Do-It-Yourself Accessibility

If the World Wide Web is to ever become a truly universal medium, then changes have to be made to make it accessible to everyone. Nowadays, most television programmes have subtitles for deaf viewers, buildings are made accessible to wheelchair users, and books are recorded so that people can listen to them. Now it's time to apply these same principles to the Web!

Accessibility - Who Cares?

Accessibility simply means providing flexibility to accommodate each user's needs and preferences. In an Internet context, accessibility is making computer technology and Internet resources useful to more people than would otherwise be the case. We need Internet accessibility because it expands a Website's potential audience to the millions who are required to use alternative browsing technologies.

But even for people who do not have any specific physical or mental characteristics that affect computer use, it has been found that the adoption of universal design principles can:

• reduce fatigue,
• increase speed,
• decrease errors, and
• decrease learning time for all users.

In many ways, universal design addresses the larger issues of usability and makes things easier for everyone.

Get with the Guidelines

On May 5, 2000, the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Web Accessibility Initiative published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, known as WCAG for short. The WCAG have been implemented on many sites and can be used very effectively to develop an accessible Website.

The Content Accessibility Guidelines designated as high priority items are:

1. provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content


2. don't rely on colour alone


3. use mark-up and style sheets properly


4. clarify natural language use


5. create tables that transform gracefully


6. ensure that pages featuring new technologies transform gracefully


7. ensure user control of time-sensitive content changes


8. ensure direct accessibility of embedded user interfaces


9. design for device independence


10. use interim solutions


11. use W3C technologies and guidelines


12. provide context and orientation information


13. provide clear navigation mechanisms


14. ensure that documents are clear and simple

Do-It-Yourself Accessibility

So how can you ensure that your Website is actually accessible? You have read the guidelines, made sure that you followed them as closely as possible, but how can you check them? Luckily, there are quite a few things that you can do.

Firstly, you can check the site yourself:

1. Turn off graphics


2. Turn off sounds


3. Check the contrast by viewing the page in greyscale


4. Turn off style sheets


5. Turn off scripts, applets, or other programmatic objects


6. Use the largest font size allowed by a browser


7. Resize the browser window


8. Select all text and copy it into a word processor to make sure it makes sense

Once you're satisfied that you've made your Website as usable as possible under these conditions, why not try using an automated accessibility tool? There's a number of free, easy-to-use tools out there that can help make sure your site complies with accessibility guidelines.