commitment and Accountability
Awareness. The foundation of any kind of commitment to Web accessibility is awareness of the issues. Most Web developers are not personally opposed to the concept of making the Internet accessible to people with disabilities. In fact, most accessibility errors on Web sites are the result of ignorance, rather than malice or apathy. A large proportion of developers have simply never even thought about the issue. Even if they have heard of Web accessibility, they may not understand what’s at stake. Their ignorance leads them to ask questions such as, “Why would a blind person want to access the Internet?” After hearing an explanation of the ways in which blind people can access the Internet and the reasons why they have difficulties with some sites, most of these same developers understand the importance of the issue, and most are willing to do something about it, at least in the abstract.
Leadership. Understanding the issues is an important first step, but it does not solve the problem, especially in large organizations. If the leadership of an organization does not express commitment to Web accessibility, chances are low that the organization’s Web content will be accessible. Oftentimes, a handful of developers make their own content accessible while the majority don’t bother to, since it is not expected of them.
Policies and Procedures. Even when leaders express their commitment to an idea, if the idea is not backed up by policies, the idea tends to get lost among the day-to-day routines. The best approach for a large organization is to create an internal policy that outlines specific standards, procedures, and methods for monitoring compliance with the standards and procedures. For example, an organization’s policy could be that Web developers will create content that complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines of the W3C, that no content is allowed to go live on the Web site until it has been verified to meet this standard, and that the site will be re-examined quarterly for accessibility errors. This example won’t fit every situation or every organization, but it does at least provide a simplified theoretical model from which to create standards, procedures, and monitoring methods within organizations.
Training and Technical Support
Sometimes Web developers fear that it is more expensive and time-consuming to create accessible Web sites than it is to create inaccessible ones. This fear is largely untrue. On a page-by-page basis, the extra time required by a knowledgeable developer to make the content accessible is so minimal as to be almost negligible. Once developers know the concepts, implementing them becomes second-nature, and does not add significantly to the total development time.
However, it does take time to become a knowledgeable developer. A developer can learn the basics of Web accessibility in just a few days, but, as with any technical skill, it often takes months to internalize the mindset as well as the techniques. Organizations should ensure that their developers have access to training materials, workshops, books, or courses which explain the details of accessible Web design. Some of these resources are available for free, such as the WebAIM Web site. However, not everyone learns best in an online environment. Sometimes the best approach is to invite an outside consultant to provide training through presentations, workshops, or one-on-one tutoring.
Ongoing technical support can be offered through outside consultants, discussion groups, internal workshops, classes or other methods. Some organizations have set up their own internal discussion groups to provide a forum for talking about accessibility issues. If a developers forum already exists at an organization, it may be unnecessary to create a new one specifically for accessibility if the existing one can serve the same purpose. The WebAIM forum consists of people from all over the world who are interested in Web accessibility issues, many of whom are highly knowledgeable about the topic and willing to share their knowledge with others.
Conclusion
The Web offers so many new opportunities to people with disabilities that are unavailable through any other medium. It provides a method for accessing information, making purchases, communicating with the world, and accessing entertainment that does not depend on the responsiveness of other people. The Internet offers independence and freedom. But this independence and freedom is only partially a reality. Too many Web sites are not created with Web accessibility in mind. Whether purposefully or not, they exclude the segment of the population that in many ways stands to gain the most from the Internet. Only by committing to accessibility and providing for accountability, training, and technical assistance, can the Web’s full potential for people with disabilities become a reality.
Paul R. Bohman was one of the original members of the WebAIM initiative of the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University, and has worked in the field of Web accessibility since 1999. He is currently the Director of Products and Services at WebAIM, overseeing the creation of instructional materials, on-site training, software development projects, consultation services, and Web site creation. During his time at WebAIM, Mr. Bohman has taught university courses on accessibility, designed and created Web-based instructional materials on the topic, and has given numerous presentations and workshops throughout the world in his role as accessibility adviser, trainer, consultant, writer, and researcher. He has written hundreds of tutorials and articles on Web accessibility, available through the WebAIM Web site and WebAIM’s CD-ROM products. He was a contributing author to the first full-length book in printed format on Web accessibility techniques for developers, “Constructing Accessible Web sites.”
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