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3.04 Accessibility
Addressing accessibility issues helps your site to
be seen and appreciated by the maximum number of people. As a bonus,
a site that is fully accessible for all users is also fully accessible
to the search engines.
W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium ( W3C ) was founded by the inventor
of the web, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1994. It has long term goals for
the Web and for Universal Access. Its' target is:
| " To make the Web accessible to all
by promoting technologies that take into account the vast differences
in culture, languages, education, ability, material resources,
access devices, and physical limitations of users on all continents
" |
WCAG
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are provided by W3C to help
web designers make pages fully accessible. If a site conforms to
the guidelines it can display a dated conformance claim on its pages
i.e.
“ This site conforms to WCAG 1.0.
Level A 4 April 2004 "
Adaptive technologies
The guidelines don't expect you to produce sites that look any different.
A normal user is unlikely to notice the difference. The guidelines
do require you to present your information in an alternative way
when it makes it easier for someone to read who is using an older
computer, a very new phone or adaptive technologies like text to
speech converters or tactile braille displays.
Example guideline
From Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0
“For non-text content, provide text
equivalents that serve the same purpose or convey the same information
as the non-text content, except when the sole purpose of the non-text
content is to create a specific sensory experience (for example,
music and visual art) in which case a text label or description
is sufficient. “
Example in practice
Each image on your web site can be associated with an “ALT”
tag – a block of text, displayed as your cursor hovers over
a picture in some browsers. The guidelines specify that alt text
has to be present for the benefit of those who can't see the picture
– maybe because they are blind and using a text reader or maybe
because they are using a mobile phone built into a watch.
The text shouldn't simply describe the image. It should replace
the function of the image in the page. A right pointing arrow, clearly
understandable as a link to the next page in a series, should be
labeled “next page” not “arrow”.
© Vetlist Ltd 2004
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