How visually impaired people use
the Internet, and your legal obligations.
There are many different ways in which blind and visually
impaired people are able to access the Internet. We thought it
would be helpful to give you some information about website
accessibility - so that you understand the needs of your potential
customers, and can adapt your website to meet both your customers’
requirements and your legal obligations.
The two important factors for visually impaired people accessing
the Internet are:
- The design of the website they are viewing
(discussed below)
- The use of specialist computer software
This newsletter covers point 1 - website design - because this
is something you can change easily and therefore immediately make
it possible for visually impaired people to look at your
website.
Visually impaired people will often use specialist software such
as screen readers and magnifiers to "see" your website, however
these are only effective if the design is right! Please read on for
some tips on design, and in next month’s newsletter we will give
some information on the computer software that is often used.
Designing your website
People with a visual impairment rely on certain aids to help
them use the internet. There are three ways in which they may
access a website depending on their level of vision.
- Those with little or no vision are likely to
use a screen reader or synthesizer, and either a conventional or
Braille keyboard;
- Visually impaired people with some functional vision may use a
screen magnifier; and
- Those with less severe forms of visual impairment will simply
use the browser to enlarge the text.
These methods will be described in more detail in next month’s
newsletter.
In order for these three access aids to work, the website has to
be designed correctly. A bad example would be inserting some text
as an image: a sighted person would be able to read the text, but
because the text is embedded in an image, a screen reader wouldn’t
have any text to read and therefore your text would be "invisible"!
Moving text might also be missed, and lots more things that "look"
right visually.
There are lots of ways you can improve your website
accessibility. Our top 10 tips are given below, but please also
refer to the links at the end of this article for more
information.
Top 10 Tips
- Avoid embedding text in images
- If you do use images, provide alternative text using the alt
tag - this is read by screen readers
- Avoid moving and flashing items
- Ensure you have good colour contrast
- Use mark up and style sheets to maintain a consistent image
across your site - this also makes it possible for the visually
impaired reader to change their view of the site e.g. changing the
text colour to a specific colour that is good for them
individually
- Provide good structure to your website which makes it easy to
navigate
- Avoid excessive use of tables, but where they are necessary,
keep to as simple a structure as possible and identify row and
column headers - remember that screen readers will read across the
rows, and that the headers will be read for each item
- If you use frames, title each frame to facilitate frame
identification and navigation
- Make sure your contact details are easy to find
- As a last resort, if you cannot make your page accessible,
provide a link near the top to an accessible equivalent!
Remember you can always get professional advice - make sure you
choose a web designer that knows about web accessibility!
Good Business Sense
In addition to the legal requirements discussed below, there are
also moral and economic arguments for inclusion. It is increasingly
accepted that failure to accommodate people with access needs makes
little economic or commercial sense. Remember, in addition to the
estimated 2 million people in the UK that are visually impaired,
there are many more people who experience temporary disabilities,
for example through illness or accident. There are also millions of
people whose sight deteriorates simply as a result of ageing, for
example people who need reading glasses.
The DDA and European legal requirements
Under section 19 of the Disability Discrimination Act, there are
four ways in which a provider of services can discriminate against
a disabled person, three of which are relevant to the issue of web
accessibility:
- In refusing to provide, or deliberately not
providing, to the disabled person any service which he/she
provides, or is prepared to provide, to members of the
public;
- In failing to comply with any duty imposed on him/her by
section 21 in circumstances in which the effect of that failure is
to make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for the disabled
person to make use of any such service;
- In the standard of service which he provides to the disabled
person or the manner in which he/she provides it to him/her.
Although no websites in the UK have yet been pursued under the
Act, it does appear that courts will use the W3C WAI
guidelines (see below for link) as the accepted standard
required for compliance with the DDA. For example, under the
eEurope Initiative launched in December 1999, the European
Commission has committed the Member States to "make all public web
sites and their content accessible to people with disabilities"
through the adoption of WAI Guidelines. Although this is a
non-legal requirement and only applies to public sector web sites,
there is also a commitment to review legislation and standards -
which could see the initiative extended to outside the public
sector.
For further information visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/
For a quick idea of how accessible (or not) your site is visit:
http://www.userite.com/simpletest.htm
For more a detailed website evaluation resource visit: http://www.w3.org/WAI/eval/
Another commercial Windows-based tool to analyze web pages for
their accessibility is Bobby 3.2, designed by the Center for
Applied Special Technology (CAST): http://webxact.watchfire.com/
Source of above DDA information: http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/
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