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An Introduction to Accessibility

August 11th, 2010

By Matt Cook
Point Click Media

What do you think about when you hear the word ‘accessibility’? Is it just another web buzzword that sounds important? Let’s break it down into its two parts – Access and Ability, or to sum it up in a phrase, the ability to access.

The web is great for so many reasons. I mean of course besides the abundance of lolcats and fail blogs.

Yes really. On the web everyone can essentially be treated as equals regardless of location, ethnicity, physical disability or social background. For business purposes you can communicate or sell to a deaf, wheelchair-bound person in Cameroon just as you could to the guy standing at the cash in your physical store right now. The web breaks down so many barriers that otherwise make the world a pretty socially awkward place.

Hi Screech, great party!

photo credit: dno1967 - kind of like the 1980’s

As the web evolves though, new challenges keep popping up with regard to accessibility. In the early days of the internet, web pages were quite simply text with a few images used sparingly. Accessibility was pretty simple, so long as you could afford the equipment to do so. Now, with the majority of people owning some sort of device that connects to the internet, it has grown into an information hub for our everyday lives, incorporating text, imagery, sound, video and more. But with the addition of these new features comes accessibility problems. The hearing impaired will have difficulty with audio clips. Those with vision problems may have trouble reading smaller text or watching videos. Granted, technologies are constantly being developed to ensure worldwide accessibility to the web, but until worldwide web accessibility becomes a reality, it’s up to each of us as independent website owners to make sure our content is accessible.

Why should I care about such small demographics?

For starters that’s a pretty narrow-minded statement. Accessibility doesn’t lend itself only to the physical features of the people using your website. It extends even to the products we use to visit the web. Are you aware that your Mac reads even the simplest of web pages different than a PC? Suddenly our demographic isn’t so small.

Second, if you have any sort of social conscience at all, you certainly don’t want to discriminate. It’s good business to open your doors to everyone.

Third, it could very well become the law. Just as in most municipalities it is a law to have a wheelchair ramp or some other form of entry to your location for the disabled, such laws could very well make their way to the web. In 2006, retail giant Target was locked in a 2-year court battle over website inaccessibility to the visually impaired. They ultimately ended up settling the case but the precedent exists for more of these cases to pop up in the future. Do you want to take that kind of risk? By planning out your website beforehand  to contain accessible information, you avoid the much more costly solution of jury-rigging a solution down the road.

Next week we’ll examine what to look for on your site to ensure accessibility.

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Posted in Web Tools on August 11th, 2010

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