 Where has the website accessibility discussion gone?
Posted by Ben Hewett — March 31, 2008 11:54 am In the early part of this decade, the design and usability community was actively engaged in a discussion of how to make the Internet more accessible to those with vision or cognitive disabilities. User interface expert Jakob Nielsen published a fairly detailed report on the topic in 2001 and the WC3, the organization that governs the standards of website development, formed the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group. There was also very spirited criticism and discussion of the above published by Jeffrey Zeldman, editor of the web development and usability online journal, A List Apart. While these conversations represent a good start, there is still much more to be explored today - particularly in the context of online health communities and educational resources accessed daily for support and inspiration by an increasing number of people. While most web developers are providing basic tools for those with vision or cognitive disabilities – providing larger text size, or using more white space and simple navigational features, what seems to be missing is a new approach that puts the community of people with disabilities at the center of marketing briefs and usability studies. At Zoomedia, our work with the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation and the Epilepsy Therapy Project puts us at the center of this challenge. Both PDF and ETP support users with impaired cognitive and/or motor skills and required very careful consideration in the development of their online strategies. How can we make information easy to find so users who rely on screen readers such as JAWS, do not have to wait for each link to be read? What is the most effective way to display complicated functionality or highlight large amounts of content in a way that is easy to navigate for people who have ALS or Parkinson’s disease, who may rely on alternative input devices to navigate through web pages? How can content be written in a way that is both engaging yet informative, providing users insight into its purpose before having to waste their time going to page that is not useful to their needs? Are things like animation a hindrance for people with epilepsy who could have a seizure triggered by a simple banner ad? These are all key questions that need to be addressed and answered early in the design process in the development of patient education websites, pharmaceutical product websites, and most importantly online communities. On March 12th of this year, the WC3 published a new and updated guide that updates the discussion to match the proliferation of browser improvements, CSS display standards, and uses of such ubiquitous plug-in platforms such as Flash. Unfortunately, the guide itself is written, laid out, and organized to be a very confusing read especially for anyone not entirely intimate with web development and design. So while product and marketing managers should familiarize themselves with the latest guidelines when developing an online strategy, the responsibility really falls on us, your agency, to drive the thinking and execution of appropriate accessibility strategies on all projects whose audience can benefit from greater accessiblity. There is so much more to be said about this topic and work to be done with the audience groups directly to allow the conversation to continue in an intelligent and meaningful way. What I’ve outlined here is just a start but I will be working diligently to help move the discussion forward in the coming months. Until next time… Ben Author Tags: Accessibility, Usability Share This Post: Del.icio.us | Add Comment Account Login Register New Account |
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