Web Accessibility for the Visually Impaired

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In the beginning of the web, the site were based with largely text. But, things are different now. Today it is possible to navigate entire sites by reading no more than a handful of words. Users have grown tremendously to colorful image.

But when users cannot see these images, navigation is far more difficult where the site may be totally inaccessible and this would be the disadvantage. However, information content is dispersed among words, picture, sounds and video. Good layout makes for inviting reading where the reader can identify the text and it may read words out of sequence since sentences have been chopped up to improve the page layout.

So how is one to get the content and hopefully the context of information on today's sites? In order to get around these issues, we need to design web pages with accessibility in mind from the beginning. And all of the content needs to be accessible through multiple channels.

At the very least the content needs to be text-based, and current web page standards have taken this into consideration. When developers place pictures onto a web page, they may be asked for alternate text for these images. This is not where developers name or comment on the picture; this is where they describe what is in the picture. They must imagine they are trying to describe the image to a friend over the phone.

Other disabilities benefit from this duplication of content across multiple channels. A deaf person can still see the video and now can read a narration. And persons with cognitive disabilities, especially those that limit attention span, can watch a video, see the text, and hear the text all at once. Information is presented with multiple channels and these channels increase the ability to concentrate on that information by blocking out other input.

By following the idea of universe recommendation for one disability, a web site becomes accessible to a broad range people.

Source :http://www.bgsu.edu/cconline/wilferthhart/4.htm

Accessibility tips

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Do you all know what are the best tips for making the web accessible? Most of you will think by making the text larger will be accessible for people with disability. But there are more tips for making a web site accessible. The tips as below :

1) Web Accessibility is designed to promote access by individuals with limited environments.

Following are things that keep in mind about potential users from W3C web content accessibility guideline :

• They may not be able to see, hear, move or understand easily
• They may have difficulty reading or comprehending text.
• They may not have or be able to use a keyboard or a mouse.
• They may not have an early version of a browser.
• They may have a slow connection, a small screen, a text-only screen.
• They may not speak or understand fluently the language in the document written.

2) Use the markup and style sheets properly

Avoid from using the structural markup for the visual result given by popular browsers. Documents that contain orderly and appropriate structural markup can be transfer to almost any type of user agent or display device and stand still on their own easily.

3) Ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes

Not everyone can read information at the same pace. If you have scrolling or changing information, be sure there is a mechanism available for the user to pause or stop the flow of data so that it can be more easy for the user to get what the information within their time.

4) Ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces

If an embedded object such as ActiveX control is used, the interface for that object must also be accessible so that other user with different browser can also see the object that posted by the writer.

5) Design for device independence

Not everyone has a mouse, and not everyone has a keyboard at home. Keyboard shortcuts, tabbing order, and event handlers all contribute to the accessibility of forms and elements. Keep in mind that people with a variety of input devices may interact with your documents.

6) Use the W3C technologies and guidelines

Adhere to W3C recommendations for markup and content development guidelines ; this provides greater security that the writer documents degrade gracefully to software that may not fully implement the most recent technologies.

7) Provide a clear navigation mechanisms

The most frequently used feature of any web site is the navigation system. No matter on a site a user may be, there should be a way to return to the home page with only one or two steps. This will create conveniences for various of users.

This are the 7 tips of making a web site accessible for various of users and I believe that, there are more tips on making a web site accessible as the technology now is getting more and more modern which would soon becoming the generation Z!

Source : http://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/tips.htm

Policy Relating to Web Accessibility

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The web's emergence as a pivotal form of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) raises interesting questions about application of existing laws and policies to the new medium, and the importance of all members in the society, including people with disabilities.

There is a growing body of national laws and policies which address accessibility of ICT which include the internet and the web as well. There is also a great variety of approaches among these laws and policies : some take the approach of establishing a human right to ICT ; others to approach that any ICT purchased by government must be accessible ; others that any ICT sold in a given market must be accessible and there are still other to be approach.

A separate document, addresses issues which frequently arise when establishing policies on web accessibility. There include, for instance, simple and comprehensive sample policy statements ; conformance levels for web sites as well as web related software ; defining the scope, milestones, and monitoring processes for web accessibility.

Source : http://www.w3.org/

ColorBlindExt – Better Web Accessibility for Colorblind Users

LINK TO US : http://snipr.com/umor8

Have you ever wondered, if you can’t see certain things on a website because of your color blindness? This time is over now—at least for colorblind Firefox users.

The Firefox add-on called ColorBlindExt was released just recently and is a great support to discover things which you couldn’t see up to now. The developers describe it as follows:

His extension helps color blinds while browsing the web, by processing images and text on the page according to the type of user’s color blindness. Color Blindness detection test is included for creating awareness among people.

After installation (see further down) as a first step you should take the color blindness test available through the newly added menu called ColorBlindExt. The test is based on Ishihara plates and will tell you, which type of color blindness you are suffering from. It detects protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia and even monochromacy, which means you are completely colorblind.

After taking the test the filter will be set according to your results. This can be changed at any time. Also the filter can be completely enabled or disabled however you like.

Image obtained from : http://www.colblindor.com/2007/06/20/colorblindext-better-web-accessibility-for-colorblind-users/

Personally I like the image filtering on demand. Through this option, which is also available on the context menu when clicking on an image, pictures and diagrams can be enhanced according to my type of color deficient vision.

The developers took the image filtering even one step further. Through the settings you even can adjust the level of deficiency and a choose from a noise reduction and sharpening option. This lets you play around and find the settings which fit the best to your personal color vision.

The tool also has some limitations, which don’t really restrict the usage to me when I look at them.

Page contents like flash objects, applets, media players can’t be filtered, it is out of scope.
Only elements accessed by DOM are processed.

Unfortunately the installation isn’t a single click and run. I tried to summarize all requirements including the links to get the latest software if you are missing some of them. I hope this helps you to get your colorblind webpage filter up and running without a hassle. Be aware that you need administration privileges if you have to install new software like the Java run time environment.

Hopefully this tool will help you to access some websites more easily than before or to read some colorful and up to now undistinguishable chart lines. And I also hope this tool isn’t used as an excuse for web designers to disregard accessibility, especially concerning color blindness.

Source : http://www.colblindor.com/2007/06/20/colorblindext-better-web-accessibility-for-colorblind-users/

Week 3 poll result

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Which components do you think it is more important for people with disability while surfing the net?

As you can see most of the readers selected all above which are 55.6%, 33.3% for audio and 11.1% for animation.

Component that is included in a web page that is targeted to the disabled people is very important as some of these people will not be able to read, listen or speak.

The browser that is used by the disabled while surfing the net needs to consider about this few elements. From the research that has been conducted online, it shows that most people consider that all Text, Graphic, Animation and Audio are equally important. Every different part helps in different ways to the disabled people. Audio are mostly used for blind people as they cannot see.

Text, Animation and Graphics are considered as visual aid that helps in communicating with the deaf and dumb people. All different parts are equally important for the disabled people.

This shows that all the components are important for people with disability and even all the readers agreed on it. This should be a really good questions to be asked to figure it out that all the components are important in a website for people with disability usage.

Stay tune with us. Please kindly vote for our weekly poll. thank you! :)

Web Accessibility Guide

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You might wonder how a blind person can surf the net at all, is it with the visual or other things? Blind and other disabled today can surf the net as long as the web designer consider accessibility requirements when they were designing the web site.

For example, Blind people can surf the net using speech or braille browsers. These browsers either can speak out the text on page or convert it to braille which only read text, so you need to be careful when using image maps as navigation bars or the blind may not be able to navigate your site.

A partially sighted person might need to view your site in larger font size or with more contrast between the text and also background. Most browsers will allow these people to adjust the text size and colours, that is why, you need to ensure your page allows their browser to do this.

A physically disabled person might not be able to use a mouse, and would perhaps use a keyboard or other device to tab down the links on the page. You can help by organised links in a sensible manner.

Accessibility in a general sense is about making your site easy to use. This means having intuitive navigation and a clean layout. Visitors to the net are generally looking for information, and are more likely to stay on a site that provides this information in a quick and straightforward manner.

For more information, you can log in to http://www.vordweb.co.uk/accessibility.htm

Source : http://www.vordweb.co.uk/accessibility.htm