Articles
Web Accessibility
By Henry Harvey
An estimated 10% to 20% of the U.S. population is disabled and many of these people have difficulty using Web sites. For example, people with visual impairments often rely on screen reading devices or software that can read text aloud and translate graphics. If a Web site is not set up properly, these people may have difficult using the site. If these people are potential customers, you may be losing a sale without even knowing it.
What's more, if you do business with the government, you may required to prove your Web site is accessible to the disabled. Under a series of Federal laws called the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, federal agencies must make sure that when they develop or use information technology, it must be accessible to their employees and to the members of the public who use that technology.
So how do you make sure your Web site is accessible to everyone, regardless of disability? Here are some of the most important Accessibility Guidelines published by World Wide Web Consortium at http://www.w3.org:
- Provide a text equivalent for graphics.
- Avoid relying on color alone to convey important information.
- If you use style sheets, make sure your Web pages can be read without them.
- Avoid using any kind of animation that causes the screen to flicker. (This type of flickering can cause seizures in epileptics!)
- Don't use tables to layout pages--reserve them for containing data.
- For data tables, identify row and column headers.
- Title each frame to facilitate frame identification and navigation.
- Make sure your Web site is useable if a user is not able to access special animations or applets you may have on your site.
If you want to check how well your Web site conforms to these guidelines, try using the Watchfire's WebXact tool at http://webxact.watchfire.com. By making your site more accessible, you can make your site more usable, for your disabled users and your audience as a whole.
Comments or questions? Email to info[AT]henryharvey.com.
Copyright Henry Harvey 2006.