A Guide for Website Developers About How to Accommodate Users with Low Education, Low Motivation

Users with low education are users who have obtained limited level of education. These educationally disadvantaged people acquired and applied complex reasoning, but the lack of basic reading comprehension and communications skills hinder their success in education and skilled occupations. Low level of education effectively equals to functional illiteracy. Even though there is a significant increase in Internet use for individuals with elementary education (129%) from 1998 to 2000, only 9.1% of those with elementary education versus 75.5% with Bachelor's Degree or more uses the Internet [2]. More than one out of five adult Americans are functionally illiterate, and their ranks are swelling by about 2.3 million persons each year. Nearly 40 percent of minority youth and 30 percent of semiskilled and unskilled workers are illiterate [1]. It is hence necessary to address website accessibility issues pertaining to this group of users.

Lim, Ser Nam. Universal Usability (2001). Design>Usability>Accessibility

A Guide to Accessibility

An accessible site allows all users to access it, regardless of their browser, resolution, settings, or eyesight. Accessible sites are open to the world's 750 million disabled people, including the sizeable blind population. Through better authoring, Web information providers can avoid shutting out the world's disabled population from the information age, and can garner a good portion of this largely ignored market.

Quinn, Liam. Web Design Group, The (1997). Design>Accessibility>Web Design

A Guide to Making Documents Accessible to People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

This document contains a comprehensive discussion about how to make print and electronic information available to people with visual impairments in a variety of accessible formats. Consumers who have limited vision or are totally blind have unique access needs. These needs depend on the amount of vision each person has for reading. Some people have usable vision, allowing them to read large print. Others choose to read braille on paper, while a third group prefers to use a computer with synthetic speech, or refreshable braille display, to read electronic documents.

Sutton, Jennifer. American Council of the Blind (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Visual

Guidelines for Accessible Web Site: Technology and Users  

Accessible design goes beyond accommodating the mentally or physically impaired. With new technologies and greater global access, accessible design now includes technological as well as user considerations.

Ward, Michele, Philip Rubens and Sherry Southard. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Accessibility>Web Design

Guidelines for Writing Accessible Online Help

This article describes how to write effective on-line help for blind and low vision users of text based readers. The authors draw on their collective experience in both using text (screen) readers like JAWS to access web applications as well as preparing accessibility help for web pages and applications. This article doesn't include specific information about building web interfaces or sites, use of controls for accessibility within web sites, Section 508 or WAI Standards and Guidelines, or specific information about hardware or software. We include JAWS instructions as an example because it is commonly used in the United States. Also, we don't include information about actual language used within an interface and how to write it to make the interface more accessible. We are only discussing how to write Help pertaining to the interface itself.

Reed, Will, Everyl Yankee and Wendi Fornoff. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Visual

Hearing Disabilities

Most developers don't think about individuals who are deaf when they think of Web accessibility. For too many developers, Web accessibility consists of adhering to a few guidelines that ensure accessibility to screen readers for the blind. On one level, this is understandable. People who are blind will have the most trouble, since the Web is a visual medium...or is it?

WebAIM (2001). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Audio

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

HERA: Accessibility Testing with Style

HERA is a tool to check the accessibility of Web pages accoridng to the specification Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0). HERA performs a preliminary set of tests on the page and identifies any automatically detectable errors or checkpoints met, and which checkpoints need further manual verification.

HERA. Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Standards

Hermish

A free online tool to analyze the accessibility of websites. With Hermish, make your pages comply to accessibility guidelines. Accessibility relates to section 508 and priority levels.

Slinn, Gareth. Hermish (2004). Resources>Web Design>Accessibility>Section 508

High Accessibility Is Effective Search Engine Optimization

It’s no coincidence that search engines love highly accessible websites; in fact, by designing for accessibility, you’re already using effective search-engine optimization techniques. Andy Hagans explains yet another reason to pay attention to accessibility.

Hagans, Andy. List Apart, A (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Search

High Accessibility, High Design: CSS to the Rescue

Anyone with good graphic-design skills can use Web standards to produce attractive Web sites that function adequately for nearly all viewers and very well for most viewers – including people with disabilities. This article will explore a few details concerning the interplay of accessibility and Web design.

Voren, Naar. NaarVoren.nl (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>CSS

How Accessible is Safari?

When Apple released Safari on to the unsuspecting world in 2003, it caught a lot of people off guard. The ripples are still being felt - Mozilla's source code was rejected in favour of the smaller code base of KHTML, and more recently Opera has suggested that it may no longer make a version of its browser for the Macintosh platform. And then, of course, there's the whole issue of how web developers can keep up with yet another browser foisted upon them - does it support agreed web standards? Or does it break standards-compliant sites in horrible new inventive ways?

Lloyd, Ian and Garrett Smith. Accessify (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Web Browsers

How Disabled Users Access the Internet

There's more to web accessibility than making your website screen reader-friendly. Find out more here!

Moss, Trenton. Webcredible (2004). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

How Nationwide Tackled Accessibility - The Whole Story

A piece written by Ian Lloyd (Accessify bod) about how accessibility was worked into the project management life cycle.

Lloyd, Ian. Usability News (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility

How People with Disabilities Use the Web

This document provides an introduction to use of the Web by people with disabilities. It illustrates some of their requirements when using Web sites and Web-based applications, and provides supporting information for the guidelines and technical work of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C (2001). Design>Accessibility>Web Design

How to Judge a Website's Accessibility Level

Many web developers and administrators are conscious of the need to ensure that their web sites reach as high a level of accessibility as possible. But how do you actually find out whether a site has accessibility problems? Certainly, you can not assume that if no complaints have been received through the site feedback facility (assuming you have one), there are no problems. Many people affected by accessibility problems will just give up and go somewhere else. So you must be proactive in rooting out any problems as soon as possible. Fortunately, there are a number of handy ways to help you get an idea of the level of accessibility of the site, which do not require an in-depth understanding of web design or accessibility issues. It may be impractical to test every page, but try to make sure you check the Home page plus as many high traffic pages as possible.

Sloan, David. TechDis (2000). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Assessment

How To Make PDFs Compliant With Section 508  

First, if you don't produce forms for federal government, it is wasted time, but there is information available. Adobe has the accessibility section on its Web site with useful documentation. There are other Web sites about accessibility in general on all the federal government sites, and finally, there are further links from there. Also, if you are providing forms for a federal government agency, you should get in touch with their 'Section 508 representative,' who will give you guidelines for that agency's way to implement it.

Wyss, Max. PDFzone (2000). Design>Accessibility>Adobe Acrobat>Section 508

How to Save Web Accessibility from Itself

If you choose to make standards-compliant websites, inevitably you will have to follow the guidelines. It's foreseeable that you could be legally required to follow WCAG 2.0. You could opt into following the guidelines or they could be foisted upon you. You thus have an enlightened self-interest in ensuring the new guidelines actually make sense. Moreover, we simply need more contributors.

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

How To Sell Accessibility

You want to build accessible sites, but your clients don't see the need. How can you convince them to fork over the cash it'll take to ensure their site's accessible by all Web users? Trenton has the answers...

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

HTML Commandments

Hypertext links should be descriptive, and should make sense when they are read one at a time or out of context.

Shumila, Dena. ATRC. Design>Accessibility>Web Design

Human-Computer Interaction for Kids  

How is designing computer software and hardware for kids different from designing for adults? At the time of this writing, little formal research has been done on this topic. Most research done to date has focused on designing educational software, and evaluation is primarily of learning outcomes, not usability. However, usability is a prerequisite for learning.

Bruckman, Amy and Alisa Bandlow. Georgia Institute of Technology (2002). Design>Usability>Accessibility>Children

I Walk, I See, I Hear

For 40 years I had taken no notice of the locations of ramps in public buildings, the height or number of stairs, or if pay phones had instructions in Braille. My, how things have changed for me since January when I took on the challenge of writing the Special Needs SIG's Conference Guide for People with Special Needs for the Society's 50th International Conference in Dallas.

Shumway, Jodi. Usability Interface (2003). Design>Usability>Accessibility

IBM バリアフリーの扉

米国IBMアクセシビリティ・センターの提供情報や、IBMアクセシビリティ・リサーチ・グループによる高齢者・視覚障害者関連情報の公開など、アクセシブルな情報社会のための関連リソース。インターネット閲覧支援ソフト「らくらくウェブ散策®」の紹介など。

IBM. (Japanese) Design>Web Design>Accessibility

Imagine: You Complete Your Site and Then Discover...You Forgot Accessibility

It’s taken awhile, but webmasters are starting to get the hang of designing Web sites that work for most users. But don’t rest yet: webmasters will soon need to add a completely new set of Web design skills. Increasingly, Web sites will have to accommodate disabled users. Disabled users? That’s right. Even people with no sight at all can “hear” the Web, through special browsers that read out the code on Web pages. New US regulations require that all Federal sites (and the sites of Federal contractors) work in this format. Other countries are adopting similar rules, and non-government sites are increasingly coming under pressure from users to offer options for the disabled.

Sherman, Bernard and Terence de Giere. Everyone.net (2002). Design>Web Design>Accessibility