www.accessibilitynow.com
To “progress” means to move for ward, and we like to think of technological progress as exactly that. Progress, however, sometimes leaves many people behind.
Years ago, Internet information retrieval was largely a text-based affair. Databases operated through words, rather than the icons, images, and bells and whistles of today’s sophisticated web design.
For many computer users with visual impairments, the move towards an image-based system of communication has meant less, rather than more, access to information. Those who use screen reader software – which reads aloud the text from a given website – often find themselves with only partial information about the site’s content. On the one hand are site sponsors push- ing their web designers to create ever flashier, snappier, and more visually enhanced websites. On the other are the information needs of indi- viduals with visual impairments.
Happily, there are also a number of ways around this tension. International standards for web accessibility have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium. You can learn about current web accessibility guidelines at http://www.w3.org/WAI/.
How does web accessibility work? For one thing, redundancies can be built into websites; that is, web spinners can create alternative ways to access content. For non-text items, such as photographs and symbols, this might mean providing a text alternative to the image so that when the cursor is positioned over it, a text description is available, which can be picked up by a screen reader program. Video clips can be accompanied by an audio description of the images. Websites can be designed to eliminate or redesign columns and tables, both of which pose difficulties for screen-reading technology.
These few examples only scratch the surface of the accessibility question and deal with only one aspect of the challenges computer users with visual impairments face. There are also numerous design features that can be incorporated to make websites more user-friendly for individuals with learning disabilities, mobility-related impairments, or profound hearing loss.
Creating websites that are accessible to all is the right thing to do. In its current website upgrade, ETFO is building in features that will meet internationally recognized standards for web accessibility.
Increasingly, organizations of all types are also discovering the pitfalls of not opening up their sites. For one thing, they lose potential business. For another, they sometimes find themselves in trouble. Six years ago, a blind sports fan won a discrimination case against the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games. Among other complaints, he was unable to use its website to find out about events.
Recently, Google, Inc. announced the launch of Google Accessible Search, a search tool that ranks web pages based on the simplicity of their layouts and hence, their accessibility to those deploying screen readers. Other major internet companies, like AOL and Yahoo, are likewise introducing features to assist customers with visual impairments. Progress, the kind that moves forward, is long overdue.