Gateway to Accessible Web Design
As the internet becomes more popular, making sure that your site is accessible to visitors who may not be able to read small print, or are disabled becomes more important.
As a person challenged with 20/200 vision (legally blind), using computers is difficult unless I can control the size of the output. I used to use a magnifier to see a 13" screen. Now I have a 21" monitor, this helps greatly but many pages are designed using font sizes that are regulated using HTML not style sheets or CSS. Ergo there is no way for the user to adjust the print so that we can read it.
It is a good idea to understand how a blind person uses the Internet before you try to make a site accessible.
The following may help designers who want to make sites that are usable be a greater percentage of the public.
It is the opinion of the Department of Justice that the ADA's (Americans with Disabilities Act). accessibility requirements do apply to private Internet web sites and services.
What this means is that you should label all images with Alt tags so that the blind can understand the meaning of them. If the images require descriptions longer than a couple of words, descriptions may be located on a linked page. Navigational buttons should be accompanied by text links. There are more things that can be done so that persons with visual and dexterity limitations can more easily navigate the web. I can assist in your efforts to accommodate all users.
Learn more about the criteria for making a site more Accessible to all users at the W3c Consortium. Another site to study is Designing More Usable Web Sites, at Trace. Testing your pages to see how well they comply to the current guidelines can be done at Bobby. Take a look at the proposed guidelines that I helped Santa Rosa Junior College to develop.
For more legislative information read a recent memo to the Chairman of the House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Constitution, Congressman Charles Canady urging a hearing regarding the application of the ADA's accessibility requirements to private Internet web sites and services. December 16, 1999.
If all this sounds confusing, it is at first. The most important items to pay attention are:
- Provide alternative text for all images. For images that convey important information, use a d–link (description link).
- Provide alternative text for all applets, or scripts.
- Provide alternative text for all links in image maps.
- Provide alternative text for all graphical buttons.
- Seperate multiple links with text or – space, bar, space.
- If OBJECT was used to incorporate an image, applet of script into a page, the information should also be conveyed in an alternative means in cases where the OBJECT cannot be perceived, such as with “title” or within the body ot the OBJECT element.
- For all audio files, provide textual transcripts of all significant words and sounds.
- If color is used to convey information, the information should be available on a black and white screen.
- Foreground and background colors should provide sufficient to be viewed by someone with color blindness.
- Auto–refreshing and timed response pages should be avoided, or provide alternate pages where refresh only occurs after a link has been selected.
- Pages should be free of any blinking or updating that causes flicker.
- If frames are used, provide titles so that users can keep track of frames by name.
- For pages that use style sheets, structure contents to be read appropriately without the style sheets.
This page is formatted using style sheets. If you view it with style sheets disabled, the font and size of the font, may be controlled by the browser. That is helpful for those with poor vision. My home page is formatted using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). If The visitor disables style sheets, the text lines up at the bottom left side of the page, and the background turns white. The result again is that page is still easily understood.
It is always best to give the people who access your site the most options to view it the way that is best for them. this can be done without sacrificing your artistic approach.
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