Accessibility Arguments Revisited

Frontend has recently completed the delivery of the first version (1.1) of the Irish National Disability Authority (NDA) IT Accessibility Guidelines. In the course of our work for the NDA over the last year we’ve talked to a wide variety groups and individuals who have an interest in accessibility and as a result of their input, our approach has shifted a little. Here’s what we found out.

Poskitt, Henry. Frontend Infocentre (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Accessibility Is Not Enough

A strict focus on accessibility as a scorecard item doesn't help users with disabilities. To help these users accomplish critical tasks, you must adopt a usability perspective.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Accountability of Accessibility and Usability

Focus on your users, all of them. Learn from mistakes currently made on the Web. If a user can't fill out a form, they can't buy anything from your site. People turned away by unusable sites will probably try a competitor's site. Don't be the site that turned people away. Make your Web site as usable and accessible as possible. It's the business savvy thing to do. It's the right thing to do. If you don't, someone just might force you legally to do it or threaten to sue.

Pavka, Anitra. Digital Web Magazine (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People

With current Web design practices, users without disabilities experience three times higher usability than users who are blind or have low vision. Usability guidelines can substantially improve the matter by making websites and intranets support task performance for users with disabilities.

Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2001). Design>Accessibility>Web Design>Universal Usability

Designing More Usable Web Sites

This section of Designing a More Usable World is dedicated to cooperative efforts linked toward building a more usable Web for all. At the present time, there are a number of interlocking and interrelated efforts.

University of Wisconsin (2001). Resources>Usability>Accessibility>Web Design

Disabling Innovation

Setting legal standards for making websites 'accessible' to all won't help web designers, or users.

Perks, Martyn. Spiked Online (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility

This document outlines approaches for preliminary review Web site accessibility, and for evaluation of conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. While it does not provide checkpoint-by-checkpoint testing techniques it does include general procedures and tips for evaluation during development of Web sites, and for monitoring of established Web sites. Other resources will be developed for in-depth compliance testing. The measures described here are intended to supplement an organization's existing procedures for content management and quality assurance on their Web sites. For information about why making Web sites accessible is important read the Introductions on the WAI Resources page.

W3C. Articles>Accessibility>Usability>Web Design

Facts and Opinion About Fahrner Image Replacement

Fahrner Image Replacement and its analogues aim to combine the benefits of high design with the requirements of accessibility. But how well do these methods really work? Accessibility expert Joe Clark digs up much-needed empirical data on how FIR works (and doesn’t) in leading screen readers.

Clark, Joe. List Apart, A (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Helping Low-vision and Other Users with Web Sites That Meet Their Needs: Is One Site for All Feasible?    

For this study, we recruited low-vision users with a variety of vision problems who need software to magnify computer text. Although we did not systematically recruit for specific vision problems, the fact that our users had different needs gave us one of the most critical insights in this study: The needs of low-vision users are too diverse for simple solutions to Web accessibility and usability. We show a few ways in which today’s Web sites are missing the needs of all low-vision users and provide guidelines for fixing those problems. However, the diversity of vision needs and the resulting adaptations that low-vision users require mean that there are no simple solutions to making Web sites work for everyone. In this article, therefore, you will not find many simple guidelines. Instead, we raise a critical issue and suggest a 'vision of the future' solution.

Theofanos, Mary Frances and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. Technical Communication Online (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Improving Accessibility for Motor Impaired Users

The unique requirements for motor impaired web users can often be overlooked or poorly implemented. Motor impairments can be caused by a stroke, Parkinson's disease, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), a physical disability or even a broken arm. This group of users essentially have limited or no ability to use a mouse.

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2007). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Increasing the Accessibility of the Web through Style Sheets, Scripts and 'Plug-ins'

The W3C WAI Page Authoring Guidelines (Vanderheiden, et al, 1998a) contains nineteen general concepts that Web page authors should follow to make their pages more accessible and usable, not only to people with disabilities, but for newer page viewing technologies (mobile and voice), for electronic agents such as indexing robots, and etc. In this paper/presentation, we will talk about and demonstrate how scripts and style sheets can be implemented today, and still work on systems that do not support scripts and style sheets ('Transform gracefully'). We also talk about and demonstrate how the data in a table can be presented and navigated both via scripting and by an accompanying application ('Context and navigation').

Chisholm, Wendy and Mark Novak. University of Wisconsin (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

A Journey Through Accessibility

Identifies web accessibility problems throughout the web generations, and summarises where we are now, and what we can expect for the future.

Scano, Roberto. Juicy Studio (2006). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Let Them Eat Cake

A growing debate pits accessibility against usability. From our point of view, it’s like pitting peanut butter against jelly. This article helps you create a page that is both usable and accessible, saving readers the trouble of scrolling with a little help from JavaScript and the Document Object Model.

Gustafson, Aaron. List Apart, A (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Setting Usability Requirements For A Web Site Containing A Form  

We describe the challenges of understanding and setting usability requirements for a web site containing a form. We define 'usability requirements.' Ideally, usability requirements should be defined early in a project. In practice, we often find that the first opportunity we have is when we are asked to undertake an evaluation. Collecting the users' opinions of the requirements as part of the evaluation can often prompt the organization into investigating the users, leading to a better set of requirements and, eventually, a better web site.

Miller, Sarah and Caroline Jarrett. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Accessibility>Web Design>Usability

Text-Only is not Accessible

Text-only websites are not suited to all users with impairments. Although they are often ideal for users who are blind and use a screen reader, accessibility goes far beyond this user group.

Magennis, Mark. Frontend Infocentre (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

UK Accessibility Investigation of 1,000 Web Sites - Results Released

An investigation of 1000 UK Web sites carried out on behalf of the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) reveals unacceptably poor (in fact woeful) accessibility. At least 81% of sites failed to meet the minimum accessibility standard, and this figure is likely to be much higher.

Dodd, Jon. Usability Professionals Association (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

The "Vision Thing"

It's important for Web designers to have a basic understanding of the mechanics of human visual perception. To the extent that your pages are 'easy on the eyes,' readers will find your site more inviting and more readable. Conversely, pages that visually overstimulate a reader are not only more difficult to read, but much more likely to result in eyestrain, fatigue, even headaches (none of which is particularly popular among readers).

Sullivan, Terry. All Things Web (1996). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Web Design

Visual vs. Cognitive Disabilities

Graphics are not directly accessible to people who are blind, yet graphics can be beneficial (in some cases necessary) to individuals with cognitive disabilities. Are these two disability types at odds with each other? How can Web developers reconcile the needs of these two very different audiences? Read more about the apparent conflicting interests in our feature article.

Bohman, Paul, Shane Anderson and Sachin Pavithran. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Visually Challenged Users and Need for a Universally Accessible Web Site

Visually impaired people suffer from no faults of their own. This is quite worthy of consideration that a little more efforts toward adoption of certain features in your web site can help them retrieve information in the desired manner. Their ease of accessibility to your web site will not go unrewarded; they can well augment your business interests by turning into your most valuable customers.

Azam, Rahbre. Amateur Writerz (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Introduction to Screen Readers

Begins by showing us the core functionality of screen readers and how they interact with the desktop. In the second part it demonstrates how a blind user may use them to explore and understand web sites, how sites are “linearized”, and how using semantic markup to build sites supports accessible navigation and usability.

Tsaran, Victor. Yahoo (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Introduction to Screen Magnifiers

Karo Caran and Victor Tsaran show how the screen magnifier ZoomText is used to make the computer desktop and web sites readable to people with reduced vision.

Caran, Karo and Victor Tsaran. Yahoo (2007). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Universal Usability

Understanding Disabilities when Designing a Website

This article will explain some simple techniques which, if incorporated into the design of a website, will enhance its accessibility and usability for people who have a vision, hearing, physical, cognitive, or learning disability.

Tomlinson, Leona. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Secret Benefits of Accessibility Part 1: Increased Usability

Web accessibility has so many benefits that I really do wonder why such a large number of Websites have such diabolically bad accessibility. One of the main benefits is increased usability, which, according to usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, can increase the sales/conversion rate of a Website by 100%, and traffic by 150%.

Moss, Trenton. SitePoint (2004). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability

Seven Screen Reader Usability Tips

Simply ensuring that your Website is accessible to screen reader users is, unfortunately, not enough to guarantee that these users can find what they're looking for in a reasonably quick and efficient manner. Even if your site is accessible to screen reader users, its usability could be so poor that they needn't have bothered stooping by in the first place.

Moss, Trenton. SitePoint (2005). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Usability