Bread & Butter Pixels

Because so much information is now available in electronic format, people with disabilities have more options for how to access information than they had in the past and they can often do so independently, where they might previously have had to rely on others for assistance. Sometimes this involves using "assistive devices" or software to adapt a computer to one's own disability. For example, blind people can use "screen reader" software to recite text on the screen, to navigate around the screen and to give commands to the computer, providing them with an unprecedented degree of independence in access to information. Someone with motor control problems might use a special keyboard designed to cancel out the effects of hand tremors.

There are many obstacles that can destroy the potential of the Internet for those with disabilities. Sometimes, information can be unavailable to people with certain disabilities even when it is posted online.

If the links on a page are very small, someone with motor control problems might have trouble using them (and someone with a cognitive attention disorder might have trouble finding them). If a page contains images, a blind visitor using screen-reading software cannot access the information conveyed by the images (or even know whether it is important or trivial information) unless equivalent text is provided for the screen reader to recite. If an exam review page shows correct and incorrect answers in green and red, a red-green colour-blind individual may not be able to use the page as intended. And if multimedia elements like video or audio clips are included, a deaf person will miss out on some of the information unless a text transcript or explanation is provided. Ironically, sometimes Web sites can exclude those clients who may stand to gain the most from them.

You can avoid a lot of the potential problems for accessibility in your Website by planning ahead for clients with disabilities. The great benefit of improving accessibility is that this usually improves the quality of Web pages for all visitors to your site. How?

• Describing a complex image, table or diagram in the text of your page makes the information available to clients who can't see, and can assist sighted clients who may have difficulty interpreting the visual information.
• Using headings consistently (and generously) is important to clients with learning disabilities (who need extra contextual clues) and to blind clients (who use screen readers to scan the page), as well as to everyone who finds a clearly-structured document easier to understand.
• A text transcript of an audio clip benefits deaf clients, and can be a valuable tool to help everyone to concentrate more effectively as they listen.

An accessible Web site is generally more usable for your clients in a wide variety of situations, such as those who have older computers and slow Internet connections, or those who use a handheld computer to browse the Internet in text-only mode.