Making your Web Site Accessible

The information here is intended for owners of UK websites, though the principles are universal and would improve just about any website.

Accessibility

The UK is now working hard towards implementing web accessibility standards.  In practice, this means that certain websites are required to be written and maintained such that they do not discriminate against users with disabilities.

There are techniques for writing web content which assist those users with disabilities (blindness, partial or impaired sight, motor disabilities etc) to use the internet.

How is this achieved?
There are many tools out there to assist disabled users, including text-to-speech converters, text-only browsers, special keyboards for those who cannot use a mouse and many similar devices.

In many cases, the operation of these components depends on the website in question having been written in a way they can exploit.

So what must I do in my page design?
An exhaustive treatise on this subject would be out of place here, but there are many on the net and a simple search engine search will provide much information.  In summary, though:

• Provide alternative text for every non-text element on a web page including images, image maps, audio, video and multimedia
• Make sure that any information presented with colour is also available without colour
• Make sure there is adequate contrast between background and foreground colours
• Where stylesheets are used, make sure that the same pages are readable without
• Where possible, avoid hard-to-read dynamic effects such as scrolling text, or at least provide static text alternatives
• Avoid effects producing screen flicker
• Try to use simple and concise language
• If using image maps, make sure they operate client-side, have alternative text for each region, and have alternative text links elsewhere on the page
• Put Row and Column Headers on data tables
• Avoid using frames
• Make sure that your site is useable and navigable even when applets, scripts and plug-ins are disabled

This list is not exhaustive, but gives some idea of the techniques involved.  All are good design paradigms anyway, and can generally be incorporated without altering the desired look and feel of your website.

The RNIB have provided a good source of information on website accessibility.

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