Introduction to Web Accessibility and its Importance
Web accessibility has been a buzz word in the web development field and it has now become quite popular with the advancement of the technology. Even though, still it is new to most of us here in Asia countries, it is a well known keyword in countries like USA.
Before jump into what accessibility is all about, let’s try to understand how people with disabilities use the web.
Here’s one example of a child who has Cerebral Palsy (CP), which means his speech is really hard to understand and has limited control of arms and hands uses Assistive Technology to project his voice. He also uses a head mouse connected to an iPad for his work.
Here’s another example how technology helps people with disabilities. He uses a tool called “Mouth Stick” to do his work like typing, turning the book pages etc.
These are only few examples of how technology is accessible to help people with different disabilities.
So our websites need to work for people with such disabilities. It needs to work for people who can’t use the keyboard and not require a mouse. People who are blind also don’t use a mouse to interact with computers. To get information from the screen, they use a software called “screen readers” that reads aloud the information.
When you go through the above video, you’ll understand how technology is useful and essential for people with different disabilities to keep up with their day-today work, and why it’s important that digital information be accessible and well coded. It’s really crucial to have a proper web page title, image alters, well structured web page and many other things in place which helps screen readers to read them out and for the person to get a clear understand of the web page and its content.
Also, there are people who can’t use screen readers. Who are deaf and sighted. For example, they need captions and transcripts for any audio and video information. They might want to increase the text size, change color etc. So people will often use multiple assistive technologies or multiple adaptive strategies to get the information and use the web and we should make sure that we are supporting that.
All these use cases demonstrates that how people with different disabilities access technology and have accessibility requirements.
The web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life: government information and services, education and training, news, health care, entertainment and more.
When the web is accessible, people with disabilities can do more by themselves, without having to rely on others. Therefore, it is essential that the web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with diverse abilities. Access to information and communications technologies, including the web, is defined as a basic human right in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD).
However, this possibility is not reality throughout the web. The problem is that many websites have accessibility barriers that make difficult or impossible for some people with disabilities to use them. And many web software tools are not sufficiently accessible to people with disabilities. This is a serious concern since millions of people have disabilities that affect their use of the web.
Web accessibility is about removing those barriers so that people with disabilities can use and contribute to the web.
Web accessibility means that websites, tools and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, they can,
- Understand, navigate, and interact with the web
- Contribute to the web
Ranges of Abilities
Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the web, including:
- Auditory
- Cognitive
- Neurological
- Physical
- Speech
- Visual
Accessibility has a more limited focus on people with disabilities. Most of the things we do to support accessibility, also benefits people without disabilities.
Similarly, accessibility is related to user experience, usability, and user-centered design. The methodologies and techniques used in user-centered design work well for addressing the needs of people with disabilities, and including them in creating accessible websites and apps.
In shorten, accessibility is about people. It’s about people with disabilities being able to use your websites, apps and digital technology. It’s about the user experience for all users.
Make sure your website or app is accessible to any user!
References
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/fundamentals/accessibility-intro/
- https://www.w3.org/WAI/courses/foundations-course/
Thanks for reading! 😃
