When building a website take in account that people with disabilities also surf the net so don't forget them. One thing you can do to help people who are visually impaired is to add the alt key attribute to your site. This helps them because it gives them a description of what the images are when they hover over one on the site. This is then read out to them using a screen reader such as Jaws. Here's a short film on how people with disabilities use the internet below
JAWS - Job Access With Speech
Jaws is a screen reader programme that helps the visually impaired to use their computers and surf the net. It helps them by giving them the information that is on screen via what is known as text to speech. This converts the text that appears on screen into speech so a voice on the computer reads out to the user what is on the page of the website they are on. Below is an example of Jaws in action.
Dolphin Guide
Dolphin Guide is another programme with an in-built screen reader and screen magnifier. As with the Jaws programme the information is read out to you by the computer and you can enlarge the text on screen using the screen magnifier. The Dolphin Guide is ideal for people who are blind or visually impaired, have little or no computer experience and has little or no technical ability.
Navigation
Make sure the navigation is clear and consistent throughout the site and that the position of the navigation is the same on all the pages. Make sure the navigation names are short and clear and that they tie in with each page. For example if you are on the home page make sure the user knows this.
10 Things To Implement When Building A Website To Make It Accessible To All
Below are 10 things you need to implement to a website to make it accessible to all. They are excerpts from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (WCAG 1.0)
- Images: Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual.
- Image Maps: Use the client-side map and text for hotspots.
- Multimedia: Provide captioning and transcripts of audio, and descriptions of video.
- Hypertext Links: Use text that makes sense when read out of context. For example, avoid "click here".
- Page Setup: Use headings, lists and consistent structure. Use CSS for layout and style where possible.
- Graphs & Charts: Summarize or use the longdesc attribute.
- Scripts, Applets & Plug-ins: Provide alternative content in case active features are inaccessible or unsupported.
- Frames: Use the noframes element and meaningful titles.
- Tables: Make line-by-line reading sensible. Summarize
- Check Your Work: Validate use tools, checklist and guidelines at http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG/
Our Visit To HERIB - Hull and East Riding Institute For The Blind
I arranged for us all to into HERIB so we could see for ourselves first hand how a blind person users the internet. We where shown a short film which talked about accessibility and how people with disabilities use computers. On the film we saw a disabled man using the computer just by the movement of his head using what is known as the virtual keyboard. There was also a person using voice recognition to work the computer. We then chatted to Sue Watling from HERIB who gave us a short talk about accessibility which was informative. We discovered that Amazon, M & S and even the 10 Downing Street websites aren't accessible for the visually impaired because of the content on them. Sue also talked about Bobby this was a free public service that aimed to make the web more accessible for people with disabilities. Bobby allows the user to test the web page to make sure it follows the accessibility guidelines.
Once we had finished talking to Sue we where shown some of the programmes we had talked about on the computers they have. Overall the visit to HERIB was very informative and useful and I am going to contact them again to see if we can arrange another visit because we didn't have that much time there. Also it would be good if we could arrange to see first hand a person who is visually impaired using the programme infront of us.
References
