What exactly do we mean by ‘accessibility’? It’s not easy to define, since the term can cover many areas and aspects of a resource or product. But when it comes to web sites, “web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the web”. (definition courtesy of the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative). Simple as that. So then why is it so difficult, seemingly, for developers to create a web site that can be accessed by everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability or not?
To be fair, it’s not always the developer’s fault. There are times when their hands are tied, even though they may have the best intentions at heart, by budget constraints – or by a customer who is not willing to pay a little extra money for features that will make their website more accessible. There is also the lack of tools in their working environment which would enable them to fully test a web site (the cost of these tools is not inconsiderable). The aforementioned problems and hindrances can all add up to the development of a product that does not meet accessibility standards.
The Standards
The standards themselves can be migraine-inducing and can some times cancel each other out. And there are so many of them. Different countries have their own set of standards and sets of laws; the UK has the Disability Discrimination Act, the USA has Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, Japan has the Japanese Industrial Standards X 8341-3 and the W3C has a set of its own. Which one is the best? Which one should you be focusing on? Should you be using online or desktop tools to test your website?
In a nutshell, your best tool is simple common sense. Look into the web site you are developing, identify its structure and content, and the answer should present itself. If you feel you do not have the necessary skills and knowledge to improve the accessibility of your site alone however, you may want to consider hiring an experienced professional to do it for you. Both online and desktop tools, either free or not, are very helpful but they lack the human factor, and an experienced eye.
The sooner you start implementing accessible features in the development process, the better. It will save you and your customers time and money but in return, you will earn the users’ trust and loyalty. If they can use the web site you have created without difficulties, they will come back again and again.
Screen readers
One extremely helpful tool to test your web site for accessibility is a screen reader. Screen readers are applications which you install on your workstation and they will “read” the contents of a screen (dialogue boxes, application interfaces and web pages) out loud to you. They are mostly used by users who have visual impairments and thankfully, they are also used by a small percentage of web developers for testing according to a recent survey conducted by WebAIM.
The Windows operating system has one set up out of the box called Narrator, so does Mac OS X Leopard in the form of VoiceOver, and Ubuntu, a popular Linux distribution also comes with its own screen reader, named Orca pre-installed.
NVDA
Personally, I have never found Narrator to be very easy to use and have encountered some problems while using it for testing web sites so I started looking for an alternative solution. The answer to my problem came in the form of “NVDA” (NonVisual Desktop Access). And best of all? It is absolutely open source and free. Of course, there are other products out there such as the ever-popular JAWS, but this small application can save you (or your business) money and it works really well for a piece of software that is still in its infancy.
The NVDA web site offers extensive documentation on how to install and use the application, which can also be run from a USB stick (portable version). As expected from a screen reader, most of the functions are accessed via keyboard shortcuts which take some time getting used to if you have not used such a programme before. But once you master the shortcuts you will realise how powerful this tool is in helping you build web sites and web applications that are easily accessible by visually impaired users and it will help you identify any problems that a screen reader use might face while trying to use your web site.
That is not the end of your journey though… Do not forget that there are other impairments such as colour blindness, auditory impairments, cognitive disabilities and movement disorders such as the Parkinson’s disease, to name but a few. These can cause difficulties to many who use the Internet on a daily basis and using a variety of tools to check your web sites can help make your site more accessible for them, also allowing you to achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. It might seem difficult to follow all these guidelines and to use these tools at first but it soon becomes second nature. And the end result is a web site that can be accessed by everyone without difficulties.
Good luck!
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Richard Padley
Managing Director,
Semantico
Interesting. Our company has looked into this a couple of times, at the interest of some of our government clients. However, after doing a little digging and speaking with company’s who do this for a living, there wasn’t a good place to start, really. And it seems to come in waves – maybe every 2-3 years one of our clients may ask about this. However, are unable or unwilling to pay for the labor required to change their particular site. I agree that all of the requirements and specifications can make your head spin.
How do you address the price to make these changes, because it’s not cheap and if your client isn’t willing to pay, then do you feel it then is the responsibility of the vendor to absorb those costs?
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